Resilient landscapes for cities of the future

Cities of the 21st century must face several major challenges, which range from overcoming risks due to climate change (closely connected to progressively developing ecological imbalances) to the search for better energy conservation in the urban machine; from improvement in the quality and quantity of open spaces to returning residual areas (neglected areas, urban remnants, etc.) to the city. Thus far, there has been a lack of global solutions to improve the vulnerability of our cities or counteract external stresses that cities face now and will face even more in the coming decades. Faced with these profound changes, the rationalistic urban vision is no longer current. It is based on the mono- functional division of human activities and has led to the definition of plans and projects that are neither very effective in managing urban and territorial phenomena nor very adaptable in terms of external shocks caused by sudden climate, ecological, and economic changes. Today approaches that produce resilient landscapes are imposed on the city and territory through policies, plans, and projects characterized by imprinting flexibility (self-regulating, dynamic instruments in continual evolution), retroactivity (multi -scale, incremental, cumulative instruments), and ecological sustainability (adaptable, qualitative and recyclable, compensatory instruments). Resilient urban landscapes will be indicators of the good health of the territory, the effect of policies, plans, and projects centred on the protection and development of natural cycles, the liveability of cities, sustainable mobility, territorial culture and identity, safety, and the health of people. In this edition of UNISCAPE En-Route, we use the Adriatic City as an important terrain to observe and confront factors of the crisis in the modern city and its landscape. Studying the Adriatic City allows possible exit strategies from the model of the rationalistic city to be proposed in search of new forms of more sustainable urban development aimed at improving the quality of life for people in Europe. The principal longitudinal development of the Adriatic settlement system, essentially due to the concentration of the main economic activities (tourism, industry, specialized agriculture) following the main infrastructures along the coast (all in a north-south direction), has generated a series of conflicts in the last fifty years that emerge today in all their criticality. Important environmental and landscape criticalities can be observed (the process of artificialization constitutes an ecological and aesthetic/perceptual barrier between the sea and inland areas) along with the loss of historic and socioeconomic links that once determined continuity (also functional) between the coast and inland areas. Ever more often the theme of coastal artificialization places huge problems in the safety of dwellings against the catastrophic effects of climate change; industrial decommissioning and the housing bubble represent the main effects of the current economic crisis. Due to the loss of identity in built and natural landscapes in Adriatic territories, intervention policies and experimental projects are being developed that place the objective of responding to precise logic of improving the landscape, anthropic, cultural, and productive identity of each territorial reality through the activation of development processes that do not present negative effects related to the constituent elements of such identities. Starting from the Adriatic case study, this international seminar will confront the policies, plans, and projects of European cities and territories in order to affirm a new development model that produces resilient landscapes via: - overcoming the mere conservation of the landscape, considering its evolutionary processes and the need to connect policies for the conservation of goods and natural and cultural resources with plans and projects for territorial transformation; - social participation in landscape management processes, since resilience is a process that cannot be completely planned and designed, but must be pursued by directing voluntary actions; - the consolidation of new urban and territorial governance, aimed at integrating the different scales of territorial and landscape government; - institutional and social flexibility to adapt policies, projects, and actions to innovative socioeconomic and landscape processes (also by activating synergies between local public and private resources)

Paesaggio e ricostruzione

L'articolo sviluppa 4 temi, discussi nella tavola rotonda Paesaggio e ricostruzione di Napoli. 1.Conservazione dell’identità e cultura dei luoghi Ruolo del paesaggio, come interazione tra patrimonio naturale e culturale, nelle politiche di riduzione del rischio, resilienza e sostenibilità (UN SDGs 2015, climate strategies, EEA 2016, CoE 2018); il paesaggio è il “sistema articolato di relazioni” da ricostruire rafforzando l’interazione tra il patrimonio degradato, il con-testo e le aspirazioni delle comunità locali (UNESCO, 2015). 2. Partnership con le comunità locali Ruolo della popolazione nelle politiche e nei processi di ricostruzione/mitigazione (riduzione del rischio), il loro coinvolgimento nella pianificazione è indispensabile “per rispondere e ricostruire meglio” (Sendai Framework 2015, UNISDR, 2015, Making Cities Resilient, Esposito et al 2017) nell’ottica della resilienza, sia in fase di preparazione, che durante e dopo il disastro naturale. 3. Gestione del rischio nella pianificazione Approccio strategico, adattivo, multidisciplinare della pianificazione in ragione della complessa interazio-ne di aspetti da affrontare (ecologici, sociali, economici e culturali) che richiede numerose competenze (capacity building). Nuovi modelli e strumenti per l’operatività (piani, quadri strategici, linee guida, misure ecc.) e ruolo della formazione (Training Courses, special skills and knowledge) 4. Strategie per aree interne fragili e vulnerabili Strategie di sviluppo sociale ed economico per innalzare la capacità di risposta dei territori interessati da eventi disastrosi, favorendo la riduzione dei fenomeni di abbandono post-catastrofe. Connessioni ed in-terazioni tra la ricostruzione fisica dell’armatura urbana e infrastrutturale e la rinascita socio economica. Per esplorare efficacemente le tematiche succitate potrebbe essere utile la presentazione di casi studio e best practises

