Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning: Proceedings of INPUT 2023 - Volume 2 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 463) 3031540956, 9783031540950

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Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Alessandro Marucci Francesco Zullo Lorena Fiorini Lucia Saganeiti   Editors

Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning Proceedings of INPUT 2023 - Volume 2

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

463

Series Editors Marco di Prisco, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Sheng-Hong Chen, School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China Ioannis Vayas, Institute of Steel Structures, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece Sanjay Kumar Shukla, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia Anuj Sharma, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA Nagesh Kumar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India Chien Ming Wang, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Zhen-Dong Cui, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China

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Alessandro Marucci · Francesco Zullo · Lorena Fiorini · Lucia Saganeiti Editors

Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning Proceedings of INPUT 2023 - Volume 2

Editors Alessandro Marucci DICEAA University of L’Aquila L’Aquila, Italy

Francesco Zullo DICEAA University of L’Aquila L’Aquila, Italy

Lorena Fiorini DICEAA University of L’Aquila L’Aquila, Italy

Lucia Saganeiti DICEAA University of L’Aquila L’Aquila, Italy

ISSN 2366-2557 ISSN 2366-2565 (electronic) Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ISBN 978-3-031-54095-0 ISBN 978-3-031-54096-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

Dedication

These volumes are the result of the collection of papers from the 12th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT2023): “Working for sustainable soil management and the role of land planning” and they are a tribute to the memory of Professor Bernardino Romano, who passed away prematurely on 1st September 2023, just before the conference took place. INPUT 2023 was possible due to his foresight and recognition in the academic world. Prof. Bernardino Romano has been a full professor of Urban Planning at the University of L’Aquila. He had considerable influence on the development of his subject over a period of more than 30 years and provided much support to a generation of researchers and colleagues. Since the beginning of his academic career, Prof. Romano has dedicated himself to the study of the relationship between the natural and built environment. He has been passionate about the issue of protected areas and ecological networks, expanding the existing meaning of concepts such as biopermeability and environmental continuity. In the eighties, he has been one of the first promoters of the institution of the main parks in Central Italy. His commitment in this direction was both academic and personal, through an intense activity at top level with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). During these years, he has developed studies on land planning tools aimed at the establishment of both protected areas in Abruzzo region and the system of European Apennine Parks (APE). He has been a strong supporter of biodiversity conservation, and he made the knowledge of ecosystem dynamics a key point of his courses at university. Prof. Romano has been a national reference for land take dynamics inspiring research and studies by many research groups. He always has been strongly convinced that land and urban planning plays a key role in sustainability of transformations. In fact, the dynamics of land transformation have always been a focus of his research and he has worked for years for drawing a precise and analytic description of the Italian settlement evolution. In the last period, he was active in the national discussion about drafting a law for stopping land consumption. He has approached urban planning, ecology, and landscape both inside and outside the academic context, enriching the research with humanity. He has always been fascinated by the computational aspects of urban planning and by the possibility to explore new scientific approaches based on data analysis and indicator engineering. He has been a courageous explorer into this field, always looking for innovating the panorama of techniques and tools for spatial diagnosis. Thanks to his creative vision, integrity, rigorous research, scientific excellence, and exceptionally broad intellectual horizons, he has left his imprint on the lives of students, PhD students, young researchers as well as many colleagues and collaborators from various institutions. He has also taught the value of autonomy of thought and collaboration.

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He did so with passion, dedication, and desire to spread his great knowledge of Land Sciences. He has left us with a significant legacy that we are going to preserve and share. November 2023

CENTROPLANECO

Preface

The 12th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT2023) has been organized by CENTROPLANECO group of DICEAA – Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering of the University of L’Aquila. It took place in L’Aquila (Italy) on September 6–8, 2023, and has been titled “Working for sustainable soil management and the role of land planning”. Global challenges related to the sustainability of land transformations require the measurement of land transformations through specific indicators. Spatial planning and land management systems then play a crucial role in addressing issues of policy reform and investment, ecological transition, and sustainability in its three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social aspect. Integrating sustainability into our policies, strategies, and practices is fundamental to making a relevant impact with respect to current issues related to climate change, ecosystem services’ provision and the energy supply. INPUT2023 has given the opportunity to discuss such central issues and try to find and assess innovative and advanced methodologies to provide decision support systems through land science and indicator engineering. Those proceedings represent the state of the art of modelling and computational approaches to innovations in urban and regional planning, with a transdisciplinary and borderless character to address the complexity of contemporary socio-ecological systems and following a practice-oriented and problem-solving approach. In particular, this book presents the collection of 62 papers submitted at the INPUT 2023 Conference. The accepted papers, after a blind-review process, are here organized according to the thematic sessions of the conference: – Resilient, Circular, and Sustainable Cities – Integrating Ecosystem Services into Spatial Planning Processes: Sustainable Solutions for Healthier and Safer Urban and Rural Environments – Supporting the Transition Towards Ecologically-Oriented Urban Planning: What’s the Role of Early-Career Researchers? Innovative Findings, Experiences, and Ways Forward – Towards Denser and Greener Cities? Methods and Indicators to Monitor Trends and Impacts in Support of Urban Planning and Policies – Innovative Approaches and Methodologies for Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Regeneration – The Innovation of Urban Planning Tools for Energy-Resilient Cities – Smart Happy Region. Relationship between Planning and Subjective Well-Being – Climate Sensitive Planning: Re-defining Urban Environments for Sustainable Cities – Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: Building Knowledge and Mapping to Better Plan the Sustainable Green City – Densification and Urban Regeneration for Climate Adaptation in Sustainable Settlements.

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INPUT is a scientific community of Italian university and academic researchers who meet every two years and discuss issues from different fields related to urban and regional planning topics. The latest editions have been hosted in Viterbo (2018), Turin (2016), Cagliari (2014), Potenza (2012), Catania (2021), and L’Aquila (2023). During INPUT 2023 (L’Aquila), the conference recorded the following numbers: • 20 parallel sessions have been organized from experts in different fields of research related to urban and land planning. • 171 submitted abstracts. • 124 accepted papers. • 130 among online and in presence participants.

Keynote Speakers of the INPUT2023 Conference Three keynote speakers enrich the programme during three plenary sessions. Speeches have been held by: Sara Meerow, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University She is an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University where she leads the Planning for Urban Resilience Lab. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of urban geography and planning to tackle the challenge of making cities more resilient in the face of climate change and other social and environmental hazards, while at the same time more sustainable and just. Her current projects focus on conceptualizations of urban resilience, planning for urban resilience in a changing climate, and green infrastructure planning in a range of cities in the USA and internationally. She has published over 30 articles in academic journals, in addition to book chapters, reports, and popular press articles on these topics. She has a PhD in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan and an MS in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam. Title of keynote speech: Urban climate change resilience planning in theory and practice Jacques Teller, Local Environment Management and Analysis, University of Liège, Belgium He is a professor of urban planning at the University of Liège, where he is leading the Local Environment Management and Analysis (LEMA) research group. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Lab Research Environment (Vinci, Paritech) and of the Efficacity Research Institute in France. His research typically combines urban governance issues with the modelling of urbanization and densification dynamics. It addresses the impacts of urbanization on energy consumption, heritage management, housing provision, and transport demand. He is presently working on the interactions between urbanization and exposure to floods, combining quantitative modelling and qualitative approaches. Title of keynote speech: Urban growth models for regulating urban densification in response to zero net land take policies

Preface

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Claudia (van der Laag) Yamu, Department of Built Environment, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway She is an architect and urban planner. She is a professor of urban analytics at Oslo Metropolitan University. She is an expert on transport land use planning including people’s behaviour in cities applying a wide range of analytical techniques including method and tool development at the forefront of virtual modelling. As a former project consultant, she excels in combining the theoretical innovations with practice-oriented solutions and has been involved in numerous international projects in industry and research. Claudia was awarded the prestigious Michael Breheny Prize in 2015 for her work on multiscale, multifractal urban planning models. She is an editorial board member for Springer’s The Urban Book Series. She holds a PhD in Architecture from TU Wien connecting architecture, urban planning, and computer science and a PhD in Geography and Regional Planning in complexity-based modelling from Université de Franche-Comté. She dedicates her work to the development of sustainable cities and regions. Title of keynote speech: Accessibility and multiscalarity: fractal urban planning models

Best Paper Award Among the contributions, four papers have been selected for the Best Paper awards: 1. Giovanni Cialone Best Paper Award addressed to studies on inner areas, protected areas, and sustainable development. The award is dedicated to the memory of Giovanni Cialone: architect, passed away in 2020. He has been a CNR researcher (National Research Council) and served in the 1990s as an environmental councillor for the municipality of L’Aquila. He was highly committed to issues related to environmental protection and education, sustainability, and cultural enhancement of inner areas. He held the position of vice-president of the Gran Sasso–Monti della Laga National Park and was a member of the “Italia Nostra” association and a delegate of Slow Food. He enriched the debate about knowledge and defence of the territory defence, with a strong presence in the media and interventions in the political sphere, consistently displaying a well-regarded balance in his positions and numerous contributions of critique. The award goes to the paper titled: “The shapes of the adaptive ground design: formulation of a new taxonomy between spatial quality and ecological performance” authored by: Simone Porfiri, University of Camerino (Italy). 2. Giorgio Pipponzi Best Paper Award addressed to studies on advanced GIS techniques. The award is dedicated to the memory of Giorgio Pipponzi: After his studies in geology and a PhD in geodynamics, he carried out highly professional positions in the Abruzzo Region, with the Basin Authority and the Civil Protection Service. He collaborated in the drafting of the Guidelines for the Seismic Microzoning Plans, in the development and management of computer databases as well as in the Level 3 Microzoning Pilot Project in the municipality of Sulmona. Since 2013 in the USRC, he has carried out his activity as Technical Geologist Directive Instructor, dealing with the geological problems inherent in the Reconstruction Plans and Private Reconstruction projects as well as being responsible for the GIS systems of the USRC. In 2019,

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he was appointed Head of the Procedure for the technical-economic investigation of the private reconstruction projects after the 2009 earthquake. The award goes to the paper titled: “The applicability of the urban digital twin in the detailed choices of the urban plan” authored by: Federica Cicalese, University of Salerno (Italy). 3. LAND Best Paper Award addressed to studies on urbanization phenomena, densification, and land consumption. The award intends to enhance the merit of young researchers who will present scientifically relevant papers on topics related to urbanization phenomena, densifications, and contrasting land consumption. Work should focus on the role of urban and regional planning in urban growth management with the goal to meet specific needs while increasing the resilience of urban settlements. This award refers to the special issue “Towards Sustainable Urban Development: New Approaches and Tools for Regeneration Strategies”. The award goes to the papers: • “Space Syntax vs Agent-Based Modelling in the maze of urban complexity: a critical comparison between top-down and bottom-up approaches and applications” authored by: Federico Mara, University of Pisa (Italy). • “Urban energy resilience and strategic urban planning in Emilia-Romagna: evidence from three cities” authored by: Giovanni Tedeschi, University of Parma (Italy). • “Digital Twin for urban development” authored by: Angela Martone and Monica Buonocore, University of Sannio (Italy). November 2023

Alessandro Marucci Francesco Zullo Lorena Fiorini Lucia Saganeiti

Organization

The 12th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT2023) was organized by the CENTROPLANECO group of the DICEAADepartment of Civil, Building, Architectural and Environmental Engineering of the University of L’Aquila. The composition of the organizing groups is shown in detail below.

Local Scientific Committee Romano Bernardino

Marucci Alessandro

Zullo Francesco

Fiorini Lorena

Saganeiti Lucia

De Berardinis Pierluigi

Rotilio Marianna

Di Risio Marcello

Pasquali Davide

Celli Daniele

Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy

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Organization

Organizing Committee Fiorini Lorena (Coordinator)

Saganeiti Lucia (Coordinator)

Di Dato Chiara

Pilogallo Angela

Falasca Federico

Sette Camilla

Montaldi Cristina

Cattani Chiara

Di Pietro Gianni

Ulisse Carmen

CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy

Organization

Felli Annamaria

Marziali Emilio

Tomei Vanessa

CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy CENTROPLANECO Lab-Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering–DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Italy

Scientific Committee Balletto Ginevra Barbarossa Luca Blecic Ivan Borri Dino Bottero Marta Brunetta Grazia Busi Roberto Camarda Domenico Campagna Michele Carpentieri Gerardo Cecchini Arnaldo Cerreta Maria Cialdea Donatella Colavitti AnnaMaria Concilio Grazia Congiu Tanja Cortinovis Chiara Cutini Valerio De Luca Claudia De Montis Andrea Del Ponte Ilaria Di Gangi Massimo Fasolino Isidoro Fiorini Lorena Fistola Romano Garau Chiara Gargiulo Carmela

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University of Cagliari University of Catania University of Cagliari Polytechnic University of Bari Polytechnic University of Turin Polytechnic University of Turin University of Brescia Polytechnic University of Bari University of Cagliari University of Naples “Federico II” University of Sassari University of Naples “Federico II” University of Molise University of Cagliari Polytechnic University of Milan University of Sassari University of Trento University of Pisa University of Bologna University of Sassari University of Genoa University of Messina University of Salerno University of l’Aquila University of Naples “Federico II” University of Cagliari University of Naples “Federico II”

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Organization

Geneletti Davide Gerundo Roberto Grimaldi Michele La Greca Paolo La Rosa Daniele Lai Sabrina Las Casas Giuseppe Leone Antonio Lombardi Patrizia Lombardini Giampiero Maciocco Giovanni Maragno Denis Marucci Alessandro Moccia Francesco Murgante Beniamino Musco Francesco Nocera Silvio Occelli Sylvie Papa Rocco Pelorosso Raffaele Pezzagno Michele Pinto Fulvia Plaisant Alessandro Pontrandolfi Piergiuseppe Pratelli Antonio Privitera Riccardo Romano Bernardino Ronchi Silvia Russo Michelangelo Saganeiti Lucia Scorza Francesco Tiboni Michela Tira Maurizio Tondelli Simona Torre Carmelo Maria Voghera Angioletta Zoppi Corrado Zullo Francesco

University of Trento University of Salerno University of Salerno University of Catania University of Catania University of Cagliari University of Basilicata University of Salento Polytechnic University of Turin University of Genoa University of Sassari IUAV university of Venice University of l’Aquila University of Naples “Federico II” University of Basilicata IUAV University of Venice IUAV University of Venice IRES Piemonte University of Naples “Federico II” Tuscia University University of Brescia Polytechnic University of Milan University of Sassari University of Basilicata University of Pisa University of Catania University of l’Aquila Polytechnic University of Milan University of Naples “Federico II” University of l’Aquila University of Basilicata University of Brescia University of Brescia University of Bologna Polytechnic University of Bari Polytechnic University of Turin University of Cagliari University of l’Aquila

Organization

Conference Session Organizers Resilient, Circular, and Sustainable Cities Balletto Ginevra Ladu Mara Trinh tu Anh Borruso Giuseppe Fancello Gianfranco Balázs Kulcsár

University of Cagliari University of Cagliari University of Economics Ho Chi Minh University of Trieste University of Cagliari University of Debrecen

Geospatial Earth Data to Support the Restoration of Soil Ecosystems and Implications for Spatial Planning Tarantino Eufemia Esposito Dario Capolupo Alessandra

Polytechnic University of Bari Polytechnic University of Bari Polytechnic University of Bari

Geodesign for Informed Collaborative Spatial Planning and Design Campagna Michele Mourao Moura Ana Clara Scorza Francesco

University of Cagliari Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais University of Basilicata

Integrating Ecosystem Services into Spatial Planning Processes: Sustainable Solutions for Healthier and Safer Urban and Rural Environments Privitera Riccardo Lai Sabrina Zoppi Corrado

University of Catania University of Cagliari University of Cagliari

The Urban Digital Twin: A New Dimension for the Land Planning Fistola Romano Fasolino Isidoro

University of Naples Federico II University of Salerno

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Organization

Supporting the Transition Towards Ecologically-Oriented Urban Planning: What’s the Role of Early-Career Researchers? Innovative Findings, Experiences, and Ways Forward De Luca Claudia Ronchi Silvia Cortinovis Chiara

University of Bologna Polytechnic University of Milan University of Trento

Towards Denser and Greener Cities? Methods and Indicators to Monitor Trends And Impacts in Support of Urban Planning and Policies Cortinovis Chiara Ronchi Silvia Geneletti Davide

University of Trento Polytechnic University of Milan University of Trento

Innovative Approaches and Methodologies for Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Regeneration Saganeiti Lucia Fiorini Lorena Pilogallo Angela

University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila

The Innovation of Urban Planning Tools for Energy-Resilient Cities Guida Carmen Gargiulo Carmela Cutini Valerio Zazzi Michele Zucaro Floriana Carpentieri Gerardo

University of Naples Federico II University of Naples Federico II University of Pisa University of Parma University of Naples Federico II University of Naples Federico II

Spreading Porosity: the Contribution of Planning Tools in Increasing Soil Permeability Garda Emanuele Caselli Barbara

University of Bergamo University of Parma

Research and Standards for Sustainable Spatial Planning Esposito Dario Gueze Raffaella Francesca Bretzel Francesca

Polytechnic University of Bari Cord Agende 21 locali italiane, Padova National Research Council, Pisa

Organization

Tundo Antonella Capezzuto Pasquale

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National Agency for New Technology UNI International Standardization Organization

Coastal Planning: Diagnostic Tools to Address Physical, Social, and Environmental Concerns Di Risio Marcello Pasquali Davide Celli Daniele Castellino Myrta Scipione Francesca Fischione Piera

University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila Sapienza University of Rome Sapienza University of Rome University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Territorial Strategies in Place-Based and Community-Led Energy Transitions Grassini Laura Bonifazi Alessandro

Polytechnic University of Bari Polytechnic University of Bari

Innovative Simulations for Urban Planning: Decoding Configuration, Morphology, and Space Cutini Valerio Altafini Diego

University of Pisa University of Pisa

The energy Transition of the Built Environment Rotilio Marianna Marchionni Chiara

University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila

Smart Happy Region. Relationship Between Planning and Subjective Well-Being Garau Chiara Murgante Beniamino Gervasi Osvaldo Rossetti Silvia Campisi Tiziana Desogus Giulia Annunziata Alfonso

University of Cagliari University of Basilicata University of Perugia University of Parma University of ENNA “Kore” University of Cagliari University of Cagliari

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Organization

Innovations in the 15 Minute-City Approaches: Conceptual, Data-Driven, and Practical Developments Towards a Sustainable Urban Planning Murgante Beniamino Garau Chiara Cutini Valerio Nesi Paolo Zamperlin Paola Altafini Diego Delponte Ilaria

University of Basilicata University of Cagliari University of Pisa University of Florence University of Pisa University of Pisa University of Genoa

Climate Sensitive Planning: Re-defining Urban Environments for Sustainable Cities La Rosa Daniele Stanganelli Marialuce Gerundo Carlo

University of Catania University of Naples University of Naples

Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: Building Knowledge and Mapping to Better Plan the Sustainable Green City Fiorini Lorena Pierantoni Ilenia Di Dato Chiara Giacomelli Matteo Marucci Alessandro Sargolini Massimo

University of L’Aquila University of Camerino University of L’Aquila University of Camerino University of L’Aquila University of Camerino

Densification and Urban Regeneration for Climate Adaptation in Sustainable Settlements Romano Bernardino Marucci Alessandro Zullo Francesco Fiorini Lorena Saganeiti Lucia

University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila University of L’Aquila

Organization

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Sponsoring and Patronage Organization The conference was sponsored by: – Springer publishing group – LAND (open access journal by MDPI) – Special Office for the Reconstruction of the Municipalities of the Crater–USRC (Ufficio Speciale per la Ricostruzione dei Comuni del Cratere) – Slow Food L’Aquila – Abruzzo Region – Province of L’Aquila – Municipality of L’Aquila – National Association of Building Constructors-ANCE and Young ANCE (Associazione Nazionale Costruttori Edili) – Association of engineers of the province of L’Aquila – Association of the architects of the province of L’Aquila – Institute for Environmental Protection and Research-ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) – Italian standardization body-UNI (Ente Italiano di Normazione)

Contents

Resilient, Circular and Sustainable Cities Settlement Network Supplying Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Balázs Kulcsár

3

Industrial Symbiosis and Circular Urban Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ginevra Balletto, Martina Sinatra, Francesca Sinatra, and Giuseppe Borruso

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The Process of Metropolisation and Spatial Accessibility. The Case Study of the Cagliari Metropolitan City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ginevra Balletto, Martina Sinatra, Giuseppe Borruso, Francesco Sechi, and Gianfranco Fancello A Participatory Mapping for Planning a Circular City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Federica Paoli, Francesca Pirlone, and Ilenia Spadaro

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Integrating Ecosystem Services into Spatial Planning Processes: Sustainable Solutions for Healthier and Safer Urban and Rural Environments Landscape Planning and Fragmentation: A Method for Classifying Rural Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Antonio Ledda, Vittorio Serra, Giovanna Calia, and Andrea De Montis

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Nature-Based Solutions and City Planning: A Study Related to the Preliminary Masterplan of Cagliari, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Corrado Zoppi

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Green Infrastructure and Grey Infrastructure. Rehabilitation of Disused Infrastructure Assets as an Opportunity for Green Development for Cities . . . . . Daniele Soraggi

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SEEA and Ecosystem Services Accounting: A Promising Framework for Territorial Governance Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rossella Scorzelli, Beniamino Murgante, Benedetto Manganelli, and Francesco Scorza

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Contents

Assessing Ecosystem Services Provided by Nature-Based Solutions Alongside Different Urban Morphologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Riccardo Privitera, Giulia Jelo, and Daniele La Rosa

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Territorial Regeneration Between Sustainable Land Use and the Enhancement of Ecosystem Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Carmen Ulisse, Federico Falasca, Cristina Montaldi, and Alessandro Marucci Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services to Guide the Revision Process of Land-Use Plan. A Methodological Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Monica Pantaloni, Francesco Botticini, Silvia Mazzoni, Luca Domenella, and Giovanni Marinelli The Integration of Sustainable Development Principles Within Spatial Planning Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Federica Isola, Francesca Leccis, and Federica Leone The Role of the Agendas for Sustainable Development in Designing the Metropolitan Sustainable Infrastructure. The Case of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Tanja Congiu, Paolo Mereu, and Alessandro Plaisant The Regionalization of Ecosystem Services to Support Sustainable Planning: The Case Study of the Province of Potenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Francesco Scorza, Simone Corrado, and Valeria Muzzillo Supporting the Transition Towards Ecologically-Oriented Urban Planning: What’s the Role of Early-Career Researchers? Innovative Findings, Experiences, and Ways Forward Protected Areas: From Biodiversity Conservation to the Social-Ecological Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Angela Pilogallo, Federico Falasca, and Alessandro Marucci Towards Denser and Greener Cities? Methods and Indicators to Monitor Trends and Impacts in Support of Urban Planning and Policies Steering Net Zero Land Take Urban Growth. A Decision Support Method Applied to the City of Castelfranco Emilia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Marco Oliverio and Elisa Conticelli

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Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Growth and Greening Goals Towards Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Carolina Salvo and Alessandro Vitale Performance-Based Site Selection of Nature-Based Solutions: Applying the Curve Number Model to High-Resolution Layers to Steer Better Greening Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Andrea Benedini and Riccardo Roganti Urban Ecosystem Services: Land Cover and Potential of Urban Soils . . . . . . . . . 208 Federico Falasca and Alessandro Marucci Denser and Greener Cities, But How? A Combined Analysis of Population and Vegetation Dynamics in Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Chiara Cortinovis, Dagmar Haase, and Davide Geneletti Identifying Accessibility Gaps to Urban Functions and Services – Examples of Italian Medium-Sized Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Daniele La Rosa, Federica Pennisi, Viviana Pappalardo, and Riccardo Privitera Innovative Approaches and Methodologies for Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Regeneration Social Media as a Database to Plan Tourism Development: “Venac” Historic Core in Sombor, Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Branislav Antoni´c, Aleksandra Djuki´c, Veljko Dmitrovi´c, ˇ and Rastko Cugalj Using the GIS to Assess Urban Resilience with Case Study Experience . . . . . . . 253 Ebrahim Farhadi, Sarah Karimi Basir, and Beniamino Murgante Map4Accessibility Project, An Inclusive and Participated Planning of Accessible Cities: Overview and First Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Raffaele Pelorosso, Andrea Zingoni, Sediola Ruko, and Giuseppe Calabrò Universities, Cities and Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Cristian Cannaos, Giuseppe Onni, Alessandra Casu, and Tanja Congiu Urban Regeneration and Architectural Quality in Inner Areas of the Italian Apennines. Indicators and Models for Projects and Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Camilla Sette

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Using Decision Aiding Software for a Project-Oriented Planning: The Urban Agenda for Sustainable Development of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Tanja Congiu, Paolo Mereu, and Alessandro Plaisant Children-Oriented Urban Regeneration: An Inclusive Co-design Approach for the Italian Recovery Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 Ludovica Simionato, Aline Soares Cortes, Silvia Di Eusanio, and Michela Gessani Is Rome (Italy) Undergoing Passive Ecological Gentrification Processes? . . . . . . 326 Angela Pilogallo and Dani Broitman Advanced Technological Approach for Risk Mitigation and Land Protection: The SICURA Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Sara Pietrangeli, Lucia Saganeiti, Lorena Fiorini, and Alessandro Marucci The Innovative Management of Community Space as a Key Strategy to Guide Urban Regeneration Programs: The Experience of the Neighbourhood-Hub Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Ivan Bleˇci´c, Emanuel Muroni, and Valeria Saiu Decision-Support Tools for Territorial Regeneration: A GIS-Based Multi-criteria Evaluation Utilizing the Territorial Capital Framework . . . . . . . . . . 361 Ivan Bleˇci´c, Arnaldo Cecchini, Valeria Saiu, and Giuseppe Andrea Trunfio Public Space-Led Urban Regeneration. The Identity and Functional Role of Rocco Petrone Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Francesca Perrone The Innovation of Urban Planning Tools for Energy-Resilient Cities Utilizing Spatial Multi-criteria Analysis to Determine Optimal Sites for Green Hydrogen Infrastructure Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Shiva Rahmani, Rossella Scorzelli, Federica Ragone, Grazia Fattoruso, and Beniamino Murgante Energy-Saving and Urban Planning: An Application of Integrated Spatial and Statistical Analyses to Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 Gerardo Carpentieri, Carmela Gargiulo, Carmen Guida, and Floriana Zucaro

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Urban Energy Resilience and Strategic Urban Planning in Emilia-Romagna: Evidence from Three Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Giovanni Tedeschi Renewable Energy Communities in Urban Areas: Determining Key Characteristics from an Analysis of European Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Moreno Di Battista, Claudia De Luca, and Angela Santangelo Promoting Engagement and Inclusion: A Case Study on an Energy Community in Cagliari, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 Ivan Bleˇci´c, Alessandro Sebastiano Carrus, Giuseppe Desogus, Emanuel Muroni, Valeria Saiu, and Maria Carla Saliu Smart Happy Region. Relationship Between Planning and Subjective Well-Being Identifying the Features of a Walkable-Oriented Redevelopment of Brownfields: A Systematic Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Mina Ramezani, Arezoo Bangian Tabrizi, Esmaeil Kalate Rahmani, and Tiziana Campisi Well-Being Cities and Territorial Government Tools: Relationships and Interdependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 Laura Ricci, Carmela Mariano, and Marsia Marino A Preliminary Survey on Happy-Based Urban and Mobility Strategies: Evaluation of European Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 Chiara Garau, Giulia Desogus, and Tiziana Campisi Spatial Smartness and (In)Justice in Urban Contexts? The Case Studies of Cagliari and Parma, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Chiara Garau, Alfonso Annunziata, Giulia Desogus, and Silvia Rossetti Obesity and Its Relationship with Urban Pattern in Italian Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 Lucia Romano, Camilla Sette, Bernardino Romano, and Antonio Giuliani Factors Affecting the Evolution of Sustainable Mobility in Smarter, Happier Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 Tiziana Campisi, Matteo Ignaccolo, Giovanni Tesoriere, and Elena Cocuzza Participation for Everyone: Young People’s Involvement in the Shift Towards Happier and More Resilient Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Ilaria De Noia and Silvia Rossetti

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Territorial Imbalances in the Post-pandemic Context: A Focus on Digital Divide in Italy’s Inner Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 Priscilla Sofia Dastoli and Francesco Scorza Climate Sensitive Planning: Re-defining Urban Environments for Sustainable Cities BIM as a Tool for Urban Ecosystems Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 Monica Buonocore and Angela Martone Adapting to Change: Understanding Mediterranean Archetypes as Resistance Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 Martina Scozzari Climate Driven Hydrological Performance of Nature-Based Solutions: An Empirical Assessment of a Blue-Green Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566 Raffaele Pelorosso, Andrea Petroselli, Ciro Apollonio, and Salvatore Grimaldi The Engagement of Small European Municipalities in Achieving the Climate Neutrality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577 Luigi Santopietro, Valentina Palermo, Giulia Melica, and Francesco Scorza Climate Changes and Protected Areas. Towards an Integrated Management . . . . 587 Laura Ricci and Alessandra Addessi Urban Coastal Landscape. The Fragile Buffer Areas of Bacoli, Palermo and Termoli to Switch the Decay into Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 Agostino Catalano, Paola De Joanna, Silvia Fabbrocino, Dora Francese, Vincenzo Ilardi, Giulia Maisto, and Rosa Maria Vitrano A Methodological Approach to Improve the Definition of Local Climate Zones in Complex Morphological Contexts. Application to the Case Study of Naples Metropolitan Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 Carlo Gerundo and Marialuce Stanganelli Intervention Strategies for Urban Climate Control: Integration of Nature Based Solutions in the Historical-Heritage Neighborhood “el Almendral” of Valparaíso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 Pamela Muñoz Ossandón and Massimo Palme

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Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: Building Knowledge and Mapping to Better Plan the Sustainable Green City Group Model Building to Assess Local Knowledge of Nature Based Solution Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 Stefania Santoro, Giulia Mastrodonato, and Domenico Camarda Mapping Relations Transformation of Urban and Natural Landscape in Adriatic Cities Fostering Landscape Sustainability and Promoting Landscape Quality as Spatial Planning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647 Ana Sopina and Bojana Bojani´c Obad Š´citaroci Characterization of Urban and Peri-Urban Areas in Umbria Region to Identify Their Possible Role in the Conservation of Natura 2000 Network . . . 659 Chiara Di Dato, Ilenia Pierantoni, Lorena Fiorini, Alessandro Marucci, and Massimo Sargolini Preliminary Study Towards the Integration of Brazil’s Linear Parks into Urban Sustainable Mobility System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669 Mariana Batista de Morais, Amanda Oliveira Mesquita, and Bárbara Mylena Delgado da Silva Densification and Urban Regeneration for Climate Adaptation in Sustainable Settlements Natural Cities and New Italian Urban Regions. The Role of Medium-Sized Urban Areas in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683 Giampiero Lombardini Limit Land Take. A Matter of Thresholds? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695 Cristina Montaldi, Francesco Zullo, and Michele Munafò Recuperate the Existing. Technical Devices a Réaction Poétique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 Ludovico Romagni Advanced Planning Tool Mosaic (A-PTM) Decision Support Tool Towards the Sustainable Development Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 Vanessa Tomei, Bernardino Romano, and Francesco Zullo Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

List of Contributors

Alessandra Addessi Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Alfonso Annunziata DICAAR – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Ciro Apollonio Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Branislav Antoni´c Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Ginevra Balletto DICAAR - Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Sarah Karimi Basir Department of Geography and Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Mariana Batista de Morais University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary Andrea Benedini Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic of Milan, Milan, Italy Ivan Bleˇci´c Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Giuseppe Borruso DEAMS - Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy Francesco Botticini Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy Dani Broitman Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel Monica Buonocore Università degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, BN, Italy Giuseppe Calabrò Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Giovanna Calia Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Domenico Camarda University Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy Tiziana Campisi University of Enna “Kore”, Enna, Italy Cristian Cannaos Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy Alessandro Sebastiano Carrus University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

xxx

List of Contributors

Gerardo Carpentieri Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy Alessandra Casu Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy Agostino Catalano University of Molise, Molise, Italy Arnaldo Cecchini Department of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (DADU), University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy Elena Cocuzza Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy Tanja Congiu Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Elisa Conticelli Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Simone Corrado Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Aline Soares Cortes School of Architecture and Design (SAAD), University of Camerino, Ascoli Piceno, AP, Italy Chiara Cortinovis Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany ˇ Rastko Cugalj Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Priscilla Sofia Dastoli School of Engineering, Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Paola De Joanna Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy Claudia De Luca Department of Architecture- Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Andrea De Montis Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Ilaria De Noia Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Bárbara Mylena Delgado da Silva MATE - Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest, Hungary Giulia Desogus Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Giuseppe Desogus University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Moreno Di Battista Department of Architecture- Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

List of Contributors

xxxi

Chiara Di Dato Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Silvia Di Eusanio Economic and Social Sciences (ESS), University of Teramo, Teramo, TE, Italy Aleksandra Djuki´c Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Veljko Dmitrovi´c Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Luca Domenella Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy Silvia Fabbrocino Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy Federico Falasca University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Gianfranco Fancello DICAAR - Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Ebrahim Farhadi Department of Geography and Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; Department of Architecture, Bologna University, Bologna, Italy Grazia Fattoruso Photovoltaic and Sensor Applications Laboratory, ENEA RC Portici, P.Le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Naples, Italy Lorena Fiorini Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering – DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Dora Francese Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy Chiara Garau DICAAR – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Carmela Gargiulo Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy Davide Geneletti Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy Carlo Gerundo University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy Michela Gessani CoCreiamo APS, Teramo, TE, Italy Antonio Giuliani Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Salvatore Grimaldi Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Carmen Guida Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

xxxii

List of Contributors

Dagmar Haase Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany Matteo Ignaccolo Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy Vincenzo Ilardi University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Federica Isola Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Giulia Jelo University of Catania, Catania, Italy Balázs Kulcsár Faculty of Engineering, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary Daniele La Rosa Department Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy Francesca Leccis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Antonio Ledda Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Federica Leone Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Giampiero Lombardini Department of Architecture and Design, University of Genova (I), Genoa, Italy Giulia Maisto Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy Benedetto Manganelli School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 85100 Potenza, Italy Carmela Mariano PDTA Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Giovanni Marinelli Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy Marsia Marino PDTA Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Angela Martone Università degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, BN, Italy Alessandro Marucci Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Giulia Mastrodonato University Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy Silvia Mazzoni Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy Giulia Melica European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, VA, Italy Paolo Mereu Città Metropolitana Di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

List of Contributors

xxxiii

Cristina Montaldi Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Michele Munafò Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Rome, Italy Pamela Muñoz Ossandón Departamento de Arquitectura, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile Beniamino Murgante School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Emanuel Muroni University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Valeria Muzzillo Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Amanda Oliveira Mesquita Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Marco Oliverio Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Giuseppe Onni Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, 07041 Alghero, Italy Valentina Palermo European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, VA, Italy Massimo Palme Departamento de Arquitectura, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile Monica Pantaloni Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy Federica Paoli DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University School of Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Viviana Pappalardo Department Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy Raffaele Pelorosso Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Federica Pennisi Department Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy Francesca Perrone Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Andrea Petroselli Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Ilenia Pierantoni School of Architecture and Design, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy Sara Pietrangeli Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering – DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

xxxiv

List of Contributors

Angela Pilogallo University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Francesca Pirlone DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Alessandro Plaisant Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Riccardo Privitera University of Catania, Catania, Italy Federica Ragone School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Esmaeil Kalate Rahmani Islamic Azad University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran Shiva Rahmani School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Mina Ramezani University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Laura Ricci Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Riccardo Roganti Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic of Milan, Milan, Italy Ludovico Romagni Scuola di Architettura e Design di Ascoli Piceno, Università di Camerino, Ascoli Piceno, Italy Bernardino Romano Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Lucia Romano Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Silvia Rossetti DIA – Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Sediola Ruko Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Lucia Saganeiti Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering – DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Valeria Saiu Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Maria Carla Saliu University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Carolina Salvo Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria, Rende, (CS), Italy Angela Santangelo Department of Architecture- Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Luigi Santopietro Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), University of Basilicata, School of Engineering, Potenza, Italy

List of Contributors

xxxv

Stefania Santoro Water Research Institute of Italian Research Counsil (IRSA-CNR), Brugherio, Italy Massimo Sargolini School of Architecture and Design, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy Bojana Bojani´c Obad Š´citaroci Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban Planning, Spatial Planning, and Landscape Architecture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Francesco Scorza School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 85100 Potenza, Italy Rossella Scorzelli School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Martina Scozzari Department of Architecture, University of Palermo, Palermo, PA, Italy Francesco Sechi Administrator of the MLab Srl, Cagliari, Italy Vittorio Serra Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Camilla Sette Department of Civil, Building-Architecture and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy Ludovica Simionato School of Architecture and Design (SAAD), University of Camerino, Ascoli Piceno, AP, Italy Francesca Sinatra DEAMS - Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy Martina Sinatra DICAAR - Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Ana Sopina Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban Planning, Spatial Planning, and Landscape Architecture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Daniele Soraggi Italian Excellence Center for Logistics, Infrastructures and Transport, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Ilenia Spadaro DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Marialuce Stanganelli DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Arezoo Bangian Tabrizi Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Giovanni Tedeschi Università degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy Giovanni Tesoriere Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Enna, Italy

xxxvi

List of Contributors

Vanessa Tomei University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, AQ, Italy Giuseppe Andrea Trunfio Department of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (DADU), University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy Carmen Ulisse University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, AQ, Italy Alessandro Vitale Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria, Rende, (CS), Italy Rosa Maria Vitrano University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Andrea Zingoni Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, Viterbo, VT, Italy Corrado Zoppi University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Floriana Zucaro Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy Francesco Zullo Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Piazzale E. Pontieri 1, Monteluco di Roio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

Resilient, Circular and Sustainable Cities

Settlement Network Supplying Energy Balázs Kulcsár(B) Faculty of Engineering, University of Debrecen, Egyetem Tér 1, Debrecen HU-4032, Hungary [email protected]

Abstract. Few people now doubt the future of the global energy transition. The only question is whether the pace of renewables’ penetration will be sufficient to compete with the rate of warming. Dynamic changes are also taking place in the Hungarian electricity system. In addition to nuclear power, which provides the basic electricity supply, the most dynamic is solar power, which is largely smallscale and residential. The emergence of solar power is outlining the emergence of an energy production and supply fabric of municipalities. This creates the potential for over-producing municipalities to supply the electricity needs of neighbouring settlements with lower production beyond renewables. By taking advantage of this energy sharing, electricity supply based on pure renewables can be achieved more quickly. Keywords: Energy Geography · Renewable Energy · Self-sufficiency · Energy Transition

1 Introduction The transition of the energy use to renewable energy sources has become an increasingly urgent global task, the necessity of which is supported by the results of a broad range of climate researches that tend to be more and more pessimistic. In order to mitigate this risk, energy transition should be implemented in the sectors of electricity, heat energy and transport energy alike. Fossil energy sources still represent a significant proportion of the Hungarian energy balance, while their majority is imported. Therefore, it is important to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the Hungarian energy mix. In the course of the extremely fast-paced spread of renewable energy sources worldwide, more and more municipalities aim to satisfy their own energy demands from renewable sources. Most of the energy is utilized in the settlements, and therefore it is evident that the most economical and most gentle procedure is to produce energy locally and from renewable energy sources. Nevertheless, just few studies and organizations deal with the implementation possibilities of electricity self-sufficiency or the measurement of results. The goal of the studies is to find out in what proportions small-scale household power plants (SSHPP) that belong to the category of small-scale power plants in the most decentralized locations and among local power plants, as well as small power © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 3–13, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_1

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B. Kulcsár

plants with nominal capacities under 0.5 MW that are not subject to permits contribute to the satisfaction of the electricity demands of settlements when all the settlements in Hungary are concerned. In what ways are these proportions present in the settlements of various sizes? Are there settlements in Hungary that are capable of satisfying 100% of their electric power demands from local renewable sources, i.e. if the energy transition is feasible? The issue of covering 100% of energy demands from renewable sources emerged on the national level as early as 1975 in Denmark (Sørensen, B. E. 1975), followed by further theories (Lovins, B. 1977) and software models worldwide (Lund, H. 2006). Beyond the scientific theories, the first specific steps were taken by Iceland in 1988, when a governmental decision was made about energy transition. The start of establishing self-sufficient systems for settlements is associated with the effective date of 1997 of the German Renewable Energy Act, which allowed for predictable returns (EEG, 2017). The Stern Review in 2006 brought about another breakthrough in the estimation of the renewable sources, it authentically supported the inevitable and reasonable necessity of energy transition beyond the environmental and technological arguments also in the field of the economy (Stern, N. 2006). In Hungary, the first computer model was developed at the Department of Environmental and Landscape Geography at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) (Munkácsy, B. et al. 2011).

