Urban Services to Ecosystems: An Introduction

Recent environmental and pandemic emergencies made us more aware that a deep change in our way of living is urgently needed. People are becoming increasingly conscious that substantial social, economic and environmental changes are necessary to reduce the planetary consequences of unsustainable development while acknowledging the failure of adopting pure technological solutions. The last decades of human history led to excessive pressure on natural and seminatural ecosystems but, at the same time, life expectancy and global demographic curve increased all over the world at unprecedented rates. People are urged to find new tools to effectively respond to the challenges that await us in this century: on the one hand, the fulfilment of the increasing demand for energy, food and drinking water and, on the other hand, the need to reduce waste and emissions all along the production chains and especially in the urban environment. There is no doubt that change and innovation, through the testing and advancement of new models, have been instrumental in human progress. In the green city of the future, digital technologies and the Internet of things will represent not only a fundamental management tool, but they will also help in the planning, design and implementation choices of green infrastructure.