Report on the "Urban Ecosystem"

In these days Legambiente has published the 17th edition of 'Ecosistema Urbano' (Urban Ecosystem), the annual report drawn up by Legambiente and Ambiente Italia regarding the environmental conditions in the capitals of the Italian municipalities. In order to evaluate the quality of life in each city, different parameters were taken into consideration, such as the PM10 concentration in the air, drinking water quality, the production of waste and the percentage of differentiated waste for recycling, public transport, the presence of bicycle lanes, the urban green areas and the energy policies. The result of this analysis has been that, with the exception of Turin, there are environmental warning signs in all the urban centres with more than half a million inhabitants. The air quality is getting worse in Milan, Naples and Palermo cannot solve their waste disposal problem and Rome is often paralysed by traffic jams. The situation is better in smaller cities that have been able to organise themselves taking people-friendly and environmentally friendly measures. The top ten of the classification of the best cities are Belluno, Verbania and Parma, followed by Trento, Bolzano, Siena, La Spezia, Pordenone, Bologna and Leghorn. Among the last twenty municipalities we find Imperia (93rd), which is situated in the North, Viterbo (84th), Frosinone (94th), Latina (100th) and Pistoia (85th) situated in the Centre, and Palermo (101st), Crotone (102nd) and Catania (103rd) are the tail-enders.