From Sponge Cities to Sponge Landscapes with Nature-Based Solutions: A Multidimensional Approach to Map Suitable Rural Areas for Flood Mitigation and Landscaping

Floods are threatening communities. The benefits deriving from the creation of hydraulic risk mitigation systems, based also on green infrastructures, are well known and the examples of such measures are spread worldwide. A breakthrough in urban planning is represented by the Sponge City policies, but rural areas could become a network of nature-based water management systems, too. Therefore, the chapter proposes a multidimensional approach to map rural areas of particular interest for flood retention and landscaping. The method maps soil hydrological behaviour together with ecological and landscape peculiarities at regional scale. The output is the Sponge Landscape Suitability Map, which classifies rural lands basing on their suitability for the implementation of nature-based measures. Afterwards, the chapter proposes a method to select the best Nature-Based Solutions to mitigate the hydrological risk basing on the local context. Combining the Sponge Landscape Suitability mapping with the selection of nature-based measures represents an innovative approach to spatial planning, contributing to achieve multiple benefits within hydraulic risk management and eco-landscape planning with a holistic perspective. The entire approach was applied to the Lombardy region (Italy) case study, with an in-depth analysis of Brescia province.