Prof. Riccardo Valentini, the head of Smart Urban Nature Lab opened the Module 6: Urban ecology of an educational program Master of Public Administration by giving a lecture “Urban Health and Green Infrastructures”.
Participants of this program, organized by SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management, are 500 managers from 100 largest cities in Russia: mayors, deputy mayors, deputy heads of the region, chief architects. The main objective of the program is to to form leaders who will act as drivers of the development of Russian cities.
In his lecture Riccardo Valentini paid attention on the main urban stressors for life quality and peoples health and highlighted the benefits of urban green infrastructure and nature based solutions for overcome them.
The basic concepts proposed to city managers by Prof. Valentini are to mantain green infrastructure and parks in healthy status; to reduce the cost of green infrastructure management; to involve citizens and demonstrate the importance of green infrastructure for the quality of life; to comunicate the economic value of ecosystem services.