2 Data and Methods Magyar Villamosenergia-ipari Átviteli Rendszerirányító Zrt. (Mavir Hungarian Transmission System Operator Company Ltd, MAVIR) distinguishes the following power plant categories with respect to the capacities of power plants in the Hungarian electricity system. Basically, power plants under 50 MW are categorized as small power plants, whereas power plants at or above 50 MW are large power plants. In the categories below 50 MW, it distinguishes between small power plants with a capacity of between 50 MW and 0.5 MW, between 0.5 MW and 50 kW and below 50 kW (Act LXXXVI of 2007; Government Decree 273/2007). The study considered the output of small-scale household power plants (SSHPP) of 50 kVA (≈50 kW) or smaller capacity that are not subject to permitting (for the public institutional, corporate and house-hold segment), as well as non-SSHPP small power plants (commercial small power plants) of installed electric output under 0.5 MW, similarly not being subject to permitting; their establishment has been allowed by the Hungarian Electricity Act since 1 January 2008. SSHPPs are fundamentally installed by the institutional, corporate and household segment for the total or partial satisfaction of their electric power demands. Their electric power turnover is measured by electronic input–output consumption meters. The generated energy is utilized locally, while any excess is transferred to the network. In case production is suspended, the network supplies the required electric power. Suppliers perform settlements by calculating the balance of the volumes of electricity drawn from and fed into the network as measured by the consumption meters and in view of the currently effective unit prices. The number of SSHPPs has showed dynamic increase in each year since 2008, there were 29,685 units at the end of 2017 with an aggregated nominal capacity reaching 241.4 MW. 99.41% of the power plants are solar power plants,

Settlement Network Supplying Energy

5

while the remaining 0.59% operates with such sources of energy as thermal methane gas, diesel, natural gas, biomass, biogas, water and wind. The volume of energy supplied to the network by SSHPPs was 105,086 MWh in 2017 (MEKH, 2018). The number of small power plants below 0.5 MW reached up to 238 until 31 December 2017, and their aggregate nominal capacity was 78.2 MW. Most of the electric power in this category is generated from renewables, including solar, wind and hydropower, biogas, landfill gas and wastewater gas. Fossil energy sources, to a smaller extent, also appear with small power plants, primarily at power plants producing energy from natural gas, thermal methane gas, other gases and petrol (MEKH, 2018). 71% of the power plants are solar power plants, followed by biogas and wind power plants with 14% and 10% shares, respectively. Solar power plants are also on the top of the rank when capacity is concerned, with 78% of the nominal capacity of the category belonging to them, followed by biogas power plants with a 14% share from capacities. Hydropower (4%) and natural gas (3%) similarly represent significant proportions in the energy mix. These power plants, unlike the SSHPP power plants, are mostly established by companies (Act LXXXVI of 2007). The settlement-level SSHPP unit and capacity data were made available by E.ON Energiaszolgáltató Kft., ELMÜ-ÉMÁSZ Energiaszolgáltató Zrt. and Dél- magyarországi Áramszolgáltató Zrt. (DÉMÁSZ) as universal suppliers operating in the territory of Hungary, whereas unit and capacity data for small power plants under the capacity of 0.5 MW were disclosed by the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (MEKH). Accurate settlement-level electricity production data are handled as business secret by the universal suppliers, MEKH and MAVIR, and therefore they were not made available for the purposes of the study; additionally production data measured by universal suppliers fail to reflect the actual electric power production figures of the SSHPP power plant units. The underlying reason is that the energy consumed by any equipment installed before the meter is not fed into the network, and therefore, it is not measured, either. Universal suppliers are in possession of data only in relation to the volume of electric power that is transferred to the network by the generating power plant. As a result, the volume of electric power generated in the settlements from renewable sources cannot be determined based on the available data. Therefore, local renewable electricity production data for the settlements were generated with the use of calculations based on the following principles. In order to determine the self-sufficiency level of the settlements where power plants belonging to the two categories are installed, the annual volume of electric power that can be theoretically produced by the power plants (for solar energy), and can be determined based on the average annual utilization rates (for other renewable energy sources) was compared to the annual electric power consumption of the settlement for the year of 2017 (TEIR, 2017). Calculations were made to see as to what proportions of the electric power demands of the settlements could be satisfied by the studied power plant categories, and more specifically by those power plants within these groups that utilize local renewable energy sources. A theoretical electric power volume that could be produced annually was determined from the settlement-level total capacity data at the end of 2017 for solar panel systems. We

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B. Kulcsár

Table 1. Average utilization rates of HMKEs and small power plants with nominal capacities under 0.5 MW and utilizing renewable energy source in 2017 Energy source

wind

hydro

biomass

biogas

landfill gas

sewage gas

solar

Average utilization (%)

25.9

40.9

60.1

46.5

57.1

50.9

15.2

Source: Data of MAVIR, 2017

used the PHOTOVOLTAIC GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (PVGIS) operated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (Ispra, Italy). For other renewable energy sources, the annual renewable electric power volume that could be theoretically generated in the settlements in 2017 was established with the use of the average utilization rate data for the year of 2017, which were made available by MEKH (Table 1). The studies were performed for the territories of 3155 local municipalities in Hungary (HCSO, 2017). The conditions for the implementation of energy transition are uneven for settlements of different sizes. The accomplishment of the above objectives is on a different scale for a village with small population or a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. In order to formulate a distinct view of in relation to the respective shares of renewable energy sources from the electric power supply of settlements of various sizes, three settlement categories were set up. Settlements with population under 10,000, between 10,000 and 100,000 and over 100,000 were differentiated. The settlements were ranked in each of these settlement categories, as well as based on the above-referenced data and methods.

3 Results With reliance on the above data and methods, local renewable electricity self-sufficiency for all the settlements in Hungary was studied on the settlement level, both separately and cumulatively. The data were run in the case of small-scale household power plants and then for small power plants under 0.5 MW, which were not subject to permitting, as well as for non-SSHPP small power plants and finally by combining the two power plant categories with the examination of their combined capacities. 3.1 Capacity of the Small-Scale Household Power Plants First, the capacity of the power plants belonging to the small-scale household power plant category, using renewable energy sources, was examined. From among the 3155 Hungarian settlements, SSHPPs were set up in 2200 settlements between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2017. Based on the obtained results, this power plant category can satisfy 100% of the electric power demands in the case of four settlements. All of these settlements belong to the settlement size category featuring under 10,000 population (Table 2). At the top of the ranking of these four settlement, there stands Sóstófalva with 262 inhabitants, where local renewable electric power production is at 388%, i.e.

Settlement Network Supplying Energy

7

the village produces nearly four times as much electric power within its territory as its annual demand, solely in this power plant category and only with the use of solar energy from among renewable energy sources. In the settlement category where the population is between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, the highest, 26% renewable share is produced in Kerepes, a small town with 10,473 inhabitants. 74% of the renewable electric power generated in small-scale household power plants is made from biogas, while 26% originates from solar energy (Table 2). Table 2. Proportion of the electric power generated from local renewable energy sources in the category of small-scale household power plant (SSHPP) in the electric power consumption of the settlements absolute value and/or settlements under 10,000 inhabitants settlement

%

settlements between 10,000 – 100,000 inhabitants

population (person)

settlement

%

settlements over 100,000 inhabitants

population (person)

settlement

%

population (person)

1

Sóstófalva

388

262

1

Kerepes

26

10,473

1

Pécs

1.25

149,030

2

Csonkamindszent

143

176

2

Kistarcsa

9

12,990

2

Szeged

1.23

163,763

3

Bodrogkeresztúr

128

1,102

3

Százhalombatta

8

19,228

3

Debrecen

1.22

203,493

4

Nagyhuta

102

64

4

Budakeszi

7

14,887

4

Miskolc

1.21

160,325

5

Csomád

97

1,631

5

Dabas

6

17,014

5

Nyíregyháza

0.98

120,086

6

Nógrádkövesd

95

660

6

Sárospatak

4

12,375

6

Budapest

0.72

7

Apátvarasd

88

139

7

Diósd

4

10,354

7

Gy˝or

0.45

124,743

8

Abod

78

217

8

Pomáz

4

17,889

8

Kecskemét

0.44

110,974

9

Patca

71

56

9

Ráckeve

4

10,392

10

Végegyháza

69

1,371

10

Gyál

3

24,405

1,693,051

Source: Edited by the author

There are only eight settlements in the largest settlement category with over 100,000 inhabitants in Hungary. Here, Pécs has the best result, currently with 1.25%. Szeged (1.23%), Debrecen (1.22%) and Miskolc (1.21%) are not far behind. In Budapest, which is larger by an order of magnitude in terms of local population, which is also significant on the global scale, this share is 0.72% (Table 2). 3.2 Capacity of the Small Power Plants with Nominal Capacities Under 0.5 MW, not Subject to Permitting and Belonging to the Non-SSHPP Group In the second phase of studying the electricity self-sufficiency of settlements, the outputs of the non-SSHPP small power plants with smaller than 0.5 MW capacities were determined in the electric power supply of the settlements where they were located. The 285 power plants established before the end of 2017 operates in 195 settlements, and the associated annual production exceeds the existing demands in 23 settlements. Compared to demands, the largest volume electric power is generated in Ipacsfa, where it reaches 534%. Small villages with small population are at the top-ranking places of the list, though the population of Hej˝opapi, Buzsák, Zalaszentmihály and Csörög is over 1000.

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B. Kulcsár

The majority of the power plants belongs to solar power plants, though Gibárt, ranking second, Csörötnek, ranking 16th and Pornóapáti, ranking 20th generate significant volumes of electric power with the use of water power. Among the settlements with population between 10,000 and 100,000, the largest volume of electric power compared to the annual consumption of the town is produce by the small power plants located in Nagyk˝orös, where 26% is generated from solar energy. Kerepes is next in the rank with 21%; here landfill gas is used as the source of renewable energy. In the annual electric power consumption of cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, small energy plants represent a share under 1% in each case. Gy˝or produces the largest volume of renewable electric power for the energy consumption of the city, namely 85%. 83% of that volume is generated from landfill gas and 17% from solar energy (Table 3). Table 3. Proportion of the electric power generated from local renewable energy sources in the small power plant category under 0.5 MW, not subject to permitting and belonging to the nonSSHPP category, in the electric power consumption of the settlements absolute value and/or settlements under 10,000 inhabitants

settlements between 10,000 – 100,000 inhabitants

settlements over 100,000 inhabitants

settlement

%

population (person)

1

Ipacsfa

534

200

2

Gibárt

493

335

3

Galvács

391

87

4

Vekerd

346

119

4

Szigetvár

8

10,558

4

Szeged

0.44

163,763

5

Csanádalberti

280

468

5

Berettyóújfalu

4

14,989

5

Debrecen

0.43

203,493

6

Barnag

260

142

6

Hódmez˝ovásárhely

3

45,159

6

Pécs

0.19

149,030

7

Ganna

232

269

7

Körmend

3

11,182

7

Nyíregyháza

0.02

120,086

8

Tiszadorogma

224

377

8

Hajdúböszörmény

3

31,026

8

Budapest

0.01

9

Illocska

222

268

9

Békéscsaba

2

60,137

10

Alsótelekes

219

140

10

Dombóvár

2

18,651

11

Kupa

204

186

11

Gyula

2

30,656

12

Sóstófalva

170

262

12

Makó

2

23,499

13

Somogyhatvan

167

372

13

Hajdúszoboszló

2

23,987

14

Peterd

165

223

14

Kiskunhalas

2

28,532

15

Egyházasharaszti

164

334

15

Baja

2

36,315

16

Csörötnek

161

862

16

Bátonyterenye

2

12,525

17

Kémes

156

475

17

Nagykanizsa

2

47,337

18

Hej˝opapi

125

1,175

18

Salgótarján

2

35,982

19

Buzsák

125

1,525

19

Szolnok

2

71,084

20

Pornóapáti

120

384

20

Balassagyarmat

2

15,174

21

Zalaszentmihály

114

1,005

22

Hejce

111

223

23

Csörög

109

2,148

Source: Edited by the author

settlement

%

population (person)

settlement

1

Nagyk˝orös

26

23,935

1

2

Kerepes

21

10,473

2

3

Kiskunmajsa

9

11,534

3

%

population (person)

Gy˝or

0.85

124,743

Kecskemét

0.59

110,974

Miskolc

0.47

160,325

1,693,051

Settlement Network Supplying Energy

9

3.3 Aggregated Electricity Production Capacity of Small-Scale Household Power Plants and Small Power Plants with Nominal Capacities Under 0.5 MW, not Subject to Permitting and Belonging to Non-SSHPP Category In the third phase of studying the renewable electricity self-sufficiency of settlements, self-sufficiency level with the aggregate capacity of the two previous small power plant categories was calculated. In this context, in 2017 there were 30 settlements in Hungary where SSHPPs and/or small power plants below 0.5 MW were operated with the utilization of renewable energy sources, and they were capable of covering more than 100% of the annual electric power demands of the settlements. Each of these 30 settlements belongs to the smallest settlement size category, 80% of which were villages with population under 1000, while 20% of them had population over 1000. Compared to its own annual demand, Sóstófalva produced the largest volume of electricity, i.e. more than five times larger than the consumption of the village, notably 558% (Table 4 and Fig. 1). The majority of the power plants in the 30 settlements operate on solar energy, with the exception of Demjén, where SSHPPs provide the most part of electricity. A more complex energy mix can be observed in Bodrogkeresztúr, where alongside 9% solar energy, landfill gas provides for 35% and biogas for 56% of the electric power generated from renewables.

Fig. 1. Aggregate share of electricity generated from local renewable energy sources in the categories of household-scale small power plants (SSHPP) and small power plants under 0.5 MW, not subject to permitting and belonging to the non-SSHPP category, in the electric power consumption of settlements. In all settlements, as well as in the population categories under 10,000 inhabitants, between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants and over 100,000. Source: Edited by the author

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B. Kulcsár

Table 4. Aggregate share of electricity generated from local renewable energy sources in the categories of small-scale household power plants (SSHPP) and small power plants under 0.5 MW, not subject to permitting and belonging to the non-SSHPP category, in the electric power consumption of settlements absolute value and/or settlements under 10,000 inhabitants settlement

%

population (person)

1

Sóstófalva

558

262

2

Ipacsfa

534

200

3

Gibárt

493

4

Galvács

5

Vekerd

6 7

settlements between 10,000 – 100,000 inhabitants settlement

%

population (person)

1

Kerepes

47

10,473

2

Nagyk˝orös

27

23,935

335

3

Kiskunmajsa

11

391

87

4

Kistarcsa

346

119

5

Szigetvár

Csanádalberti

280

468

6

Százhalombatta

Barnag

272

142

7

Budakeszi

8

Illocska

252

268

8

9

Tiszadorogma

234

377

9

10

Ganna

232

269

10

Hódmez˝ovásárhely

5

45,159

11

Alsótelekes

224

140

11

Hajdúböszörmény

4

31,026

12

Kupa

204

186

12

Sárospatak

4

12,375

13

Bodrogkeresztúr

197

1,102

13

Gyula

4

30,656

14

Egyházasharaszti

168

334

14

Diósd

4

10,354

15

Somogyhatvan

167

372

15

Pomáz

4

17,889

16

Peterd

165

223

16

Hajdúszoboszló

4

23,987

17

Csörötnek

165

862

17

Bátonyterenye

4

12,525

18

Kémes

156

475

18

Kiskunhalas

4

28,532

19

Csomád

149

1,631

19

Ráckeve

4

10,392

20

Csonkamindszent

143

176

20

Békéscsaba

3

60137

21

Nógrádkövesd

142

660

22

Hejce

132

223

23

Buzsák

127

1,525

24

Pornóapáti

125

384

25

Hej˝opapi

125

1,175

26

Zalaszentmihály

116

1,005

27

Csörög

112

2,148

28

Bojt

106

598

29

Nagyhuta

102

64

30

Demjén

101

613

settlements over 100,000 inhabitants settlement

%

population (person)

1

Miskolc

1.68

160,325

2

Szeged

1.67

163,763

11,534

3

Debrecen

1.65

203,493

9

12,990

4

Pécs

1.4

149,030

8

10,558

5

Gy˝or

1.3

124,743

8

19,228

6

Nyíregyháza

1

120,086

7

14,887

7

Kecskemét

1

110,974

Dabas

6

17,014

8

Budapest

0.73

Berettyóújfalu

5

14,989

1,693,051

Source: Edited by the author

Among the settlements belonging to the population category between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitant, the most electric power compared to the electric power demand of the towns is generated in Kerepes, and it accounts for 47% of the electric power. 47% of this renewable electric power is generated from landfill gas utilized in small power plants, 41% from SSHPP biogas and 14% from SSHPP solar energy (Table 4 and Fig. 1). Studies concerning small power plants operating in the areas of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, with focus on the combined output of two power plant types, concluded that they were capable of covering maximally 1.68% of the annual electric power demand of the cities in question (Table 4). This result was achieved by Miskolc, followed by Szeged and Debrecen with 1.67% and 1.65%, respectively. Budapest arrived at 0.73% in this third phase of the studies.

Settlement Network Supplying Energy

11

Table 5. Individual and combined outputs of small-scale household power plants (SSHPP) and small power plants with nominal capacities under 0.5 MW, not subject to permitting, in the electric power supply of the settlements Number of settlements by the percentage of electric power demands supplied from locally available renewable energy sources with power generation in household-scale power plants (units):

Number of settlements by the percentage of electric power demands supplied from locally available renewable energy sources with power generation in small power plants with capacities under 0.5 MW (units):

Number of settlements by the percentage of electric power demands supplied from locally available renewable energy sources with power generation in household-scale power plants and small power plants with capacities under 0.5 MW (units):

over 100%

4

over 100%

23

over 100%

30

100–50%

10

100–50%

19

100–50%

24

50–10%

118

50–10%

52

50–10%

164

10–1%

1316

10–1%

65

10–1%

1301

under 1%

752

under 1%

36

under 1%

699

0%

955

0%

2960

0%

937

Source: Edited by the author

4 Conclusion In summary, it can be concluded that SSHPPs operating in 2200 of the 3155 Hungarian settlements can cover 100% of the annual electric power demands of the settlements in altogether four settlements (Table 5). The results show that in the case of settlements with fewer than 1000 inhabitants, this power plant category is potentially capable of satisfying electricity demands, which has become an achievable target for settlements with 1000 to 2000 inhabitants. In towns and cities with population between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, hitting the 10% ratio can be a realistic goal in the short run, whereas in cities with over 100,000 inhabitants this power plant category can contribute to satisfying the electric power demands of cities from local renewable sources only in very small proportions despite the large number of power plants. With nominal capacities under 0.5 MW small power plants that are not subject to permitting and do not belong to the non-SSHPP, while using renewable energies, can provide for more than 100% of the annual electric power demands in 23 settlements (Table 5). Small power plants can certainly cover the annual electric power demand of villages with fewer than 2000 inhabitants, and it does not seem to be an unachievable goal for the whole settlement category with population under 10,000 residents. In towns and cities where 10,000 to 100,000 people live, full-scale electricity self-sufficiency can be implemented in 10 to 20 years with reliance on broad energy mixes and the utilization of further significant renewable potentials. In the case of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, small power plants with capacities under 0.5 MW can achieve significant, double-digit ratios by exploiting the potentials that are similar to the ones in the previous

12

B. Kulcsár

settlement size category over the next few decades. Nevertheless, overall transition to renewables seems to be feasible only with large power plants. By combining the two power plant types, the electric power demands of settlements with fewer than 2000 residents can be satisfied safely, and it can be implemented in the medium term also in settlements with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. These two power plant sizes and with them broad renewable energy portfolios have the potential to significantly accelerate the full-scale transition of towns and cities with population between 10,000 and 100,000 to renewable energy sources, and therefore the above objectives can be accomplished more safely and within shorter whiles. In the case of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, when the electric power demands of these settlements, the locally available renewable energy potentials and accessible supplies are taken into consideration alongside the current technologies, proper solutions can be found in the form of centralized large power plants. The spread of renewable energy sources can be effectively accelerated, yet time also delayed, by means of legislation, economic incentives, education and marketing activities for environment protection. It is well exemplified by the amendment of Act LXXXV of 2011 entering into effective on 1 January 2015 (Act. LXXXV of 2011), which substantially influenced growth values in the SSHPP segment mostly using solar energy in 2016 (MEKH, 2018). On the other hand, investments in the SSHPP category showing undoubtedly impressive growth rates have been driven by energy saving aspirations in spite of the lack of adequate regulations and feed-in price subsidies. Energy transport to neighbouring settlements may be an option for the future, where settlements producing excess energy can supply the neighbouring settlements as microregional or district centers of renewable energy production (Kulcsár, B. 2015). Nevertheless, problems are posed by the current absence of adequate and sufficient capacities for the storage of electricity produced with the use of renewable sources and fed into the network, as these volumes are handled by means of distribution over the network. At the same time, a significant proportion of imported electric power, which otherwise increases Hungary’s energy dependency is balancing power purchased in periods of energy shortage. Acknowledgement. The project MEC_R_21_141056 was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology through the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, funded by the Mecenatúra 2021 call for proposals. A MEC_R_21_141056 számú projekt az Innovációs és Technológiai Minisztérium Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Alapból nyújtott támogatásával, a Mecenatúra 2021 pályázati program finanszírozásában valósult meg.

References Act. LXXXVI of 2007 on electricity Act. LXXXV of 2011 on the environmental product levy Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie: Erneuerbare-Energie-Gesetz EEG, 2000– 2017. https://www.erneuerbare-energien.de/EE/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/eeg.html?cms_docId= 401818. Accessed 15 May 2018

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Government Decree 273/2007 (X.19.) on the implementation of Act LXXXVI of 2007 on electricity Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO), 2017. Gazetteer of Hungary 1 January 2017, (Központi Statisztikai Hivatal (KSH), Magyarország közigazgatási helynévkönyve, 2017. január 1. Budapest, 2017) (2017). ISSN 1217-2952. https://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/hnk/hnk_ 2017.pdf Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (MEKH). Summary data of small power plants not subject to permitting, including small-scale household power plants (2008– 2017) (2018) http://www.mekh.hu/download/7/28/60000/nem_engedelykoteles_es_hmke_b eszamolo_2008_2017.pdf Kulcsár, B.: Implementation opportunities of geothermal energy systems in the peripheries along the border of Hungary and Romania, Geographica Pannonica, Volume 19, Issue 3, 88–100 (September 2015) Scopus (2015). ISSN 0354-8724 (hard copy), ISSN 1820-7138 (online). http://www.dgt.uns.ac.rs/pannonica/papers/volume19_3_1.pdf Lovins, B.: Energy Strategy: The road not taken? 55 Foreign affairs 65 (1976–1977) (1977) Lund, H.: Large-scale integration of optimal combinations of PV, wind and wave power into the electricity supply. Renewable Energy 31(4), 503–515 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene. 2005.04.008 Munkácsy, B.: Erre van el˝ore!: Egy fenntartható energiarendszer keretei Magyarországon (This is the Way Ahead – Frameworks of a Sustainable Energy System in Hungary), Vision 2040 Hungary 1.0. Szigetszentmiklós: Környezeti Nevelési Hálózat Országos Egyesület (Szigetszentmiklós: Environmental Education Network National Association), p. 155 (2011). (ISBN:9789630820240) Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS). European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy (2019), https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html Regulation 13/2017 (XI.8.) MEKH of the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority on the rates of operating subsidies for electricity generated from renewable energy sources (MEKH Regulation) Sørensen, B.E.: A plan is outlined according to which solar and wind power would supply Denmark’s needs by the year of 2050. Science 189(4199), 255–260 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1126/ science.189.4199.255 Stern, N.: The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge University Press (2006). ISBN 978-0-521-70080-1. http://mudancasclimaticas.cptec.inpe.br/~rmclima/ pdfs/destaques/sternreview_report_complete.pdf System of Territorial Statistical Data (TEIR). Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO), Communal service supply, environment, total volume of electricity supplied in 2017 (settlement), as well as the number of electricity consumers in 2017 (settlement), (Országos Területfejlesztési és Területrendezési Információs Rendszer TeIR, - Központi Statisztikai Hivatal (KSH), - Kommunális ellátás, - Szolgáltatott összes villamos energia, 2017. (település), ill. Villamosenergia fogyasztók (2017). (település)) https://www.teir.hu/rqdist/main?rq_app=tdm_nd& rq_proc=main

Industrial Symbiosis and Circular Urban Practices Ginevra Balletto1(B) , Martina Sinatra1 , Francesca Sinatra2 and Giuseppe Borruso2

,

1 DICAAR - Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture,

University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected] 2 DEAMS - Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

Abstract. In the period 2014–21, world consumption of resources increased by about 13%, higher than population growth which was instead of 8% and slightly less than the annual growth of world GDP of 2.2%. This complex global condition confirms the need to continue promoting the transition to a circular economy, on multiple scales, to reduce the environmental impact through a system in which resources are used efficiently and sustainably, as an alternative to the current model of linear economy. The circular economy, which is based on the concept of the “3Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, is expressed thanks to the industrial symbiosis (IS), i.e. the collaboration and sharing of data and resources between different industries or companies within a given territory or the same geographical area. In particular, the IS aims to create collaborative relationships between companies and territories in order to share resources, reduce waste and improve production efficiency. In other words, the IS is functional for the circular economy, and consequently the circular city, by virtue of the progressive international metropolisation. In particular, IS manifests itself with industry 4.0 through the positive integration of digital innovation between businesses, communities and territories and the multi-dimensionality of IS - provincial/metropolitan city, regional and/or national/international - confers a strategic role to face the challenges of sustainable development. In this synthetic framework, the aim of the present paper is to represent a set of circularity indicators through spatial autocorrelation in order to evaluate the IS maturity level in province/metropolitan cities and to promote circular transition. Keywords: Circular Economy · Circular City · Industrial Symbiosis · LISA

1 Introduction According to UN forecasts (2019) [1] the consumption of resources will continue to increase and therefore calls for a transition to a zero-carbon, environmentally sustainable and fully circular economy by 2050. This forecast confirms the need to promote the transition to a circular economy, as an alternative to the current linear economic model. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 14–24, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_2

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To be circular, however, it must be integrated into all phases of the value chain: from production to the consumer. The European Union (EU) has encouraged companies towards the circular economy, promoting an integrated approach, through collaboration and the opportunities for synergy available. Furthermore, with the European Union Action Plan (2015) the EU included Industrial Symbiosis (IS) as an integral part of the EU industrial and environmental policy. In Italy, ENEA, on the other hand, promoted the establishment of the first network - Symbiosis Users Network [2]. In particular, IS fits into the field of interdisciplinary studies born within industrial ecology [3–5] and is considered as a science of sustainability [6–8]. The IS can be defined as an eco-innovative approach for the transition to a circular economy and is based on a strategic business collaboration model - deeply connected with the territorial context and the local community - to achieve common goals. The IS is based on the sharing of resources, the complementarity of skills, to create synergies, competitiveness, efficiency and process and result innovation. The IS presents a growing national and international trend in response to global challenges that jointly intervene on environmental sustainability, energy and economic efficiency [9] and is characterized by: • Environmental sustainability. IS is a tool to reduce the environmental impact of industrial activities, through the sharing of resources and the creation of multi-scale synergies; • Collaboration and strategic alliances. Companies are willing to collaborate with their competitors to gain competitive advantages and improve environmental and economic sustainability; • Technological innovation. IS is based on collaboration, sharing and communication. The IS also has two main forms, single and/or associated: • Area symbiosis. Territorial areas more or less extended over time in which specific interventions are carried out for closure, optimization of cycles to ensure health and well-being for communities and biodiversity conservation; • Network symbiosis. Digital network to facilitate the meeting between demand and supply of resources (energy, water, secondary raw materials, data, skills, etc.). The linear economy - Max Weber’s industrial model [10] - argued that rationalization and hierarchical organization were the main factors in the development of an industrial society with the creation of efficient but impersonal organizations. With the IS, however, the integration between companies and their local communities in a relationship of mutual support. In fact, since the objective of environmental and economic sustainability cannot be achieved by every single company, it implies the need for new forms of integration both inter-sectorially and with the local community, to enhance waste, reduce waste and pollution [11]. The aim of the work is to compare the territorial distribution of a set of circularity indicators in Italy at the provincial/metropolitan city level, analyzing them using territorial analysis techniques such as LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association) to assess IS maturity level in Italian metropolitan provinces/cities in order to accelerate the circular transition.

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The paper is organized as it follows: paragraph 2 Literature review; 2.1 Industrial symbiosis and industrial revolutions; paragraph 3: Materials and Method; 3.1 Data; 3.2 Study Area; paragraph 4 Results and paragraph 5: Discussion and Conclusions.

2 Literature Review 2.1 Industrial Symbiosis and Industrial Revolutions IS as a formal concept has emerged more recently, but there have been several examples of synergistic interactions between companies during different industrial stages. In particular, the IS was not present during the First Industrial Revolutions (late 18th century to mid-19th century). During this phase, the industry relied mainly on the use of animal power, water energy and steam to power the machines, and there was no widespread awareness of the need to optimize the use of resources or reduce waste. During the Second Industrial Revolution (end of the 19th century until the first half of the 20th century), some forms of collaboration began to appear, considered precursors of industrial symbiosis, with the main example being the Ruhr, which became an important industrial cluster integrating various companies in heavy industry such as steel and chemicals. IS developed further during the Third Industrial Revolution (1960s to 2000s) also known as the Automation and Electronics Age, characterized by increasing automation and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). During this period, industrial symbiosis has resulted in improved production efficiency, reduced waste and promoted sustainability [12]. IS finds its maximum expression in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also called industry 4.0 (early 21st century - ongoing) with the integration of digital technologies - the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and 3D printing [13]. The IS in Industry 4.0 therefore aims to facilitate the creation of digital networks, logistics and supply chains [14–16] through an integrated management of resources and secondary raw materials through the relative traceability of physical flows, as well as producing sustainable energy to support a system circular production [17]. The territorial effects of the IS depend on the specifics of the local context, on the characteristics of the companies involved and on the degree of collaboration and coordination between the actors in the area. Proper planning, governance and institutional support can favor the adoption and implementation of industrial symbiosis at a territorial level, maximizing the economic, environmental and social benefits.

3 Materials and Method In order to monitor the circular transition in support of IS, one of the methods that can be used is spatial autocorrelation [18, 19]. Particularly, spatial autocorrelation can be applied on data or indicators which refer to a set of contiguous geographical units and it can be useful to evaluate local effects and clusters. In his studies, Tobler [20] states “nearby things are more related than distant things”, an approach that has been recently rediscovered [21]. Thus, data can be affected concurrently in terms of geographical shape and spatial proximity and in terms of values attributed to the same units. In fact, this method allows us to observe and analyze the behavior of a selected variable in reference to its position in space and to what happens in its proximity.

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In particular, the Local Moran Index makes it possible to evaluate for each position the similarity of each observation with nearby geographical objects. This can be seen as the sum of all local indices and is proportional to the value of the Moran one:  Ii = γ ∗ I (1) i

The index is calculated as follows: Ii =

(Xi − X ) N (wij (Xj − X )) j=1 Sx2

(2)

where: • • • • •

N is the number of geographical units; Xi is the variable describing the phenomenon under investigation in region i; X represents the sample average and (Xi − X ) it is the variable’s average deviation; S2x is the Standard deviation; wij is the weight matrix. From its application it is possible to obtain five combinations:

• high values of the phenomenon and high levels of similarity with the nearby areas, known hot spots (High-High); • low values of the phenomenon and low levels of similarity with the nearby areas, called cold spots (Low-Low); • high values of the phenomenon and low levels of similarity with the nearby areas are detected, referred to as potential outliers (High-Low); • low values of the phenomenon and high levels of similarity with nearby areas are highlighted, referred to as potential outliers (Low-High); • No significant autocorrelation values are detected (Not Significant). 3.1 Data The dataset arose from the combination of four pillars (Renewable energy & Resilient, Recycled materials and Innovation, Project Biodiversity and Health, Wellness & Society) and from relative IS area and network indicators as shown in Fig. 1. In particular, the IS area and network indicators are shown in Table 1. 3.2 Study Area Italy with its 107 provinces constitutes the study area of industrial symbiosis. Italy is located in the Southern part of the European peninsula, in the Mediterranean Sea, facing the main Seas such as the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic, located within the coordinates 47°04 22 N 6°37 32 E; 35°29 24 N 18°31 18 E. Italy covers an area of 302,072.84 km2 and hosts a population of 59,11 million [22] with an average population density of 200 inhabitants per square kilometer. Italy is organized into 20 administrative regions. One of them, Trentino Alto Adige, is organized into two Autonomous Provinces with regional competences. A reform - still not completed - of an intermediate administrative level has led to the establishment of 14 metropolitan cities (Ref. Law 7 April 2014

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Fig. 1. Set of indicators.

n. 56) coinciding with the Provinces with the exception of Cagliari. Most of the population is concentrated in the Po Valley geographical region, surrounded by the Alpine and Apennine mountains and by the Adriatic Sea, eastwards towards the Po Delta. The Po Valley alone represents Italy’s economic ‘core’. In an area of approximately 55,000 km2 nearly 22 million people live, with a density (400 inhabitants per km2) double that of the rest of the peninsula, reaching different peaks in the main urban areas of the Greater Milan metropolitan area (the neighboring Milan and Monza Provinces exceed 2000 inhabitants per square kilometer). It is noticeable that in 2015 the former ‘Province of Milan’ became the Metropolitan City of Milan, covering the same area and therefore the same municipalities of the former qualification. From a functional point of view, as generally happens with metropolitan areas worldwide, the ‘Greater Milan Metropolitan Area’, can be considered a wider area, covering Milan’s neighboring provinces (Varese, Como, Lecco, Monza—Brianza, Pavia, Lodi and Cremona). This area is also the southern part of the so-called “Blue Banana”: the main European megalopolis and includes the major metropolitan urban areas with a polycentric structure of international importance for the economic and industrial aspects [23].

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Table 1. IS area and network indicators. IS

Indicators

Description

Sources

IS area

Urban ecosystem

18 parameters, i.e.: waste sorting, water consumption, local transport

Legambiente Ambiente Italia, 2021

Green urban areas

Square per inhabitant

Istat, 2020

Land take

Square per inhabitant

ISPRA, 2018

Air pollution

Index based on PM10, nitrogen dioxide and ozone data in chief town

Ecosistema urbano Legambiente, 2021

Women’s quality of life

12 parameters, i.e.: Stem, 2022 employment, enterprises, quotas for women, sport and competences

Energy improvement

Euro per inhabitant

Enea, 2020

Electricity from renewable sources

Wind, photovoltaic, geothermal and water, as a percentage of gross production

Tagliacarne on Gse data, 2021

Broadband penetration

Broadband access of families with an active line [Ftth - %]

Agcom, 2021

IS network

4 Results In this manuscript, the analysis was performed by considering a set of indicators (Fig. 1) assigned to each Italian Province and their refer to 2022. These data were used as input to calculate LISA and, in particular, for local Moran’s I. It is important to highlight that, in order to achieve spatial proximity for the application of the method, some simplifications have been adopted in the spatialization of islands (at provincial level). Figure 2 shows results obtained for Renewable energy & Resilient indicators: • For energy consumption indicator its possible to observe in North of Italy High-High autocorrelation, while the Center and the Islands are characterized by Low-Low autocorrelation; • Electricity from renewable sources indicator shows a Low-Low autocorrelation in the North Italy, while in the Center and the Islands it is possible to observe a High-High autocorrelation. • Figure 3 shows results of Recycled materials and Innovation indicators: • Broadband penetration indicator presents a non-significant autocorrelation, and only for the provinces of Rimini and Catanzaro a Low-Low autocorrelation; • For Urban ecosystem indicator it is possible to observe in North-East High-High autocorrelation, while in Sicily for the provinces of Enna and Messina shows a LowLow autocorrelation.

