‘Towards the Atlas of breeding birds in the city of Milan’: a workshop to understand the objectives of urban regeneration

Actively promoting awareness of biodiversity in Milan’s urban ecosystem is essential to foster ecologically sustainable urban regeneration. Birds, with their role as ecological indicators and their intrinsic appeal, represent a valuable tool to achieve this goal.

With this in mind, the workshop ‘Towards the Atlas of Breeding Birds in the City of Milan‘ was held on 26 March at the University of Milan. It was a moment of convergence, coordination and education between the associations that favour ornithological Citizen Science, the university and the public. The event took place within the MUSA – Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action project, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

The main objective was to spread awareness about biodiversity in Milan’s complex urban ecosystem, which is essential to support ecologically sustainable urban regeneration. The event was attended by around 40 people including researchers, students, citizen scientists, birdwatchers and amateur ornithologists from the University of Milan, the Guardami srl Association and the Gruppo Ornitologico Lombardo (Lombardy Ornithological Group), who wanted to expand and share their knowledge on species distribution and trends, biodiversity conservation and the improvement of natural features in the urban context.

The end point of this meeting is to define an Atlas of breeding birds in the city of Milan and meet the deadlines and objectives set by the MUSA programme, also using new technological solutions for the collection of ornithological observations so as to make the data more accessible to citizens participating in Citizen Science actions