Criteria for exploitation of water resources: planning and management of irrigation system with high efficiency for the green city of Milan

Automated irrigation of parks and gardens has become increasingly common practice thanks to the numerous benefits it brings in terms of improving the quality of urban green areas. Since this practice requires significant volumes of water, a resource that is becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, the design criteria and management for use in the preparation of a project must maximize irrigation efficiency. The City of Milan has given us the task of designing a new irrigation system for the Indro Montanelli park, to replace the existing but obsolete system, in line with the principles of exploitation of water resources, cost of implementation and a simpler management system. Improvement in performance both from an agronomic viewpoint and in terms of appearance, functionality and improved usability by users seem to be the main objectives that the administration wishes to reach in the green areas of the park located in the heart of the city. In this paper the extent of the green heritage of the city and the ways in which it is currently run are analyzed, then the design and management criteria are explained. In the next phase of the work different management criteria are compared, in order to motivate the design choices made, and an irrigation management model on a municipal scale level is also proposed. The aim is to provide the municipal administration with a preliminary project documents which can meet the real needs of the irrigated species in the park through optimal solutions from both a technical and economic viewpoint and in terms of water savings compared to the systems currently existing in the green areas of the city.