Re‐Thinking the Environment, Cities, and Living Spaces for Public Health Purposes, According with the COVID‐19 Lesson: The LVII Erice Charter

Urban planning is a key tool to promote health in cities. The COVID-19 emergency accelerated several social, environmental, and digital challenges, stressing the importance of some issues regarding housing, urban mobility, green areas, and health service networks, urban health policies, and actions. These issues were the subject of an intensive residential course (the 57th) held in Erice, Sicily, in June 2021 in the “International School of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine G. D’Alessandro”, and the main findings are described here. Methods. Lectures presented the topics, subsequently developed them, and argued them in parallel practical sessions using the World Café technique, since it is well suited for the interaction of participants and the involvement of groups. Results. The World Café provides new insights into how to improve the livability and health of urban spaces, and a set of strategies and actions were proposed for each topic. Discussion and Conclusions. All attendees agreed on the importance of participation in the planning processes, but also on the need for strong political support to ensure the resources needed and a full integration of health with other local policies. A multidisciplinary approach to developing systemic operational capacities and health literacy is considered pivotal to raising awareness and participation

VALORI E VALORIZZAZIONE: UNA PROPOSTA METODOLOGICA PER LA CONSERVAZIONE DEGLI EDIFICI STORICI ABBANDONATI

Conservation of Built Cultural Heritage, meant as the management of change, has to be built on rigorous methodological tools, able to put into practice the mandatory cultural approach and to provide answers to the use and sustainability requirements in the urban regeneration projects. The proposal refers to the collecting knowledge process, which is preparatory for the intervention options, and to the re-use issues of historic buildings belonging to a disused hospital settlement. The complex is composed by buildings belonging to different typologies and the main interest lays on the fact that it is a complex strictly linked to the historic city center. A multicriteria analysis, aimed at defining the best scenario according to the four pillars of sustainability, has been carried on considering four different options with diverse functions and the results coming from the economic-financial evaluation. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of the value-system emerging from the new acquired knowledge has been produced as well, since the multi-value dimension of Built Cultural Heritage must be at the base of every conservation and valorisation design. The adopted operational methodology is the combination of different methods: the values analysis, according to the Nara Grid model and the value focused thinking, the multicriteria analysis and the evaluation of the new functions according to the life-cycle oriented restoration approach. In this way it has been possible to obtain a range of compatible and sustainable functions and to pinpoint methods and costs for the restoration intervention. The objectives are: defining a methodology for conservation designs more and more effective and bringing Built Cultural Heritage at the center of local development dynamics

Evaluating the Urban Quality Through a Hybrid Approach: Application in the Milan (Italy) City Area

Urban planning can support the optimal exploitation of the resources available in an urban system with specific reference to the accessibility of goods and services by an increase of the quality of the public space. In this perspec- tive, knowing the economic effects generated by urban planning choices can be fundamental to guide decision-making processes. For this purpose, a research work which proposes a method for defining a synthetic index through the Multi- Attribute Value Theory to describe urban quality is presented. The synthetic index proposed in this study reflects the public open spaces, accessibility and provi- sion of services qualities of the urban context. Besides, this study estimates these advantages through the hedonic prices method, analyzing the residential market. The combined methodology has been applied in detail to three districts located in the Municipality of Milan (Italy). The simultaneous reading of the indices used to spatialise the urban quality levels allows identifying the extrinsic characteristics of the three neighbourhoods analyzed. Considering the changes induced on house prices, the results of the hedonic models show that the economic impacts gener- ated by low levels of urban quality are significant. Accordingly, the policies that aim to transform the existing urban fabric become fundamental for the creation of economic and social value

The Antifragile Potential of Line Tourism: Towards a Multimethodological Evaluation Model for Italian Inner Areas Cultural Heritage

More than 60% of Italy is occupied by inner areas in continuous depopulation. It is a continuous abandonment which has led to the constant aging of towns and to devastating effects on the hydrogeological system but also to the risk of loss of local identities. In this heritage at risk, we can be able to find one of the cornerstones of a territorial rebirth. Slow tourism can be the appropriate action for a place-based strategy that is able to adequately enhance this widespread heritage. It is no coincidence that the theme of the recovery of public assets along slow tourism lines is increasingly relevant in the inner areas. In this sense, our research question focuses to imagine an antifragile tourism model that, starting from potential unused resources of territorial capital, can act to minimize fragility and maximize attractiveness. To do that, we suggest the use of an hybrid methodological approach based on the combined use of Geographic Information Systems and Multicriteria Analysis, in order to support the decision process to identify disused buildings suitable for adaptive reuse. What is challenging is to find out balanced reuse strategies, able to bring benefits both to the most attractive sites as well as to the most fragile ones according to the line perspective. In this paper, we present the first steps of an integrated model for the valorization of disused buildings, enhancing the regenerative capacity of slow tourism

