Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap: A Design Methodology for Green Infrastructure Implementation in Mid Adriatic Coastal Cities

Green Infrastructure (GI) is crucial for urban climate adaptation, providing ecosystem services like mitigating the Urban Heat Island effect and enhancing stormwater man-agement, alongside benefits for public health and biodiversity. Effective GI imple-mentation remains challenging, particularly in dense, rapidly urbanized Mid Adriatic coastal cities, classified as climate hotspots like other Mediterranean contexts. This paper presents a replicable applied methodology for detailed GI design scenarios, developed through the EU-funded LIFE+ A_GreeNet project. The project aims to bridge the theo-ry-practice gap, enabling pilot implementations in multiple Italian Mid Adriatic coastal municipalities. The research details a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, five-phase process applied to the Sant’Antonio district of San Benedetto del Tronto—a dense, traf-ficked urban area projected to face "extremely strong heat stress" by 2050. Design in-terventions included spatial optimization, strategic species replacement, creation of vegetated bioretention basins, and systematic pavement de-sealing. The application of the model demonstrated significant improvements: a substantial increase in permeable surface area, a measurable reduction in the UTCI index, a series of benefits resulting from increased green space and enhanced meteorological water management. This research offers local authorities a tangible model to accelerate climate-adaptive solutions, showing how precise GI design creates resilient, comfortable, and human-centered urban spaces.