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Fig. 2. LISA map of Renewable energy & Resilient indicators. (Authors: Balletto G. and Sinatra M., 2023).

Figure 4 shows results of Urbanization indicators: • Urban green areas indicator presents a High-High autocorrelation for the province of Venice, while in the South Italy and in the Island shows a Low-Low autocorrelation; • For Land take indicator it is possible to observe in the North-East of Italy and for the province of Latina a High-High autocorrelation, while a Low-Low autocorrelation is shown for the provinces of Chieti, Rimini and Teramo. Figure 5 shows results of Health, Wellness & Society indicators: • Air pollution indicator presents in the North of Italy a High-High autocorrelation, while for the provinces of Ancona, Arezzo, Catanzaro, Macerata and Vibo Valentia shows a Low-Low autocorrelation; • For Women’s quality of life it is possible to observe in the North and Center of Italy a High-High autocorrelation, while for the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia a Low-Low autocorrelation.

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Fig. 3. LISA map of Recycled materials and Innovation indicators. (Authors: Balletto G. and Sinatra M., 2023).

Fig. 4. LISA map of Urbanization indicators. (Authors: Balletto G. and Sinatra M., 2023).

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Fig. 5. LISA map of Health, Wellness & Society indicators. (Authors: Balletto G. and Sinatra M., 2023).

5 Discussion and Conclusions The concept of Industrial Symbiosis is to-date particularly relevant and central in all of the possible conceptualization and implementation of the ecological and energy transitions. It becomes in fact central when a circular model is to be set within the economic production system, particularly in implementing the possibility of recycling and/or inserting the waste and by products of primary production into other, differentiated productions, therefore diminishing the total amount of waste and reducing the general entropy of the system. Spatial proximity in particular becomes particularly important in allowing the minimization of costs related to integrated and symbiotic production systems. In such a sense, urban locations for existing - or to be set - productions become attractive, as, per definition, they represent proximal, dense locations, where distances are minimized and a higher level of efficiency can be pursued. Urban and metropolitan environment can therefore become important in hosting and implementing symbiotic production systems and create new opportunities for development. The analysis so far carried on represents a first insight into the opportunities offered by spatial analytical techniques and tools to combine spatial and non spatial components in highlighting local association, and therefore highlighting areas characterized by a higher level of homogeneity in these features, capable, therefore, of being targeted by more precise and specific policies of local development. The consideration of a metropolitan – provincial level of the analysis is important in considering an intermediate, regional level of possible industrial agglomeration and policies targeting. These deserve a more thorough attention and analysis. For this reason, the intent of future research will

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be to depict the phenomenon and compare it with the so-called Equitable and sustainable well-being indicators. Acknowledgments. This study was carried out within the “e.INS – Ecosystem of Innovation for Next Generation Sardinia” funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the Next-Generation EU Programme (National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR, M4C2, INVESTMENT 1.5 – DD 1056 of 23/06/2022 , ECS00000038). This publication was produced while attending the PhD programme in Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Cagliari, Cycle XXXVIII, with the support of a scholarship co-financed by the Ministerial Decree no. 352 of 9th April 2022, based on the NRRP - funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU - Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 2 “From Research to Business”, Investment 3.3, and by the company MLab srl. Also, this publication was produced while attending the PhD programme in Circular Economy at the University of Trieste, Cycle XXXVIII, with the support of a scholarship financed by the Ministerial Decree no. 351 of 9th April 2022, based on the NRRP - funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU - Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 1 “Enhancement of the offer of educational services: from nurseries to universities” - Invest- ment 4.1 “Extension of the number of research doctorates and innovative doctorates for public administration and cultural heritage”.

Authors Contribution. Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, materials and resources, software and validation: all authors. Data curation: Balletto and Sinatra M. In particular: Balletto wrote Sects. 1, 2; Sinatra M. and F. wrote Sects. 3, 3.1 and 4; Borruso wrote Sects. 3.2; Balletto and Borruso wrote Sects. 5.

References 1. Global Resources Outlook. Natural Resources for the Future We Want (2019). https://www. resourcepanel.org/reports/global-resources-outlook. Accessed 20 May 2023 2. Network Italiano di Simbiosi Industriale SUN (Symbiosis Users Network). https://www.sun etwork.it/. Accessed 15 May 2023 3. Chertow, M.R.: Uncovering” industrial symbiosis. J. Ind. Ecol. 11(1), 11–30 (2007) 4. Ayres, R.U., Simonis, U.E.: Industrial metabolism: restructuring for sustainable development/edited by Robert U. Ayres and Udo E. Simonis (1994) 5. Von Weizsacker, E.U., Hargroves, C., Smith, M.H., Desha, C., Stasinopoulos, P.: Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy Through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity. Routledge (2009) 6. Bianchi, M., Cordella, M., Menger, P.: Regional monitoring frameworks for the circular economy: implications from a territorial perspective. Eur. Plan. Stud. 31(1), 36–54 (2023) 7. Thakker, V., Bakshi, B.R.: Ranking Eco-Innovations to Enable a Sustainable Circular Economy with Net-Zero Emissions. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2023) 8. Awan, U.: Industrial ecology in support of sustainable development goals. In: Responsible consumption and production, pp. 370–380. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2022) 9. Rapporto Sull’economia Circolare In Italia La sfida è sostenere la ripresa e diminuire il consumo di risorse. https://circulareconomynetwork.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Rapportosulleconomia-circolare-2022-CEN.pdf. Accessed 28 May 2023 10. Bruhns, H., Gorski, P.S., Kadane, M., Rubinstein, W.D., Moretti, M.: L’etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo di Max Weber. Contemporanea 9(4), 747–786 (2006)

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11. Manzini, E., Pizzocaro, S.: Ecologia industriale. Quaderni di ricerca. Istituto per l’ambiente, Milano (1995) 12. Xing, X., Liu, H., Liu, G., Wang, S.: Industrial symbiosis for carbon emission reduction: a systematic review. J. Clean. Prod. 209, 1365–1381 (2019) 13. Balletto, G., Borruso, G., Ladu, M., Milesi, A., Tagliapietra, D., Carboni, L.: Smart City and Industry 4.0: new opportunities for mobility innovation. In: Computational Science and Its Applications–ICCSA 2022 Workshops: Malaga, 4–7 July 2022, Proceedings, Part II, pp. 473– 484. Springer(2022) 14. Hu, M., Chen, Z., Cai, X., Wang, Z.: Evolution and optimization of industrial symbiosis networks: a review. J. Clean. Prod. 314, 128081 (2021) 15. Sun, L., Du, Y., Xue, Y., Zhang, B., Tang, L.: Industrial symbiosis network optimization for resource exchange and transportation cost minimization. J. Clean. Prod. 210, 80–90 (2019) 16. Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N., Papadopoulos, T.: Information technology for competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains: a review. Transp. Res. Part E: Logist. Transp. Rev. 99, 14–33 (2017) 17. Balletto, G., Ladu, M., Camerin, F., Ghiani, E., Torriti, J.: More circular city in the energy and ecological transition: a methodological approach to sustainable urban regeneration. Sustainability 14(22), 14995 (2022) 18. Ceci, M., Corizzo, R., Malerba, D., Rashkovska, A.: Spatial autocorrelation and entropy for renewable energy forecasting. Data Min. Knowl. Disc. 33(3), 698–729 (2019) 19. Wang, S., Luo, K.: Life expectancy impacts due to heating energy utilization in China: distribution, relations, and policy implications. Sci. Total Environ. 610, 1047–1056 (2018) 20. Tobler, W.R.: A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region. Econ. Geogr. 46, 234 (1970). https://doi.org/10.2307/143141 21. Sui, D.Z.: Tobler’s first law of geography: a big idea for a small world? Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 94(2), 269–277 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402003.x 22. ISTAT. http://dati.istat.it/. Accessed 16 Apr 2023 23. Murgante, B., Borruso, G., Balletto, G., Castiglia, P., Dettori, M.: Why Italy first? Health, geographical and planning aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Sustainability 12(12), 5064 (2020)

The Process of Metropolisation and Spatial Accessibility. The Case Study of the Cagliari Metropolitan City Ginevra Balletto1

, Martina Sinatra1(B) , Giuseppe Borruso2 and Gianfranco Fancello1

, Francesco Sechi3 ,

1 DICAAR - Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of

Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected] 2 DEAMS - Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy 3 Administrator of the MLab Srl, Cagliari, Italy https://mlab-srl.com/

Abstract. With the complex processes of metropolisation, increasingly broad and reticular, which connect and mix different settlement forms (central areas, suburbs, medium-sized cities, peri-urban areas…) the spatial reorganization of land-use and urban functions also manifests itself: residence, work, services, study, trade and leisure. Furthermore, the consequences on the distribution of urban functions and on the transport system are also substantial, radically transforming the lifestyle of the communities, especially for the more numerous ones in peripheral areas. Accessibility is a key issue for scientific disciplines applied to territorial governance. In fact, it expresses the level of organization of the territory and in particular of the services, for this reason it is considered as a fundamental aspect for its proper functioning. Furthermore, with the transition from the municipal administrative dimension to the metropolitan one, accessibility assumes a preponderant role for the governance of the metropolitan cities/region increasingly characterized by multidirectional and multi-purpose mobility and by a significant vulnerability of the community. In this framework, the aim of the paper is to develop a methodological approach to support metropolitan city planning (policy target) through the combination of spatial autocorrelation of the different accessibility intensities (private and public) and social-material vulnerability index (SMVI). Keywords: Circular City · Urban Accessibility · Spatial autocorrelation · LISA · Metropolitan City Planning

1 Introduction Private and collective vehicular accessibility is a key issue for urban government, characterized by a progressive densification of the population. Urban areas, in fact, host more than half of the world’s population with a forecast of around 70% in 2050. It is also © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 25–35, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_3

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estimated that every day, globally, cities make around 7.5 billion movements between goods and people. This is a trend destined to increase, so much so that in 2050 there could be an increase in the movement of people three to four times higher. In recent decades, mobility flows have become a key component of urbanization, shaping the urban form [1], with direct effects on the environment and the community. However, despite the increase in urban mobility globally, access to the services, places and activities that cities offer is increasingly difficult. In this sense, the 15-min city model aims to respond to complex urban dynamics [2]. In fact, the urban form and distribution of functions is strongly influenced by infrastructure and private transport flows responsible for urban dispersion. Furthermore, urban contexts are increasingly places of community vulnerability, resulting from exposure to risk factors that can compromise the relative well-being of people, following exposure to crises and risks (economic, social and environmental). The improvement of accessibility and the reduction of the vulnerability of communities constitute the main field of investigation of this manuscript. The aim of the manuscript is to develop a methodological approach to support metropolitan planning (policy target) based on the spatial autocorrelation of the different accessibility intensities and the social and material vulnerability index (SMVI). The paper is organized as it follows: Sect. 2 Literature review; Sect. 3 Materials and Method; Sect. 3.1 Study Area; Sect. 3.2 Data; Sect. 3.3 Methodology; Sect. 3.4 LISA Method; Sect. 4: Results and Discussion and Sect. 5 Conclusion and future development.

2 Literature Review Resilient and sustainable urban development, in line with the 2030 goals, is increasingly its importance. In this sense, accessibility, in addition to being closely connected with urban physical development, influences urban logistics and citizens’ welfare [3]. It is therefore necessary to shift the focus from mobility to urban accessibility. In fact, if it is true that the speed and efficiency of the journey are important, a more important role must be covered by the ease with which destinations are reached, it follows that mobility is not the aim to be pursued, but means to achieve the goal of widespread accessibility [4]. In this sense, some researches highlight how urban accessibility requires transport planning based on the combination: mobility, land-use and digital accessibility [5, 6]. According to the main field research [5, 7] use of telecommunications affects travel. In particular, digital connectivity reflects the availability of digital infrastructure and one or more devices (modes). Digital accessibility reflects being able to use digital connectivity to engage in activities. Digital connectivity is necessary but not sufficient to provide digital accessibility, which is closely related to the quality of available and affordable digital services and the skills and preferences of the community. With the post covid-19 the car remains the preferred mode of transport by Italians. From the 19th Report on mobility “Audimob - Mobility styles and behaviors of Italians” [8], it emerges that in 2022 the growth of private mobility is reconfirmed. The private modal share almost reaches the 65% threshold, one and a half points higher than the pre-Covid level. In 2021, the car fleet continued to grow but not to rejuvenate: its average age increased to 12.2 years compared to 11.8 in 2020. The total number of cars on the road

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is just under 40 million with a motorization rate that has risen to 67.2 vehicles per 100 inhabitants (66.6 in 2020). The motorisation rate in Italy therefore remains among the highest in Europe with a circulating fleet of over 11 million vehicles that do not exceed the Euro 3 emission standard (just under 30% of the total). As regards, on the other hand, pedestrian mobility, after the years of the health emergency, in 2021 it drops to 22.7% of the total, over 6 points less than in 2020, and in 2022 (first half year) it drops further to 19.7%. In 2022, for LPT there is a reduction in passengers of −21% compared to 2019 and a demand volume of −12% is expected a the end in 2023 compared to the pre-Covid scenario [9]. Furthermore, if on the one hand private accessibility and LPT fulfills the right to mobility, on the other it contributes to the progressive growth of the phenomenon - nationally and internationally - of urban metropolisation. This phenomenon can be described as an urban cluster, where the functions that consume a lot of space (leisure, commerce, industries) are in the periphery, while the city centers are reserved for privileged housing and high-value activities (Central Business District). As such, metropolisation produces spatial and social ruptures within the relevant urban space, but also between the urban space and the peripheral region of metropolitan influence. Metropolisation and relative accessibility are therefore the focus of this manuscript.

3 Materials and Method 3.1 Study Area The study area is the Cagliari metropolitan city which is the major city of Sardinia Region. The city of Cagliari is the capital of the Sardinia Region and Metropolitan City since 2016, and is the most important cultural, economic, political and administrative center of Sardinia. It is an administrative structure of 17 municipalities. The Municipality of Cagliari hosts over 150 000 inhabitants, while the Metropolitan City spans nearly 420 000 inhabitants [10]. The metropolitan city of Cagliari was chosen to test the methodology. This choice is justified by the collaboration with Mlab srl, which operates mainly in the metropolitan context of Cagliari (Fig. 1). 3.2 Data Spatial accessibility, social and material vulnerability of communities and population size constitute the main data set used in this manuscript. In particular, thanks to the concession of Mlab srl, accessibility maps of the metropolitan city of Cagliari (private and LPT) are available, which has developed a traffic model to support various mobility studies and plans (Urban Mobility Plan, Minimum Services Plan, Feasibility studies of the new tramway network). The accessibility map is based on approximately 780 traffic zones, and has made it possible to calculate the itineraries between all the origindestination pairs and the relative travel times. The social and material vulnerability index (SMVI) elaborated by ISTAT is a composite indicator of seven sub-indicators and expresses the different aspects of a multidimensional phenomenon of vulnerability with a single value. SMVI describes the synthetic measure of the level of social and material

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Fig. 1. Cagliari metropolitan city (Sardinia, Italy) (Author: M. Sinatra, 2023)

vulnerability of the communities and is obtained from the combination of seven different sub-indicators such as: percentage incidence of the population aged between 25 and 64 illiterate and literate without qualification of study; percentage incidence of families with 6 and more members; percentage incidence of young single-parent families (age of the parent less than 35 years) or adults (age of the parent between 35 and 64 years) on the total families; percentage incidence of families with potential welfare hardship, to indicate the share of families made up only of elderly people (65 years of age and over) with at least one member over eighty; percentage incidence of the population in conditions of severe crowding, given by the percentage ratio between the population residing in dwellings with a surface area of less than 40 m2 and more than 4 occupants or in 40–59 m2 and more than 5 occupants or in 60–79 m2 and more of 6 occupants, and the total population residing in occupied dwellings; percentage incidence of young people (15–29 years) outside the labor market and school training; percentage incidence of families with potential economic hardship. Population data were extrapolated from the Urban Atlas Copernicus database (2018, edition) [11]. 3.3 Methodology The proposed method consists in the observation of the phenomenon of accessibility in the metropolitan city dimension. The representation of the phenomenon is based on spatial autocorrelation by virtue of the nature of the observed phenomenon. Table 1 highlights the proposed methodology, framework and main references.

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Table 1. Urban accessibility interaction of territorial dimension and methodology framework (Author: G. Balletto, 2023). Step

Phenomenon

Spatial Dimension

Literature

1

Urban Accessibility

Multi scale/Metropolitan City

[12–15]

Spatial autocorrelation LISA 2

Vulnerability

Municipality

[16]

3

Policy Target

Municipality/Metropolitan City

[17, 18]

Specifically, the accessibility autocorrelation represents the relationship between the ease of access to a certain resource or service in one area and the ease of access to that same resource or service in another nearby area. The analysis of the accessibility autocorrelation can therefore be useful to identify areas where accessibility is poor or inadequate, to investigate the causes. Furthermore, it can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of policies and interventions aimed at improving accessibility. In general, the autocorrelation of accessibility is an important indicator for evaluating the equity and sustainability of cities, in particular allowing to evaluate whether services are equally distributed in relation to accessibility (public and/or private). 3.4 LISA Method Spatial autocorrelation indicators are tools that allow to observe the behavior of a variable with respect to its position in space and in particular with respect to what happens in its proximity. Through two categories of information, such as location and related properties, it is therefore possible to describe geographical objects. The first law of geography, formulated by Waldo Tobler (1970) [19–21], states that “All events are related to each other, but nearby events are more related than distant ones”. The main characteristic of local indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) is the measure of the degree of spatial association relative to each territorial unit and its neighboring elements. In particular, the Local Moran Index makes it possible to evaluate for each position the similarity of each observation with nearby geographical objects. This can be seen as the sum of all local indices and is proportional to the value of the Moran:  Ii = γ ∗ I (1) i

The index is calculated as follows: (Xi − X )  (wij (Xj − X )) Sx2 N

Ii =

j=1

where: • N is the number of geographical units; • Xi is the variable describing the phenomenon under investigation in region i;

(2)

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• X represents the sample average and (Xi − X ) it is the variable’s average deviation; • S2x is the Standard deviation; • wij is the weight matrix. From its application it is possible to obtain five combinations: • High-High: there are high values of the phenomenon and high levels of similarity with the nearby areas (hot spots); • Low-Low: there are both low values of the phenomenon and low levels of similarity with the nearby areas (cold spots); • High-Low: high values of the phenomenon and low levels of similarity with the nearby areas are detected (potential outliers); • Low-High: low values of the phenomenon and high levels of similarity with nearby areas are highlighted (potential outliers); • No significant autocorrelation values are detected.

4 Results and Discussion The analysis was conducted considering the Local Public Mobility (LPM) and Private Transport (PT) accessibility (2022) attributed by census section or aggregation of the metropolitan city of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Those data were used as input for the calculation of the LISA and in particular of the local Moran’s Index. The analysis has been performed on 2021–2022 data from Mlab srl. The Moran Index aims to group areas in terms of similarity in a selected attribute, together with a spatial contiguity. The analysis carried out highlights a clustering configuration of high-high autocorrelation (red area) municipalities in the outer belt of the metropolitan city of Cagliari and lowlow autocorrelation (blue area) in the old center of Cagliari city for LPT (Fig. 2). The analysis carried out highlights a clustering configuration of high-high autocorrelation (red area) municipalities in the outer belt of the metropolitan city of Cagliari and low-low autocorrelation (blue area) in the suburbs (North-West) of Cagliari city for PT (Fig. 3). In particular, the non-significant area (LPT and PT) is an object of interest because it represents spatial contexts where accessibility is discontinuous. From Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 it can be seen: non significant area (nsa) relating to: LPT = 268.9 km2 with non-existent population pop. nsa LPT 248,135 and PT = 251.4 km2 with non-existent population pop. nsa PT = 217,229. Furthermore, the non-significant area (LPT and PT), although presenting an intermediate extension compared to the other LISA classes, is characterized by a high insistent population, over half of the population of the metropolitan city. For this reason, a further index was considered, provided by ISTAT, the so-called Social and Material Vulnerability Index [22]. From the overlap between the spatial autocorrelation of the accessibility of the private and public system and the vulnerability index (Fig. 4) it is possible to obtain Table 2 summarizing the results, in which the relative policies target have been associated. In particular: improve local public transport (LPT) in the Municipalities of Capoterra and Maracalagonis; improve both the transport and LPT infrastructures (I) for the Municipalities of Quartu Sant’Elena and Quartucciu.

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Fig. 2. LISA map of Local Public Transport (LPT) accessibility and population estimated data for each Urban Atlas polygon, 2018 [11] (Authors: M. Sinatra and G. Balletto, 2022)

Fig. 3. LISA map of Private Transport (PT) accessibility and population estimated data for each Urban Atlas polygon, 2018 [11] (Authors: M. Sinatra and G. Balletto, 2022)

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Fig. 4. Social and Material Vulnerability Index map for each municipality [23] (Author: M. Sinatra). Table 2. Summary results and Policy Target (Local Public Transport - LPT and/or Infrastructure - I). Municipality

Autocorrelation of accessibility

Municipal percentage area

Vulnerability Index (Istat)

Policy Target: improve

Capoterra

High-High

100%

Medium-High

LPT

Maracalagonis

High-High

100%

High

I & LPT

Quartu Sant’Elena

High-High

100%

High

LPT

Quartucciu

High-High

60%

High

LPT

Not Significant

40%

Medium-High

I

5 Conclusion and Future Development Transport accessibility in urban areas is becoming particularly challenging for transport planners and managers, a process accentuated by a set of concurrent causes occurring in the latest few years. During the most recent years transport systems, and particularly public transport, was challenged by the Covid-19 experience and the post-Covid period that put a threat to the already difficult quest for a modal shift in transport towards the public mode. The distancing policies and a generalized unease of gathering into transport means during

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the Covid-19 pandemics, and a rediscovered, if not never abandoned, preference for the private transport mode, are delaying to pursuing a recovery of public transport to the preCovid - and hopefully higher - shares. This is also coupled with other import processes ongoing, as urban sprawl, population ageing and, generally, changes occurring in the spatial balance of wealth distribution. All of these elements are producing considerable effects on urban areas, including a difficulty of serving a population sprawling over wide areas. The analysis of national statistical data in fact shows that the Metropolitan City of Cagliari is increasing in its size in terms of population in the years, but with considerable changes intervening inside, involving a deconcentration of the core – as the Municipality of Cagliari – and an increase of the population of the municipalities of the ring, as those surrounding the city of Cagliari or even farther. This, led also by the changes in urban rents and therefore a less affordable housing market in the center, is coupled with a need to serve a sparse population with a frequency and quality of service that cannot be the same as that of a central, dense area. As a consequence, these areas become more and more difficult to serve and can become less and less willing to rely on public transport for their daily trips. In a sense, the trend – quite generalized, and not limited to the case of Cagliari – of urban and metropolitan areas in particular, is that of settling towards a three-tiers system, more than to a center-periphery one, with a core, a mixed-density ring, and a peripheral ring. The second, mixed-density ring is characterized by a certain level of ‘sparsely dense’ population together with a difficult to achieve adequate public services supply, what, in transport terms, makes it more difficult to serve such areas. The results obtained so far with the analysis carried out and presented in this paper are consistent with such a situation, portraying areas of dependence from private transport, those where a stronger resistance of public transport can be observed, and intermediate areas more deprived in terms of such services. These latter ones deserve a more thorough attention and analysis in order to understand the metropolitan, as well as the local scale and obtain important information on potential policies to put in action. Authors Contribution. Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, materials and resources, software and validation: all authors. Data curation: Balletto, Sinatra and Sechi. In particular: Balletto wrote Sects. 1 and 2; Sechi and Fancello wrote Sects. 3.1 and 3.2; Sinatra and Balletto wrote Sects. 3.3 and 4; Sinatra wrote Sect. 3.4; Borruso wrote Sect. 5. Acknowledgments. This study was carried out within the “e.INS – Ecosystem of Innovation for Next Generation Sardinia” funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the Next-Generation EU Programme (National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR, M4C2, INVESTMENT 1.5 – DD 1056 of 23/06/2022, ECS00000038). This manuscript reflects only the authors’ views and opinions, neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be considered responsible for them “2; moreover, it was financed by TAP project: Using Triple Access Planning to Enhance Urban Accessibility and Connectivity in the Face of Deep Uncertainty”, Project no. 875022 - ERA NET - Urban Accessibility and Connectivity Joint Call for Proposals (EN - UAC), financed by Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) - CUP F25F19000310005; also, this publication was produced while attending the PhD programme in Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Cagliari, Cycle XXXVIII, with the support of a scholarship co-financed by the Ministerial Decree no. 352 of 9th April 2022, based on the NRRP - funded by

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the European Union - NextGenerationEU - Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 2 “From Research to Business”, Investment 3.3, and by the company MLab srl.

References 1. Balletto, G.: Some reflections between city form and mobility. TeMA J. Land Use Mobil. Environ. 7–15 (2022) 2. Balletto, G., Pezzagno, M., Richiedei, A.: 15-Minute city in urban regeneration perspective: two methodological approaches compared to support decisions. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2021. LNCS, vol. 12953, pp. 535–548. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-86976-2_36 3. Balletto, G., Borruso, G., Murgante, B., Milesi, A., Ladu, M.: Resistance and resilience. a methodological approach for cities and territories in Italy. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2021. LNCS, vol. 12952, pp. 218–229. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/9783-030-86973-1_15 4. Balletto, G., Pezzagno, M., Richiedei, A.: Correction to: 15-minute city in urban regeneration perspective: two methodological approaches compared to support decisions. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2021. LNCS, vol. 12953, pp. C1–C1. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_50 5. Lyons, G.: Getting smart about urban mobility–aligning the paradigms of smart and sustainable. Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract. 115, 4–14 (2018) 6. Balletto, G., Borruso, G., Donato, C.: City dashboards and the Achilles’ heel of smart cities: putting governance in action and in space. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2018. LNCS, vol. 10962, pp. 654–668. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-951683_44 7. Mokhtarian, P.L., Salomon, I., Handy, S.L.: The impacts of ICT on leisure activities and travel: a conceptual exploration. Transportation 33, 263–289 (2006) 8. Rapporto Sulla Mobilità Degli Italiani. https://www.isfort.it/2022/12/02/19-rapporto-sullamobilita-degli-italiani/. Accessed 21 Apr 2023 9. Rapporto Sulla Mobilità Degli Italiani “Audimob”. https://www.isfort.it/progetti/19-rapportosulla-mobilita-degli-italiani-audimob/. Accessed 30 Apr 2023 10. ISTAT. http://dati.istat.it/. Accessed 31 Mar 2023 11. Urban Atlas – Copernicus. https://land.copernicus.eu/local/urban-atlas. Accessed 15 Mar 2023 12. Kaplan, N., Burg, D., Omer, I.: Multiscale accessibility and urban performance. Environ. Plann. B: Urban Analyt. City Sci. 49(2), 687–703 (2022) 13. Levine, J., Grengs, J., Merlin, L.A.: From Mobility to Accessibility: Transforming Urban Transportation and Land-Use Planning. Cornell University Press (2019) 14. Colleoni, M., Gwiazdzinski, L., Daconto, L.: L’accessibilità spaziale potenziale alle opportunità urbane: un’analisi comparata tra la città metropolitana di Milano e la metropoli di Lione. L’accessibilità spaziale potenziale alle opportunità urbane: un’analisi comparata tra la città metropolitana di Milano e la metropoli di Lione 73–91 (2017) 15. Murgante, B., Scorza, F.: Autocorrelazione Spaziale e Pianificazione del Territorio: Principi ed Applicazioni (2023). https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:c6088bc9-b78a-4d9bbfbf-5ae9101bb073 16. Le Misure Della Vulnerabilità: Un’applicazione a Diversi Ambiti Territoriali. https://www. istat.it/it/files/2020/12/Le-misure-della-vulnerabilita.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2023

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17. Cavalli, L., Farnia, L., Vergalli, S., Lizzi, G., Romani, I.G., Alibegovic, M.: Conoscere il presente per un futuro sostenibile: In: l’SDGs Index per le Province e le Città Metropolitane d’Italia (Knowing the Present for a Sustainable Future: The SDGs Index for the Provinces and Metropolitan Cities of Italy) (2020) 18. Louro, A., Marques da Costa, N., Marques da Costa, E.: From livable communities to livable metropolis: challenges for urban mobility in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18(7), 3525 (2021) 19. Tobler, W.R.: A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit Region. Econ. Geogr. 46, 234–240 (1970) 20. Tobler, W.: On the first law of geography: a reply. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 94(2), 304–310 (2004) 21. Sui, D.Z.: Tobler’s first law of geography: a big idea for a small world? Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 94(2), 269–277 (2004) 22. 8mila Census. https://ottomilacensus.istat.it/fileadmin/download/Indice_di_vulnerabilit% C3%A0_sociale_e_materiale.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2023 23. Mappa dei Rischi dei Comuni Italiani: Cartografia. https://gisportal.istat.it/mapparischi/index. html?extent=. Accessed 02 Mar 2023

A Participatory Mapping for Planning a Circular City Federica Paoli1(B)

, Francesca Pirlone2

, and Ilenia Spadaro2

1 DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University School of Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy [email protected] 2 DICCA – Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

Abstract. The Circular City paradigm contains the principles of the Circular Economy that fully fit the goals of the 2030 Agenda. However, for these to be implementable, a great deal of effort is still required in terms of planning, economic and geographical analysis. The paper, given the need to analyse the state of affairs of the territory under examination, intends to create a mapping of the good practices in the field of sustainability and circularity. The case study under examination is Genoa. Firstly, starting with a survey of the municipality and several investee public and private companies, it will be possible to highlight actions in the field of circularity in order to plan and design new ones. Subsequently, we also focus on spontaneous initiatives carried out by the various actors in the area. In this way, the aim is to bring together the two “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches, to ascertain whether and where points of convergence exist at these two levels, to detect good practices and identify the actors involved. This participatory mapping will be carried out in a georeferenced manner by means of GIS from existing municipal cartographic supports for planning a circular city. Keywords: Circular City · Georeferenced Participatory Mapping · Stakeholders · GIS

1 Introduction The topic of circular cities has gained prominence in both scientific and political discussion, particularly within the European context. However, much of the scientific literature mainly focuses on the concept of the circular economy. In fact, since this concept is inherent in the definition of the circular city, it has often led scientific attention to focus only on economic and engineering concepts such as how to minimize waste production in areas like energy, built environment, mobility, etc., neglecting the need to construct an organic and spatial vision. A vision that must necessarily encompass the various priority themes at urban level to close the cycle from both a technical and social point of view. From this point of view, therefore, the vision of circular economy and subsequently circular city as a set of values, norms, concepts and actors remains largely © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 36–45, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_4

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unexplored [1]. As is well known, circular cities are defined as ecosystems that require the involvement and participation of all the important actors acting within them [2], among them public administrations, research institutions and universities, businesses and citizens. Therefore, in order to strive for such a vision, a change of vision is required that puts the concept of participation at the forefront. In general, the term “participation” refers to those social processes/interactions in which citizens, or representatives of groups/associations, and administrations (competent for the matter under discussion) are involved. These processes are based on dialogue and have as their objective the resolution of a collective situation perceived as problematic or the choice of a decision of public interest. Citizen and stakeholder participation is an essential element of open governance [3]. The OECD defines open government as “a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth”. The concept is based on the idea that all these important stakeholders should be enabled to see, understand, contribute, monitor and evaluate public decisions and actions. This process improves policies by building trust, increasing the legitimacy of choices and sharing responsibility [4]. Participatory processes, in general, can be distinguished based on the initiating party: we speak of top-down processes when they are proposed by administrations or public bodies, while we refer to bottom-up processes when they are initiated by citizens who, through forms of association, question the territory, collaborate with the administration and actively pursue common objectives. Overall, top-down participatory processes are crucial for the successful implementation of climate policies [5], as governance is key to driving the multidimensional changes needed to achieve the vision of a circular city and meet the service needs within a society [6]. However, it is also necessary to consider bottom-up ones as examples of virtuous cases could be replicated on a larger scale or in the case of public interest examples could be used as a starting point for implementing participatory processes. In general, therefore, the study aim to map actions, projects, and good practices in sustainability and circularity through a mixed top-down and bottom-up process, involving various actors in the area also through participatory moments. The research employs participatory methodologies, specifically interviews were decided to be used. The aim is to produce a useful mapping as a basis for the design of future actions for both involvement and planning of a circular city.

2 Participation Through Mapping At present, there is a clear need to rethink cities through a perspective that integrates the vision that citizens have of it, and therefore to analyse, develop, work and build working groups in which the population and public and private actors involved in the topic are also invited to participate [7]. In order to involve citizens, there are various participatory techniques that can be used, among which many can be developed remotely with the help of computerized means. The period of great technological advancement and the recent pandemic crisis have contributed to the widespread use of such means; however, they have both disadvantages and advantages. The advantages certainly include the reduced costs, the ease for users to connect when they find it convenient, the possibility of connecting even over long distances, the ease of collecting data and information and sharing it, etc.

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etc. Among the criticisms levelled at such methodologies, on the other hand, we find the possibility that they may not be able to represent the whole of society, the difficulty of maintaining the commitment and interest of the parties involved, the general lower quality of online relationships, etc. Some positive examples of such means can already be seen in urban areas, for instance, in recent years there has been a significant increase in participatory mapping. “Participatory Mapping is the process of creating a tangible display of the people, places, and experiences that make up a community, through community members themselves identifying them on a map” [8]. Such mapping thus consists in the creation of maps, on different themes, created through the direct involvement of local communities. This type of involvement makes it possible to support the engagement of citizens and various actors at the local level, to recognize the importance of their involvement and to move towards the ultimate goal of co-creating a better society, capable of responding to today’s most pressing social challenges, while taking into account local circumstances. The tools for community participation range from scale models and drawings that can be digitized and linked to a GIS (geographic information system) to data retrieved from satellite images, GPS and multimedia files. Notable examples of participatory mapping platforms include Maptionnaire, which facilitates information collection and decision-making based on Geographic information system. Several urban realities use such a platform, among them the examples of Denver and Stockholm [9] are interesting. The former has launched a project to increase public participation that allows users to answer online surveys about planning and development projects in the city and post their comments directly on a map of the city. This potential is very important as urban planning needs a cartographic support that allows for more specific feedback and to reach a larger number of subjects. In the case of Stockholm, the city used the platform to map the ideas and requests of residents, on the design of spaces in a harbour area that it intends to redevelop into a new housing centre, through the use of a visual questionnaire. Several cases of participatory mapping can also be found in the literature, including [10] on the + CityxChange project, [11] on the CityPlannerTM software, or even [12] on the “Mapeo Comunitario de la Zona Alamar”. In general, all references emphasize that participatory mapping is an excellent means through which to involve the population and a starting point for targeted and informed planning.

3 Participatory Mapping Methodology for Planning a Circular City The proposed methodology (Fig. 1) seeks to census/catalogue and showcase existing good practices, actions, and projects related to sustainability and circularity in the studied territory. This aspect is fundamental for a correct planning of governance actions. The methodology starts first with a survey of the actions, projects and good practices, in the field of sustainability and circularity, carried out by public administrations and investee companies. The topics investigated are waste, mobility, energy and the built environment. Initially, the research is carried out by analysing information present on the web and therefore easily accessible. Subsequently, various stakeholders, who play a fundamental role towards the construction of a circular city, are involved. The involvement was made possible through the elaboration of an interview (Fig. 2) with

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Fig. 1. Proposed methodology

questions concerning the implementation of circularity strategies/studies, projects carried out, cooperation, financing, knowledge of good practices in the area and future objectives. Starting with the collection of information on the web and information gathered through specific interviews, a database of good practices of circularity was proposed. Information was collected in the database including: the type of approach (Top Down/Bottom Up), the type of action/actor (Urban Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Non-Profit Organisation, Urban Action plan, European/Supranational Project, National Project, Implementation Project, Territorial Service, Place, Initiative/Event, Best Practice, Enterprise), the key sector they involve (Sustainability, Energy, Waste, Mobility, Food, Built Environment, Textile, Sea, Water,…) the process/strategy in which they fall (Design, Long Use, Reuse) and the sub-theme to which they pertain (Reduce, Rethink, Refinance, Regenerate, Renew, Repair, Reuse, Recover, Recycle). This database was designed to be implemented in Office or Excel, so as to be an updatable and implementable tool. Thanks to the database, implemented with the information gathered through the participation of the territory’s actors, a mapping in a GIS environment is proposed. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) conceived and so called over fifty years ago [13] in fact, make it possible to structure, tune and organise many different kinds of information, quantitative, qualitative and spatial, in order to produce dynamic cartographies and digital models useful for spatial and multi-temporal planning and analysis [14]. The software used for the proposed GIS is QGIS, a desktop application that is currently the most popular open-source GIS software in the world. This software enables the processing of different kinds of data in a single project. From their analysis, by dividing them into layers, a user-customised map image can be created, enriched with icons and labels that depend on the attributes of the map elements. In general, it would be very important for circular cities to have a circular Plan containing a mapping like the one proposed in order to take a snapshot of the state of the art of existing practices and plan new ones. This mapping, which is currently being finalized, contains both the actors and the good practices operating in the area in terms of sustainability and circularity. In addition, looking at a future web dissemination, it could be an excellent means of involving the citizenry as well, who would in fact easily learn of circular realities they were previously unaware of, and at the same time, could contribute to expanding the database with new entries. This aspect would allow for a new mapping: a participatory georeferenced mapping of an experiential kind, where the experiences of individuals become the heritage of the community.

