Energy efficiency and reduction of CO₂ emissions from campsites management in a protected area

Campsites can be a pollution source, mainly due to the energy consumption. In addition, the green areas, thanks to the direct CO₂ sequestration and the shading, indirectly prevent the CO₂ emissions related to energy consumption. The methodology presented in this paper allowed assessing the annual CO₂ emissions directly related to the campsite management and the consequent environmental impact in campsite clusters in Tuscany. The software i-Tree Canopy was exploited, enabling to evaluate in terms of "canopy" the tonnes of CO₂ sequestered by the vegetation within each campsite. Energy and water consumptions from 2012 to 2015 were assessed for each campsite. As far as the distribution of sequestered CO₂ is concerned, the campsites ranking was in accordance to their size. According to the indicator "T-Tree" or canopy cover, a larger area of the canopy cover allows using less outdoor areas covered by trees for the sequestration of the remaining amount of pollutants. The analysis shows that the considered campsites, that are located in a highly naturalistic Park, present significant positive aspects both in terms of CO₂ emission reductions and of energy efficiency. However, significant margins of improvement are also possible and they were analysed in the paper.