Zaniboniet al. (2025): GIS-based multicriteria land suitability assessment for nature-based solutions for the enhancement of carbon sequestration in Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Andrea Zaniboni, Berit Balfors, Zahra Kalantari, Jessica Page, Patrizia Tassinari and Daniele Torreggiani IN: Land Use Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107632
A GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is presented to evaluate the suitability of land for the implementation of nature-based solutions (NbS) to enhance carbon sequestration in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The use of NbS has emerged as an effective strategy to sequester atmospheric carbon and improve environmental resilience. This study focuses on identifying the best NbS to maximise carbon sequestration for three environmental zones: urban, peri-urban and agricultural. The analysis identifies optimal locations for three area-specific NbS: street trees, green spaces and buffer strips. The region was divided into 30 × 30 m grid pixels, with each grid cell assigned a value from 1 (least suitable) to 5 (most suitable).