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Fig. 2. Model interview

4 First Application in Genoa This section reports on an initial application of the proposed methodology in Genoa, a city that is not yet circular and whose Administration is already working, with the elaboration of the Action Plan for a Lighthouse City Genoa 2050 [15], to be so in the future. The research involved web- based reconnaissance of the actions, projects and good practices, in the field of sustainability and circularity, carried out by the Public Administration and by participated companies (Amiu, Amt, Aster, Ire, Spim) which were selected because they insisted on the key themes at urban level mentioned above. Subsequently, Large

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enterprises in the area were also surveyed to gauge their contributions to circularity. The choice of limiting the analysis to large enterprises was mainly due to the fact that any policies put forward on the issues under consideration are considered to have a greater impact on the territory if they come from a large enterprise, whereas they would be more limited in other cases. This survey was carried out through the use of an online database, Aida - Computerized Analysis of Italian Companies, produced by Bureau van Dijk, which contains financial, personal and commercial information on over 500,000 capital companies operating in Italy. All data, with a 10-year history, are indexed and can be used as search keys, processed, evaluated and exported in multiple formats. To these, large companies with registered offices outside the municipality of Genoa, but insisting on the territory, have been added by means of a request to the Chamber of Commerce. Finally, moving on to the participatory phase and in order to deepen the analysis carried out, we proceeded to the administration of the interview to be submitted to the municipal administration, to the investee companies and to the municipalities in the area, in order to fill in any gaps and, in the case of the municipalities, to go down in the analysis to the neighbourhood level. The interview was designed in three parts: a first part regarding existing strategies/policies/projects related to circularity, a second part regarding virtuous examples insisting on the area under consideration, and a final part regarding plans for the future. Through this moment, it was possible to find information that would otherwise have escaped an initial analysis and to investigate the problems encountered at territorial level from the point of view of the administrations. For the time being, 6 representatives of the 9 municipalities of the city of Genoa have been interviewed, and 1 for the participated companies. However, the missing ones and the one with the Municipality of Genoa have already been fixed. The profiles of the figures interviewed, as far as municipalities of the city are concerned, turn out to be mostly aldermen with delegations relevant to the research (environment, urban planning, culture…) and in other cases aldermen interested in these issues. On the other hand, as far as investee companies are concerned, we turned to management figures with roles of responsibility towards relations with stakeholders. From the answers obtained from the interviews a new item emerged to be catalogued, that of associations, and many were increased in number (Fig. 3). Moreover, all interviewees reported with emphasis a general difficulty regarding coordination with the Municipality. They complain, in fact, that often, even though actions aimed at the circularity panorama are planned and implemented at the municipal level, these nevertheless have difficulty in having repercussions at the neighbourhood level, since there is also not always coordination and participation on these initiatives. Often these problems are the result of poor, if not non-existent, communication that makes it impossible to design effective actions. In general, moreover, the recent reform of the municipalities seems has led to the loss of much of the decision-making power they exercised, thus limiting the possibility of carrying out initiatives at the neighbourhood level that could once have been their responsibility. Thus, in addition to the results obtained regarding the census of actions, it was very interesting to be able to investigate aspects and problems in the area more closely. Finally, the extrapolation of the mapping created in GIS from the data collected is reported. This mapping is subdivided into the

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Fig. 3. Progress of interviews and implementation of the Genoa City Database

different key sectors affecting the city (Waste, Energy, Mobility, Food, Built Environment, Water), into a transversal one (Sustainability) that collects more generic items, and into a last one (Others) that collects other sectors of lesser impact (e.g., Textile, Sea…) (Figs. 4 and 5).

Fig. 4. Participatory georeferenced mapping

In addition, by selecting one of the sectors described above, it is possible to display on the map only the entries related to that sector and the database linked to it and also

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Fig. 5. Participatory georeferenced mapping - Detail

containing the non-georeferenced entries of that sector and some indications about their spatial extent (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Participatory georeferenced mapping - Mobility

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5 Conclusions The development of Circular Cities requires understanding and recognition at both administrative and public levels in order to achieve real applicability. Certainly, one of the aspects to focus on is that of recognition, which must necessarily pass through the concept of participation. In general, from the application of the methodology and, specifically, from the implementation of georeferenced mapping, it will be possible to identify the general framework of the territory under consideration through the analysis of existing actions to take it into account in a subsequent planning phase. This study is part of a broader project in which the intention is to respond to the need to plan circularity strategies and update governance tools to close the loop in the various key issues insisting at urban level by translating this transition into economic, environmental and social benefits. In this sense, the general research carried out intends to propose a participatory action Plan for the circular city according to the scheme shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Future developments towards a circular action Plan

This action Plan should define a forward-looking agenda co-designed with citizens and civil society organizations, economic actors, and consumers. Moreover, it intends to present a set of interconnected initiatives aimed at establishing a strategic and coherent framework in which sustainable products, services and business models will be the norm and at transforming consumption patterns to avoid output-intensive production (waste, emissions,…) in the first place [16]. The elaboration of such Plans, taking into account the plurality of actions related to them, will become an everyday reality for our cities and will finally create better and participatory contexts that put the common good at the centre. The envisioned future scenario entails active participation from all actors, fostering economic, political, and technological development toward truly circular and sustainable cities.

Contributions. Sections 1, 2: Paoli F. e Spadaro I. Sections 3, 4: Paoli F. e Pirlone F. Conclusions: all the authors. This paper and related research have been conducted during the Italian national inter-university PhD course in Sustainable Development and Climate change (link: www.phdsdc.it) and also thanks to a specific collaboration with the Municipality of Genoa.

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References 1. Korhonen, J., Cali, N., Feldman, A., Seyoum Esthetu, B.: Circular economy as an essentially contested concept. J. Clean. Prod. 175, 544–552 (2018) 2. Circular City Declaration. What is a circular city, a circular city definition (2020). https://cir cularcitiesdeclaration.eu/ 3. OECD. OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes (2022). https://doi.org/10.1787/ f765caf6-en 4. OECD. Cittadini Partner: Manuale dell’OCSE sull’informazione, la consultazione e la partecipazione alla formulazione delle politiche pubbliche (2002). https://doi.org/10.1787/978926 4299269-it 5. Rothstein, B., Teorell, J.: What is quality of government? A theory of impartial government institutions. Governance 21, 165–190 (2008) 6. Rojas-Rueda, D., de Nazelle, A., Teixidó, O., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J.: Replacing car trips by increasing bike and public transport in the greater Barcelona metropolitan area: a health impact assessment study. Environ. Int. 49, 100–109 (2012) 7. Alvarez Sainz, M.: La ciudad en la economía de la experiencia y el rol de los ciudadanos. Necesidad de participación ciudadana en Bilbao. In: Proceedings of the XIII Coloquio Internacional de Geocrítica, 5–10 May 2014, vol. 18, p. 24 (2014) 8. Burns, J., Paul, D.P., Paz, S.R.: Participatory Asset Mapping: A Community Research Lab Toolkit. Advancement City Project, Los Angeles (2012) 9. Maptionnaire. https://maptionnaire.com/. Accessed 24 May 2023 10. Mee, A., Lyes, M., Crowe, P.: Energy urbanity and active citizen participation. Energies 14(20) (2021) 11. Glaas, E., Hjerpe, M., Karlson, M., Neset, T.-S.: Visualization for citizen participation: user perceptions on a mainstreamed online participatory tool and its usefulness for climate change planning. Sustainability 12, 705 (2020) 12. Prado, C., Justicia Ambiental, C.S., para el Mejoramiento de las Comunidades, R.D.C.: Border environmental justice PPGIS: community-based mapping and public participation in Eastern Tijuana, México. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18(3) (2021) 13. Tomlinson, R.F.: An introduction to the geo-information system of the Canada land inventory. Department of Forestry and Rural Development, Ottawa (1967) 14. Pesaresi, C.: Strumenti applicativi della geografia moderna. In: De Vecchis, G. (ed.) Didattica Della Geografia. Teoria e prassi, Novara, UTET – De Agostini, pp. 97–112, 107–108 (2011) 15. Comune di Genova. Lighthouse Genova città faro (2019). https://www.genovameravigliosa. com/it/la-strategia 16. Paoli, F., Pirlone, F., Spadaro, I.: Indicators for the circular city: a review and a proposal. Sustainability 14(19) (2022)

Integrating Ecosystem Services into Spatial Planning Processes: Sustainable Solutions for Healthier and Safer Urban and Rural Environments

Landscape Planning and Fragmentation: A Method for Classifying Rural Landscapes Antonio Ledda1(B) , Vittorio Serra1 , Giovanna Calia1 and Andrea De Montis1,2

,

1 Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, viale Italia 39A, 07100 Sassari,

Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

Abstract. In the last decades, safeguard and management of environment and landscape have been acknowledged as priority to recover degraded habitats and reduce biodiversity loss. Anthropogenic landscape fragmentation (LF) -due to settlements and transport and mobility infrastructures- leads to smaller and more isolated habitat patches and can jeopardize both ecosystem continuity and quality. Scientific literature and Italian regional landscape planning practice show a certain lack of quali-quantitative methods -with specific focus on LF- to identify, describe, classify, assess, and monitor rural landscapes. This research aims at proposing and applying a quali-quantitative method to fill such a research gap. The method is based on the use of landscape fact sheets (LFSs) and focuses on landscapes spatial setting, habitat type, target species, Natura 2000 sites, quantitative assessment of LF and defragmentation measures, at sub-regional level, i.e., at landscape unit (LU) scale. The method allowed us to draft LFSs that characterize eleven LUs set by the regional landscape plan adopted in Sardinia (Italy) in 2006. This methodological approach is exportable in similar contexts and provide planners and policy makers with an overview on regional areas affected by LF. Keywords: Rural landscapes · landscape fragmentation · classification of rural landscapes · planning of defragmentation measures · green infrastructure

1 Introduction Since the second half of the 20th Century, human needs required a higher consumption of the planet’s resources. This triggered huge impacts on land use, habitats and biodiversity (Foley et al., 2011; Foley et al., 2005), and landscape fragmentation (LF). In addition to natural catastrophic events (Lindenmayer and Franklin, 2002), LF is mainly due to anthropogenic processes that bring large habitat areas, called patches, to become smaller and much more isolated than in the original scenario (EEA, 2011; Jaeger, 2000). LF is related to extensive “conversion of natural landscapes for human use” (Harrisson et al., 2012) and has negative effects on biodiversity (see, e.g., Gibson et al., 2013). © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 49–60, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_5

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An important consequence of increased LF is the decrease in landscape connectivity, i.e., an increased impedance to movement for mainly animal species, depending on the land use pattern (Scolozzi and Geneletti, 2012). Linear infrastructures contribute to LF according to type of road (single lane, two lanes, and four -or more- lanes roads), which can be fenced or not, crossed by traffic flows of various magnitudes, etc. This type of infrastructures as well as the urbanized areas, represent significant alterations on the natural environment (Bennett, 1991; Trombulak and Frissell, 1999; De Montis et al., 2017a). A relevant part of landscape metrics and analysis includes tools that can monitor LF in space and time (Astiaso Garcia et al., 2013; Battisti and Romano, 2007; Battisti et al., 2013; Bruschi et al., 2015; De Montis et al., 2018a; Ledda and De Montis, 2019; Ledda et al., 2019a, 2019b; La Rovere et al., 2006; Neri et al., 2010; Romano and Tamburini, 2001; Tomaselli et al., 2012). The interpretation of these assessments is crucial for planning appropriate strategies to reduce and counteract LF. In Italy, LF is scarcely considered in regional landscape plans (De Montis et al., 2018b), which define frameworks for sub-regional spatial plans, such as the municipal master plans (MMPs). MMPs are planning tools in which defragmentation measures could be defined to deal with LF at operational level. Thus, this study aims at proposing and applying a methodological approach-based on landscape fact sheets (LFSs)- that can (i) be of inspiration in the drafting process of regional landscape plans and (ii) provide policy makers with an overview on regional areas that need planning of defragmentation measures.

2 Materials and Methods The methodological approach has been inspired by De Montis et al. (2017b), who proposed and applied a method for the classification of built-up rural landscapes. De Montis et al. (2017b) proposed the use of LFSs, which consisted of two main parts: a general parts, which focused on territorial framework (geographic position), landscape and infrastructure system (environmental and landscape elements, transport and mobility system), settlement pattern (housing type and density, urban-rural relation), spatial structure (field type and texture); a specific part, which focused on features of buildings: general view (images of the settlement), local built-up landscape (images of the rural building), etc. Following De Montis et al. (2017b), we propose and apply a similar approach based on the use of LFSs. The proposed LFS consists of three parts (descriptive, assessment, guidelines) that branch off into six parts. The descriptive part includes: (i) territorial framework, (ii) affected habitats, (iii) target species (wild boar), (iv) affected Natura 2000 sites. The assessment part includes measurement of LF (v). The guidelines include suggestions regarding any defragmentation measures (vi). The first part (i) shows the territorial framework, which represents the landscape unit (LU) (Autonomous Region of Sardinia, 2006) by using orthophotos and geographic coordinates (Autonomous Region of Sardinia, 2016). The second part (ii) shows the habitats included in the LU as classified by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Camarda et al., 2011). The third part (iii) regards the target species: in this research, we consider the wild boar

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as target species as it is responsible of several wildlife-vehicle collisions in Sardinia (De Montis et al., 2018a). The defragmentation measures, which aim at reconnecting habitat patches, should contribute to the reduction of road crossings by fauna (such as wild boar). The fourth part (iv) shows the Natura 2000 sites included in the LU (Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, 2019). Finally, the fifth (v) and sixth (vi) parts regard respectively the quantification of LF by using two metrics (Ledda et al., 2019b; De Montis et al., 2020; De Montis et al., 2021) and suggestions on any defragmentation measures. As for the metrics applied for quantifying LF, we use the Complex Indicator of Landscape Fragmentation (CILF, De Montis et al., 2020, 2021) and the Rural Building Fragmentation Index (RBFI, Ledda et al., 2019b). CILF is the result of the unweighted average of three fragmentation indices that measure LF from different perspectives: Infrastructural Fragmentation Index (IFI, De Montis et al., 2017a), related to the effect of transport and mobility infrastructures; Urban Fragmentation Index (UFI, Romano and Zullo, 2013; De Montis et al., 2017a), related to the effect of urbanized areas on landscapes; Effective Mesh Density (Seff, De Montis et al., 2020, 2021), which refers to the number of habitat patches per square kilometer. CILF obeys Eq. (1): CILF = (IFInaa + UFInaa + Seffnaa )/3

(1)

where CILF is calculated as the arithmetic average of the normalized annual average (naa) growth of IFI (IFInaa ), UFI (UFInaa ) and Seff (Seffnaa ). The full set of equations adopted to calculate the CILF is available in De Montis et al. (2020, 2021; publications available in open access). According to Theobald et al. (1997), the area covered by rural buildings -including their surrounding degraded habitat- can be defined as a ‘disturbance zone’. Thus, habitat quality is affected (i.e., mostly depleted) not only in the area covered by settlements and infrastructures (i.e., roads, houses, etc.), but also beyond a certain distance from urbanized areas (Hansen et al., 2005). The ecological effect of rural buildings in the form of habitat loss has been demonstrated by previous research (Gonzalez-Abraham, 2007; Radeloff et al., 2005; McKenzie, 2011). At a given housing density, dispersed buildings show a more significant role, in terms of increased habitat fragmentation (GonzalezAbraham, 2007; Theobald et al., 1997), although some studies have shown that clustering of buildings (smaller expansion) in the rural landscape has the same impact as scattered buildings (McKenzie, 2011). Over time, metrics have been proposed for measuring LF due to the built-up rural dimension, such as the “proportion of undisturbed area, decrease in largest patch area, decrease in median patch area, and change in total edge” (GonzalezAbraham, 2007, p. 221). Fragmentation caused by rural buildings can be assessed with the RBFI, an index obtained by modifying the UFI (Ledda et al., 2019b). RBFI obeys Eq. (2): i=n ∗ i=n ∗ i=1 Si i=1 Pi ∗  · (2) RBFI = N · i=n ∗ A2 2 π i=1 Si where N* stands for the number of areas (urban agglomerations) occupied by rural buildings in a LU, A for area of LU and Si * and Pi * for area and perimeter of the surface

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area occupied by rural buildings. The RBFI incorporates the Urban Dispersion (URD), an index capable of measuring the distribution of urbanized cores (separated from each other) included in a reference area (Romano and Tamburini, 2006). The URD provides information on the building density and obeys Eq. (3): URD =

N A

(3)

where N stands for the number of urbanized cores (centroids) and A for the surface area of the LU. According to the level of LF, CILF 2008 and RBFI 2008 values have been reclassified into classes (Table 1) to facilitate their interpretation. As CILF and RBFI increase, LF increases. Table 1. Reclassification of CILF 2008 and RFBI 2008 into classes. RBFI 2008 (km−2 )

CILF 2008 Class

Upper limit

Class

Upper limit

A

0.1

A*

0.00001

B

0.2

B*

0.0001

C

0.4

C*

0.001

D

0.6

D*

0.01

E*

0.1

F*

1

For example, if the CILF values are below 0.1, the landscape area falls into class ‘A’; if the values range from 0.1 to 0.2, into class ‘B’. If the RBFI values are below 0.00001, the landscape area falls into class ‘A*’, while if it ranges from 0.00001 to 0.0001, into class ‘B*’. We applied CILF and RBFI on eleven LUs (Fig. 1 and Table 2) set by the regional landscape plan of Sardinia (Autonomous Region of Sardinia, 2006). A LU consists of territorial areas, which show similar environmental, historical-cultural, and environmental structure. We have chosen to study Sardinian landscapes, as they are largely representative of Mediterranean landscapes. Sardinia belongs to Italy, which is part of the Mediterranean biogeographical region (Spain, South France, Greece, Malta, etc.). This region “has specific regional features: a climate of hot dry summers and humid, cool winters and a generally hilly landscape. The Mediterranean has not only a very rich biodiversity but also a large number of species that do not exist anywhere else” (European Commission, 2023). Sardinia and southern Italian regions show similar low climate resilience (Marzi et al., 2019). In these areas, the use of GIs could be relevant to protect biodiversity and increase climate resilience. Both CILF and RFBI have been calculated, on the basis of data (shapefiles) contained in the land use maps of Sardinia, years 2003 and 2008 (Autonomous Region of Sardinia, 2003, 2008).

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Fig. 1. The 51 LUs of Sardinia, Italy. The codes of the official LUs range from 1 to 27; LUs from 28 to 51 are not in force yet. The yellow circles identify the LUs considered in this study.

Table 2. Landscape units (LUs) considered as case study. Surface areas (km2 )

Code

Name

1

Golfo di Cagliari

242.81

2

Nora

315.60

11

Planargia

214.97

14

Golfo dell’Asinara

807.66

18

Golfo di Olbia

517.90

23

Ogliastra

706.74

27

Golfo orientale di Cagliari

480.42

28

Sulcis

484.98

30

Basso campidano

172.80

36

Regione delle Giare basaltiche

926.83

46

Marghine e Goceano

404.48

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3 Results and Discussion Figure 2 shows an example of LFS of LU ‘Golfo di Cagliari’. The descriptive part contains information on territorial framework (WGS84/UTM zone 32N and orthophoto), habitats (lagoons, olive groves, eucalyptus plantations, Mediterranean meadows, intensive arable land, vineyards, etc.), Natura 2000 sites (ITB042243 ZSC di Monte Sant’Elia, Cala Mosca e Cala Fighera, ITB040022 ZSC Stagno di Molentargius e territori limitrofi, ITB040023 ZSC Stagno di Cagliari, Saline di Macchiareddu, Laguna di Santa Gilla, ITB042242 ZSC Torre del Poetto, ITB044003 ZPS Stagno di Cagliari, ITB044002 ZPS Saline di Molentargius) as well as target species that may be relevant to the definition of defragmentation measures. The target species is the wild boar: the wildlife map shows the population density of the target species (number of wild boars per 100 hectares). The LU is characterized by low density of wild boars (mostly 0.84 and 3.5 wild boars per 100 hectares). The quantitative assessment part stresses the level of LF in terms of CILF and RBFI. Considering as an example Golfo di Cagliari, Table 3 shows values of CILF equal to 0.35 in 2003 and 0.50 in 2008 (class D), while RBFI shows values equal to 0.002573 km−2 in 2003 and 0.012421 km−2 in 2008 (class E*). LUs of Nora and Sulcis show values of RBFI similar to Golfo di Cagliari but low values of CILF. According to CILF and RBFI 2008, high LF characterizes the LUs Golfo di Cagliari, Golfo dell’Asinara, Golfo di Olbia, and Basso campidano (Table 3). Table 3. Values of CILF and RBFI. Code 1

Name Golfo di Cagliari

RBFI (km−2 )

CILF 2003

2008

2003

2008

0.35

0.50

0.002573

0.012421

2

Nora

0.13

0.01

0.004407

0.010513

11

Planargia

0.11

0.12

0.000117

0.004385

14

Golfo dell’Asinara

0.63

0.52

0.017163

0.080886

18

Golfo di Olbia

0.37

0.32

0.027111

0.042802

23

Ogliastra

0.10

0.07

0.010357

0.004589

27

Golfo orientale di Cagliari

0.24

0.15

0.000602

0.001920

28

Sulcis

0.05

0.05

0.002780

0.016586

30

Basso campidano

0.45

0.37

0.022825

0.046231

36

Regione delle Giare basaltiche

0.23

0.18

0.002233

0.009951

46

Marghine e Goceano

0.06

0.05

0.002197

0.002977

We normalized the values of CILF 2008 and RBFI 2008 by using the min-max normalization and ranked the LUs according to the degree of LF. Golfo dell’Asinara is the most fragmented LU according to both CILF and RBFI (Fig. 3). Ogliastra occupies eighth place according to both the metrics. If we consider the CILF values, the leading

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Fig. 2. Example of a simplified LFS, which lacks details included in the full version.

five places are occupied by Golfo dell’Asinara, Golfo di Cagliari, Basso campidano, Golfo di Olbia, and Regione delle Giare Basaltiche. If we consider the RBFI values, the five places are occupied by Golfo dell’Asinara, Basso campidano, Golfo di Olbia, Sulcis, and Golfo di Cagliari. Finally, the guidelines can include suggestions for striving the landscape and spatial planning of the LU regarding strategies aimed at the conservation of habitats, flora and fauna and/or the protection of human life. The mapping of fragmentation phenomena has highlighted that the coastal LUs are more fragmented than the inland ones and that the Natura 2000 sites are sometimes

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Fig. 3. Normalized values of CILF 2008 and RBFI 2008 and ranking of the LU according to the level of LF.

affected by LF: this is relevant in terms of possible in-depth studies at a sub-regional scale to assess the need to plan and implement adequate defragmentation measures for the protection and maintenance of biodiversity. The model of LFS proposed and applied in this study could be adopted by regional administrations in the context of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of regional landscape plans: as an example, the SEA report might suggest the definition of mitigation measures (defragmentation measures) relevant to reconnect isolated –or scarcely connected– habitat patches. Similarly, the SEA report of municipal master

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plans could include detailed LFSs to define ad hoc mitigation measures. Such a model allows planners and decision makers to identify potential critical areas where specific defragmentation measures can be planned at operational scale.

4 Conclusion In this study, we proposed and applied a methodological approach to classify rural landscapes by considering landscape fragmentation (LF) processes due to human infrastructures. As a result, we drawn up eleven landscape fact sheets (LFSs) tailored on landscape units (LUs) set by the Regional Landscape Plan of Sardinia (Italy). The LFS consisted of three main parts. The descriptive part included information concerning territorial framework, affected habitats, target species, and Natura 2000 sites. The assessment part quantified LF according to two metrics. When needed, the third part can include suggestions regarding possible defragmentation measures (e.g., wildlife crossing structures, green infrastructures, etc.) to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and promote biodiversity conservation and protection. The use of green infrastructure as defragmentation measures can also be crucial in terms of increasing climate resilience: the LFS can be easily modified to include other aspects (territorial, climatic, or otherwise) needed to set the scenario to define adequate objectives and actions in the planning process. The LFS does not propose detailed defragmentation measures, which can be retrieved from guidelines, manuals, or technical documents. Planning specific defragmentation measures requires detailed information and field survey that need to be addressed at local scale (e.g., at municipal level). As we stressed, the Italian regional landscape plans have scarcely considered LF in quali-quantitative terms. The LFS could be considered a support tool in the planning process, during the drafting of regional landscape plans, with the purpose of including quantitative assessment of LF and suggesting adequate countermeasures. We feel that the proposed method can support planners and decision makers to plan specific strategies and defragmentation measures at LU scale. However, strategic choices set at regional level have to be tailored to specific contexts and, in this regard, the LFS can be enriched with detailed data provided on a local scale by the municipalities. The LFS can be populated with additional information and indices according to two approaches: top-down, from the region and, vice versa, bottom-up, from the municipality. Thus, it shows a certain propensity to be adopted in a variety of contexts. As an example, the proposed LFS may be included in the regional landscape plans adopted by other Italian regions, which had scarcely considered LF as pointed out by De Montis et al. (2018b). Acknowledgements. The Authors are supported by the research project “Paesaggi rurali della Sardegna: pianificazione di infrastrutture verdi e blu e di reti territoriali complesse [Rural landscapes of Sardinia: planning green and blue infrastructures and spatial complex networks]”, Regional Law n. 7/2007, Fund for Development and Cohesion, Autonomous Region of Sardinia. The Authors are supported by the Agritech National Research Center (CN00000022, Concession Decree 1032 of 17/06/2022,) and the National Biodiversity Future Center - NBFC (CN00000033, Concession Decree 1034 of 17/06/2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP J83C22000870007), European Union Next-GenerationEU, Projects funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP; Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e

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Resilienza), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4. This manuscript reflects only the authors’ views and opinions, neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be considered responsible for them.

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Nature-Based Solutions and City Planning: A Study Related to the Preliminary Masterplan of Cagliari, Italy Corrado Zoppi(B) University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The nature-based solutions are spatial planning measures implemented to restore and protect ecosystems and their capacity of supplying services, and to support the local communities, by leveraging on natural resources and enhancing the quality of natural contexts. The conceptual and technical methodological approach of this study considers nature-based solutions as urban planning tools aimed at mitigating heat waves, especially in densely urbanized areas, and at boosting several environmental, economic and social beneficial impacts thereof. A set of planning policies based on nature-based solutions are discussed as regards the definition of the preliminary Masterplan of Cagliari, the capital city of Sardinia, an Italian insular region. The nature-based solutions are identified with reference to the framework proposed by the European Environment Agency concerning adaptation to climate change and environmental risk reduction, which builds on a set of spatial profiles focused on water resources, forests and woodlands, agricultural production, urban areas and coastal zones. Keywords: Nature-based solutions · Urban planning · City Masterplans

1 Introduction Nature-based solutions (NBSs) leverage on infrastructure, building products and works which effectively use the services supplied by ecosystems to appropriately address and fix negative situations identified in the spatial organization of environmental contexts [6, 8, 13], with particular reference to climate change adaptation (CCA) and environmental risk reduction (ERR) thereof [2, 10, 11]. Climate-related hazard conditions are generally mitigated by the increase in resilience generated by exposure reduction, and by economic and social sensitivity to climate change-related events and to improvement in CCA [1]. For example, decrease in exposure can be associated to the ecosystems attitude towards rescuing with respect to extreme events. In this perspective, NBSs such as maintenance of alluvial areas and riverbeds can effectively operate through water retention by mitigating the environmental damage caused by floods. Increase in urban green areas can be associated to reduction in heat island-related negative impacts. The close relation between quality of life of the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 61–73, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_6

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local societies and climate change effects can be positively affected by a proper management of land uses, which may possibly address adequately climate unpredictability [6]. For instance, the use of tree species and crops comparatively more resistant to water shortage is the most suitable in terms of diversification of income flows, both as regards forest and agricultural production. This implies that the local societies should improve their skills in terms of production techniques which implement CCA and ERR thereof [14]. NBSs aimed at reducing exposure and sensitivity to CCA-related hazard can be operationalized in several ways. Intervention modalities to increase the adaptive capacities of the local environments can be identified, such as protection and restoration of natural ecosystems located in context particularly valuable with reference to CCA, or management of ecosystems, such as agricultural areas and forests, which would provide a number of important services, if managed in function of appropriate differentiation, in order to increase their capacity of resistance to climate change impacts. Moreover, new natural ecosystems can be generated which supply CCA-related services, such as green roofs and walls, and hybrid solutions to coastal zone management [7]. This study focuses on the scientific and technical framework proposed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) concerning adaptation to climate change and ERR [6], which builds on a set of spatial profiles focused on water resources, forests and woodlands, agricultural production, urban areas and coastal zones. This framework is used to identify the systems of planning operations of the preliminary Masterplan of Cagliari (PMPC), which is presently being elaborated by the municipal administration of the Sardinian capital city. The article develops as follows. The next section presents the methodology implemented to identify the NBSs suitable to be included in the PMPC; relevant contents of the cited Report of the EEA [6] are summarized as general references. Secondly, the specific objectives of the PMPC, identified in the Preliminary Environmental Report (PER), are associated to the systematized NBSs. Finally, the concluding section proposes a discussion on the future scientific and technical developments concerning NBSs-oriented urban planning processes.

2 Methodology The PER starts with the identification of a system of environmental sustainability objectives associated to a set of environmental components which define the conceptual category of “environment,” according to the provisions of Art. 5, paragraph 1, letter c), of Law enacted by legislative decree n. 2006/152. The environmental components are the following: air quality; water resources; waste management; soil; floristic and wildlife resources, and biodiversity; landscape, and historical and cultural heritage; settlements and demographic situation; public transportation and mobility; energy; noise. The PER develops on the basis of the association of the sustainability objectives, identified with reference to each component through the environmental and SWOT analyses, with the specific objectives, put into effect through a system of planning measures. Such system operationalizes the planning logical framework (LF) identified by the sustainability and specific objectives. The system of spatial interventions and transformations entailed by such planning measures implements the strategy of the PMPC and

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its spatial signs will become progressively more evident as long as the plan develops, particularly in the medium and long run. In the operational phase of the LF, the NBSs should be integrated in the set of the planning measures, as paradigmatic operations in the implementation process of the PMPC. In this study, such integration is enacted in two sequentially related moments, as follows. First, on the basis of the NBSs categories identified in the EEA’s Report [6], a systematic layout of the NBSs connected with CCA and ERR is defined, as regards the spatial profiles identified by water resources, forests and woodlands, agricultural production, urban areas and coastal zones. Secondly, the LF of the PMPC is set-up based on the PER, operationalized by the system of the specific objectives and of the planning measures [3]. Once the NBSs are identified, according to the EEA’s categorization, and once the LF is defined, on the basis of the strategy and of the planning measures expressed in the PER of the PMPC, the implementation of the PMPC into NBSs implies that NBSs be included in the system of the planning measures and identified as the preferred planning choices among the alternatives concerning the possible planning measures to be undertaken, whenever possible.

3 Results Table 1 reports the NBSs categorization according to the spatial profiles concerning water resources, forests and woodlands, agricultural production, urban areas and coastal zones. In the Table, each profile is synthetically featured by a few NBSs categories and by the supplied ecosystem services related to CCA, ERR and other benefits they provide the local communities with. The second phase develops through the implementation of the specific objectives, identified in the PER in terms of a specification of the paradigm of sustainable development, into appropriate NBSs. Such implementation, shown in Table 2, associates the NBSs to the specific objectives in two ways: directly, if the specific objectives are straightforwardly connected with the NBSs they are implemented into; or, indirectly, if the NBSs associated to the specific objectives are likely to contribute to the objectives’ targets even though they are not decisive, since a number of other non-NBS measures play relevant roles in their implementation. In both cases, the implementation of the specific objectives into selected NBSs would represent a strong attitude of the local planning authorities, which is the municipality of Cagliari in the case at stake, towards the preference for NBSs among the alternative planning measures. The specific objectives are identified in the PER of the PMPC [3]. Table 2 presents the association of the NBSs with the specific objectives related to the sustainability objectives concerning the environmental component “floristic and wildlife resources, and biodiversity,” as a structured example of the application of the methodological approach described so far. Such approach can be straightforwardly used as regards the other environmental components listed in the second section.

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Table 1. Categorization of the NBSs according to the five spatial profiles identified by the EEA (2021). Spatial profile

NBSs

Ecosystem services

Water resources

Requalification and restoration of alluvial areas and riverbeds, also through forestry management Construction of systems aimed at harvesting rainwater, such as rain gardens, swales and bioswales, green roofs, walls and facades, and water collecting tanks Construction of pervious superstructures and pavements for road infrastructure, parking areas, pedestrian ways and playgrounds Permeabilization of impervious superstructures and pavements

Floods control and mitigation Improvement of habitats quality Control and mitigation of erosion and flood risk Increase in the availability of outdoor recreational areas Reduction in the runoff speed during meteoric events of particular relevance and consequent mitigation of flood intensity Increase in groundwater recharge Mitigation of urban heat waves and of atmospheric warming in settlements through canopy and evapotranspiration Removal of soil pollutants through phytodepuration

Forests and woodlands

Protection of primary forests Plantation of new forests Restoration of degraded forest systems and woodlands Sustainable management of primary forests, forest systems and woodlands Plantation of trees, tree rows, tree-lined areas and forests in urban areas

Conservation and enhancement of biodiversity Control and mitigation of erosion and flood risk Reduction in the runoff speed during meteoric events of particular relevance and consequent mitigation of flood intensity Increase in the availability of outdoor recreational areas and of landscapes of aesthetic value Qualitative improvement of soils Mitigation of urban heat waves and of atmospheric warming in settlements through canopy and evapotranspiration Increase in carbon dioxide capture and storage (continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Spatial profile

NBSs

Agricultural production Improvement in water resources and soil management through cover crops, no-tillage or minimum tillage systems, management of high natural quality agricultural land, and enhancement of the irrigation systems efficiency Differentiation and rotation of crops, also through adapted crops, that is, crops which need comparatively less amount of water Plantation of agroforestry systems through differentiated land uses, where tree-lined areas, shrubs and productive crops are integrated in the same areal productive unit Plantation of agroforestry systems consisting of arable crops, surrounded by tree rows or windbreak hedges, or realized as zones characterized by promiscuous crops, with pastures and high-quality trees plantations, such as olive and fruit farming New-generation agroforestry systems based on the combination of food and non-food biomass crops, which, for example, integrate poplar and locust tree groves with a number of crops Implementation of productive systems based on crop-livestock farming approaches, with reference to cattle breeding techniques, improvement of pastures, and forest and pasture practices Implementation of water resources retrieval techniques, such as rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging through systems implementing infiltration in the subsoil

Ecosystem services Decrease in the vulnerability of spatial contexts with reference to agricultural production Reduction in the runoff speed during meteoric events of particular relevance and consequent mitigation of flood intensity Increase in groundwater recharge Decrease in energy demand of pumping stations; decrease in carbon dioxide emissions Decrease in the use of chemical fertilizers; increase in soils fertility Enhancement of skillfulness concerning the economic management of rural areas through expert training on the integration of agriculture, breeding and tourism

(continued)

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Spatial profile

NBSs

Ecosystem services

Urban areas

Requalification and restoration of alluvial areas and riverbeds, also through urban forestry management Plantation of trees, tree rows, tree-lined areas and forests in urban areas; efficient management of water resources through rainwater harvesting systems, such as rain gardens, swales and bioswales, green roofs, walls and facades, and water collection tanks Greening operations related to existing or new buildings, such as green roofs, walls and facades Implementation of water resources retrieval techniques, such as rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging through systems implementing infiltration in the subsoil Construction of pervious superstructures and pavements for road infrastructure, parking areas, pedestrian ways and playgrounds Permeabilization of impervious superstructures and pavements

Mitigation of urban heat waves and of atmospheric warming in settlements through canopy and evapotranspiration Reduction in the runoff speed during meteoric events of particular relevance and consequent mitigation of flood intensity Economic benefits to families, firms and local communities, such as increase in labor demand in the productive sectors related to NBSs, decrease in the private and social costs generated by environmental damages, and increase in land values due to the improved quality of the urban environments Removal of soil pollutants through phytodepuration Increase in the social control over urban crime Improvement in the urban transportation quality through efficient intermodal systems Increase in carbon dioxide capture and storage Increase in biodiversity due to new ecosystems generated by green roofs, walls and facades (continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Spatial profile

NBSs

Ecosystem services

Coastal zones

Protection and restoration of terrestrial coastal habitats, with reference to coastal and dunal vegetation Protection and enhancement of sea grasses Protection and enhancement of coral reefs Protection and enhancement of transition waters, such as estuaries and mouths of rivers, and coastal wetlands Protection and enhancement of coastal areas immediately adjacent to the coastline, through barrier islands, reconstitution of the dune, natural or artificial beach nourishment also through advanced technologies such as the “Sand Motor,” green dykes, wooden barriers and vegetated banks Stabilization of high rocky shores through vegetation

Sedimentary retention and mitigation of erosion Protection from sea level rise, storm waves and surges Control and mitigation of erosion and flood risk Increase in the availability of outdoor recreational areas Increase in carbon dioxide capture and storage

Table 2 shows how to implement the LF, defined by the PER, into sets of NBSs, conceived as technical operational approaches to reach the targets set by the specific objectives. Table 2 reports the results related to two specific objectives referred to the environmental component “Floristic and wildlife resources, and biodiversity”, that is, “Restoration and increase in the quality of agricultural areas” and “Regeneration of the existing urban settlements and of the waterfronts”.1 The key issue is therefore how to define NBSs so as to maximize their effectiveness in addressing the specific objectives identified by the LF of the PMPC, through their inclusion in the statutory code of the Masterplan. This is a fundamental question, not only in order to operationalize the NBSs into the implementation of the PMPC, but also 1 The complete set of the specific objectives of such environmental component also includes

the following: “Preservation of the environmental and natural integrity of protected areas and increase in the landscape quality of targeted spatial contexts”, “Conservation and protection of the geological value of spatial contexts, and of the natural integrity of coastal areas”, “Increase in urban forests and woodlands, and in biodiversity; protection of indigenous species and restoration of ecological connections”, “Enhancement in the protection systems of coastal areas”, and “Improvement in quality of waterbodies and groundwater”.

