METROpolitan WAter Communities. A circular economy model for integrated water resource management

Il progetto di ricerca METRO-WAC mira a definire linee guida ed indicatori per l’implementazione di comunità idriche catalizzatrici di rigenerazione territoriale per paesaggi impliciti o compromessi e generatrici di opportunità sinergiche per l’adattamento al climate change. La tesi è che utilizzare il runoff per il fabbisogno urbano e agricolo d’acqua è una strategia efficace di adattamento, ma anche efficiente se riserve idriche e rete di drenaggio costituiscono infrastrutture multiscalari e multifunzionali finanziabili con risorse stanziate anche per altri fini. Come già avvenuto per le comunità energetiche occorre ragionare di circolarità, di comunità di scambi, all’interno del territorio e tra territori, per giungere a rapportarsi all’acqua come si è sempre fatto nel passato: in termini di ciclo. La letteratura scientifica evidenzia il raggiungimento di un’elevata maturazione dell’offerta di prodotti per la gestione sostenibile e integrata dell’acqua nei metabolismi urbani e territoriali. Nelle aree mediterranee è però indispensabile approfondire gli aspetti di carattere processuale e implementare percorsi di pianificazione in cui gli attori, partecipando al concept dell’intervento e alla successiva gestione, supportino i decisori nell’effettiva realizzazione. Il test del metaprogetto urbanistico sviluppato per il bacino del Fosso Reale di Napoli ha registrato i risultati auspicati ma anche evidenziato limiti tecnologici e nella governance del processo

Sustainable urban regeneration: designing and planning for unpredictability

The disciplinary debate of urban planner scientific community focus today on urban regeneration, stimulated by the pursuit of multiple objectives: ecological sustainability, social inclusiveness and resilience are probably the ones that most arouse the interest of urban planners. However, we register a prolificacy of meanings for urban regeneration that is often confused with building maintenance and adaptation. This is not necessarily wrong but, in a period of public budget restriction, the simply not focusing on primary objectives often hinders the much more necessary processes of intimate transformation of urban fabric and of functions which are central in urban regeneration. Nevertheless, in the last twenty years, the Italian legislator has exploited this ambiguity and preferred to concentrate the available resources on interventions on a building scale rather than properly on an urban scale. There are many reasons underlying this choice. Certainly, the distrust in the urban planning procedures, which are considered too long, uncertain and do not give immediate electoral consensus, seems to be the main. From this evidence emerges the reflection on the need to rethink the legislative framework of urban planning as an indispensable condition for the start of a season of real regeneration of urban settlements

Resilienza e sostenibilità: tra densità e densificazione

Urban form is linked to the causes and intensity of the harmful consequences of very energy-consuming societies, wasteful of natural resources. For this reason, town planning studies have begun to highlight opportunities of strategies based on density and densification. The goal is to reduce mobility, wasting of rare resources, impact on climate change. The pandemic of 2020 has raised perplexities in the reflection of those who fear the “city risk”, with the hypothesis of a return to low-density settlement configurations inherited from the past that lean towards autonomy and self-sufficiency, based on the millenary Italian tradition. Many studies, however, despite the phenomenon in full evolution, contrast the thesis of a greater fragility of dense cities to pandemics. The concern is that the emotion of the moment may slow down the processes of regulatory codification which the scientific community has brought to the attention of political discussion with great difficulty. Density is not a goal. It should rather be framed in the wealth of knowledge and best practices of environmentally healthy and balanced city models as well as socially fair. Although conjugated in different ways in various countries, density is a fundamental global parameter. Therefore, studies and discussions with different emphases are available, together with the need to reach shared conclusions in order to be able to reform the current parameters that assume value as a norm. Although this brief review highlights a substantial disciplinary convergence on the effectiveness of density / densification strategies, the need for further study emerges. It is necessary to clarify and verify all the criteria from which the proposed density thresholds derive with the related underlying ideas of city. Furthermore indicators are necessary to define the correct density value within the identified thresholds

Sostenibilità ecologica e resilienza: la strategia densità/densificazione

Urban form is linked to the causes and intensity of the harmful consequences of very energy-consuming societies, wasteful of natural resources. For this reason, town planning studies have begun to highlight opportunities of strategies based on density and densification. The goal is to reduce mobility, wasting of rare resources, impact on climate change. The pandemic of 2020 has raised perplexities in the reflection of those who fear the “city risk”, with the hypothesis of a return to low-density settlement configurations inherited from the past that lean towards autonomy and self-sufficiency, based on the millenary Italian tradition. Many studies, however, despite the phenomenon in full evolution, contrast the thesis of a greater fragility of dense cities to pandemics. The concern is that the emotion of the moment may slow down the processes of regulatory codification which the scientific community has brought to the attention of political discussion with great difficulty. Density is not a goal. It should rather be framed in the wealth of knowledge and best practices of environmentally healthy and balanced city models as well as socially fair. Although conjugated in different ways in various countries, density is a fundamental global parameter. Therefore, studies and discussions with different emphases are available, together with the need to reach shared conclusions in order to be able to reform the current parameters that assume value as a norm. Although this brief review highlights a substantial disciplinary convergence on the effectiveness of density / densification strategies, the need for further study emerges. It is necessary to clarify and verify all the criteria from which the proposed density thresholds derive with the related underlying ideas of city. Furthermore indicators are necessary to define the correct density value within the identified threshold