The “Green Component” of Naples

The acronym RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is used to indicate the most common additive colour model employed in computer visualization. Curiously, these colours abundantly occur in the urban area of Naples. In this paper, we discuss the green component of Naples, which is among the 12 cities in Italy with a higher incidence of urban green and protected natural areas than the average of Italian cities. The quality of the urban environment is also influenced by the number of green infrastructures, including not only parks and public gardens but all the green areas that combine to create a local green network. Indicators of the public green of a city are the percentage of public parks and protected areas as compared to the total municipal area and their pro-capite availability. The calculation of these indicators, however, is not always easy due to the great heterogeneity of green areas resulting by their different origins, characteristics, and functions. Naples represents a case study in this respect.