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Table 2. Assessment of the specific objectives of the PMPC with reference to their implementability through NBSs, as regards two selected specific objectives referred to the environmental component “Floristic and wildlife resources, and biodiversity.” Specific objectives

Directly associated NBSs

Indirectly associated NBSs

Restoration and increase in the quality of agricultural areas

Improvement in water resources and soil management through cover crops, no-tillage or minimum tillage systems, management of high natural quality agricultural land, and enhancement of the irrigation systems efficiency Differentiation and rotation of crops, also through adapted crops, that is, crops which need comparatively less amount of water Plantation of agroforestry systems through differentiated land uses, where tree-lined areas, shrubs and productive crops are integrated in the same areal productive unit Plantation of agroforestry systems consisting of arable crops, surrounded by tree rows or windbreak hedges, or realized as zones characterized by promiscuous crops, with pastures and high quality trees plantations, such as olive and fruit farming New-generation agroforestry systems based on the combination of food and non-food biomass crops, which, for example, integrate poplar and locust tree groves with a number of crops; implementation of productive systems based on crop-livestock farming approaches, with reference to cattle breeding techniques, improvement of pastures, and forest and pasture practices Implementation of productive systems based on crop-livestock farming approaches, with reference to cattle breeding techniques, improvement of pastures, and forest and pasture practices

Requalification and restoration of alluvial areas and riverbeds, also through urban forestry management Protection of primary forests Plantation of new forests Restoration of degraded forest systems and woodlands Sustainable management of primary forests, forest systems and woodlands Plantation of trees, tree rows, tree-lined areas and forests in urban areas Implementation of water resources retrieval techniques, such as rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging through systems implementing infiltration in the subsoil

(continued)

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Table 2. (continued) Specific objectives

Directly associated NBSs

Regeneration of the existing urban Greening operations related to settlements and of the waterfronts existing or new buildings, such as green roofs, walls and facades Implementation of water resources retrieval techniques, such as rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging through systems implementing infiltration in the subsoil Construction of pervious superstructures and pavements for road infrastructure, parking areas, pedestrian ways and playgrounds Permeabilization of impervious superstructures and pavements

Indirectly associated NBSs Requalification and restoration of alluvial areas and riverbeds, also through urban forestry management Plantation of trees, tree rows, tree-lined areas and forests in urban areas Construction of systems aimed at harvesting rainwater, such as rain gardens, swales and bioswales, green roofs, walls and facades, and water collecting tanks

to ensure that the targets set by the specific objective be addressed, whenever possible, exclusively through NBSs. This can be done by including in the plan’s statutory code a set of rules which explicitly associate a system of NBSs with the implementation of the land use regulations established by the code. This implies a structured and detailed planning vision, collaboratively shared between public decision makers, public and private stakeholders, and the local communities, as regards the plan’s implementation process, with particular reference to the prescriptive character of the adopted NBSs and the entailed restrictions on private property rights.

4 Discussion and Conclusions A viable route to include in the plan’s statutory code a set of rules which explicitly associate a system of NBSs with the implementation of the land use regulations can be based on the establishment of project worksheets as statutory rules, integrated in the planning code, which should state in detail how to implement each of the NBSs identified to address the specific objectives defined in the LF of the PMPC. The establishment of such project worksheets is a consolidated approach, shared between several masterplans of Italian cities and towns, and widely described and discussed in the scientific and technical literature. A significant example of the use of such project worksheets is represented by the Masterplan of Trieste [12]. In such Masterplan, the project worksheet approach is used on a large spatial scale, with particular reference to the “areas targeted for radical spatial transformations,” to the “urban regeneration zones,” to the “areas targeted for urban renewal,” and to the “new city of gardens.” According to the Masterplan of Trieste, the project worksheets concern “Areas and subareas […] identified through the delimitation of the urban zones at stake and further sub-divided in parts according to the statements

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of the project worksheets. Unless otherwise specified (such specifications have to be contained in the worksheets), graphic indications are not prescriptive, whereas the main project elements, the quantitative parameters, the implementation procedures and the rules concerning land uses are legally binding” [12, p. 3]. Among the “main project elements,” the quantitative parameters, the urbanization works and the urban planning-related ecological parameters are stated, identified by the permeability rate, the density of trees and shrubs, which should be integrated with the public services framework in the different urban sectors, their endowments, the planned interventions on the existing settlements and the planned settlement expansion. The mandatory character of the project worksheets as regards the NBSs, entailed by the Masterplan of Trieste, implies a thorough technical detail so as to make the project rules as binding as possible, in order to grant the effectiveness of their implementation. However, the planning approach based on the project worksheets, which can be made operational in the ordinary spatial planning practices without any legislative addition, entails in-depth skills as regards the NBSs to be implemented, not only with reference to project technologies, but also, and, perhaps, above all, as regards financial aspects, turnaround time, and trained personnel needed to manage the operational phases of the project implementation. Such technical expertise is not rooted yet in the offices of the local public administrations, especially in small municipalities. It would be, therefore, necessary to implement an innovative expertise into the technical officers of such administrations in order to increase their acquaintance with NBSs so as to embed them into public spatial planning practices. Such Copernican revolution would entail a strong deliberateness, on behalf of the national and the regional governments, towards targeting huge public investment in high-level training of administrative and technical executives of the public bodies. Moreover, it has to be highlighted that NBSs are still a novel approach, even though their use can be identified in several spatial planning measures and project-oriented operational experiences and, that being so, their integration into practice implies progressive and complex further analysis and assessment, particularly in relation to a number of caveats which make quite problematic their implementation on a large spatial scale. Such caveats frequently make the public administrations quite reluctant towards NBSs and their use as a comprehensive and effective approach to spatial planning, especially small municipalities whose officers are comparatively less trained with respect to the technical skills needed to plan and project NBSs. Finally, as regards promising future research developments, it is important to report some of the issues presented and discussed in the EEA’s Report which assess relevant questions related to the NBSs solutions concerning CCA and ERR [6, p. 73]. The following points identify these issues, proposed in the EEA’s Report as calls for going on along the scientific and technical path traced by the NBSs-based conceptual approach: • meteorological and climate-related events connected with climate change are particularly influential at the large spatial scale, and their impacts are not limited by geographic, administrative, social or economic boundaries; as a consequence, scientific and technical research on NBSs and their implementation should be integrated into spatial planning policies across local, regional and national contexts, in order to maximize their value added;

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• taking account of the considerable number of positive impacts generated by NBSs, they should be strategically implemented so as to involve many development objectives, with particular reference to the sustainable development goals of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations; • it would be necessary to integrate and operationalize NBSs in public planning practice at the different spatial scales, and to develop network organizations aimed at fostering collaborative interdisciplinary approaches based on interregional coordination; • integrating and operationalizing NBSs concerning CCA and ERR in public planning practice implies identification and use of high-quality technical standards in their definition, effective implementation of the subsidiarity principle in their management, significant improvement in the expertise of the involved public administrations, and availability of adequate financial resources; • a relevant increase in technical expertise is necessary as regards the integration of green and grey infrastructures; • the stakeholders affected by the implementation of public policies based on NBSs aimed at dealing with CCA and ERR should be proactively involved in the related planning phases in order to encourage consensus-building and, by doing so, to help minimizing the outbreak of conflicts; • the implementation of NBSs-based projects which involve aesthetic profiles should be particularly accurate so as to contribute to generating a positive mood towards their use; • adequate systems of databases and indicators, based on sound scientific and technical research, should be identified in order to monitor and drive the implementation of NBSs, particularly with reference to the numerous benefits generated in terms of CCA and ERR; • suitable methodologies should be identified to detect the quantitative profile of NBSs, as regards their environmental, social, cultural and economic implications; • the interoperability issue is particularly relevant with reference to systems of databases and indicators concerning the quantification of benefits generated by NBSs aimed at dealing with CCA and ERR, since assessments based on comparisons between NBSs implemented in different administrative spatial contexts, possibly located in different countries, would be of great interest to policy makers; • it is crucial that the definition of long-run strategies, associated with processes whose operational results are expected to occur in the long term, such as increase in the air temperature or biodiversity loss, be implemented by giving particular attention to the interaction of the numerous factors which influence such processes, for example public health, food safety, water resources availability and ecosystems resilience. The points reported above are basically related to the experience of the EU countries with reference to the use of NBSs in spatial planning processes aimed at addressing CCA and ERR, which originates from the Final Report of the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities [4]. Based on this Report, a number of experimental projects were financed through the Horizon 2020 Program, on the ground that they implemented best practices straightforwardly exportable across the EU countries and through time [5]. La Rosa et al. claim that the European Commission (EC) approach to projects selection tends towards prioritizing the following features [9, p. 330]:

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• use, promotion and enhancement of natural ecosystems is a key issue; • produced or refunctionalized green infrastructures generate positive impacts in ecological, social cultural and economic terms; • produced or refunctionalized green infrastructures integrate characteristics and processes based on natural resources within urban settlements and communities; • ecosystem services, provided by such green infrastructures, are strictly related to expectations and perceived needs of the local societies, and are characterized by their efficiency and effectiveness in addressing the numerous goals and visions of such social contexts; • NBSs and the green infrastructures coming from their implementation preserve their capacity of providing ecosystem services in the long run. The theoretical and technical position of La Rosa et al. [9] as regards the definition and implementation of NBSs-based projects is that it is high time to identify exportable good social and ecological practices on the basis of projects implemented in different spatial contexts across countries and through time, even in the long run, featured by problem-solving approaches, rather than by making reference to demonstration projects financed by the Horizon 2020 Program. The former represent spontaneous and direct measures which address real problems identified by the local societies, whereas the latter are set in the somehow abstract frames structured under the provisions of the Horizon 2020 rules; the implementation of the former is not subject to time limits as it occurs in the case of the latter, which have to meet rigid deadlines; finally, the non-Horizon NBSs-based projects are characterized by a continuous fine-tuning, which features their true experimental attitude. Certainly, the approach to NBSs supported by La Rosa et al. and the demonstration projects financed by the EC show a strong subsidiarity and represent relevant perspectives for future research on NBSs implemented into public planning processes.

References 1. Adger, W.N., Arnell, N.W., Tompkins, E.L.: Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Glob. Environ. Chang. 15(2), 77–86 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004. 12.005 2. Cohen-Shacham, E., et al.: Core principles for successfully implementing and upscaling nature–based solutions. Environ Sci Policy 98, 20–29 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.env sci.2019.04.014 3. Comune di Cagliari (2021) Piano urbanistico comunale. Rapporto ambientale preliminare [Municipal Masterplan. Preliminary Environmental Report], https://www.comune.cagliari. it/portale/do/ComuneCagliari/bachecaAttiJIride/dowloadAllegatoBin.action?serial=480 430e0def61a12cf0b82082f432b07e7fd78fce9bd32ead14f19e5ffadb484&numeroRegistro= 14676&dataRegistro=13%2F12%2F2021&anno=2021&numero=217&tipoAtto=0003&tip oAttoRicerca=0003&tipoRicercaBacheca=archivio, last accessed 2023/02/28 4. EC (European Commission) (2015) Towards an EU Research and Innovation policy agenda for Nature-Based Solutions & Re-Naturing cities. Final Report of the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/horizon2020/document.cfm?doc_ id=10195, last accessed: 2023/02/28

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5. EC (European Commission) (2017) Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016–2017: 12. Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_2017/ main/h2020-wp1617-climate_en.pdf, last accessed: 2023/02/28 6. EEA (European Environment Agency) (2021) Nature-based solutions in Europe: Policy, knowledge and practice for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. EEA Report no. 1/2021, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. https://doi.org/10.2800/ 919315 7. Eggermont, H., et al.: Nature-based solutions: new influence for environmental management and research in Europe. GAIA – Ecol. Perspect. Sci. Society 24(4), 243–248 (2015). https:// doi.org/10.14512/gaia.24.4.9 8. Hanson, H.I., Wickenberg, B., Alkan Olsson, J.: Working on the boundaries — How do science use and interpret the nature-based solution concept? Land Use Policy 90(104302), 1–16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104302 9. La Rosa, D., Pauleit, S., Wei-Ning, X.: Unearthing time-honored examples of nature-based solutions. Socio-Ecol. Pract. Res. 3, 329–335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-02100099-y 10. McVittie, A., Cole, L., Wreford, A., Sgobbi, A., Yordi, B.: Ecosystem-based solutions for disaster risk reduction: lessons from European applications of ecosystem-based adaptation measures. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 32, 42–54 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017. 12.014 11. Morecroft, M.D.: Measuring the success of climate change adaptation and mitigation in terrestrial ecosystems. Sci. 366(6471, eaaw9256):1–5(2019). https://doi.org/10.1126/science. aaw9256 12. Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia-Comune di Trieste [Autonomous Region of FriuliVenezia Giulia-Municipality of Trieste] (2018), Piano Regolatore Generale Comunale Schede Progetto - P03 [Masterplan – Project Worksheets – P03], http://documenti.comune. trieste.it/urbanistica/prgc-2018/PO3_SCHEDE_PROGETTO_LUGLIO2018.pdf Accessed Feb 28 2023 13. Ruangpan, L., et al.: Nature-based solutions for hydrometeorological risk reduction: aA stateof-the-art review of the research area. Nat. Hazard. 20(1), 243–270 (2020). https://doi.org/ 10.5194/nhess-20-243-2020 14. Seddon, N., et al.: Global recognition of the importance of nature-based solutions to the impacts of climate change. Global Sustain. 3(e15), 1–12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/sus. 2020.8

Green Infrastructure and Grey Infrastructure. Rehabilitation of Disused Infrastructure Assets as an Opportunity for Green Development for Cities Daniele Soraggi(B) Italian Excellence Center for Logistics, Infrastructures and Transport, University of Genoa, 16126 Genoa, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. With climate change and extreme weather events resulting from it, a strong demand for urbanization due to a steadily increasing population, cities face a number of complex challenges in responding to current issues and preparing for future needs. Green Infrastructure (GI) have been identified as a useful tool to cope with the effects of climate change. They are positioned as a possible alternative to grey infrastructure. A GI is able to provide a multiplicity of benefits and functionalities that can be assimilated with what emerges from the definitions of Ecosystem Services (ES). Numerous studies, in an attempt to find an unambiguous definition of GI, have developed the concept of a grey-green continuum that underlines the link between green and grey infrastructures. The aim of this paper is to focus on the concept of continuum in order to identify the correct nuance depending on the required benefit and boundary conditions. Furthermore, it is highlighted that variability does not invalidate sustainability as a goal to be achieved. Based on this assumption, three best projects of disused grey urban infrastructure that are given new value will be investigated - social, economic and environmental. The High Line in New York, Seoullo 7017 Skygarden in Seoul and the Xuhui Runway Park in Shanghai represent the three case studies in which a balance between GI and grey infrastructure is noticeable. For each we highlight which path has been followed for a green reconversion. Keywords: Green Infrastructure · Grey Infrastructure · Ecosystem Services · Urban Regeneration

1 Introduction Green Infrastructure (GI) has been identified as a useful tool for planning a resilient city [1] and adapting to the environmental changes of climate change [2]. The increase in urban heat island (UHI) phenomena [3, 4] and stormwater [5] are just two aspects to which cities will have to find an environmentally sustainable response by 2050 [6], a need © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 74–83, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_7

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that is even more relevant if one assumes that the world’s population is continuously growing and tends to be increasingly concentrated in metropolitan areas, which are becoming denser and more energy-intensive and consuming [7]. Moreover, the long-established urban landscape of contemporary cities has traces and scars of previous development within it: disused industrial plants, transport infrastructure and urban decay elements. There is a need to understand what and how new value can be captured from these urban landscapes [8], so as to start on a path towards a new urban evolution of green cities [9] in which the value of ecological resources is recognized and their potential is not limited [10]. In the second part of this contribution, the chromatic issues related to green infrastructure will be examined. Starting from an initial difficulty in identifying a shared definition of GI, it is pointed out that it is often referred to as Blue-Green Infrastructure or continuous Grey-Green. This leads to a basic question related to the pre-existing urban and already densely built-up territory: is there a relationship between the cities’ industrial infrastructure heritage and its green reconversion? In an attempt to answer this question, the third part will examine three best cases of grey infrastructure redevelopment: High Line in New York, Seoullo 7017 Skygrden in Seoul and Xuhui Runway Park in Shanghai. Finally, from the discussion of the results of the case study investigation, conclusions regarding the Grey-Green(-blue) infrastructure link and the ES guaranteed by it will be drawn.

2 Background In order to support the implementation of GI within planning, numerous approaches, methods, strategies, typologies and definitions have been generated, which blur according to their disciplinary declination. Indeed, when dealing with the topic of GI, one is faced with a complex multidisciplinary context: ecology, hydrology, urban planning, real estate, mobility and numerous other interests [11, 12]. In an attempt to find an order for determining a GI, it is possible to draw an initial tripartition according to the predominant scientific discipline: (i) a greenspace planning concept, (ii) an urban ecology concept, and (iii) a water/stormwater management concept [13]. Nevertheless, a typological tripartition for GI has also been identified in the literature to facilitate their identification [14]: (a) all natural green areas, managed and unmanaged, in both urban and rural settings; (b) pathways and connections between different green areas; (c) GI that provide and continue to provide multiple benefits to people. Although (i) and (a) fully correspond, the same cannot be said for the remaining items of the two tripartitions. (iii) provides a functional value to GIs while (b) highlights their generative capacity of an environmental network within an Urban System. Finally, (ii) and (c) may have a common matrix that identifies the link with the provision of Ecosystem Services (ES) as a possible definition of an GI. The latter characterization has a strictly functional descriptive matrix linked to the expected benefits and disregards the green elements that make up an GI. In fact, part of the scientific literature wonders how influential the presence of the single green element is in attributing a green meaning to an

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GI [14] and how much the “green” value depends on the contribution that this instrument can make to an ecosystem, whether natural or anthropic. In fact, ‘green’ is also a term that refers to the function or action that an element provides in terms of land use [15]. It could be said that a green infrastructure is one that can protect or generate new value within ecosystem services [16], preventing habitats from becoming too isolated from each other. In fact, elements classified as grey could simultaneously be considered green if they contribute to the functioning of GI and their network [14, 15, 17]. GI are often associated with ES or confused with them [13]. A possible cause for this could be the period of popularization and introduction of these two terminologies [11], which appear almost contemporaneously in the literature. In fact, an increase in academic interest in both IMs and ESs has been observed precisely since 2013 [18]. Finally, a further possible limitation can be found in the chameleon-like reading [13] of Green Infrastructure that also encompasses Grey and Blue Infrastructure. There is a grey-green continuum with regard to the concepts of ‘infrastructure’, although ‘green’ can be used to indicate the function or structure provided by an element, even if it is not strictly ‘green’ in terms of land use [14]. Also, in relation to the above, it is possible to imagine a color chart that fades from green to grey, in the middle are all those infrastructures that despite the presence of ‘grey’ elements contribute to the provision of ‘green’ benefits to the environment (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Schematic concept of Green-Gray Continuum. Source: Davies et al., 2006.

In addition, reference is often made to blue-green infrastructure (BGI), which is considered a more nature-friendly means of urban flood risk management; therefore, related to what emerged from definition (iii). The term ‘blue-green infrastructure’ or ‘green/blue infrastructure’ [19] derives from the growing awareness of the need for a more integrated systemic approach to green and blue infrastructure management. Childers et al. [20] use the concept of Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI) an infrastructure composed of ecological structure, the physical components that form ecosystems, and ecological function, the processes that result from interactions between the structural components. Through this process, it comes to define four EIUs: Green, Brown, Blue and Turquoise. It is emphasized that each color provides its own unique set of ES and is assigned ‘grey’ if no ES is provided (Fig. 2).

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Fig. 2. Schematic of the infrastructure hybridity gradient from ES provided. The authors place the maximum level of “ecological features” and Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI), i.e. a nonbuilt infrastructure, on the left-hand boundary. On the extreme right-hand side the maximum built values are indicated. Each row refers to the color shades investigated by the authors (Childers et al., 2019). The difficulty of placing each infrastructure in the most appropriate position is avoided. Sources: Childers et al., 2019.

A possible comprehensive definition sees Green Infrastructure as a network of natural or semi-natural green elements and spaces [21] and have the dual objective of providing more Ecosystem Services to humans, given the same portion of land [22], and have the task of limiting urbanization outwards from cities. To underline the functional correlation between GI and ES, the concept of continuous grey-green infrastructure is increasingly referred to as an additional tool for managing extreme water phenomena [23] and urban water infrastructure management [24]. Added to this is the fact that blue infrastructure, typically associated with the mere presence of water, is rarely considered in isolation but increasingly in association with GI [25, 26]. In addition, it has been shown that inadequate clarity and understanding of what a blue-green infrastructure is one of the main obstacles to its implementation [27].

3 Case Studies Analysis When considering existing and decommissioned infrastructural assets, it is complex to match them with a colour, as variables relating to use, economic investment and valorisation of the element come into play. In fact, in retrofit and redevelopment projects

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involving green or blue urban infrastructure, there are numerous practices that demonstrate this difficulty. Indeed, the main challenge is to be able to encourage and stimulate the formulation of a new method or a new sustainable and green approach to the redevelopment of these artefacts, avoiding littering [28]. Indeed, by cross-referencing ‘Green Infrastructure’ and ‘Industrial Infrastructure Heritage’ in the literature, the results are scarce, indicating an absence of interest in greening disused grey urban infrastructure. Therefore, to investigate the phenomenon in more detail, three case studies are investigated, which concern the admission of grey infrastructure, to identify common elements and differences. Due to changes in transportation modes and the shrinking trends of cities, transportation infrastructure in many places has become obsolete and is turning into brownfields [29]. Three projects were identified as the most identifying with regard to the transformation of abandoned transportation infrastructure [30]: High Line in New York, Seoullo 7017 Skygarden in Seoul and Xuhui Runway Park in Shanghai (Fig. 3). The selection of these three examples is due to two factors. The availability of data and information, which in the case of High Line and Seoullo 7017 Skygarden is also facilitated by the continuous dissemination of designers and/or on social media. The typological coverage, in fact, before the transformation the three infrastructures had different modal uses: train, automobile, and airplane. 3.1 High Line, New York Initially conceived as an elevated railway to facilitate goods transport in the late 1800s, it lost its functionality with the advent of the car until it was completely decommissioned in 1980 [30]. In the 1990s, city authorities had the idea of demolishing a railroad viaduct, which was part of NY’s industrial heritage. Given the urban location, in downtown Manhattan, the risk during demolition would have been high, so it did not happen [31]. Given the surrounding urban conditions, it was decided to launch an international design competition in 2004 to determine a new use and to mend the two edges of the city previously divided by the viaduct [30]. It was decided to create a linear park that could graft a vegetative presence within a dense anthropic context [4]. The basic idea is to extend the concept of green roof on urban scale, seeking to enhance two main ES: the conservation of biodiversity and the connection of people with nature [32]. This is done through an innovative method of creating a green leisure space in the city, utilizing its post-industrial facilities [31]. The designed space, in addition to hosting different tree species, is a multifunctional space: physical activity, social and relaxation activity, and viewing activity [29]. Design-wise, the High Line represents a point of connection between landscape architecture and infrastructure within an approach that ranges from post-industrial retrofitting to urban revitalization, connecting public space and the natural environment in one of the densest urban district in the world [33]. Moreover, it is positioned as a connecting element within a panorama of architectural tourism that increases interest in the area [31]. This provision of ES in a portion of the city that lacked it also caused an increase in property values [30], which fuelled the gentrification phenomenon related to GI [34].

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3.2 Seoullo 7017 Skygarden, Seoul This project carried out by MVRDV in 2017 is aimed at an architectural, urban planning and functional renovation of the Seoul Station Overpass, an elevated superhighway made of mixed steel-cement structure [35]. Seoul is a city whose main transportation system is based on the automobile, and an elevated highway has a negative impact on the skyline and cityscape [36]. To provide a new element of value to the skyline, the Seoul Metropolitan Governament decided to regenerate the old overpass. This was also achieved by assessing the condition of the source structure and making small targeted changes it was preserved [37]. This is a way to recycle old highways, as other cities have done [36]. Conceived as a bicycle-pedestrian linear urban park, it has seventeen entrances and connects the city from east to west by passing the railroad [30]. In addition, a barrier-free design was approached in order to ensure complete accessibility to the park [36]. The project proposes a variety of ES provided by the planting of green elements (trees, shrubs and ornamental flowers) that create a network for the circulation of biodiversity [37]. Although sustainability is not mentioned in the project description, the fact that a pedestrian-oriented park or green space was recommended and implemented suggests that a “green” brand [38]. The goal of Seoullo 7017 is to create an alternative social layer in the city [35]. 3.3 Xuhui Runway Park, Shanghai In the Xuhui district, south of Shanghai’s city center, a spatial inequality was found based on the supply-demand relationships of urban parks; typically, green distribution is dependent on private greenery, hence the absence of shared green areas [39]. This area included the former Longhua Airport, which has been officially disused since 2011 [30]. This redevelopment project is in continuity with the rehabilitation of the waterfront industrial heritage park and will help improve the sustainable management, maintenance, waterflow management, and design level of the project in the future [40]. The project realized by Sasaki focuses on the reconversion of the runway area into a multifunctional linear park, which combines low-flow car mobility, bicycle paths, water channels, and green spaces [30]. In the realization of the park, importance is given to biodiversity and the variety of planted tree species, both evergreen and deciduous, preventing and reducing the heat island effect. Particular aspects on which the project focused were bioretention and water management through nature-based solutions [30].

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Fig. 3. Schematic view of each case studies. Sources: Author’s elaboration.

4 Discussion and Conclusion In the planning of the Green City, a pivotal role is played by the design of its infrastructure and, consequently, how a city can rethink, cover, and give new value to its urban infrastructure assets. With this in mind, Green and Blue Infrastructure could be a solution that is as appropriate and performative as it is in demand [9]. Future developments of this research can be found in the systematization of the methodology; in fact, through the formulation of indicators and comparison with infrastructure sustainability assessment protocols it can help in the classification of the color shade of an infrastructure. This bottom-up methodology makes it possible to generate a knowledge base where there is little investigation. First of all, the three case studies presented concern three examples of grey infrastructure which, having reached the end of their respective lifecycles, have been reconverted into linear urban parks. Typically, High Line and Seoullo 7017 Skygarden involved elevated structures, while Xuhui Runway Park is a flush infrastructure created on the site of an old airport. Hence, although from different starting points, each project in the example achieved the same result from a typological point of view. The application of a learning-by-cases methodology to the three example cases demonstrated how green regeneration of a disused urban infrastructure is an exportable best practice regardless of the boundary conditions. It can be seen that characteristics such as location and starting use do not determine the methodology of the transformation and do not affect its results on the urban context. It can be argued that the conditions for carrying out such a transformation are not attributable to the technical-functional characteristics of the work but to the investment initiative on the part of the government.

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Although a strong link between Blue and Green infrastructure is inferred in the literature, and usually the Grey-Green relationship concurs on the implementation of hybrid waterflow management infrastructure, this investigation highlights a new relationship. Since only in the case of the Xuhui Runway Park are benefits related to urban water management examined, the Grey-Green link resulting from the redevelopment of brownfields is more strongly perceived. In this view, a gray-green and past-present-(future) parallelism is present. A common element in each project is the provision of various Ecosystem Services, which connotes a multifunctional character, typical of GI [41, 42], also in the shelter projects. From this assumption, it can be stated that it is not the presence of greenery that changes a grey infrastructure into a green one, but rather the redesign to ensure a multifunctionality of uses and ES. The results obtained from each transformation show enhanced delivery of Urban ES (UES) in each type: provisioning, regulating, habitat and cultural services. Both direct and indirect impacts of green transformation on the whole urban area affected by the presence of each project emerge. Since the purpose of this contribution is to evaluate the color hue that is attributed to an infrastructure, some thoughts on the topic emerge from the research conducted on the three case studies. It emerges that a green transformation of an urban infrastructure does not necessarily generate GI. In fact, it is the formation of UESs and new values - increased real estate values, tourist interest, limitation of land consumption, sustainability of the work - that attributes the green attribute to the infrastructure. This research has focused on GI but, for the cases at hand, one can speak of “green” infrastructure (without the capital G) understood as urban infrastructure that goes to make up a more complex framework of ES planning and delivery tools. In fact, in this case the term green does not identify color but visualizes the ES and sustainability contribution that the redesign of an urban gray transportation infrastructure is able to provide to a city. Referring to the analysis of the three case studies, it would be simpler and more focused to talk about the elements that compose Multifunctional Green Areas. Therefore, the recycling of an old highway into a public space in the city is a novel attempt to urban regeneration [17]. Unexpected difficulties and problems were encountered during the process [36]. Since GI means multi-functionality, therefore, with a view to a circular economy of the urban ecosystem, one can begin to think that decommissioned infrastructural heritage can obtain new value through the generation of multi-functions capable of giving the population ES that it was previously unable to give.

References 1. Kong, X., Zhang, X., Xu, C., Hauer, R.J.: Review on urban forests and trees as nature-based solutions over 5 years. Forests 12(11), 1–18 (2021) 2. IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021) The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers (2021) 3. Townsend, M., Mahoney, M., Jones, J.A., Ball, K., SalmonJ, J., Finch, C.F.: Too hot to trot? Exploring potential links between climate change, physical activity and health. J. Sci. Med. Sport 6(3), 260–265 (2003)

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SEEA and Ecosystem Services Accounting: A Promising Framework for Territorial Governance Innovation Rossella Scorzelli(B)

, Beniamino Murgante , Benedetto Manganelli , and Francesco Scorza

School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 85100 Potenza, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. ES rapidly was adopted by quantitative geographers and urban planners as an effective tool to deliver reliable spatial analysis on natural capital and its interaction with citizens and economic ecosystem. Although several relevant applications of ES in planning have been realised, it is still difficult to find a common agreement on how to adopt ES as a standard planning support system. Through a literature review this research aims to highlight how monetizing ecosystem services could be effectively integrated in territorial management practices. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework was identified as a promising tool for this purpose according to its analytical structure based on the integration of national budget, spatial analytics based on ES, and social information characterizing the groups of beneficiaries. It represents an international accounting tools for natural capital appraisal aimed at supporting a holistic decision-making process adopted by UN. In particular, SEEA aims to provide accounting over time to measure the health of the environment, the environment’s contribution to the economy, and the impacts of economic activities on the environment. The research aims to highlight the challenges and opportunities that arise from implementing SEEA in urban planning, providing a critical analysis of the value of ecosystem services with the goal of promoting sustainable practices and nature conservation. Keywords: Ecosystem Services · environmental valuation · SEEA framework · urban planning

1 Introduction In recent years, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has gained significant traction among quantitative geographers and urban planners [1] as a powerful tool for conducting spatial analysis and understanding the intricate interactions between natural capital, human populations, and economic ecosystems [2]. ES offers a framework for assessing and valuing the benefits that ecosystems provide to society, including crucial functions such as water purification, air quality regulation, and biodiversity conservation. While the adoption of ES has rapidly proliferated in the field of planning, a critical challenge © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 84–92, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_8

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remains: the lack of a consensus on how to effectively incorporate ES into planning processes, including the development of normative guidelines. The value of the ES provided by the natural environment is often overlooked with the risk of adopting practices that degrade natural resources. In this sense, several studies propose an integrated framework to measure and value ES, integrating economic value into decision-making processes [3–6]. The identification of economic value makes it possible to recognize the benefits offered by natural components and thus raise society’s awareness of their use and sustainable management. The System of Economic and Environmental Accounting (SEEA) is a tool that can measure and evaluate natural capital by providing the right trade-offs between economic, environmental and social objectives. This paper aims to delve into the integration of the ES framework and the SEEA, exploring their potential in supporting decision-making processes and promoting sustainable development practices. The paper is structured as follows: the first section is dedicated to the analysis of scientific literature with a focus on monetary valuation techniques, while the second section delves into the SEEA tool. By assessing and quantifying the economic value of ecosystem services, we can bridge the gap between economic considerations and environmental conservation, paving the way for effective planning and policy interventions that foster the long-term well-being of both human populations and the natural environment.

2 Exploring Ecosystem Services and the Challenges of Valuation The definition and identification of ecosystem services is debated today. Several studies regarding the definition of ecosystem services emphasise a link between them and natural capital [7–10]. According to Costanza and Daly [11], “natural capital is a stock of natural assets that produce a stream of valuable ecosystem goods or services in the future”. Other authors [12] also consider the flows of ecosystem services generated by natural capital. Despite this, Fisher et al. [13] highlight the lack of an official and commonly accepted definition. In order to make up for this lack, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) in 2005 [14] defined ecosystem services as the “benefits that people obtain from ecosystems”. MEA also proposed a classification of ES included in the simplified version [15] in Table 1. In addition to the lack of a clear and official definition, much research [16] over time highlights the complexity surrounding the monetisation of ecosystem services. The main difficulties concern the identification of their value [17], but this is indispensable for outlining sustainable development strategies that aim to provide useful information for estimating costs and benefits of possible alternative scenarios. The value of an environmental good is often an expression of subjective judgement based not always on explicit criteria [18]. According to economic theory, the definition of the value of a good depends on several factors: the defining party, its motives, its economic conditions and the presence of other parties with the same desire for enjoyment. Moreover, value may be linked to direct or indirect use, or linked to the relevance of an element to other goods, or be an intrinsic value such as existence or cultural value [19]. The possible concurrence of these values in a single good determines the complexity of its identification. The value of an environmental good or service can be limited to its “price” if there is a market, or “inferred price” given by a willingness to pay, or “observed price” provided by a simulated

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R. Scorzelli et al. Table 1. Categories of ecosystem service and examples of related services by MEA.

Type of serivce

Service

Provisioning services

Food Fibre Genetic resources Bio-chemicals, natural medicines, etc Ornamental resources Fresh water

Regulating services

Air quality regulation Climate regulation Water regulation Erosion regulation Disease regulation Pest regulation Pollination

Cultural services

Cultural diversity Spiritual and religious values Recreation and ecotourism Aesthetic values Knowledge systems Educational values

Supporting services

Soil formation Photosynthesis Primary production Nutrient cycling Water cycling

market [20]. Conditions contingent upon valuation may affect value. Such conditions may depend on: the place of valuation (which changes between place of delivery and place of benefit), the valuing parties, and the level of information about the good or service. Given the complexity of factors affecting the monetary valuation of ES, it is often marred by errors and uncertainties. Despite this and the various critiques, however, it is incorrect to state that placing a value in monetary terms is tantamount to privatising or commodifying ecosystem services [21, 22] On the contrary, monetary values can be used as an indicator to turn an environmental issue into a territorial development policy. Brauer in 2003 [23] using the concept of Total Economic Value individuates the most common techniques for its evaluation, shown in Table 2. Despite uncertainties regarding the techniques to be adopted, the ES approach is now an established key in the design and evaluation of alternative scenarios. There are several strategies for developing this approach and integrating it into decision-making processes [24]. These include the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) adopted in 2012 by the United Nations.

