Case Study
Carrying capacity: visitors study in Parco Nord Milano, a periurban park
Contact name
Silvia Argentiero
Institution name
Ente Parco Nord Milano
Region & country
Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Summary
Parco Nord Milano has begun studying the impact of human activity on the protected area to measure its carrying capacity. The first step is collecting data using technology and communication tools. This will help understand visitor numbers, trends, demographics, and habits, such as how often they visit and what activities they engage in.
Signage
Esther Bossink
Nature
Esther Bossink
Background of the project
Parco Nord Milano is a peri-urban park that rises in a very high-built environment. In the last few years (especially after the pandemic period), there has been an increase in the flow of visitors. More people visit the park during the weekend, more people who attend the cultural and recreational initiatives of the park, and more people who frequent the meal services. It means also more waste inside the park (litter bins and abandoned waste included).
To measure the anthropic pressure, we needed to get quantitative data to match visitors’ presence with ecological trends.
Solution and actions taken
Parco Nord Milano has started the collection of data regarding visitors habits. For that, they have engaged with two services :
- Surveillance service to monitor fauna
- Communication office to plan visitor interviews and surveys
- Collection and analysis of data from IT tools like:
– eco-counter placed inside the park
– automated car parks - Collection data from visitor interviews and e-mail surveys
- Collection data of waste management inside the park.
Other institutions or parties involved
The Civil Service Volunteers helped with the visitor interviews.
Results
At the moment, we are collecting and analyzing data.
We are also introducing a method to monitor species’ data with a regular report.
Challenges
- Management of visitor’s interviews because it needs time, employees and volunteers.
- Use of IT software to collect specific data and skills to analyse it.
- During the years, in most of cases the monitoring of species inside the park has been carried out by volunteer park guards without coordination or a systematic way. The result is that lots of data can’t be compared.
Lessons learned
Whenever we work with data, it’s essential to have a clear method for collecting it.
When gathering data, it’s important to ensure that it is both comparable and analyzable.
Contact name
Silvia Argentiero
Institution name
Ente Parco Nord Milano
Website(s)
