The metropolitan Sponge City project developed by Gruppo CAP and metropolitan City of Milan won the ‘Sustainable Development 2024 Award’, ranking first in the Climate Neutrality and Nature Positive Solutions category. Financed by the NRRP for Integrated Urban Plans, the project envisages urban development planning relying on Nature Based works as a tool to reduce flooding, store water for periods of drought and reduce water pollution, so as to make the whole local area more adaptive to climate change.
Promoted by the Foundation for Sustainable Development and ‘Italian Exhibition Group – Ecomondo, Rimini Expo Centre’ and sponsored by MASE, with the collaboration of Green City Network, Italy4Climate and GSE, this Award aims at highlighting companies, start-ups and local administrations operating in Italy that have particularly stood out for eco-innovation and their projects’ environmental and economic effectiveness, as well as for their dissemination potential.
The award ceremony took place in Rimini, during Ecomondo, the reference event for the green and circular economy sectors. Receiving the award were Yuri Santagostino, President of Gruppo CAP, and Paolo Festa, Councillor for the Environment of the metropolitan City of Milan.
THE METROPOLITAN SPONGE CITY PROJECT
Completing Sustainable Urban Drainage works to ensure that cities are able to absorb rainwater, especially during extreme weather events, without clogging sewer systems and preventing flooding: this is the aim of metropolitan Sponge City, following which a total area of 530,000 square metres will be redeveloped thanks to €50,194,050 in NRRP funding, for a total of 90 actions in 32 municipalities.
The project is guided by the principles of ‘Nature Based Solutions’, ie processes that use plants and vegetation to absorb water and pollution, involving the replacement of asphalt with permeable surfaces that can filter water and at the same time mitigate heat islands in the urban fabric. This is a relatively recent concept, used by the European Commission to identify nature-based strategies and actions that serve the environment and provide socio-economic benefits that, undertaken in an urban context, increase the resilience of cities: flowerbeds, car parks, green roofs and walls forests, alternative rainwater management systems and urban agriculture.