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Table 2. Most common techniques for assessing Total Economic Value. Methods

Assessable ES

Components of TEV

Direct market techniques Production services (e.g. Value in use direct Value in use (when an exchange value can timber, other raw materials be defined) game, mushrooms) Indirect market techniques Regulatory services (e.g. costs avoided (of potential pollination, protection damage) or costs of from flooding) substitution (of engineered alternatives), or the costs that a person incurs to enjoy the service (travel costs, hedonic price)

Value in use direct Value in use

Non-market techniques e.g. contingent valuation use of hypothetical scenarios to assess (through interviews, questionnaires) willingness to pay for maintain and have an improvement (e.g. increase quality of water in a stream, or quantity of fish catchable) or willingness to be compensated for a possible decrease in SE

Regulatory services (e.g. water self-purification) Recreational value Availability of genetic resources Ecological function of habitats or species

Option value

Value in use

Participatory evaluation involves the definition collective definition of values, which may involve opinions of experts (expert knowledge) or/and opinions of local actors (local knowledge), in synergy

Cultural services (social values) Satisfaction that the resource exists

Existence value

No-use value

3 The Adoption of the SEEA: An Integrated Framework for Environmental, Economic and Social Decision-Making The adoption of the SEEA in several countries [25] underlines the considerable potential of this approach to decision-making. Indeed, the SEEA’s main objective is to combine environmental, economic and social information into a single framework that provides relevant indicators to support holistic decision-making [26]. In this sense, the SEEA in order to integrate with other approaches follows the SNA accounting framework. The adoption of the SEEA Central Framework (SEEA CF) in 2012 by the United Nations Statistical Commission as an international statistical standard enabled experts and nonexperts alike to understand the importance of ES and their accounting [27]. Subsequently,

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as a complementary framework to the SEEA CF, the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) was proposed, again by the statistical community, which focuses on ecosystems and their services to economic and human activities. Following a subsequent revision in 2021, the United Nations Statistical Commission approved SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). It measures [28]: the extent of the ecosystem (usually in spatial units); 2) the condition of the ecosystem over time; 3) the flow and utilisation accounts of ecosystem services in physical terms; 4) the accounts that record the value of ecosystem services (in monetary terms); 5) the ecosystem goods accounts in monetary terms that record the net present value of all ecosystem services provided by an ecosystem good. Regarding the monetary valuation of ecosystem service flows, the SEEA EA applies the same principles as the SNA. The potential lies in an easier integration of the indicators provided. This makes it possible to describe the value of initial and final stocks of ecosystem assets, but also their changes due to conversion, degradation or enhancement. The alignment between the two accounting systems makes it possible to overcome the gap in the SNA, which is notoriously deficient in fully considering the environment both in terms of economic benefits and environmental impacts of different economic activities. In fact, both benefits already included in SNA, such as timber, and benefits not included, such as recreation, flood protection, climate regulation, are included in SEEA CF and SEEA EA reporting. The economic data provided by the SNA combined with the accounting of ecosystems and ecosystem services also makes it possible to identify policies and strategies needed to limit threats to environmental resources. In this regard, the SEEA EA published by the United Nations [28] emphasises that information on the supply and use of ES can be aligned with economic information through extended supply and use tables. A strong link between information on ecosites, supply and use of ecosystem services and economic activities emerges in the study proposed by King et al. [29]. This study aims to provide an accounting of protected areas through the integration of the SEEA EA and information provided by the SNA. In particular, the three case studies addressed, namely South Africa, Uganda and Andalusia, emphasise that such an application improves planning, management and investment decisions by providing rigorous statistical data and revealing crucial relationships between protected areas, the economy and social welfare. In the Netherlands, Schenau et al. [30] conducted a study in which the application of the SEEA EA determined the economic value of human benefits produced by ecosystems by estimating eleven ecosystem services. The research once again highlighted the importance of using data and valuation methods consistent with SNA in order to obtain easily integrated and meaningful values. Another key factor in the SEEA EA is the spatial approach, which makes it easier to identify the location and size of the ecosystem resources and services provided, as well as the location of the beneficiaries [31–34]. In fact, according to this approach, the benefits society receives depend on the location of ecosystem resources in the landscape in relation to the recipients of those resources. The spatial approach allows an application of the SEEA EA at both national and sub-national scale [35, 36]. Several implementations were developed thanks to the Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) project initiated by the United Nations. This project allowed the SEEA EA to be tested in five countries, namely Brazil, China,

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India, Mexico and South Africa. Three main objectives, namely: 1) to improve the measurement of ecosystems and their services (both in physical and monetary terms) at national and sub-national levels; 2) to achieve integration of biodiversity and ecosystems at (sub)national level, policy planning and implementation; 3) to contribute to the development of an internationally agreed methodology. Several implementations were developed through the Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) project initiated by the United Nations. This project enabled the SEEA EA to be tested in five countries: Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. There were three main objectives, namely: 1) to improve the measurement of ecosystems and their services (both in physical and monetary terms) at the national and sub-national levels; 2) to achieve the integration of biodiversity and ecosystems at the (sub)national, planning and policy implementation levels; and 3) to contribute to the development of an internationally agreed methodology. Through the reporting of ecosystems and their services, the project enabled the production of a technical report on the analysis of the policy scenario. This was also achieved through the use of an artificial intelligence-driven platform for the integration of data and models. Using this data, several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the 2030 Agenda were also produced. In Brazil, a series of reports and studies on ecosystems focused on water resources and endangered species [37]. In China, a Scenario-Based Analysis of the Ecological Compensation standard was undertaken [38]. In India, several reports on the extent and condition of certain ecosystem services were used to develop ecological and environmental assessments [39]. Mexico focused on compiling national accounts of the extent and condition of land and ecosystems, as well as accounts of the provision of certain ecosystem services such as carbon storage and sequestration, crop provision, water supply and pollination services [40]. Through this project, South Africa developed a 10-year strategy to advance natural capital accounting, The accounts focused on land cover and land degradation. Economic assessments were also important [41]. The different applications are united by the advantages of implementing the EA SEEA. This tool, which presents itself as a framework for environmental and economic accounting, enables continuous and robust monitoring of environmental resources. The economic valuation of ecosystem goods and services also ensures improved resource management and allocation. Its contribution to spatial planning and the achievement of the SDGs is therefore crucial.

4 Final Remarks The ecosystem services approach and the adoption of the SEEA have proven to be fundamental tools for understanding the interconnection between the natural environment and the human economy. These tools provide an integrated perspective that allows for a more comprehensive assessment and monitoring of the impact of human activities on ecosystems and the benefits derived from them. The definition of ecosystem services and their valuation still pose challenges, especially when trying to assign a monetary value to these services. However, the importance of recognizing the intrinsic value of ecosystems and the services they provide cannot be underestimated. The use of the SEEA makes it

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possible to highlight the economic impact of environmental decisions, creating a link between the economic and environmental spheres. Furthermore, the application of the SEEA at the local level presents significant opportunities to involve local communities in the management and conservation of ecosystem services. The identification of beneficiaries and their involvement make it possible to promote greater awareness of the dependence of human activities on surrounding ecosystems and the need for sustainable management of natural resources. Future research perspectives concern the continued development and improvement of the SEEA framework, as well as the deepening of methodologies to assess and quantify ecosystem services. Further efforts are also needed in communication and education about the importance of ecosystem services and ecosystem conservation. Ultimately, the adoption of the SEEA and the ecosystem services approach provide a conceptual and methodological framework to address current environmental and economic challenges. These tools can guide policy decisions and foster sustainable development that preserves vital ecosystems for the well-being of present and future generations.

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27. European Commission. Eurostat., United Nations., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations., International Monetary Fund., Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development., World Bank.: System of environmental-economic accounting 2012 : central framework. UNO (2014) 28. United Nations et al.: System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). White cover publication, pre-edited text subject to official editing (2021). https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting 29. King, S., Ginsburg, A., Driver, A., Belle, E.M.S., Campos, P., Caparrós, A., Zaman, H., Brown, C.: Accounting for protected areas: approaches and applications. Ecosyst. Serv. 63, 101544 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2023.101544 30. Schenau, S., et al.: Valuing ecosystem services and ecosystem assets for The Netherlands. One Ecosyst. 7 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.7.e84624 31. Dvarioniene, J., Grecu, V., Lai, S., Scorza, F.: Four perspectives of applied sustainability: Research implications and possible integrations. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Borruso, G., Torre, C.M., Ana Maria, A.C., Rocha, D.T., Apduhan, B.O., Stankova, E., Cuzzocrea, A. (eds.) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2017, pp. 554–563. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-624075_39 32. Zoppi, C., Lai, S.: Assessment of the Regional Landscape Plan of Sardinia (Italy): a participatory-action-research case study type. Land Use Policy 27, 690–705 (2010) 33. Scorza, F.: Training Decision-Makers: GEODESIGN Workshop Paving the Way for New Urban Agenda. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58811-3_22 34. Scorza, F.: Improving EU Cohesion Policy: The Spatial Distribution Analysis of Regional Development Investments Funded by EU Structural Funds 2007/2013 in Italy. In: Murgante, B., Misra, S., Carlini, M., Torre, C.M., Nguyen, H.-Q., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O., Gervasi, O. (eds.) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013, pp. 582–593. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39646-5_42 35. Ryan, C., Case, B.S., Bishop, C.D., Buckley, H.L.: Ecosystem integrity of active sand dunes: a case study to implement and test the SEEA-EA global standard, from Aotearoa New Zealand. Ecol. Indic. 149, 110172 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2023.110172 36. Campos, P., Mesa, B., Álvarez, A., Oviedo, J.L., Caparrós, A.: Towards measuring environmental income through a refined United Nations SEEA EA: application to publicly-owned, protected, pine-forest-farm case studies in Andalusia. Spain. Ecological Economics. 201, 107570 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLECON.2022.107570 37. IBGE 2021. Ecosystem Accounts for Brazil. Results of the NCAVES Project 38. NBS China 2021. Ecosystem accounts for China. Results of the NCAVES Project 39. Government of India, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation 2021. Ecosystem accounts for India. Results of the NCAVES Project 40. Sanchez Colon, S.: Pilot testing of the SEEA-EEA Framework in Mexico. United Nations Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York (2019) 41. Statistics South Africa. 2021. National Natural Capital Accounting Strategy, A ten-year strategy for advancing Natural Capital Accounting in South Africa. Report 04–01–00

Assessing Ecosystem Services Provided by Nature-Based Solutions Alongside Different Urban Morphologies Riccardo Privitera(B)

, Giulia Jelo, and Daniele La Rosa

University of Catania, Catania, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Contemporary cities display a complex picture of different urban forms typified by built-up areas with different buildings patterns and open spaces layouts. These morphology types are differently characterised by high level of impervious surfaces and limited amount of greenery which can expose to climate change related risks. To cope with these issues, Nature-Based Solution (NBS) have emerged as a strategy to deploy and manage urban ecosystems through providing Urban Ecosystem Services (UES). In order to better understand the complex morphological features of urban fabric and recognise the actual suitability of hosting new greenery, this study proposes a four-steps methodology for exploring challenges and opportunities to integrate NBS in four different morphology types: (i) Land-use and Land cover Analyses for drawing an overall picture of the land pattern and bio-physical features; (ii) Buildings maintenance & Land quality (B&L) and Landownership Analyses in order to explore the quality and maintenance levels of buildings and open spaces while identifying the current situation in terms of property asset; (iii) a Land Transformability Scenarios Assessment to evaluate the aptitude of land to host NBS; (iv) an UES assessment to estimate the potential of NBS in different morphological types to provide UES. Accordingly, four scenarios (Minimum Public, Public heritage, Private and Transformation) are drawn alongside the morphology types of historic fabrics, terraced houses, multistorey apartment buildings and detached houses. The case study of the town of Ragusa (Italy) is here presented. Keywords: urban morphology · nature-based solutions · ecosystem services · landownership · transformability

1 Introduction Contemporary cities are characterised by various types of urban fabric as a result of longterm and historically complex transformations and development processes. City centres, peripheries and suburbs often show very different urban forms typified by built-up areas with different buildings patterns and open spaces layouts. Urban morphology involves relationship among the primary elements of urban fabric, such as streets, buildings and open spaces [1]. Specific land uses can allocate different functions and activities (residential, trading, manufacturing, services), which call for different layouts of urbanisation. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 93–105, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_9

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Land covers can also variably occur and shape the green equipment of urban fabric with different types of greenery and other surfaces such as trees, shrubs and lawns, bare soil, impervious surfaces. Moreover, landownership assets can strongly characterise the morphology types in that the proportion of public and private open spaces affects the spatial distribution of functions, activities and accessibility. At block and sub-block levels, type of buildings can vary from detached and terraced houses, to multi-storey apartments and towers; streets can vary in terms of width and amount and type of lanes (cars, public transit, bikes, pedestrian sidewalks); open spaces can be characterised by public plots (squares, parking lots, urban gardens, parks) and private ones such as interior courtyards or front/rear/side setback yards [2]. Different combinations of these features can produce different morphological layouts. Moreover, within these different types, open spaces can be characterised by different size, shape, and land-use and land cover features. Across the different urban morphology types, particularly in dense urban fabrics, the amount of existing greenery within public and private open spaces is often limited as well as the opportunity to increase its extent and size. Nevertheless, the urgent issues to cope with climate change related risks in urban areas is massively driving toward the exploration and implementation of strategies for adapting cities to the main impacts such as heat waves and floodings [3, 4]. Among different adaptable and multifunctional solutions required to address these challenges, Nature Based Solutions (NBS) stand out as tools to provide a varied set of UES [5, 6]. They can help to storage and sequester carbon, purify water and air, reduce urban heat islands and water runoff [7]. NBS are intended as engineered green measures inspired by nature in a way to meet the improvement of sustainable urbanisation as a priority aim [8]. NBS include a wide range of components such as green roofs and green walls, street trees, rain gardens, vegetated swales, stormwater planter boxes and permeable pavements [9]. Strategies aimed at introducing NBS in cities can be affected by the complexity of existing morphology types, which show different patterns with different limitations and opportunities for green equipment enhancement. In this perspective, the study proposes a novel methodology for exploring the aptitude of different urban morphology types to host NBS through assessing the levels of transformability of selected land patches (buildings with flat roof, impervious surfaces, archaeological sites, bare soils) when referring to maintenance standards and cultural values of buildings, state of use of open spaces, and landownership asset of property (public or private). According to these transformability scores, different scenarios of NBS implementation are drawn in order to better understand which are the components of urban fabrics that can be transformed with different levels of technical, economic and social viability. Finally, an UES assessment is developed for quantifying the potential provision of these services across different urban morphology types while identifying the most performing to be prioritised in future planning actions. The case study of the town of Ragusa (Italy) is here presented.

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2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area In this work, the town of Ragusa has been selected as a case study. Located to the south-east of Sicily (Italy), it covers an area of 444.71 km2 with a population of 73,159 inhabitants. The built-up area is characterised by different morphological types which vary from the high dense historic fabrics in city centres to more recent districts made of multi-storey buildings in urban peripheries and suburbs. In this regard, Ragusa is particularly interesting because it shows a great variety of morphologies combined with a severe lack of public open and green spaces. In such a context, the four most representative morphological types have been selected as quadrat sample cells to be investigated: historic fabrics, terraced houses, multi-storey apartment buildings and detached houses. Due to the very high morphological mix, size of cells has been set as 400x400 m in order to capture each single morphological type within each quadrat. 2.2 Method Framework The proposed method was developed through four different phases: (1) two preliminary Land-use and Land cover Analyses were run for drawing an overall picture of the land pattern and bio-physical features; (2) a set of Buildings maintenance & Land quality (B&L) and Landownership Analyses were carried out in order to explore the quality and maintenance levels of buildings and open spaces while identifying the current situation in terms of property asset; (3) a Land Transformability Scenarios Assessment was then developed for exploring the aptitude of land to host NBS; (4) an UES assessment was finally undertaken to estimate the potential of NBS in different morphological types to provide UES. All these phases were performed by Arcmap 10 ESRI software across the four sample cells and for each transformation scenario. All analysed patches have been manually drawn on topographic maps (1:2000) by photo-interpretation of satellite images (Google Earth, 2022). Through the Land-use analysis, eleven land-use categories were identified: residential, trading, manufacturing/industrial, neighbourhood services, municipal services, archaeological sites, ruins, seminatural, public open spaces, parking areas, roads. A Land cover analysis was then conducted through a visual inspection of satellite images which allowed to detect different bio-physical features of land-use patches. Nine land cover categories were finally detected: trees, shrubs, trees on impervious surface, herbaceous vegetation, bare soils, buildings with pitched roof, building with flat roof, impervious surface, ruins with vegetation, archaeological remains. As a second phase, the two characterising Buildings maintenance and Land quality (B&L) and Landownership analyses were carried out by using land cover patches as a basis. B&L Analysis was conducted in order to identify the level of maintenance and the architectural/historic/cultural values of buildings and maintenance levels of open spaces. Accordingly, the following categories were identified: ruined buildings, monumental buildings and abandoned/underused buildings/open spaces, other buildings and open spaces. The latter category included all patches, both buildings and their setbacks as well as open spaces, that did not have any particular historic, artistic or architectural

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value and were well maintained. A third analysis phase was to characterise each land cover patch according to the landownership asset. In order to distinguish between private and public patches, a visual interpretation of satellite images and topographic maps was delivered. As a final phase of the proposed method, a Land Transformability Scenarios Assessment was developed through taking into account the suitability of each patch to host potential new NBS and the feasibility to undertake the urban transformation when dealing with public and private landowners. Transformability refers to the capacity of systems to change when confined within untenable situations, especially when alternative reconfigurations of the current system are not possible or ineffective [10]. More specifically, transformability has been defined as the suitability of urban fabrics to be reconfigured in new urban layouts [11, 12]. In this study, transformability scenarios were assessed through (1) selecting the land patches to be potentially suitable to host NBS according to some specific criteria; (2) evaluating the transformability of land patches in three increasing levels when referring to Landownership and Buildings maintenance & Land quality values; (3) drawing four different scenarios of urban transformation through selecting and grouping land patches according to some specific transformability levels referred to Landownership and Buildings maintenance & Land quality values; (4) assessing UES potentially provided by NBS across the four sample cells and for each transformation scenario. More specifically: 1) Selection of Land patches: land patches potentially suitable to host NBS were selected among the ones characterised by land cover types such as buildings with flat roof where installing green roofs and green walls, impervious surfaces, archaeological sites, and bare soils that allowed planting trees, greenery and setting out different solutions for NBS. Consequently, the patches which were already equipped with greenery (trees, shrubs, trees on impervious surfaces, herbaceous vegetation, ruins with vegetation) and/or not allowing to add new greenery (buildings with pitched roof) were excluded; 2) Transformability assessment: two transformability values were assigned to each land patch according its aptitude to host new potential NBS when respectively referring to B&L and Landownership scores. This increasing transformability values were set into three levels: min, medium and max. When dealing with B&L values, transformability was understood as the suitability to actually transform (with or without constrains) that patch for hosting NBS. Thus, the max level of transformability was assigned to patches including others buildings and open spaces and public impervious surfaces, such as squares, open spaces, and roads where introducing NBS was considered easily viable (no constrains to setting NBS); medium level to those patches characterised by monumental buildings and their related open spaces where NBS could be installed after accurate checking and with some limitations (few constrains to setting NBS); min level to patches with ruined buildings and abandoned/underused buildings/open spaces where NBS implementation called for hard transformation of the sites (several and severe constrains to setting NBS). When referring to Landownership scores, transformability was understood as the economic and social feasibility to undertake that urban transformation when involving both public and private landowners, so that max level of transformability was assigned to public property patches, medium level to private property with public access and min level to private.

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3) Scenarios assessment: four scenarios were drawn through combining the couples of transformability values as assigned to each land patch. The first scenario included land patches with max level of transformability both in terms of B&L and Landownership scores. This represented the minimum scenario involving public impervious surfaces, such as squares and open spaces, roads as public impervious surfaces and buildings with flat roofs where the implementation of different types of NBS was considered viable (Minimum Public scenario). The second scenario collected those land patches with medium level of transformability in terms of B&L and max level in terms of Landownership values. This scenario prioritised the transformation of monumental public buildings with flat roofs and related open spaces, such as internal courtyards, and archaeological remains through introducing a limited set of NBS (Public heritage scenario). The third scenario included private patches (with min level of Landownership scores) and max/medium level of B&L which implied the transformation of private properties and buildings, both monumental and regular for introducing a varied set of NBS (Private scenario). Finally, the fourth scenario included both private and public patches (Landownership values = min and max) characterised by min level of transformability in terms of B&L values. This was the most complex scenario which even prospected the demolition of both public/private ruined or abandoned or underused buildings to install new NBS (Transformation scenario); 4) UES assessment: an evaluation of four UES as potentially provided by NBS was undertaken across the four sample cells and for each transformation scenario. Carbon storage, carbon sequestration, stormwater runoff and air purification were assessed according to some specific figures as derived by the London i-Tree Eco Project [13]. This study provided an estimation of the potential flow of carbon storage and sequestration (ton/year) provided by 1 ha of green cover surface, the amount of pollutants removal such as carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3 ), sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), particulate matter < 2.5 microns (PM2.5 ), particulate matter < 10 microns and > 2.5 microns (PM10 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), and the potential of stormwater runoff (m3 /year) as performed by the same green cover unit. References are reported in Table 1.

Table 1. UES flows as derived by the London i-Tree Eco Project UES categories

UES flow

Carbon storage

106.02 ton CO2 /year/ha

Carbon sequestration

3.46 ton CO2 /year/ha

Stormwater runoff

153.16 m3 water/year/ha

Air purification

0.1 ton pollutants/year/ha

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3 Results Preliminary Land-use Analysis shown that the four sample cells are mostly characterised by dense urban patterns: multi-storey apartment buildings and detached houses are predominantly characterised by residential uses whereas historic fabrics and terraced houses also have a significant amount of trading. Municipal and neighbourhood services such as schools, churches, university departments, municipal offices and civic libraries are mainly located within the city centre both in historic fabrics and terraced houses whereas are completely absent in urban peripheries and suburbs which are characterised by detached houses and multi-storey apartment buildings. However, as it can be seen across the four sample cells, public open spaces cover only a very tiny portion of the land. Land cover Analysis results are mapped in Fig. 1 and summarised in Table 2. Historic fabrics, terraced houses and multi-storey apartment buildings were predominantly covered by buildings, both with pitched and flat roofs, by roads and by impervious surfaces, which resulted predominant over the total area (95.8% in historic fabrics, 91.9% in terraced houses and 76.8% in multi-storey apartment buildings). Very few permeable open spaces were found, often characterised by inner courtyards of buildings, in the case of the historic fabrics, or unused bare soil in terraced houses. The resulting permeable area accounted only 4.2% in historic fabrics and 8.1% in terraced houses. Inversely, multi-storey apartment buildings resulted in 23.2% of permeable surfaces as represented by the private green setbacks. Finally, detached houses, made of isolated buildings scattered throughout the land, shown a balanced distribution between impervious (52.4%) and permeable surfaces (47.6%).

Fig. 1. Land cover map (1. Historic fabrics, 2. Terraced houses, 3. Multi-storey apartment buildings, 4. Detached houses)

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The B&L Analysis allowed to detect the monumental buildings characterised by high levels of architectural and historic values, the ruined buildings that have been damaged and lost their original architectural features and the abandoned or underused buildings and open spaces. However, the majority of the land is still occupied by residential and/or trading buildings blocks. Table 2. Distribution of land cover categories (area and percentage) across urban morphology types Historic fabrics

Terraced houses

Multi-storey apartment buildings

Detached houses

Land cover categories

m2

m2

m2

%

m2

Trees

1965

1.2

1716

1.1

19,390

12.1

13,189

8.1

Shrubs

389

0.2

-

-

-

291

0.2

%

%

-

%

Trees on impervious surface

2687

1.7

3870

2.4

278

0.2

278

Herbaceous vegetation

781

0.5

27

0.0

3561

2.2

29,973

0.2

Water

30

0.0

-

-

-

-

268

Bare soil

836

0.5

7557

4.7

13,945

8.7

33,434

20.6

11.3

16,432

10.1

18.4 0.2

Buildings with pitched roofs

87,806

54.9

31,218

19.2

18,114

Buildings with flat roofs

6493

4.1

32,851

20.2

5313

Impervious surfaces

11,769

7.4

21,909

13.5

64,283

40.2

39,920

24.6

Roads

47,244

29.5

63,088

38.9

35,116

21.9

27,181

16.7

3.3

1596

1.0

The Landownership Analysis results showed a balance between public and private land for historic fabrics and terraced houses whilst multi-storey apartment buildings and detached houses resulted mainly characterised by privately owned land (respectively 73.6% and 79.5%). As a preliminary step to the Transformability Assessment, land patches already equipped with greenery (trees, shrubs, trees on impervious surfaces, herbaceous vegetation, bare soil) as well as those patches not allowing to add new greenery (buildings with pitched roof) were considered as unsuitable to host NBS and consequently excluded. In addition, part of the roads network was excluded because some roads were already equipped with street trees and the remaining part was considered as partially suitable for NBS, because vehicular traffic had to be eventually guaranteed. Therefore, an 80% flat-rate was estimated as the percentage of non-transformable road surface. As a final result, the land area suitable to host NBS was 17.3% (= 27,680 m2 ) in the historic fabrics, 46.5% (= 74,400 m2 ) in terraced houses, 48.2% (= 77,120 m2 ) in the multi-storey apartment buildings and 44.4% (= 71,040 m2 ), which was characterised by buildings with flat roof and open impervious spaces. Thus, for each of those land cover patches a Transformability Assessment was undertaken in order to evaluate their aptitude to host new potential NBS when referring to B&L and Landownership transformability scores. Results showed that the most transformable elements were impervious squares, impervious open spaces, roads and buildings with flat roofs which resulted with the highest levels of transformability both in terms of B&L and Landownership scores (respectively green and green). Reversely, the less transformable patches resulted the monumental buildings with flat roof (B&L score = orange and Landownership score = orange) and buildings with pitched roof (B&L score = orange and Landownership score = red) (Table 3).

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Private

Public

B&L

Landownership

Scenarios

Impervious squares

Minimum Public

Impervious open spaces

Minimum Public

Roads

Minimum Public

Monumental buildings with flat roofs

Public heritage

Buildings with flat roofs

Minimum Public

Buildings with pitched roofs

Transformation

Impervious open spaces

Private

Monumental buildings with flat roofs

Private

Buildings with flat roofs

Private

Buildings with pitched roofs

Transformation

Combining the couples of transformability scores as assigned to each land patch, four scenarios were finally drawn (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Land Transformability Scenarios map (1. Historic fabrics, 2. Terraced houses, 3. Multistorey apartment buildings, 4. Detached houses)

Minimum public scenario included buildings with flat roof, roads and impervious surfaces. This scenario prioritised the transformation of public spaces and streets that

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were considered always suitable for NBS installation such as large-width roads, squares in front of schools and internal courtyards of historic buildings hosting public facilities. As a second option, the Public heritage scenario involved monumental buildings with flat roof and impervious surfaces of inner courtyards belonging to the public realm. Third, the Private scenario envisaged the transformation of private properties in order to maximise the NBS implementation. In this case, only buildings with flat roof, both regular and monumental, and privately owned impervious surfaces were considered. Finally, the Transformation scenario was based on re-designing the abandoned/underused open spaces both public and private owned. The Minimum Public scenario was the most effective in the first sample cell with a percentage of transformable areas of 58.7% (Table 4). In the other three sample cells the prevailing scenario was the Private with percentages of 58.4%, 87.9% and 55.0% respectively. The least effective scenario was the Public heritage, which only applied in the first sample cell with a percentage of 15.8%. The Transformation scenario was also not very effective: historic fabrics did not show suitable areas, while in the other three sample cells the percentages were respectively 9.4%, 0.6% and 34.1%. The most effective combination was the Private scenario. Indeed, if the individual percentages of the private scenarios are added together, out of the total area of the sample cell (4.4%, 27.2%, 42.4%, 24.4%), this results in a total transformable area of 157,440 m2 . The Table 4. Transformable areas for NBS across the four urban morphology types and scenarios Urban morphology categories

Scenarios

transformable area (m2 )

% of suitable area

% of sample cell area

Historic fabrics

Min Public

16,263.8

58.7

10.2

Public heritage

4379

15.8

2.7

Private

7073

25.5

4.4

Transformation

-

-

-

32.2

15.0

-

-

58.4

27.2

9.4

4.4

11.5

5.5

Terraced houses

Multi-storey apartment buildings

Detached houses

Min Public

23,931.6

Public heritage

-

Private

43,442

Transformation

7003

Min Public

8849.2

Public heritage

-

Private

67,798

Transformation

460

-

-

87.9

42.4

0.6

0.3

10.9

4.9

-

-

Min Public

7785.2

Public heritage

-

Private

39,089

55.0

24.4

Transformation

24,253

34.1

15.2

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Public heritage scenario makes the smallest contribution with only 2.7% of the total area of the first sample cell, for a total of 4320 m2 . The Minimum Public and Transformation scenarios provide the two intermediate contributions with a transformable area over the total of the four sample cells of 56,960 m2 and 31,840 m2 respectively. Results of UES assessment are shown in Table 5. The Minimum Public scenario is the most effective in historic fabrics with a flow of 172.4 ton/yr of carbon storage, 5.6 ton/yr of carbon sequestration, 0.16 ton/yr of air purification and 249.1 m3 /yr of stormwater runoff. In the other three sample cells the prevailing scenario was the Private Table 5. UES flows across the four urban morphology types and the four scenarios Historic fabrics

Terraced houses

Multi-storey apartment buildings

Detached houses

UES categories

Scenarios

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

green UES area ha flow ton/yr

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

carbon storage

Min Public

1.63

172.4

2.39

253.7

0.88

93.8

0.78

82.5

Public herit

0.44

46.4

-

-

-

-

-

-

Private

0.71

75.0

4.34

460.6

6.78

718.8

3.91

414.4

Transform -

-

0.70

74.3

0.046

4.9

2.43

257.1

TOT

293.9

788.6

817.5

754.1

Carbon Min sequestration Public

1.63

5.6

2.39

8.3

0.88

3.1

0.78

2.7

Public herit

0.44

1.5

-

-

-

-

-

-

Private

0.71

Air purification

2.6

4.34

15.0

6.78

23.4

3.91

13.5

Transform -

-

0.70

2.4

0.05

0.2

2.43

8.4

TOT

9.58

25.7

26.7

24.6

Min Public

1.63

0.16

2.39

0.24

0.88

0.09

0.78

0.08

Public herit

0.44

0.04

-

-

-

-

-

-

Private

0.71

0.07

4.34

0.44

6.78

0.68

3.91

0.39

Transform -

-

0.70

0.07

0.046

0.00

2.43

0.24

TOT

0.28

0.75

0.77

0.71

m3 /yr ha

m3 /yr ha

m3 /yr ha

m3 /yr

ha

(continued)

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Table 5. (continued) Historic fabrics

Terraced houses

Multi-storey apartment buildings

Detached houses

UES categories

Scenarios

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

green UES area ha flow ton/yr

green UES area flow ha ton/yr

Stormwater runoff

Min Public

1.63

249.1

2.39

366.5

0.88

135.5

0.78

119.2

Public herit

0.44

67.07

-

-

-

-

-

-

Private

0.71

108.3

4.34

665.4

6.78

1,04

3.91

598.7

Transform -

-

0.70

107.3

0.046

7.05

2.43

371.5

TOT

424.5

1139

1181

1089

with 460.6, 718.8 and 414.4 ton/yr respectively flow of carbon storage, sequestration and air purification. The least effective scenario was the Public heritage, which only applied in the first sample cell with a flow of carbon storage of 46.4 ton/yr, 1.5 ton/yr of carbon sequestration, 0.04 ton/yr of air purification and 67.07 m3 /yr of stormwater runoff.

4 Discussion and Conclusions This study provided a method to explore four scenarios for allocating NBS alongside four urban morphology types that shown different responses in terms of transformability and suitability to host NBS and to provide UES. Results clearly shown that the two public scenarios (Minimum public and Max Public) were the most performing in historic fabrics whereas the Private scenario better performed in terraced houses, multistorey apartment buildings and detached houses. The transformation scenario, which prospected the demolition of both public/private ruined or abandoned or underused buildings, shown high level of feasibility only in urban fabrics characterised by detached houses whilst in the other morphology types it shown much more constrains and limitations to be undertaken. From the UES side, Private scenario continued to be the most performing in terms of provision of carbon storage and sequestration, air purification and water runoff particularly within the terraced houses and the multi-storey apartment buildings. Minimum public shown highest level of UES provision in historic fabrics and terraced houses. The complex morphological features of built environment require a better understanding of its land covers and different property assets to develop feasible and effective policies aimed at implementing NBS while enhancing the provision of UES. Indeed, distinguishing between public and private is a crucial point because when planning the allocation of NBS in cities, the identification of land tenure is crucial for assessing the actual viability of the proposed urban transformation [14]. This feature is particularly relevant because landownership can strongly affect the allocation of public

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and/or private resources within the urban fabric. Indeed, operating on a private-owned land implies more negotiation with different landowners, while transformation of public land usually tends to be easier, provided that it is shared at political level. Nevertheless, the proposed methodology presents some limitations. The subjective selection of the four sample cells as a case study represents a weak point in that a different choice of cells could provide different results. This could be overcome through a random sampling approach for selecting a wider set of sample cells to be analysed while providing more robust and statistical sound results. In addition, this study only took into account the UES as analysed in the London i-Tree Eco Project. A step forward in research may be the investigation of other UES such as air temperature and humidity reduction. Finally, comparing the proposed methodology to other similar studies is a prospected further step of this research. However, the methodology proposed in this study could support the developing of a comprehensive planning policy based on the assessment of economic viability of public and private investment for allocating NBS in different morphological parts of the city while balancing public and private costs and benefits [15]. This could contribute to innovate urban planning practices at local level through providing a framework of information and quantitative data for better addressing the private and public financial resources towards the most effective solutions while increasing the clarity and objectivity of the decision process. That is an extremely relevant issue for those cities heavily affected by severe heat waves and floodings, characterised by very low levels of greenery and local authorities have not still experienced clear and effective sustainable development strategies.

References 1. Levy, A.: Urban morphology and the problem of the modern urban fabric: some questions for research. Urban Morphol. 3(2), 79–85 (1999) 2. Vernez Moudon, A.: Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field. Urban Morphol. 1(1), 3–10 (1997) 3. Araos, M., Berrang-Ford, L., Ford, J.D., Austin, S.E., Biesbroek, R., Lesnikowski, A.: Climate change adaptation planning in large cities: a systematic global assessment. Environ Sci Policy 66, 375–382 (2016) 4. IPCC (2014) Climate Change: Mitigation of Climate Change (Assessment Report no. 5, Chapter 12 - Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning). Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change 5. Emami, K.: Adaptive flood risk management. Irrig. Drain. 69(2), 230–242 (2020) 6. Privitera, R., La Rosa, D.: Planning criteria for nature-based solutions in cities. In: Costanzo, V., Evola, G., Marletta, L. (eds.) Urban heat stress and mitigation solutions. An engineering perspective, pp. 368–384. Routledge Publisher (2021) 7. Pacetti, T., et al.: Planning nature based-solutions against urban pluvial flooding in heritage cities: a spatial multi criteria approach for the city of florence (Italy). J. Hydrol. Regional Stud. 41, 101081 (2022) 8. Marando, F., Salvatori, E., Sebastiani, A., Fusaro, L., Manes, F.: Regulating ecosystem services and green infrastructure: assessment of urban heat island effect mitigation in the municipality of Rome, Italy. Ecol. Model. 392, 92–102 (2019) 9. Derkzen, M.L., van Teeffelen, A.J.A., Verburg, P.H.: Green infrastructure for urban climate adaptation: How do residents’ views on climate impacts and green infrastructure shape adaptation preferences? Landsc. Urban Plan. 157, 106–130 (2017)

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10. Tittonell, P.: Livelihood strategies, resilience and transformability in African agroecosystems. Agric. Syst. 126, 3–14 (2014) 11. Marull, J., Pino, J., Mallarach, J.M., Cordobilla, M.J.: A land suitability index for strategic environmental assessment in metropolitan areas. Landsc. Urban Plan. 81, 200–212 (2007) 12. Walker, B., Holling, C.S., Carpenter, S.R., Kinzig, A.: Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems, Ecology & Society: 9–5 (2004) 13. Rogers, K., Sacre, K., Goodenough, J., Doick, K.: Valuing London Urban’s Forest: Results of the London i-Tree Eco Project. Treeconomics, London (2015) 14. Bengston, D.N., Fletcher, J.O., Nelson, K.C.: Public policies for managing urban growth and protecting open space: policy instruments and lessons learned in the United States. Landsc. Urban Plan. 69, 271–286 (2004) 15. Privitera, R., Ma, J.: Planning Green Spaces Investments for Improving Health and Well-Being in Cities Through Valuing Urban Nature. In: La Rosa, D., Privitera, R. (eds.) Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning: Proceedings of the 11th INPUT Conference - Volume 2, pp. 38– 46. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-969 85-1_5

Territorial Regeneration Between Sustainable Land Use and the Enhancement of Ecosystem Services Carmen Ulisse(B)

, Federico Falasca , Cristina Montaldi , and Alessandro Marucci

University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, AQ, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. In the panorama of knowledge of the Ecosystem Services (ES) and their applications on the territory, it is interesting the case study aimed at identifying the ES in an area with a high degree of naturalness such as the Maiella National Park (MNP). In collaboration with the MNP, the key objective of this research is to investigate the contribution that the reuse of some abandoned areas can determine in terms of ES. In this way, attention can be paid to the balance between ES and the need to reactivate forms of sustainable local economies that can, through specific projects such as the “Banca della Terra d’Abruzzo” (Regional Law No. 26/2015), actively contribute to green deal policies. The purpose shared with the MNP is to implement the production of scenarios regarding land use change and then to quantify the advantages or disadvantages in terms of variation of ES. In this way, it will be possible to determine which solution is most suitable for the areas under investigation and provide the institutions with the necessary tools to enhance the territory. At the same time, provide guidance on sustainable land management measures that adhere highly to the strategies and objectives of the 2030 Agenda. This study represents the main result of a collaboration between the University of L’Aquila and the MNP for the creation of a unified database able to inform potential stakeholders about the actual condition of uncultivated/abandoned public and private units, contextually deepening some important ecosystem services. Keywords: Territorial Regeneration · Ecosystem Services (ES) · Abandoned Areas

1 Introduction In carrying out their normal activities urban centers, whether small, medium, or large, require material flows for self-supporting [1]. Searching a solution to these highly heterotrophic systems, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has been declined over time according to a wide variety of needs [2–4]. Some importance has certainly been given to the management of services as means of supply of feedstock [5]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 106–116, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_10

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In the international scenario, therefore, regeneration and sustainable land development inevitably go through a series of actions aimed at refunctionalizing and restoring portions of land and/or ecosystems [6]. At the same time, land consumption is a phenomenon that, since the middle of the last century, shows no signs of decreasing, swallowing up, and now making entire portions of land unavailable, contributing to exacerbate climate change derived problematics [7]. From a legislative standpoint, the European community is still struggling to produce a law on soil health [8]. However, within the perspective of restoring and optimizing the land heritage, there are the initiatives of individual member states. In Italy, the “Banca della Terra” [9] project represents the attempt to systematize a series of areas whose redevelopment is configured both as a fundamental objective for the restoration of the common agricultural heritage and as an opportunity to reform contemporary development paradigms. The concept of ecosystem services is hence an indispensable tool in the construction of sustainable land policies [10]. From urban health to the implementation of green alternatives to transportation and waste management, numerous studies aim to incorporate the goods and benefits that ecosystems can offer to humans into spatial planning and governance [2, 11]. Nevertheless, the ability to express the potential of these applications in “transitional” territories is still smoky and far from being fully exploited. This is the case of transitional areas, in which the boundary between protected and non-protected areas becomes thin and in which the implementation of interventions, aimed at the preservation and maintenance of biodiversity, mixes with several development drives [12]. In this framework, the identification of areas susceptible to change, defined by the co-presence of development thrusts and a low cogency of the protection objectives of the areas in which they are included, plays a key role. This work aims to calculate the ES that a territory can provide to determine the best scenario in abandoned and/or uncultivated areas and provide an additional tool for the management of such areas. Section 2 “Case study” identifies the area of investigation and the relationship with the protected areas present, in Sect. 3 the methods of investigation and the data used are shown. The Sect. 4 “Result” describes the outcome of the analysis. Related comments and conclusions are addressed in Sect. 5.

