{"id":19011,"date":"2026-05-26T10:35:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/removing-asphalt-to-put-the-world-back-in-order\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T12:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:03:32","slug":"removing-asphalt-to-put-the-world-back-in-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/en\/removing-asphalt-to-put-the-world-back-in-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Removing asphalt to put the world back in order"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Depaving<\/strong>, or depaving<\/em>, means removing asphalt and (re)planting urban greenery. Italy is among the European countries with the highest rate of land consumption: 7.17 percent of the national territory is already cemented over, compared to a European average of 4.4 percent. And the process has not stopped: it is advancing at the rate of 2.7 square meters per second. <\/p>\n\n

Portland, 2008<\/h3>\n\n

The de-paving movement has a definite origin. In Portland, a group of activists founded theDepave association<\/em> in 2008 to remove asphalt and let the earth breathe. Since then, the movement has spread to Europe-Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France-where municipalities have adopted structured soil de-paving policies. In Paris, for example, the government allocated 500 million euros to increase urban greenery, with depaving among the main tools. In Italy it came later, and with the typical institutional lag. But something has started to move. <\/p>\n\n

The case of Genoa<\/h3>\n\n

The most significant breakthrough came between March and April 2026, when the Municipality of Genoa initiated and approved an amendment to the Municipal Urban Plan<\/a> (PUC) that explicitly introduces depaving among land-use government tools.<\/strong> According to various observers, it is the first case in Italy of the organic inclusion of depaving in municipal zoning regulations. The resolution, promoted by Councillor Francesca Coppola, also provides urban and economic incentives: depaving interventions and increased permeable surfaces can obtain reductions in construction fees and other urban compensation mechanisms. <\/p>\n\n

The City Planning Councilor contextualized the measure in the City’s 15-Minute vision, speaking<\/a> May 11 in Palazzo Tursi’s Salone di Rappresentanza at the meeting titled“Liberating the Soil: Depaving to Rethink Our Neighborhoods<\/strong>“: “Liberating public space from asphalt is both a guiding principle and a goal of our Administration.”<\/p>\n\n

Paolo Pileri, a professor of urban planning at the Milan Polytechnic and one of the consultants to the resolution, summed up the meaning of this turnaround: “We are used to thinking that nothing is thrown away from brownfield sites and that they must necessarily be transformed into built space, but in reality all we need to do is change our mindset and think about taking away instead of adding.” Pileri calls this “urbanism of taking away.” <\/p>\n\n

Why asphalt is a problem<\/h3>\n\n

The benefits of depaving are not just aesthetic or symbolic. Asphalt is a surface that absorbs solar radiation and releases it as heat: it is the main cause of the phenomenon of urban heat islands<\/strong>, those overheated microclimates that make cities on average 3-4 degrees warmer than surrounding areas. During summer heat waves, this difference can be deadly, especially for the elderly and chronically ill. <\/p>\n\n

The second problem is hydrogeological. Asphalt is impermeable<\/strong>: when it rains, water does not seep into the ground but flows to the surface to the sewers, which become overloaded. Permeable soil, on the other hand, absorbs water, feeds groundwater, and activates the process of evapotranspiration, that is, the passage of water from the soil to the air as vapor, which helps to cool the surrounding environment. <\/p>\n\n

Finally, when asphalt is replaced with local plant species, trees and lawns, habitat is created for insects and birds. Urban biodiversity, compressed for decades by cementification, finds spaces to recover. <\/p>\n\n

From Milan to Rome, Italy’s other construction sites.<\/h3>\n\n

Genoa is not alone in the construction sites. Milan <\/strong>has included de-pavoring in its Air Climate Plan and is working on 27 interventions covering more than 7,000 square meters of surface area, adding to the 60,000 square meters already de-pavored between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n

In Rome<\/strong>, August 2025 saw the start of construction work on Via Ipponio, in City Hall VII, in the area vacated by the Metro C construction site at Porta Metronia. About 3,200 square meters of impermeable surface are being removed, replaced with 900 square meters of draining pavement and 1,320 square meters of lawn. Thirty-five new trees, over 500 ground cover plants. In November 2025, work started on Piazzale Clodio: 2,300 square meters of asphalt removed, 22 new trees, 60 plants. <\/p>\n\n

Bologna, with the Bologna Verde program<\/a>, has planned to remove concrete and asphalt over 100,000 square meters in total.<\/p>\n\n

As Politecnico di Milano urban planning professor Elena Granata<\/strong> pointed out, today it is no longer the mayor who lays asphalt that is virtuous, but the one who removes it. In Italy we are finally learning to consider this phrase as a government program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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