The use of fuzzy cognitive maps for evaluating the reuse project of military barracks in northern Italy

Cities are complex systems and their changing are continuous. The evolution strictly depends on the relationships among the different aspects which compose the same structure, such as social, economic, political, environmental, historical aspects. The consideration of the complexity, the heterogeneity and reciprocal influences of these different elements becomes fundamental in urban regeneration projects that are characterized by many interconnected elements. Starting from a real project in the city of Pinerolo (Italy), the paper aims to investigate the potentiality of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) to represent the complexity of urban transformation processes, paying particular attention to the possibility of analyzing different scenarios simulatio

Exploring the resilience of urban systems using fuzzy cognitive maps

In the context of cites, a very innovative approach refers to the theory of urban resilience, which is represented by the ability of an urban system to absorb, adapt and respond to stresses and strains, including issues related to sustainability, governance and economic development. The paper aims at exploring the problems related to urban resilience, with specific attention to the use of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) which constitute a recent approach for representing complex systems and for supporting scenario planning and strategic decision making. Starting from a real case related to the regeneration program of the city of Collegno (Italy), the paper illustrates the application of the FCM method for modeling urban resilience dynamics and for exploring future scenarios of transformatio

How Urban Resilience Can Change Cities: A System Dynamics Model Approach

Urban resilience is an emerging approach to planning in cities. In last few decades, this concept has been also used as fundamental principle to set up urban development strategies. Urban resilience is a multi-dimensional and dynamic phenomenon and applied to urban planning it leads to cities being considered as complex socio-economic systems. The reason why few cities take appropriate action to enhance their resilience lies in the difficulty of evaluating this process in terms of time. This paper aims to overcome the difficulties which afflict the concept of urban resilience when involved in urban planning, using a System Dynamics Model (SDM) as an evaluation tool to assess how urban resilience can change cities over time, addressing their complexity. This evaluation model is applied to simulate two different urban scenarios for a real case study in the city of Turin (Italy)