2 Case Study The study area is located in the Apennine area of central Italy and it covers 14 municipalities in the inner zone of Abruzzo belonging to the provinces of Pescara (PE), Chieti (CH) e L’Aquila (AQ): Abbateggio; Bolognano; Caramanico Terme; Fara San Martino; Lama Dei Peligni; Lettomanoppello; Manoppello; Montenerodomo; Pacentro; Pretoro; Roccamorice; San Valentino in A.C.; Serramonacesca; Tocco da Casauria. Specifically, municipalities falling within the MNP boundaries have been considered. The protected area involves the presence of portions of municipalities above 1000 m a.s.l. This aspect affects the demographic flows of the study area: over time, there has been the phenomenon of depopulation of mountain areas towards areas that offer greater services and possibilities in favor of more accessible territories. The municipalities of

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Manoppello and Lettomanoppello are very important from the economic-industrial point of view for the presence of important industrial poles and the presence of the Freight Logistics Village “Interporto d’Abruzzo”. Another important economic reality is the pasta factory “De Cecco” located in the Municipality of Fara San Martino, while the rest of the study area is characterized by medium-small craft activities of weaving and iron processing. 2.1 The Protected Areas System In this area there are 7 Sites of Community Importance (SCI) (Table 1) [13, 14] and 8 Protected Areas [15]. Among them, the Maiella National Park (IT7140129 like ZPS, EUAP0013) is the largest protected area, comprehending portions of the minor ones (Fig. 1). The MNP involves 39 municipalities for a total of 74.095 hectares. Table 1. Sites of Community Importance included within the boundaries of the study area. Code

Name

IT7130031 Fonte di Papa IT7130105 Rupe di Turrivalignani e Fiume Pescara IT7140043 Monti Pizzi – Monte Secine IT7140115 Bosco Paganello (Montenerodomo) IT7140118 Lecceta di Casoli e Bosco di Colleforeste

Surface (ha) ZSC ZPS In MNP 811,33

X

X

184,90

X

4195,20

X

592,82

X

X X

596,21

X

IT7140203 Maiella

36119,37

X

IT7140129 Parco Nazionale della Maiella

74095,00

X

X X

coincident

In the next paragraph materials and methods will be described, to assure the replicability of the methodology. Methodological steps will be articulated as follows: – – – –

Identification of areas subject to land use transformation. Definition of models for ES calculation. Definition of the classes considered for scenario change of LULC. Definition of scenarios.

3 Materials and Methods This paragraph shows the methodological process used in this work. First, the areas subject to land use change have been identified. Subsequently, based on LULC codes, several ecosystem services have been calculated [16]. After the definition of the actual condition, the LULC codes have been selected and replaced with other LULC codes to obtain transformation scenario.

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Fig. 1. Location map of the study area and location of SCI in relation to the Maiella National Park (MNP)

3.1 Preliminary Elaborations This work focuses on 468 cadastral parcels. The latter have been surveyed by the MNP with the objective to identify all the uncultivated/abandoned areas. First, the distinction based on the park zoning has been made. Considering the different park zones classification: A Zone “full reserve”; B Zone “General oriented reserve”; C Zone “Protection area”; D Zone “Area of economic and social promotion”, only parcels falling under the lower protection ones (C and D zones) have been considered. The reason is that for these areas a certain degree of human activities is allowed. For the same reason only parcels falling outside the perimeter of the SCI, if present, have been selected. In the case of parcels areas falling into several zones, the intersection between the zoning layer of the Park (“Zoning map” - Annex Plan of the Maiella Park [17]) and the one of the parcel elements has allowed the discretization of the geometries falling into the study area, returning 490 parcel elements (Fig. 2). Parcels (or portions of them) characterized by wood have also been excluded, due to the constraints that protect these areas. Later the areas under study will be identified by the term “Net Parcels”. 3.2 Scenarios Creation and Ecosystem Services Comparison To investigate the contribution that the reuse and the repurposing of specific uncultivated and/or abandoned areas has on the annexed ecosystem functionalities and services, a two-step analysis has been set. In the first step, a recognition of the “base scenario” comprehending parcel distribution and associated ecosystem services has been realized. In this step parcels that were likely to undergo a change in land cover/land use have been identified.

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Fig. 2. Example of parcels division according to MNP zonation

– – – – –

Extensive crops, LUCL = 2112; Stable grassland (permanent forage), LULC = 2300; Agricultural areas with important natural areas, LULC = 2430; Natural pasture and grassland, LULC = 4100; Open areas with little or no vegetation, LULC = 4600.

These specific LULC classes have been considered susceptible to changes due to their characteristics of already present human activities and being attractive for their expansion. In the second step, four different hypothetical scenarios have been produced. Here, an expansion of the LULC classes already existing inside the municipalities have been envisaged. The study area has been reclassified focusing on the following LULC categories: – – – –

Scenario 1, Extensive crops (LULC = 2112) Scenario 2, Intensive crops (LULC = 2111) Scenario 3, Olive groves (LULC = 2230) Scenario 4, Vineyards (LULC = 2210)

For each scenario ecosystem services (Table 2) have been calculated. Finally, a comparison with the actual condition has been realized. In Simulsoil, a portion of the territory in the municipalities of Serramonacesca and Pretoro has been excluded during the identification of the watershed. To compensate for this lack, some models have been developed in InVEST since the file extension is decided by the operator. As for the UFRM model, it is present only on the InVEST software. Among the input data that models require, the most significant one that provides the resolution of the output is Land Use Land Cover (LULC) expressed through the Corine Land Cover 2018 (CLC) with a resolution of 20 m/pix. The next chapter shows the result of the research: a brief analysis carried out on the parcels, and the output data of Invest and Simulsoil models with comparison between the scenarios.

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Table 2. Models and software used to compute the relative Ecosystem Service Model

Software

Crop Production (CPR)

Simulsoil

Annual Water Yield (WY)

InVEST

Carbon Storage & Sequestration (CS)

Simulsoil

Urban Flood Risk Mitigation (UFRM)

InVEST

Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR)

InVEST

Crop Pollination (CPO)

Simulsoil

Habitat Quality (HQ)

Simulsoil

4 Result 4.1 Preliminary Result The results of the analyses conducted on the parcels, with the comparison between the land registry and the zoning of the park, shows that the greatest number of parcels fall in Zone B “General oriented reserve” and C “Protection area”. This result is reversed considering the extent of the parcels. In this case, most of the area falls in zone A “full reserve” and in zone B “General oriented reserve” (Table 3). Table 3. Elements classification according to MNP zonation and SCI perimeter MNP’s zooning

N. of elements

Surface (ha)

A

128

1034,62

78

34,28

B

176

330,05

139

185,94

C

174

253,32

97

85,43

12

3,77

8

2,91

490

1621,75

322

308,57

Outside of the MNP TOT

N. of elements outside of the SCI

Surface outside of the SCI (ha)

Considering the exclusion criteria of the zoning of the MNP and the boundary of the SCI, the area under study is composed of 105 elements for a total area of 88.34 ha. Excluding wooded areas, the intervention area (Net Parcels) has an extension of 66.18 ha. In the following sub-paragraph, from the analysis carried out at the municipal level, the results for Net Parcels have been extrapolated. 4.2 Ecosystem Services Elaborations The base scenario of the ES confirms the high degree of naturalness of the study area expressed by quality indices above 0.63 (with a minimum of 0.57 in the Municipality of

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Manoppello), a low runoff index (mm), and a high runoff retention index (mc) (Table 4). The latter are inversely proportional to each other and suggest the presence of high permeable surfaces. The output of the models shows in the table the average values referred to the only parcels subject to land use change (Net Parcels). The output of the CPR model expresses a spatialization of the VAM (Valori Agricoli Medi - Agricultural Average Values) as they indicate the service level of actual productivity through the parametric value expressed in e/ha. The output is discrete in nature, and to each category of land use is associated a unique value of VAM. For this reason, in Table 4 is reported the most present value in the analysis area. In the present case, the VAM of 20544 e/ha is associated with “olive groves” (LULC = 2230), while the value of 2546 e/ha is associated with “natural pasture and grassland areas” (LULC = 4100). The “Annual Water Yield” (WY) model estimates the annual average quantity of water produced by a watershed. The output is expressed in mm/pix (intermediate model output). Table 4. Results of Land Use transformation of Net Parcels Model outputs

Base scenario

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Scenario 3 Scenario 4

CPR

VAM (e/ha)

2546

10899 Extensive crops

24558 Intensive crops

20544 Olive groves

25937 Vineyards

CS

Carbon Storage 5,70 (ton/ha)

3,14

2,78

2,62

1,98

WY

Water Yield (mm/pix)

633,32

283,80

297,73

261,94

310,16

HQ

Quality Index

0,7

0,6

0,3

0,5

0,5

CPO

Abundance of pollinator

0,11

0,08

0,06

0,04

0,06

Abundance of pollinator that overlap farms

0,12

0,04

0,04

0,03

0,05

Runoff (mm)

22,72

14,14

14,40

3,09

3,62

Runoff retention(mc)

11,67

15,11

15,00

4,88

19,31

UFRM

As an example, the output map of CPR model with the Net Parcels. In addition, the previous Fig. 3(b) shows the limit of the model to perceive small agricultural areas and how the output resolution changes by expanding the area of land use change (parcels aggregation).

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Fig. 3. (a) Output map of Crop Production model; (b) Sensitivity of the model to perceive small agricultural areas (red box)

5 Conclusions and Discussion The paper presented a methodology to estimate the Ecosystem Services that the study area can provide. The analyses carried out represent an information base able to provide an economic assessment of the ES. In terms of ES variation, the optimal situation is the invariance of land use in Net Parcels. To give priority to the ecosystem service of Agricultural Production (expressed through the VAM), the best scenario is the one that provides for the planting of vineyards (VAM equal to 25937 e/ha). This would also provide the highest water availability (WY) and runoff retention. At the same time, there would be a degradation of carbon storage capacity compared to other scenarios. This decrease is even more evident by comparing the values of Scenario 4 with the base scenario, characterized by the diversification of the LULC, in which there are stable meadows (about 2 ha), agricultural cultures with important natural spaces (about 3.5 ha), pasture areas and grasslands (about 13 ha), and open areas with sparse or absent vegetation (about 47 ha). Most of the area of the Net Parcels (48% of the total) is located at an altitude above 1100 m a.s.l.: currently, there are few types of grape native to these quotas, but several studies say that in the future, due to climate change, higher altitudes may be considered suitable [18]. The second-best scenario is the establishment of intensive crops (VAM of 24558 e/ha). This choice has general benefits in terms of ES with also improved carbon storage capacity. In addition, the diversification of intensive crops can be envisaged according to the geomorphological characteristics of the territory and the characteristics of the plantations [19]. The quality index (0.3) demonstrates

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how this type of crop compromises the biodiversity of the territory and it could also compromise further ES related to the presence of pollinators, the nutrient properties of soil, and the alteration of water quality due to the use of pesticides and fertilizers [20]. If the soil is suitable for geomorphological properties and adaptability to agricultural activities, it is possible to insert it in the database of the Bank of the Land of Abruzzo making it available for agricultural concessions to citizens and implementing a policy of territorial regeneration of rural areas [21]. Any activity or change in land use, for the areas within the boundaries of the MNP, must be compatible with the Park Plan [17]. In any case, it is necessary to approach the territory with sustainable management of crop types using Best Practices and agricultural engineering techniques to make agricultural production more efficient and at the same time not to compromise the present ecosystem balance [20]. Overall, the portions of parcels do not create an ecological continuity, so they determine a localized impact that could be mitigated by the ES of the surrounding territory. These results should consider intrinsic simplifications and approximations that make analysis easier but introduce uncertainties in models. For example, in CPR and CPO models, large-scale analyses (a set of several municipalities from which to extrapolate the results of parcel elements) make it difficult to identify small agricultural areas and thus provide values for them (Fig. 3b). For the CPR model, the different crops are associated through simplified groupings identified as “Macro classes” of production: arable land, vineyards, orchards and minor fruits, olive groves, and stable meadows. Since each macro-class represents several crops, the ISTAT data have been mediated on each macro-class using as weight the area occupied by each crop and the average values have been spatialized on all the provinces [22]. For the CPO model, there are linked to the estimation of the abundance of pollinators, for the difficulty in finding data on the density of nests and the availability of resources. To these are added the criticalities linked to the size of the nesting areas, which need a minimum size for the survival of the species and the fact that only wild species of pollinators are considered, neglecting the component provided by beekeeping. The HQ model considers threats on the territory according to a linear model but, if combined, the impact that they can determine can be greater. In addition, to prevent the ES from being mitigated by the margin effect, the land use layer has been amplified by the administrative limits. For the WY and UFRM models, the approximations concern the unit of measurement of the results: based on pixels (400 m2 ) compared to the watershed. The proposed methodology uses open source gis-based systems as technological solution accessible to Public Administrations (PA), a key segment for the transfer of knowledge [23]. This type of approach makes it possible to determine the situation of a territory, the past evolution (using historical data), and future evolution (by proposing scenarios). By doing this, it has been possible to determine how the territory has changed due to social and economic pressures, how it has been influenced by the protected areas system and its influences to the land management choices. The application of this knowledge makes sense if it involves large territorial areas in several municipalities, to encourage a strategic and coordinated approach, to determine a co-responsibility on the

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functionality of Ecosystem Services in the various sectoral planning, and to create a link between administrative entities at both regional and local level [24].

References 1. Pickett, S.T.A., et al.: Urban ecological systems: linking terrestrial ecological, physical, and socioeconomic components of metropolitan areas. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 32, 127–157 (2001) 2. Evans, D.L., et al.: Ecosystem service delivery by urban agriculture and green infrastructure – a systematic review. Ecosyst. Serv. 54, 101405 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOSER. 2022.101405 3. Vidal, D.G., et al.: Clustering public urban green spaces through ecosystem services potential: a typology proposal for place-based interventions. Environ. Sci. Policy 132, 262–272 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENVSCI.2022.03.002 4. Brzoska, P., Sp¯ag‘ e, A.: From city-to site-dimension: assessing the urban ecosystem services of different types of green infrastructure. Land (Basel) 9, 150 (2020) 5. Swinton, S.M., Lupi, F., Robertson, G.P., Hamilton, S.K.: Ecosystem services and agriculture: cultivating agricultural ecosystems for diverse benefits. Ecol. Econ. (2007). https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.09.020 6. Bonfante, A., Basile, A., Bouma, J.: Targeting the soil quality and soil health concepts when aiming for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the EU Green Deal. Soil 6, 453–466 (2020) 7. Seto, K.C., Shepherd, J.M.: Global urban land-use trends and climate impacts. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 1, 89–95 (2009) 8. Ronchi, S., Salata, S., Arcidiacono, A., Piroli, E., Montanarella, L.: Policy instruments for soil protection among the EU member states: a comparative analysis. Land Use Policy 82, 763–780 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.017 9. Gazzetta Ufficiale. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2016/08/10/16G00169/sg%20. Accessed 20 June 2023 10. Isola, F., Lai, S., Leone, F., Zoppi, C.: Green Infrastructure and Regional Planning: An Operational Framework: An Operational Framework. FrancoAngeli (2022) 11. Rall, E.L., Kabisch, N., Hansen, R.: A comparative exploration of uptake and potential application of ecosystem services in urban planning. Ecosyst. Serv. 16, 230–242 (2015). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.10.005 12. Capotorti, G., Valeri, S., Giannini, A., Minorenti, V., Piarulli, M., Audisio, P.: On the role of natural and induced landscape heterogeneity for the support of pollinators: a green infrastructure perspective applied in a peri-urban system. Land (Basel) 12, 387 (2023). https://doi.org/ 10.3390/land12020387 13. DIRETTIVA 92/43/CEE DEL CONSIGLIO del 21 maggio 1992 relativa alla conservazione degli habitat naturali e seminaturali e della flora e della fauna selvatiche (1992) 14. DIRETTIVA 2009/147/CE DEL PARLAMENTO EUROPEO E DEL CONSIGLIO del 30 novembre 2009 concernente la conservazione degli uccelli selvatici (2009). https://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32009L0147 15. L. 394/91 - Legge quadro sulle aree protette 16. © European Union: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2018, European Environment Agency (EEA) (2018) 17. Parco Nazionale della Maiella. https://www.parcomajella.it/pagine.php?pagina=146&mes= 5&ann=2020&blog=. Accessed 20 June 2023 18. Mansour, G., Ghanem, C., Mercenaro, L., Nassif, N., Hassoun, G., Del Caro, A.: Effects of altitude on the chemical composition of grapes and wine: a review. Oeno One 56, 227–239 (2022). https://doi.org/10.20870/oeno-one.2022.56.1.4895

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19. Gaba, S., et al.: Multiple cropping systems as drivers for providing multiple ecosystem services: from concepts to design. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 35, 607–623 (2015). https://doi.org/10. 1007/s13593-014-0272-z 20. Tilman, D., Cassman, K.G., Matson, P.A., Naylor, R., Polasky, S.: Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418, 671–677 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nat ure01014 21. Consiglio Regionale: L.R. 8 ottobre 2015, n. 26 - Banca della Terra d’Abruzzo (2015) 22. Assennato, F., et al.: Mappatura e valutazione dell’impatto del consumo di suolo sui servizi ecosistemici: proposte metodologiche per il Rapporto sul consumo di suolo 23. Alicandro, M., Zollini, S., Pascucci, N., Dominici, D., Oxoli, D., Brescia, D.: Design and implementation of an open-source Web-GIS to manage the public works of Abruzzo region: an example towards the digitalization of the management process of public administrations. In: International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives, pp. 21–26. International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (2022). https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W1-2022-21-2022 24. Santolini, R., Morri, E., Scolozzi, R.: Mettere in gioco i servizi ecosistemici: limiti e opportunità di nuovi scenari sociali ed economici. Ri-Vista. 9, 41–55 (2011)

Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services to Guide the Revision Process of Land-Use Plan. A Methodological Framework Monica Pantaloni1,2(B) , Francesco Botticini1 , Silvia Mazzoni1 , Luca Domenella1 , and Giovanni Marinelli1 1 Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning SIMAU, Polytechnic

University of Marche, Marche, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, Polytechnic University of Marche, Marche, Italy

Abstract. Nowadays, several experiences in the spatial planning show that a performance-based planning approach that introduces the ecosystem services provided via green infrastructure can positively influence the social dynamics and contribute to improve the quality of life in rural and urban environments. Despite the need to introduce ES and GI concepts and paradigms into the spatial planning process, in the Italian planning system the green component in cities is still planned at the municipal level by the Land Use Plan, which is based on prescriptive model of zoning. The paper analyses a research project developed for two case studies on different urban contexts in the Marche region (Central Italy) through a comparative method based on a multiscale planning approach to evaluate ecosystem services related to land uses and land use suitability. In both cases, this approach has positively influenced the revision process of the current Land Use Plan in supporting the design of green infrastructure to improve the environmental performance of cities. Keywords: green infrastructure · ecosystem services · urban green standard for public facilities · land use suitability

1 Introduction Nowadays, several experiences in the international literature show that a performancebased planning approach that introduces the ecosystem services (ES) paradigm in the city planning and design process can positively influence the social dynamics and contribute to improve the quality of life in rural and urban environments [1, 2]. In this scenario, one possible way to guarantee the provision of ES via spatial planning is based on the strategical planning and design of Green Infrastructure (GI) [3], seen as the “conceptual tool” [4] to manage ecological resources in cities. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 117–128, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_11

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In this framework, the union of natural resources and landscape on a territorial scale with the urban scale system of Green Spaces (UGS) [5] represents a key element to guarantee habitats connectivity [6] conservation of biodiversity [7] and the provision of regulating and cultural ES [8]. Despite the need to introduce ES and GI concepts and paradigms into the spatial planning process, in the Italian planning system the green component in cities is still planned at the municipal level by the Land Use Plan, which is based on prescriptive model of zoning, without considering the provision of expected ES. With this study, we analyze two of the main critical aspects to overcome. The first concerns the absence of a sectoral wide-range plan that integrate the ES conceptualization and analysis at the national and regional level, to guide the planning process at the local and consequently the municipal level [9]. The second one consists in the unsuitability of the existing Land-Use Plan structure, where the design of public spaces is merely based on a minimum quantity of ‘prescriptive standards’ to guarantee public facilities for citizens, instead of qualitative and performing instances [10]. The result of this approach in the main Italian experiences is an overall picture of a fragmented and non-cohesive framework of green areas, which must be included in the GI strategic vision to maximize multi-functionality and benefits of the ecosystems within the city [11]. To this end, a multiscale planning approach based on the design of GI can be effective to guide the decision-making process and governance in land-use planning, with particular attention to environmental aspect, soil uses and land use suitability [12]. In this scenario, the aim of this paper is to define a methodological framework that represent a way to transfer the concepts of ES and GI to the current practices of spatial planning, replicable in different Italian contexts. To do this, the paper analyses a research project developed for two case studies on different urban contexts in the Marche region (Central Italy). Section two report a comparative method adopted for the case studies that is based on a multiscale and multilevel planning approach. Section three illustrate the main results. Section four discuss how the adoption of new environmental strategies based on the ES provided via GI have positively influenced the process of revision of the current Land Use Plan to enhance the environmental performance in two different ways. Section five provide some concluding remarks.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Case Studies We selected two case studies located in Marche region, central part of Italy. The municipality of Falconara Marittima (first case study) is a small town located in the terminal part of the Esino river valley on the Adriatic coast and close to Ancona, the regional capital of the Marche region (central Italy). The total land area extends for 25.81 km2 , with a residential population of 25,727 and a population density of 996.78 (inhabitants/ km2 ). The municipality of Osimo, (second case study) is in the south-west part of Ancona between 17 and 360 m above sea level, in the hills between the sea and the Apennines

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of the Marche region. The total land area extends for 105.4 km2 , with a residential population of 33,991 and a population density of 322.4 (inhabitants/ km2 , [13, 14]. The two spatial contexts are particular significance for the application of the methodology for two reasons. The first concerns the similarity of morphological characters. In fact, both municipal territories have hilly and flat areas. Also, administrative boundaries are both included in the same Ecological Functional Unit n. 21 Colline tra Santa Maria Nuova ed Osimo, recognized by regional Ecological Network (REM, [15]). This constitutive element of the regional Ecological Network highlights the interrelationship between natural elements and anthropic activities which give rise to the diversity of the typical landscapes of the Marche Region. Therefore, the two municipalities present similar characteristics in landscape elements and habitat continuity, but differences in spatial settlement. In fact, the municipality of Falconara Marittima is representative of the ‘compact city’ model. Here, the urban area has been divided in three different contexts a) city center, Castelferretti, Rocca, b) two periurban contexts: Esino river, Barcaglione hills. Instead, the municipality of Osimo can be reconducted to the ‘dispersed city’ model, divided in a) the historical center and three urban contexts: Osimo Ovest, Osimo Sud, Osimo Stazione, b) eleven peri-urban areas: Abbadia, Aspio, Campocavallo, Casenuove, Padiglione, Passatempo, San Biagio, San Paterniano, San Sabino, Santo Stefano, Villa. For these reasons, the comparison between these two contexts allows precise assessments of environmental values in relation to spatial settlements and is therefore representative of the research objective. 2.2 Methodological Approach Methodology is divided in two steps: a) assessment of the large-scale ecological network; b) assessment of the green component of the Land Use Plan (UGS at the city scale) based on the recognition of the green standard for public facilities in line with the Italian law on urban planning standards (Ministerial Decree n. 1444/1968). Point a) consisted in: 1. Downscaling of environmental elements from the current spatial planning instruments (prescriptive and non) that manage landscape and natural resources at the territorial scale (PPAR; REM; PTC) [15–17]. 2. Geospatial census of different rural areas. The downscaling of the spatial planning levels from the regional to the local scale was based on the definition of the inter-municipal cooperation starting from geospatial localization of the Ecological Functional Units (UEF) defined by the Ecological Network of Marche Region (REM) [15]. These contexts summarize the environmental system by integrating information of a vegetational, fauna and anthropic nature, to characterize the ecological fabric in its different structural and functional articulations. To define the first local cluster of five municipalities: a) Falconara Marittima, b) Montemarciano, c) Monte San Vito, d) Chiaravalle, e) Camerata Picena, we selected the following UEF: n.16 Colli costieri di Senigallia; n.76 Valle dell’Esino; n. 82 Ancona; n.21 Colline tra Santa Maria Nuova ed Osimo. To define the second local cluster of

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six municipalities: a) Osimo, b) Castelfidardo, c) Camerano, d) Offagna, e) Polverigi, f) Santa Maria Nuova; we merged the UEF: n. 21 Colline tra Santa Maria Nuova ed Osimo, n. 25 Fascia basso collinare tra Musone e Potenza, n.77 Fondovalle del Musone (Fig. 1). The downscaling has been summarized in the following four steps. Step one: we defined the Local Ecological Network (Rete Ecologica Locale, REL) starting from the two clusters of municipalities. Then we selected the spatial layers from the regional planning instrument and georeferenced them from the 1:50.000 regional scale to provincial and then municipal scale (scales details 1:10.000 and 1:2.000). Step two: we overlapped the environmental resources of the network defined by Regional and Provincial planning tools (Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale PTC) such as: a) naturalistic continuity strips, b) respect strips, c) axes of the ridge, for both Municipalities and scaled them to define the Ecological Network on the municipal scale (Rete Ecologica Comunale, REC). The set of these elements forms the ‘backbone’ of the GI.

Fig. 1. Municipality of Falconara Marittima (top) and Osimo (down). UEF defined by REM and localization of municipalities interested by the downscaling process.

Step three: we overlayed selected level of knowledge from the three categories of the Regional Landscape Plan (Piano Paesistico Ambientale Regionale, PPAR): (a) geological/geomorphological/hydrogeological system; (b) botanical and vegetational system; (c) historical and cultural system (Table1). Data have been processed in GIS environment. The second phase consisted in the survey of the rural areas. For the municipality of Falconara Marittima the census was based on the “Carta della Natura Habitats”, developed by ISPRA [18]. This map georeferenced and classified the natural capital of Italy, identifying the protected areas to be preserved, for this it contributes to support the decision-making process in the planning and design of ecological networks. For the municipality of Osimo, we developed a census of the peri-urban area to define an overall picture of the existing botanical and vegetational elements. The geolocation

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Table 1. The spatial levels selected from the landscape and territorial planning instrument (regional and provincial scale). Planning instrument

legal framework

scale

Spatial levels selected

Regional Landscape Plan (Piano Paesistico Ambientale Regionale PPAR)

D.A.C.R. n. 197 of 3 November 1989

regional

a, b) coastal dune, uncultivated area, panoramic area, rivers, coast, slopes, agricultural landscape, rows of trees; c) historical cores and centers, historical buildings, archeological zones

Ecological Network of Marche Region (Rete Ecologica Marche REM)

Regional Law n. 2 of 5 February 2013

regional

nods - buffer, connection system of regional interest, local connection system not connected, stepping stones

Territorial Provincial Plan (Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento PTC)

D. C. P. n.177 of 28 July 2003

provincial

naturalistic continuity strips, respect strips, axes of the ridges

was carried out in collaboration with the expert team of botanists and agronomists appointed by the Municipality. Point b) consisted in the assessment of the green component of the Land Use Plan (UGS at the city scale) based on the evaluation of the urban green standard for public facilities deriving from the Italian Ministerial Decree n. 1444/68 for urban planning regulation. In both case studies analyzed, the Plan a) identifies the existing public and private UGS, b) provides planning standards for public facilities related to development plans in urban and peri-urban areas, based on quantitative indicators for the achievement of a ‘minimum amount of greenery per capita’. Specifically, in line with the Regional Law of Marche Region n.34/92 “Rules on urban planning, landscape and territorial planning” we investigated the development of green standard inside: a) the overall project (minimum surface required:12(9 + 3) m2/inhabit. of green standard for public facilities); b) the urban design projects of green standard for public facilities for new urban settlements or transformations (same minimum surface required). In both cases, the overall project guarantees the minimum standards of green areas provided for the citizens. To do so, we firstly investigated the green standards (divided into forests, green mitigations, urban parks, private green areas) using the Informatic territorial system (SIT) database developed by the municipality and manageable by open-source software Qgis. Next, we verified the implementation of green standards within the urban design projects that constitute the second level of spatial planning tools. Then, we evaluated the total UGS starting from the recognition of the green census set up by the Municipalities by open-source database, visual survey, and improved by sampling RGB-NIR multi-spectral images (year 2019) developed by AGEA (Italian Agricultural Payments Agency) in a Gis environment.

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Finally, we overlayed the total of green standards on the existing public green areas to investigate private green area not yet implemented from the land-use plan, which must be considered through the development of specific public-private contract. This is essential to complete the overall picture of UGS as the basis of the GI design. The sum of these areas to the unimplemented standards defined the total of (public and private) green areas to be included in the overall green project for urban areas. On the other hand, for the municipality of Osimo the balance was verified between the overall project and the distribution of green standards i.e., historic center, urban and peri-urban areas.

3 Results and Discussions a) The assessment of the large-scale ecological network led to characterize the natural and cultural value of the territory in terms of ecosystem services [19]. From the overlaying of spatial levels derived from the downscaling of the Regional Ecological Network (REM) the spatial definition of core areas and corridors (Fig. 2) and their consistency was obtained. Results show a percentage of about 7.7% and 9.5% of natural elements on the total land area, respectively for the Municipality of Falconara Marittima and Osimo. Data highlight the functionality and naturalistic value of land use characterized by a prevalence of regulating ecosystem services to preserve (Table 2). Table 2. The components of the ecological network derived from REM on the municipal scale. Municipality

Typology

Color reference

Name/location

Connection system (regional scale)

dark green

Esino river

1.67

Falconara Marittima

Buffer zones

light green

Garzaia

3.34

scattered

0.32

Osimo

AF (floristic area) node

red

Santa Paolina forests

0.32

OPF (faunistic protection areas) node

orange

San-Paterniano-Santo Stefano

2.16

Connection system (regional scale)

dark green

Cingoli - Potenza -Fiumicello ridge

31.60

Connection system (local scale, not connected)

olive green

Fiume Musone tra Staffolo e Osimo

0.45

Foce Musone e bacino dell’Aspio

0.25

Buffer zones

light green

Stepping stones

Stepping stones

area (km2 )

Garzaia

63.32

Garzaia

11.22

scattered

4.27

Tot. EN (km2 )*

Tot.EN/Municipality Land Area (%)

5.33

7.7

10.04

9.5

* Excluding buffer zones and overlapping

The overlaying of thematic levels from the Regional Landscape Plan (PPAR) allowed to spatially define and quantify land uses mainly based on the provision of cultural ecosystem services (CES, Table 3).

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Fig. 2. Definition of the Local Ecological Network (REL, left side) and the framework of the Ecological Network for the Municipal scale (REC, right side)

For the two case studies, the land characterization of PPAR define a percentage of 50% and 43% of land area with a recognized cultural value of landscape and territory, with CES provided from both the natural and the anthropic elements. The census of the rural areas led to define a quantitative and qualitative characterization of green spaces, and a spatial definition of landscape typologies. Both municipalities have a low percentage of land suitable for the provision of regulating ES provided by environmental elements to implement the GI. On the contrary, the high percentage of agricultural areas, especially in the Municipality of Osimo, highlight most of the land use characterized by the supply of provisioning type of services (Table 4). b) The assessment of the green component of the Land Use Plan defined two opposite conditions for the implementation of green standards expected. While in Osimo 74% of green standards are public areas developed and managed by the Municipality, 16% of green standards in Falconara Marittima. This highlights a potential growth of 26% if public green services for Osimo and 84% for Falconara M.ma. This means that the methodology is relevant to support the decision-making process and define policies that are appropriate to different situations. In fact, in the case of Osimo, the green strategies and so economic resources can be management oriented. In this case, the adoption of diversified maintenance and management criteria of green spaces permit the better allocation of financial resources. [20]. For

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Table 3. Spatial levels selected by the regional landscape plan (PPAR) to define the suitability of the land use according to cultural ecosystem values. Municipality Typology

Falconara Marittima

Osimo

CES land use (km2 )

CES land use (km2 )

CES land use/ Municipality Land Area (%)

panoramic area1

0.5

slopes2

0.17

3.68

agricultural landscape3

7.81

29.51

landscape value4

4.46

5.28

total 1 2 3 4

CES land use /Municipality Land Area (%)

7.69

12.96

50

46.16

43

protecting areas of panoramic roads - article n. 43 historical and cultural system of PPAR article n. 31 PPAR geological and geomorphological system of PPAR article n. 38 historical and cultural system of PPAR Areas with recognized landscape-environmental value – article n. 20 PPAR

Table 4. Land use suitability in the rural areas. Municipality Municipality

land use

Falconara Marittima

Osimo

area (km2 )

area (km2 )

Percentage on the Municipality land area (%)

Percentage on the Municipality land area (%)

natural

4.57

17

7.40

7

agricultural

9.93

38

79.98

75

coast

0.398

1.54

Total

14.89

57

87.38

83

Falconara Marittima, on the other hand, a more planning and programmatic approach is needed, to draw up the revisions of the Land Use Plan by proposing appropriate zoning variations. In Osimo, the historic center measures 27% of the green standards implemented in line with 31% of the three urban contexts and peri-urban areas. This data confirms a fair distribution of public green services in the municipal area. Comparing the two cases, private green areas to confirm or not in the land-use plan (overall project) are 89% for the Municipality of Falconara Marittima and 22% for the Municipality of Osimo (Fig. 3, Table 5).

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This means that the two Municipalities must adopt equalizing and rewarding criteria with citizens to implement the environmental project supported by GI at the city scale.

Fig. 3. Municipality of Falconara Marittima (left), and Municipality of Osimo (right). Urban green areas (“standards” Italian low M.D. 1444/68) for public facilities to design GI at the city scale. (Color figure online)

In this scenario, planners must give priority to the development of the areas that are essential to the overall GI design project by defining design guidelines and strategies to maintain, enhance or regenerate natural capital, maximizing the multifunctional aspect of green areas and ES provision within the city (Fig. 4).

4 Conclusions In Europe the growing interest in the development of GI is based on the dual aspects they performed: containing soil degradation and providing ecosystem services [21]. In Italy, the administrative fragmentation that characterizes the different regional contexts does not support the implementation of GI, which depend on different planning instruments and refer to different regulatory frameworks and rules [22]. Although in Marche region the Ecological Network is legally recognized by the Regional Law n.5 of February 2013, ((which implements the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy 2013), it has not been introduced in the local development plans that operate on a municipal scale. Following the path of other Italian regions (for example, the Lombardy region [23]) this contribution gives some point of reflection a methodological framework that standardizes a series of simple steps that can be replicated in similar contexts of medium-sized cities at the national level. Based on large-scale geomapping of the existing functionality and land use suitability [24], and the evaluation of green standard implementation at the city scale, this method can represent a) an essential knowledge base support for planning potential implementation of ES through the development of specific planning policies, b) support the design of GI helping in the management of existing environmental resources and the planning of potential growth of green facilities.

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Table 5. Evaluation of the urban green standards for public facilities on the two-case studies Land-use Plans Municipality of Falconara Marittima Land use Plan – overall project

Land use Plan – urban design project

Green Standards (S)1 on Municipality land area

Green Standards Implemented (SI) (IS/total S1 )

Green Standards Not implemented (SNi) (SNi/total S1 )

Areas with declined constraints (DC)

Private green areas (To redefine) (SNi + DC)/GS

Green Standards (S)2 (S2 /total GS)

Green Standards Implemented (SI) (IS/total S1 )

Green Standards Not implemented (SNi) (SNi/total S1 )

land area (km2 )

2.6726

0.436

2.236

0.147

2.383

0.157

0.048

0.109

%

-

16

84

41

89

19

8

11

Municipality of Osimo Land use plan – overall project

Distribution of GS for public facilities on the municipality land area Historical center

Other contexts

Green Standards (S)1 (S/total GS)

Green Standards Implemented (IS) (SI/total S1 )

Green standards Not implemented (NiS/total S1 )

Green Standards Implemented (SI/total S1 )

Green Standards Not implemented (SNi/total S1 )

Green Standards Implemented (SI/total S1 )

Green Standards Not implemented (SNi/total S1 )

land are (km2 )

1.449

0.873

0.576

0.40

0.38

0.46

0.18

%

-

78

22

27

26

31

12

Fig. 4. Master Plan of the GI strategical actions framework based on the spatial definition of the large-scale spatial levels and the urban green areas. (Color figure online)

Furthermore, this approach can help to define policies to contrast the loss of agricultural land due to soil sealing, with negative impact in ES supply [25], food and biomass production [26]. Moreover, to consolidate a city-scale recognition and spatial definition of the existing green urban areas is essential for the municipality for the feasibility of GI in a defined time [27]. Regarding the limitations of this study, the availability of

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regional and local data integrated with site survey are essential to obtain good results. Also, international replicability requires adaptability to different systems and planning rules. In conclusion, a multiscale method to introduce the concepts of ES and GI in spatial planning can be effective to improve the quality of life in rural and urban environments. The comparison between the two case studies provides a method based on the union of a large-scale ecological network assessment and the investigation of the standard for public facilities of the Land Use Plan, in line with the Italian law on urban planning green areas (“standards” Ministerial decree n. 1444/1968). Based on the spatial definition, quantification, and qualitative characterization of the two scales spatial levels, urban planners can define a hierarchical scale of governance to introduce GI strategy in planning processes, providing guidelines to start the revision of the Land-Use Plan through appropriate zoning variance based on environmental strategies.

