Comparison Between Two Rural-Suburban Landscapes from Brussels and Milan

This chapter reports a research done by Ingegnoli V (university of Milan) and Marcheggiani E, Gulinck H, Lerouge F. (university of Leuven). Many queries arise on the bionomic state of these landscapes, presenting similar historical and climatic characters. A question regards the high amount of private gardens, as a “cultural” protective compensation to the urban expansion. Another question is the bionomic evaluation of forests, and whether there might be protected areas with lower ecological efficiency than non-protected one. A third question is concerned with the landscape type: does it remain in a range of agricultural types or does it reach the rural–suburban structure? Mostly, we have to check if the present condition of Asse could be similar to the bionomic state of Bollate, or in case they differ, how their transformation dynamics during the past two centuries would have been different.