Agricultural Land and the New Urban Paradigm: Coexistence, Integration, or Conflict?

The relation between "urban" and "rural" has changed and developed over the last few decades. The present contribution focuses on how the relationship between these two entities has developed, highlighting how it corresponds to a growing complexity and interdependence among the two. Awareness has increased that to the extent that proper management of these interdependences can contribute to solve problems, increase economic performance and also make a contribution to a higher quality of life in and around urban areas. In this framework, green infrastructures and agriculture practices in urban areas are discussed. The contribution concludes by suggesting strategies and actions for the proper implementation of green infrastructures and urban agriculture practices at regional and local scales

Stvaranje memorijala - umijeće sjećanja; Metoda obnove mjesta

The paper continues on-going research of memorials by putting typological identification from previous studies into the context of post-disaster and postwar place regeneration. The aim is to explore the ‘concept of manipulation’ on case studies through choreography of motion as a design tool for memorials.Članak nastavlja istraživanje memorijala, prema postavljenoj tipološkoj identifikaciji iz ranijih istraživanja, u kontekstu problematike obnove razorenog mjesta. Cilj je istražiti na primjerima ‘koncept manipulacije’ putem koreografije kretanja što postaje način stvaranja memorijala

Building Back Better: idee e percorsi per la costruzione di comunità resilienti

I saggi raccolti in questo volume richiamano l’attenzione su quanto è possibile fare sin d’ora, nel nostro paese, per mobilitare le migliori energie e attivare processi virtuosi nella direzione tracciata dalle Nazioni Unite nel Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-30. Si tratta certamente di “ricostruire meglio” (Building Back Better), ma servono anche azioni di prevenzione che diventano prioritarie in un contesto dove ai rischi naturali si aggiungono vulnerabilità sociali ed economiche. La comunità scientifica ha il dovere di partecipare alla creazione di condizioni che incrementino la resilienza dei territori e delle comunità a rischio o già colpiti. Solo un fecondo e concreto dialogo fra i numerosi saperi, competenze e responsabilità dei diversi attori coinvolti può consentire di intraprendere azioni adeguate per ottenere risultati incisivi e duraturi a sostegno dei territori e delle comunità. Un hub internazionale, caratterizzato da contributi multidisciplinari, può valorizzare una massa critica di ricerca e innovazione, come testimonia questo libro, attivando un proficuo confronto con i decisori politici per progettare e realizzare interventi concreti sui territori. Il volume raccoglie contributi di ricercatori di università italiane (Bologna, Camerino, Firenze, Macerata, Modena e Reggio Emilia, Politecnica delle Marche, Urbino), enti e centri di ricerca (Centro euromediterraneo di documentazione Eventi Estremi e Disastri, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Istituto nazionale di fisica nucleare, Istituto nazionale di geofisica e vulcanologia) e di ActionAid. La parte Strategie in azione raccoglie le interviste ai responsabili dell’Agenzia per la coesione territoriale, del Piano Casa Italia, della Protezione civile e di Loccioni Group

Is there a pilot in the brain? Contribution of the self-positioning system to spatial navigation

International audienceSince the discovery of place cells, the hippocampus is thought to be the neural substrate of a cognitive map. The later discovery of head direction cells, grid cells and border cells, as well as of cells with more complex spatial signals, has led to the idea that there is a brain system devoted to providing the animal with the information required to achieve efficient navigation. Current questioning is focused on how these signals are integrated in the brain. In this review, we focus on the issue of how self-localization is performed in the hippocampal place cell map. To do so, we first shortly review the sensory information used by place cells and then explain how this sensory information can lead to two coding modes, respectively based on external landmarks (allothetic information) and self-motion cues (idiothetic information). We hypothesize that these two modes can be used concomitantly with the rat shifting from one mode to the other during its spatial displacements. We then speculate that sequential reactivation of place cells could participate in the resetting of self-localization under specific circumstances and in learning a new environment. Finally, we provide some predictions aimed at testing specific aspects of the proposed ideas