FITradeoff Method for the Location of Healthcare Facilities Based on Multiple Stakeholders’ Preferences

Multiple stakeholders’ preferences are considered for solving a healthcare facility location problem in the city of Milan, Italy. The preference modeling is based on the Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff), a Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) method used to elicit criteria scaling constants in additive models. FITradeoff is an easy tool for decision makers, because it requires them to exert less effort than other traditional elicitation methods, as the tradeoff procedure. Therefore, it is expected that fewer incon- sistencies will appear during the elicitation process. Sixteen criteria were used to evaluate in which of six potential areas a new hospital could be sited. An analyst with a strong background in MCDM interviewed four actors, and elicited their preferences with the help of the FITradeoff Decision Support System (FITradeoff DSS)

Cultural Heritage Preservation and Territorial Attractiveness: A Spatial Multidimensional Evaluation Approach

The introduction of the concept of sustainable development in the field of cultural heritage preservation has stressed the importance of a holistic approach. Achieving a balance among cultural significance retention and economic development is a challenging goal, even more for fragile and vulnerable contexts with limited economic and social resources, low return expectations and a huge tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Given such a complexity decisions about where to place valorisation interventions with the purpose to activate synergies with existing projects and trigger economic and social development processes require to be based on robust evaluation methodologies. According to this instance, Spatial Multicriteria Analysis (SMCA) can support decision-makers along all the steps of the decision process, moving from the intelligence phase to the design and, finally, to the choice one. Within this approach, the study has been focused on the intelligence phase, in order to define a multidimensional analytical framework aimed at mapping widespread cultural heritage with a special attention to its territorial features. The proposed methodological evaluation framework points out the challenge of structuring a deci- sion problem related to the inner areas regeneration by the reuse of cultural heritage placed along slow mobility routes. The results are value maps that provide recommendations for placing culture heritage preservation and reuse interventions, meant as territorial catalyst

Multicriteria Decision Making for Healthcare Facilities Location with Visualization Based on FITradeoff Method

This paper proposes an application of the Flexible Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff) method for siting healthcare facilities. The selection of the location of complex facilities, as hospitals, can be considered as a multidimensional decision problem for the several issues to be taken into account and, moreover, for the variety of stakeholders that should be involved. The case study under investigation is the location of “La Città della Salute”, a new large healthcare facility in Lombardy Region (Italy). Starting from a cross disciplinary literature review, a multidimensional evaluation framework has been defined and applied to the case study by considering the point of view of one Decision Maker (DM). The application shows that a smaller effort is required from the DM using the FITradeoff method

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis: An Integrated Approach

With the aim of enhancing the level of sustainability of plans and pro- grammes adopted by local, regional and national authorities, the European Com- mission (EU) has adopted the Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of effects of plans and programmes on the environment. Starting from the analysis of strengths and possible uses of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and the investigation of its application in combination with the SWOT Analysis and the Stakeholder Analy- sis, the paper aims at presenting a multi-methodological approach based on the use of MCA for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Given the spatial nature of the decision problem the multi-methodological approach is moreover combined with Geographic Information System (GIS). The Multicriteria-Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) proposed is able to support the decision-making processes in the field of environmental management by providing evidence and increasing the level of choices’ transparency and legitimacy

Approaching the Location of Healthcare Facilities: How to Model the Decision Problem

The management of health policies is characterised by multi-level hierarchies and actors. Given the presence of several and sometimes conflictual needs and expectations elicited by stakeholders involved and the complexity of the decision problem concerning the location of healthcare facilities, a multi-methodological evaluation framework is proposed within this contribution. The process is based on the four traditional stages of the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), recognised as the most critical in the context of the location of healthcare facilities, namely stakeholder analysis, criteria definition, weights assignments and aggregation procedure. Since several methodologies have to be combined, the proposed framework is conceived as an iterative and flexible approach where each phase can be reviewed when necessary. The methodology proposed is tested on a case study located in the Municipality of Milan, Italy

How to Model Stakeholder Participation for Flood Management

Stakeholders participation for Flood Risk Management is a key factor for the improvement of policy and decision’s quality of and to create consensus. Nowadays there are many studies on this topic aimed to take into consideration the involvement of stakeholders in different phases of the process and with the use of different procedures. In Italy the situation seems to be critical compared to the international panorama, since there are no regulation or protocols to prevent disaster or repair the damage. The paper proposes a critical overview of methodologies able to engage stakeholders in decision-making process with a detail on case studies focused on the Flood Risk Management. Different aspects will be investigated and compared in order to outline considerations and possible conclusions