Assessing ecosystem services to address climate change: a case study in the Municipality of Sassari (Italy)

Urban green spaces (UGS) deliver a wide range of ecosystem services (ESs), which are relevant to mitigation and adaptation to climate change. This study focuses on two ESs provided by vegetation in the municipality of Sassari (Italy): (i) greenhouse gas sequestration and (ii) mitigation of heat island effect. We aim at supporting municipalities similar to Sassari with a methodological approach able to provide them with a rough assessment of ESs by using free data. We suggest and apply two indicators: (i) increased carbon storage in forests and (ii) Heat Island Mitigation Index (HIMI). We found that the potential amount of carbon storage is about 42,000 t, while the value of HIMI is 67.73%. The methodological approach adopted in this study contributes to integrating the quantitative assessment of ESs in municipal planning tools and roughly assessing the need for operational climate adaptation and mitigation measures.