Urban Ecosystem Accounts for Italy: benchmarking Italian values against other European countries

The recently approved Nature Restoration Law (NRL) sets targets for urban green space and tree cover. Concurrently, the proposal for an amendment to the EU Regulation on Environmental Accounts includes accounts for ecosystem extent, condition, and services for urban ecosystems, aligning with the UN Statistical Standard for Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA). The NRL anticipates increased urban green space and tree cover in each Member State until satisfactory levels are achieved. However, it remains unclear what defines a satisfactory level and how it will be evaluated, though it is expected to relate to optimal or good ecosystem condition as outlined in SEEA-EA. Here, we benchmark Italian urban ecosystems in terms of extent, condition, and services against European counterparts. Hopefully, initiating a discussion to better understand potential satisfactory levels. We conduct an overall comparison and a closer look at countries with similar climates and population size. We develop thematic urban ecosystem accounts for the latest year available in Copernicus data (2018). Specifically, we create accounts for ecosystem extent, four condition variables (green space, tree cover, imperviousness, and particulate matter (PM) concentration), and air filtration as an ecosystem service. Results show that Italian urban ecosystems have slightly more artificialized areas and fewer (peri)urban forests than the EU average. In general, condition variables and air filtration efficiency in Italian urban ecosystems are similar to European averages. However, PM2.5 and PM10 in Italian urban ecosystems exceed European averages by 3-7 μg/m³ (a 20% higher than the European average), varying seasonally. Italian medium-sized cities also show higher imperviousness per inhabitant and lower urban green per inhabitant than European counterparts, with regional variations within Italy. Overall, if satisfactory levels within NRL and related policies are defined as feasible general European values, Italy is unlikely to face major challenges, compared to most European counterparts, in meeting them.