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The Integration of Sustainable Development Principles Within Spatial Planning Practices Federica Isola , Francesca Leccis , and Federica Leone(B) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The 2030 Agenda has marked a radical shift in mindset regarding global development, going beyond the traditional sectoral approach in favor of an innovative holistic approach, which establishes a relationship between sustainability, economic progress, social justice, and environmental protection. Its objective is to build a fair, inclusive, and environmentally responsible world. The Italian government, after an elaborate and complex process of adapting the goals of the 2030 Agenda to the national context, approved the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (NSSD) in 2017. The implementation phase of the NSSD is conferred to regional administrations, who are entrusted with aligning their sustainable development policies with the guidelines defined at the national level. The challenges encountered during the implementation process of the NSSD can be mainly attributed to the transition from a sectoral approach to an integrated territorial governance vision that comprehends and analyzes the complexity of territorial dynamics, in order to propose development pathways that integrate environmental, social, economic, and institutional dimensions. This contribution analyzes the implementation processes of the NSSD at the regional level and proposes a methodological approach aimed at integrating the principles of the NSSD within the Regional Strategies for Sustainable Development (RSSD). It also proposes a methodology to implement RSSDs at the local level and presents an example of its application by illustrating the definition of the Municipal Masterplan of the city of Cagliari, in Sardinia. Keywords: Sustainable Development · Spatial Planning · Planning Processes

1 Introduction The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, a roadmap for global development, aims at going further the traditional sectoral approach towards an innovative holistic approach that links the concept of sustainable development to economic development, social justice and environmental protection, in order to build a fair, inclusive and environmentally friendly world [1]. The 2030 Agenda translates the new concept of sustainability through 17 goals, also known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which should be implemented at the local level [1, 2]. As a result, national and regional governments should define national and regional strategies that have to be implemented at the local level [3, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 129–138, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_12

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4]. In 2017, after a complex process of contextualizing SDGs to the national context, the Italian government approved its NSSD [5]. Regional administrations are responsible for the implementation of the NSSD at the regional level by integrating its sustainable principles in their development strategies. The implementation process aims at conforming sectoral policies in terms of integration and coordination, in order to define a regional strategy whose goals are contextualized to the regional territory in compliance with Decree no. 152/2006. After the approval of the NSSD, all 19 Italian regions and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano have launched the elaboration process of the regional or provincial strategy in close collaboration with the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MEES), in accordance with the collaboration agreement, signed by both Italian regions and MEES, for financial and technical support of all activities [6]. In compliance with the NSSD, Regional strategies have to promote and implement a multidimensional model of governance, able to involve all the actors of the spatial planning system in a tangible way, through monitoring activities and policy evaluation [7]. However, the implementation process of the NSSD at the regional level has entailed several critical problems. First of all, regional strategies have to implement the NSSD at the regional level and, at the same time, have to define a regional strategic framework in compliance with the existing policy documents and planning tools. Secondly, national goals need to be contextualized to the regional scale [8]. In a nutshell, difficulties concern the transition from a sectoral to an integrated approach, which could define a development model where environmental, social and institutional spheres are connected and integrated [9]. In 2019, the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea, now MEES, launched a call for projects proposed by universities, foundations, and research centers, aimed at supporting the implementation of the NSSD at the regional level. The University of Cagliari submitted the Project “SosLab”, which was funded, aimed at defining and implementing governance tools that support Sardinian Region to develop its regional strategy. This study is part of the activities related to this project. In particular, this study aims at analyzing the implementation processes at the regional scale and how regional strategies have been translated at the local level within planning practices. The study is divided into two phases. The first analyze how Italian regional administrations have defined their regional strategies in relation to an interpretation key that takes into account two aspects, governance and networking activity. In the second part, the study proposes an example of implementation of the Sardinian RSSD at the local level. The preliminary Municipal Masterplan (MMP) of the City of Cagliari is taken as case study. The study is structured into 3 sections. The Sect. 1 presents the methodological approach used in relation to the key concepts, governance, and net-working activities. The Sect. 2 shows the results of the analyses, which are then discussed in the concluding section, where concluding considerations concerning the methodological approach and its exportability in other European case studies are presented.

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2 Methodology and Case Studies Sub-Sect. 2.1 illustrates the methodology developed for the analysis of the implementation status of the NSSD at the regional level, while sub-Sect. 2.2 presents the implementation of the Sardinian RSSD in the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari. 2.1 Analysis of the Implementation of the NSSD at the Regional Level With the approval of the NSSD, the 19 Italian regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano have started processes to define their regional and provincial strategies. The NSSD presents a strategic framework that, in relation to the planning tools, priorities and actions to be undertaken, unites all the regions that have developed the regional strategy but, above all, ensures, for each region, a form of unity in planning, programming and environmental assessments in general [10]. The analysis of each RSSD was developed in relation to the Report on Regional Strategies for Sustainable Development, published on March 2020 by MEES. In particular, the analysis is carried out in relation two key themes: Governance and Network activities. Governance is an important factor in the process of contextualization of the 2030 Agenda; this implies that local development strategy starting from the national strategy crosses the boundaries that characterize the different levels of government of the territory, down to the local level. Therefore, the development strategies at the local level refer to the sustainability objectives defined by the international documents via the national, regional, etc. strategy. This helps to define an instrument that represents the result of a spatial-based policy. In this contest, multi-scale process requires an administrative structure which, from the national level, provides for the definition of policies aimed at creating a network with other public and private administrations and organizations. The concept of network activities is connected with horizontal and vertical governance in terms of interactions between public and private administrations and organizations, and between different scale of government. 2.2 Analysis of the Implementation of the RSSD in the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari The methodology developed for the implementation of the RSSD in the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari is rooted in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, which, as provided by Directive No. 42/2001/EC, allows for the integration of environmental considerations into plans and programs, in order to promote sustainable development. Since the SEA is endoprocedural to the plan, objectives and actions of the planning and evaluation process are defined according to an inclusive and incremental process [11], so that strategies aimed at environmental protection are included in the ongoing

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plan definition [12]. The process is structured through the definition of a Logical Framework (LF), adopted for its capability to hierarchically arrange objectives and actions of the plan [13], emphasizing their logical connections [14]. In particular, the methodological approach of the LF adopted for the implementation of the RSSD of the Sardinia Region in the Preliminary MMP, is based on the integration in terms of sustainability-oriented objectives, specific objectives, and actions, corresponding to the three levels reported in Table 1. The Sardinian RSSD identifies 36 strategic objectives related to five strategic themes [15]. The strategic objectives are further implemented through a set of action lines, which are in turn achieved through a series of actions. The analysis proposed in this contribution refers to the integration of objectives, action lines and actions relevant to urban and regional planning. In particular, as shown in Table 1, the LF is organized into three levels, defined as follows. The “RSSD Objectives”, identified through the selection of RSSD objectives related to urban and regional planning, integrated with the “Environmental analysis objectives”, result in the “Sustainability-oriented objectives”, which constitute the first level of the LF and are labelled SO.n in Table 1. These are then translated into the “Specific objectives of the plan” (labelled as SpO.n in Table 1), which constitute the second level of the LF, resulting from the integration of specific objectives, defined through the analysis of the environmental context, with the action lines identified by the RSSD. The definition of the Plan’s actions (labelled as A.n in Table 1), which constitute the third level of the LF, and are necessary for achieving the specific objectives, derives from the integration of the actions of the RSSD, the strategic actions of local planning identified by the regions of Marche, Umbria, Liguria, and Piedmont within the “CReIAMO PA1 ” Project, Working Group B “Construction and measurement of sustainability in programming”, and the actions defined within the scope of the environmental analysis. In concrete terms, firstly, the three sets of actions are examined individually, secondly, actions are compared with each other, thirdly, a new set of action is defined either by combining actions with similar content, or by defining new actions that mediate between contrasting actions.

1 CReIAMO PA”: Project: Skills and networks for environmental integration and organizational

improvement in the public sector. Intervention line Support Framework 1. Actions to improve the effectiveness of SEA and EIA processes related to programs, plans, and projects. Funding within the framework of the National Operational Program Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014–2020. [Competenze e reti per l’integrazione ambientale e per il miglioramento delle organizzazioni della Pa. Linea d’intervento Quadro di Sostegno 1. Azioni per migliorare l’efficacia dei processi di Vas e di Via relativi a programmi, piani e progetti. Finanziamento nell’ambito del Programma Operativo Nazionale Governance e Capacità Istituzionale 2014– 2020]. Further information available at https://www.sogesid.it/it/interventi/creiamo-pa [Last access 13/06/2023].

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Table 1. The definition of the three levels of the Logical Framework. Level 1 RSSD Objectives

Environmental analysis objectives

Level 2 Action lines of the RSSD

Environmental analysis specific objectives

Level 3 Actions of the RSSD

Sustainability-oriented ob- Specific objectives of the jectives plan SpO.1 SpO.2 SO.1 SpO.3 SpO.4 …

Strategic actions of local planning

Environmental analysis actions

Plan’s actions A.1 A.2 A.3 A.4 A.5 A.6 A.7 … …

3 Findings Results are presented following the structure outlined in the methodology section. SubSect. 3.1 describes the results related to governance and networking aspects of the activities carried out by the Italian regions in the definition of their RSSDs, while subSect. 3.2 illustrates the implementation of the RSSD of the Sardinia Region in the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari. 3.1 The Implementation of the NSSD at Regional Level As of 2023, apart from Basilicata, Calabria, Apulia and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, all other regions and autonomous provinces have developed their own strategies. Some regions, such as Liguria, have referred to the priority actions defined in the thematic areas of the NSSD, such as people, planet, prosperity and peace, with the exclusion of the partnership area because it is considered outside the regional competence. Other regions, such as Veneto, reinterpreted the areas defined in the NSSD, contextualizing them to specific characteristics and peculiarities of the region. In fact, the Veneto Region identifies six strategic macro-areas as follows. – Resilient system aims at making the system stronger and more self-sufficient. – All-round innovation aims at making the economy and the production systems more competitive in the global market.

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– Well-being of communities and people aims at generating widespread prosperity. – Attractive territory aims at protecting and enhancing the socio-environmental ecosystem. – Natural capital aims at reducing pollution of air, water and land. – Responsible governance rethinks the role of local governments also through new technologies. In relation to the first key theme, governance is a significant element in the development of a strategy based on sustainability; in this context, the governance models used for the implementation of the NSSD are based on horizontal and vertical territorial coordination. As regards strategies, organization and coordination, Regional administrations (presidency and secretary of the regional administration) manage these sectors by themselves; in some cases, coordination is delegated to inter-departmental working groups. In this context, cooperation between local authorities, associations, companies, universities, research institutes and citizens are guaranteed. Although Regional administrations are the main actors in the transposition of strategic objectives from the national to the regional level, the involvement of local authorities are crucial. In about half of the cases analyzed, Regional administration cooperated with external bodies, such as provinces, metropolitan cities, regional agencies, and associations (e.g., ANCI, ARPA, etc.); in other cases, Regional administration proceeded trough plurilateral agreements between public and private entities. About Network activities, the Report on Regional Strategies examined collaborative relationships activated by the Italian regions with other regional bodies and regional agencies. In most of the regions, cooperation processes have been activated within the CReIAMO PA project. Generally, activities cover all aspects regarding environmental, social, and economic issues. Examples include the experimental project promoted by MEES in 2022 on the monitoring of SEA in urban planning processes. Other forms of collaboration have involved provinces, municipalities, associations, universities, research institutes, etc.; as in the case, the research group GREEN of the Bocconi University which coordinated the project “Linee guida nazionali per l’Agenzia Urbana” (National Guidelines for Urban Agenda, thereafter NGUA), funded by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, now MEES, through the call named “Metropolitan and urban agenda for sustainable development”. Within the NGUA, 17 objectives, that may be implemented at the local scale, are defined. These 17 objectives are connected with 75 targets of which 35 are defined as preeminent. Moreover, for each target, the competent authority (metropolitan city, local municipalities) and the associated indicators are identified. 3.2 The Implementation of the RSSD in the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari Following the framework outlined in Table 1, the sustainability-oriented objectives of the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari are defined as a result of the comparison and integration between the objectives of the RSSD and the sustainability objectives defined through the environmental analysis. The specific objectives represent an interpretation and implementation of the sustainability-oriented objectives, based on the action lines of the RSSD and the specific objectives derived from the context (environmental analysis

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and political choices of the institution). The actions that enable the achievement of these objectives are defined on the basis of the actions of the RSSD, the actions derived from the contextual analysis, and the actions derived from local planning. Table 2 provides an excerpt from the Logical Framework (LF) of the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari related to the environmental sustainability objective “Protect and enhance urban buildings and green spaces and limit land consumption”. This objective is the result of the integration of the objective derived from the environmental analysis “Enhance urban buildings and green spaces and limit land consumption” with the RSSD objective “Protect and enhance the regional landscape”, contextualized within the urban area of Cagliari. The defined sustainability-oriented objective is further broken down into a series of specific objectives, including the one analyzed in the second column of Table 2, “Increase urban forests and biodiversity, protect local species, and restore ecological connections”. This specific objective aligns with the RSSD intervention line “Forest management: conversion of forest communities to adapt forest cover with more drought-tolerant/resilient species”. Among the actions identified to achieve this specific objective, two actions are highlighted. The action “Urban afforestation interventions to increase linear greenery (tree-lined avenues) and area coverage (shade islands, urban parks)” results from the integration of two actions of the RSSD (“Create shade islands” and “Increase green areas in cities”) with four actions derived from local planning (“Increase linear and area urban greenery”, “Afforestation interventions”, “Green enhancement interventions”, and “New urban parks or their extensions)”. Differently, the action “Creation of a linear park serving as a green filter between axis 554 and existing buildings” stems from the guiding projects defined by the Municipality of Cagliari. Table 2. Excerpt from the LF of the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari. Sustainability-oriented objectives

Specific objectives

Actions

Protect and enhance urban buildings and green spaces and limit land consumption

Increase urban forests and biodiversity, protect local species, and restore ecological connections

Urban afforestation interventions to increase linear greenery (tree-lined avenues) and area coverage (shade islands, urban parks) Creation of a linear park serving as a green filter between axis 554 and existing buildings

4 Concluding Considerations The integration of the Sardinian RSSD within the Preliminary MMP of Cagliari pursues directions of article 34, Sub-sect. 5 of the Decree no. 152/2006, according to which sustainable development strategies should define a reference framework for environmental

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assessments through participation of citizens and local communities and collaboration between different government levels. Moreover, the methodological approach developed in this study and implemented in the Preliminary MMP case study realize the integration process between the SEA and the RSSD in compliance with directions of 2030 Agenda, which requires the contextualization of SDGs to local and regional contexts. SEA may represent a tool for the implementation of SDGs to the local level and, thus, for promoting sustainable development [16]. According to Cavalli et al. [17] the implementation of the 2030 Agenda needs regional plans in order to assess the integration state of SDGs at the regional and local levels. Therefore, regions have a central role in implementing 2030 Agenda goals and the NSSD. In relation to the implementation of the NSSD at the regional level, regional administrations have faced three challenges that may be trace back to three main themes: integration and inter-sectorality, monitoring and knowledge and capacity building [18]. As regards the first theme, integration and inter-sectorality, the 2030 Agenda goals should not be implemented individually because their strategic strength is strongly connected to the ability of being implemented according to an overall vision. In relation to the second theme, although monitoring is an essential tool for assessing the achievement of sustainable development goals, the effective contribution of regional monitoring to national monitoring is influenced by the coordination between different monitoring mechanisms. Finally, the technical support without knowledge and capacity building is not sufficient to implement SDGs at the regional scale. Since the approval of the NSSD, regional administrations and several scientific researchers have investigated how to implement strategies of 2030 Agenda at the regional and local scales. The methodological approach described in this study, used to integrate the objectives of the RSSD, is exportable in relation to other contexts and planning tools that are not municipal masterplans. In fact, the methodology based on the LF ensures the traceability of the process and its reproducibility in different contexts. Within the SosLabs Project, the same methodology is applied for the definition of the Plan of the Tepilora Regional Natural Park in Sardinia. The LF allows at continuously and incrementally evaluating the plan strategy, by integrating the specific aspects of the analyzed process. The flexibility of the plan elaboration procedures highlights the endoprocedurality of the SEA [19], as the plan is structured (and modified) through the SEA. Sustainability is both a conceptual pillar of the SEA process, as stated by the Directive no. 42/2001/EC and a founding element of the RSSD and, consequently, of the NSSD and 2030 Agenda. Therefore, spatial planning has to integrate all the dimensions of sustainability [20]. The 2030 Agenda has represented an innovation model, by arguing against the unsustainability of the traditional development model based exclusively on environmental issues [16] and by proposing a vision of sustainability where economic, social and institutional development coexist. In this theoretical context, themes, such as governance and networking activities, analyzed through the Report on the regional strategies implemented in Italy, are central to guarantee a process that acquires soundness and effectiveness [17]. Future research developments may concern the study of dynamics of sustainable development over the next seven years, when Italy, and the European Union in general,

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have to complete the mission undertaken with the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, Italy has to achieve the objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan [Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza], concerning the ecological transition and the adaptation to climate change. Acknowledgments. Francesca Leccis, Federica Isola and Federica Leone collaboratively designed this study. Francesca Leccis and Federica Leone jointly wrote Sect. 1. Federica Isola wrote Sects. 2.1 and 3.1. Francesca Leccis wrote Sects. 2.2 and 3.2. Federica Isola and Federica Leone jointly wrote Sect. 4. In relation to Federica Leone, this study was carried out within the RETURN Extended Partnership and received funding from the European Union Next-GenerationEU (National Recovery and Resilience Plan – NRRP,Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.3 –D.D. 1243 2/8/2022, PE0000005).

References 1. UNGA (General Assembly of the United Nation) (2015) Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/212 52030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 2. UNSSC (United Nation System Staff College) (2017) The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. UNSSC knowledge centre for sustainable development, Bonn. https://www. un.org/development/desa/jpo/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2017/02/2030-Agenda-for-Sustai nable-Development-KCSD-Primer-new.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 3. UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) (2015) Universality in the Post 2015 sustainable development agenda, UNEP Post 2015 Note #9. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/ files/Documents/Issues/MDGs/Post2015/OHCHR_UNEP.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 4. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2022) Programme on a territorial approach to the SDGs. https://www.oecd.org/cfe/territorial-approach-sdgs.htm. Accessed 06 July 2023 5. MASE (Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica) [Ministry of the Environnement and Energy Security] (2020) La Strategia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile. https://www.mase.gov.it/pagina/strategia-nazionale-lo-sviluppo-sostenibile. Accessed 06 July 2023 6. Regione Liguria (2021) Strategia regionale di sviluppo sostenibile. https://www.regione.lig uria.it/components/com_publiccompetitions/includes/download.php?id=46489:strategia-reg ionale-per-lo-sviluppo-sostenibile.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 7. Regione Piemonte (2022) Strategia regionale di sviluppo sostenibile. https://www.regione.pie monte.it/web/sites/default/files/media/documenti/2022-07/srsvs_luglio_2022.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 8. Croci, E., Filpa, A., Giaume, C., Lucchitta, B., Ombuen, S.: Declinazione a scala locale degli SDG - indicazioni per l’integrazione dell’agenda urbana con gli altri strumenti di pianificazione locale. Research Report series 9. ISSN 2785-0781 (2022) 9. Consiglio regionale della Sardegna (2020) Programma Regionale di Sviluppo 2020– 2024. L’Identità che si costruisce nel fare per creare valore e sviluppo sostenibile per i Sardi e la Sardegna. https://www.consregsardegna.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doc08PRS-2020-24.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023

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10. Regione Abruzzo (2021) Il Piano della strategia regionale per lo sviluppo sostenibile (Il Documento della SRSvS). https://www.regione.abruzzo.it/system/files/dgr/piano_di_strategia_reg ionale_per_lo_sviluppo_sostenibile.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 11. Zoppi, C.: VAS: alcune riflessioni su prospettive e problematiche aperte per la sua attuazione in Sardegna. In: XXXI Regional Science National Conference Proceedings on Identità, Qualità e Competitività Territoriale. Sviluppo economico e coesione nei Territori alpini, Aosta, 20–22 settembre 2010. AISRe, Milan (2010) 12. In: Bertini, C., Fidanza, A. (Eds.) Lettura critica del “recepimento” della direttiva 2001/42/CE (VAS) nel d.lgs. 152/2006, recante “Norme in materia ambientale”. INU, Roma (2006) 13. Casas, G.L., Scorza, F.: Sustainable planning: a methodological toolkit. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Rocha, A.M.A.C., Torre, C., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O., Stankova, E., Wang, S. (eds.) ICCSA 2016. LNCS, vol. 9786, pp. 627–635. Springer, Cham (2016). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42085-1_53 14. WEDC (Water, Engineering and Development Centre) : An Introduction to the Logical Framework. WEDC, Loughborough University, Leicestershire (2011) 15. Regione Autonoma della Sardegna [Autonomous Region of Sardinia] (2021) Sardegna 2030, la strategia della Regione Sardegna per lo sviluppo sostenibile. https://delibere.reg ione.sardegna.it/protected/57126/0/def/ref/DBR57095/. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31942085-1_53 16. Isola, F., Pira, C., Zoppi, C.: Valutazione ambientale strategica e programmazione dello sviluppo urbano come attuazione della pianificazione strategica dei comuni della Sardegna. Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione 16(56/57), 254–279 (2013) 17. Cavalli, L., Farnia, L., Vergalli, S.: Verso la sostenibilità: uno strumento a servizio delle Regioni, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milano (2018) 18. Global taskforce of local and regional governments (2016) Roadmap for localizing the SDGs: implementation and monitoring at subnational level. https://www.uclg.org/sites/default/files/ roadmap_for_localizing_the_sdgs_0.pdf. Accessed 06 July 2023 19. Leone, F., Zoppi, C.: Local development and protection of nature in coastal zones: a planning study for the Sulcis Area (Sardinia, Italy). Sustainability 11(18), 5095 (2019). https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su11185095 20. Hristov, I., Chirico, A.: The Role of sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) in implementing sustainable strategies. Sustainability 11, 5742 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3390/ su11205742

The Role of the Agendas for Sustainable Development in Designing the Metropolitan Sustainable Infrastructure. The Case of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari Tanja Congiu1 , Paolo Mereu2 , and Alessandro Plaisant1(B) 1 Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

[email protected] 2 Città Metropolitana Di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Abstract. This paper presents the policymaking process for the Agenda for the Sustainable Development of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), as an integration and orientation device for current and implementing planning tools, but above all a reference framework and an operative tool that confers meaning and makes it possible to monitor metropolitan policies and projects. Nevertheless, it directs programming on funding channels relating to the SDGs. The integrated projects for sustainability are the core element of the new way of operating, with the aim to stimulate collective action at all levels, promote active discussions and, around these, build the consent and the progressive definition of agreements. They are the fundamental pieces of a new organizational structure for the metropolitan city of Cagliari: the metropolitan sustainable infrastructure. They act in a complementary way on multiple dimensions of urban organization and on several spatial scales with the aim to implement the specific sustainability objectives of the Metropolitan City. In this sense, participation processes are encouraged in relation to the integrated projects to be implemented, acting as “catalysts”. Public Administrations, Authorities and stakeholders variably involved in each integrated project will formally define program agreements in specific areas of intervention to implement the sustainable integrated projects. This actively contribute to innovating the metropolitan governance processes in terms of tools and procedures in line with the EU and Ministerial requests. Keywords: Metropolitan sustainable infrastructure · SDGs · Sustainable Development Agendas · integrated projects · decision support tools

1 Introduction In recent decades, many cities have proposed models of sustainable urban growth aimed at the ecological transition. The European institutions have allocated a substantial part of the EU budget for the promotion and development of a common policy for the improvement of cities and social life, as, in the coming years, cities will play a crucial role in responding to the climate © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 139–149, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_13

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changes effects and prevent emergencies of any kind [1, 2]. At the European level, there are numerous initiatives to define a common Urban Agenda, from the Amsterdam pact to the renewed Leipzig Charter, aimed at building a multilevel governance useful for involving cities in Union policies. In line with EU strategies, the renewed Leipzig Charter focuses on metropolitan cities and functional urban areas as spaces contributing to the implementation of an integrated land use approach, strengthening the links between urban and rural areas to achieve a balanced territorial development [3, 4]. The fourth Report of Urban@it “The weak government of urban economies” [5] addresses the National Urban Agenda to take “the form of a series of agreements between the central administration and the urban authorities”, to share and monitor investments and multilevel (European, national, regional, local) policies. This recommendation clearly takes its cue from the UK “City and Growth deals”, recently applied as an implementation tool also in the Dutch “Agenda Stad”. City Deals are theme-centred partnerships between frontrunners in the public and private sector. Ministries, local and regional governments, and businesses work together on an equal footing to experiment and develop solutions. The goal of a City Deal is to drive innovation in urban development and social issues1 . City Deals aim to create new forms of collaboration that efficiently address urban challenges. The cities themselves determine, in consultation with the departments involved, the task that is addressed in each City Deal2 . The aim is to connect all local actors (public, private, academic, and social) through innovative forms of interaction - innovation ecosystems - as indicated by the S3 Smart Specialization Strategy. In the Italian government history, innovative practices have hardly been launched to experiment with a sustainable dimension of urban growth, which would have as an outcome not predetermined forms - mostly deriving from specific dedicated incentives, but real processes of interaction, collaboration, share decision to reorganize the administrative structures, as well as tools and procedures for the future organization of the territories. In the 1950s we can read about an idea of the city in some isolated episodes due to the strong personality of the creators, such as the Canavese Plan by Olivetti, oriented to compose distances and to relate the economic and territorial components, and in the procedures for a rational urban layout of large areas, started with the study for the regional plan of Piedmont, and fixed in the manual containing “guideline criteria for the study of territorial coordination plans” by Astengo [6]. Planning activity today copes with some relevant problems and contingent phenomena, from climatic and health emergencies to structural ones: social inequalities, digital divide, population aging and demographic changes, with the strong depopulation of the internal areas, as underlined by the renewed Leipzig charter. Two specific elements have generated a separation between the environmental and urban dimensions of cities, in terms of interactions between “city and nature”: • the traditional planning specifically directed on the expansive growth, based on the specialization of urban areas, that requires continuous motorized movements between specialized parts, with effects on air quality, soil consumption, etc. 1 https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN07158/SN07158.pdf 2 https://agendastad.nl/city-deals/

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• the obsolescence of organizational models of spaces and services (from social housing to mobility), often inconsistent with the operating dynamics of the environmental system, and the rediscovery of proximity services in terms of distance to travel, time to arrive, to be accessible and usable by all. From these premises, it is necessary to look at all the elements that are radically changing the relationship between the demand and supply of urban services in terms of opportunities for growth in urban quality, within a common perspective of improving the quality of living conditions regarding safety, health, well-being. To complete, the restoration of environmental and ecological connections is today an unavoidable priority in the city project at any scale of operation. This planning approach highlights the elements of the environmental landscape matrix for their potential in identifying a system of services for living, which complement and contribute to organizing the basic universal services. This approach recognises the spatial device of green and blue infrastructures as the connectivity “framework” [7] of a new urban and territorial network: it incorporates and combines the environmental and sustainable components, with those of urban life organization (activities and services, transport, quality of open and built-up area,…) and helps to improve their quality and mutual relationships. Such components are part of an ecologically and socially oriented environmental project, which look towards the growth of environmental-oriented economies of activities. These economies foster the existing activities which contribute to dematerialize the economy, multiplying the number and diversity of legal entities with a high knowledge density [8, 9], fundamental for rural areas.

2 Metropolitan Agendas for Sustainable Development In 2019, the MAATM (today the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security – MASE, Italy) launched a process of collaboration and support to the 14 Italian metropolitan cities for the definition of the Metropolitan Agendas for Sustainable Development3 . The aim was to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at an urban and metropolitan level and, at the same time, place the interventions in a context made up of several levels of government. In this sense Urban Agendas are conceived to provide guidance for forthcoming urban policies that seek to introduce innovation in spatial planning and society in compliance with the criteria and SDGs. The metropolitan Agenda for sustainable development is intended as a device for the orientation and integration of planning and programming tools towards SDGs: this device is functional to “strengthen and qualify the attention towards sustainable development within the Metropolitan Strategic Plans, with a view to full integration of all the dimensions of sustainability in the metropolitan planning, programming and management tools.”4 This device is aimed at the Metropolitan City and the Municipalities, in terms of opportunities to: 3 Art. 34 D. Lgs. 152/2006 e s.s.m.m.i.i. 4 Ibid., Art. 1 p. 4.

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• interpret, give meaning and support the planning activity of the Metropolitan City through the territorialisation of the sustainability objectives on a metropolitan basis, so as to direct the planning towards funding channels focused on sustainable development; • translate the principles of sustainability into uniform and shared guidelines to be included in the implementation and planning tools, in terms of indications, both operational and procedural; • identify and promote integrated sustainable development projects in concert with local institutions and players in the metropolitan area and settle on reciprocal commitments and obligations for their implementation in the form of agreements. In this perspective, the path started by the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (MCC), Italy, for the definition of its Agenda represents a process of experimentation of a modus operandi for the implementation of the UN 2030 SDGs and, in this sense, aims at the construction of a model of a sustainable urban growth for the metropolitan area: the sustainable metropolitan infrastructure, as a new urban and territorial organization oriented towards sustainability. The integrated projects for sustainability allow to act in a complementary way on multiple dimensions of the urban and territorial organization and on multiple spatial scales with the aim of implementing the SDGs referred to the MCC. In this sense, the key features of the sustainable metropolitan infrastructure are: • Multiscalarity: aims to compare and to match urban projects and programs at different scales in the metropolitan government framework of the city of Cagliari through coherence requirements and sustainability objectives; • Multi-sectoral perspective: aims to relate policies of different (environmental, economic, socio-cultural) sectors and actors and stakeholders involved in territorial governance at all levels, starting from the metropolitan dimension; • Multidimensionality: aims to connect the actions that affect the multiple organizational dimensions of the city (green, blue and grey components, tangible and intangible services, activities, behaviours, etc.) to trigger processes of sustainable territorial development. Some possible results of the activation process of the Agenda towards the sustainability are summarized below. 1. “Field agreements” / Program agreements, aimed at the legal form of the “contract”5 . The field agreement, a legal figure already introduced in the Provincial Urban Plan - Territorial Coordination Plan of the Province of Cagliari, can be extended to all Contracts that concern areas of intervention of supra-municipal interest in terms of resources, uses of space and social practices. The agreed measures and procedures, 5 Following the example of the River Contracts, also extended to other landscape elements, the

Italian Consolidated Act on the Environment defines these contracts: “voluntary instruments of strategic and negotiated planning which pursue the protection, correct management of water resources and the enhancement of river areas together with the protection from hydraulic risk, contributing to the local development of these areas” (Artt. 68 bis e 205 D. Lgs. 152/2006 e s.s.m.m.i.i.).

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in addition to being implemented in the planning instruments of both the Authority, the municipalities, and other subjects involved in the agreement, can be the first step to apply for funding. 2. Operational guidelines and best practices, aimed at addressing plans, policies, and projects toward sustainability. Operational indications (the project “attentions”) and organizational and procedural provisions related to complex projects are defined, in terms of authorisations, documentation to be submitted, technical standards, etc. (an example is provided by the project attentions in Fig. 5)6 . 3. Metropolitan-based monitoring targets and indicators aimed to measure progress and compare policies and interventions. Objectives and indicators related to the metropolitan context support the Authority planning to guide plans, programs and projects on European structural and investment funds that promote sustainable development.

3 The Integrated Projects for Sustainability Integrated projects for sustainability gather interventions to strengthen the synergistic and multiplier effects of individual projects in the metropolitan government framework. The activator interventions are flanked by complementary ones, to strengthen and multiply the effects of the former and guide the development and implementation after activation. The methodological framework aimed at defining of the integrated projects for sustainability is a dynamic process of contextualization of the sustainable principles and goals, according to the following steps (Fig. 1). The operational path is structured into three interconnected steps: a. the activation of the metropolitan governance process; b. the construction of a shared reference framework for knowledge management (cognitive framework); c. the construction of an operational device (operational framework) that guides metropolitan planning with the aim to identify and promote integrated interventions for sustainability and to agree reciprocal commitments and obligations for their implementation in the form of agreements. In the last phase the authors focused on the construction of an interpretative device/model that guides the strategic vision. The contents of the cognitive framework, i.e. the set of themes, objectives and related operational guidelines, emerging from extraterritorial and territorial sustainability strategies, have merged into nine “fields of action”, to be understood as thematic in-depth areas of supra-municipal and metropolitan interest7 . Some “relevant aspects” for the metropolitan city have been identified for each field 6 An example is the Metropolitan Building Regulations (REM) of the Metropolitan City of Milan:

in addition to the provisions on building matters, it proposes methods of involvement and participation of the inhabitants in the identification and management of metropolitan common goods through a specific regulation (art. 22), provisions for urban quality (title 3) in terms of protection from noise pollution, reduction of polluting or climate-altering emissions, etc., regulations for using open public spaces and protecting green spaces and the environment (titles 4 and 5) with a prominent role for ecological connections. 7 The 9 thematic in-depth areas are identified to focus on future territorial and urban transformations: sustainable soil use; quality of public space and services; sustainable mobility; circular economy; urban metabolism and energy transition; green spaces and biodiversity; equity and social cohesion; adaptation to climate change; organizational process innovations.

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Fig. 1. The methodological framework

of action, to be discussed with the (technical/political) delegates of the municipalities and with the sectors delegates of the Authority. The participatory process involved local institutions, local stakeholders, and citizens. The activation and dialogue activities were carried out with the delegates of the 17 Municipalities that constitute the MCC. Each Municipality has identified the participant according to the “field of action” in discussion, identifying the most qualified (technical/political) referent in relation to the local urban planning. 8 meetings (5 workshops) developed around 9 thematic in-depth areas resulted in almost 130 projects collected8 . Operationally, through comparison criteria and a policymaking tool, the authors carried out an overall reading of the metropolitan sustainability-oriented urban planning that emerged from the comparison with the delegates of the municipalities and the Authority sectors. This activity flowed into the identification and representation of some groupings of urban planning actions and projects which were shared and discussed by the Authority Board Committee. In other words, the groupings of the identified projects are the germs of the integrated projects for sustainability and the inputs for discussion and further exploration through an interaction between experts and stakeholders.

8 The meetings took place from October 2021 to March 2022 in presence and remotely, in relation

to the provisions on the pandemic emergency.

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Fig. 2. The cognitive map of the projects of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari

For our purpose, the authors have tested cognitive maps technique [10, 11] through a cognitive mapping software. Banxia Decision Explorer®9 allows to prompt the development of a model10 (Fig. 2) by performing several analyses to represent goals (red) and actions (blue), problems, key concepts (rounded oval), options in different colours and to structure the groupings of projects. In the systematization phase, the following criteria guided the definition of the groupings of actions/projects: – generative/structural character: capacity to trigger other projects in the same and/or other fields of action; – interdependence with other projects or fields of action: capacity to establish relationships with other sectors and to produce synergistic and multiplier effects of individual initiatives; – relevance on the metropolitan scale: capacity to pursue sustainability goals in relation to the context; – aggregating potential, in terms of social and institutional energies: capacity to build links and aggregations between stakeholders with widespread interests on relevant issues (water, waste, energy, transport, etc.) starting from local conditions; ability to bring out subjects who could act autonomously and who can make an important contribution to the activation of the project; – recurring nature: capacity to be repeated frequently in different territories of the MCC to respond to widespread problems or offer specific services; – replicability: capacity to be repeated in different territories of MCC without major modifications. In the following figures, note that all the interventions made explicit by the delegates of the municipalities during the meetings were divided into objectives (green) and actions 9 Banxia Decision Explorer Software Decision Explorer (1990), 3.3.0 academic v., Banxia

Software ltd., Kendal, UK (web site: < http://www.banxia.com >).

10 The technique of cognitive maps is based on G. Kelly’s “Personal Construct Theory” which

maintains that subjects see the world through a clear model formed by “constructs”, and the personal construction system constitutes people’s “construct space”.

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(red). The first groupings of interventions (oval, green back colour) are embryonic forms of integrated projects for sustainability, organized into thematic areas (rectangle, green back colour), which can be further explained through some key objectives (rectangle, white back colour). They represent specific objectives and reflect the specificities of the contexts. Thus, the thematic areas, on the one hand, allow to contextualize the sustainability goals by spatializing them, and, on the other hand, they are the inputs for discussion and further exploration through an interaction among MCC sectors delegates, experts and stakeholders with the aim to define an integrated project for sustainability. The first 5 integrated projects for sustainability are: 1. Project of connections between green spaces and parks of the MCC. The interconnected metropolitan park; 2. The urban and environmental redevelopment project of the metropolitan coastal system (Fig. 3); 3. The energy and sustainable community project through the redevelopment of public spaces and buildings (Fig. 4); 4. The integrated waste cycle project; 5. The P.A. performance improvement project. In this perspective, the integrated projects for sustainability aim at stimulating collective action between the sectors of MCC and between MCC and the Municipalities and, around these, build consensus and the progressive definition of agreements among stakeholders for their implementation, on the example of the River Contracts, Agreement Programs, etc.

Fig. 3. The cognitive map of the of the integrated project “The urban and environmental redevelopment of the metropolitan coastal system”

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Fig. 4. The cognitive map of the of the integrated project “The renewable energy and sustainable community”

Therefore, since the aim of this phase is to reveal the possible interdependencies among projects, the delegates of the MCC Board Committee were invited to make explicit the ways of acting and the related problems, both from the point of view of procedures and specialist skills, and to identify and exchange good practices and experiences. The articulation of the integrated projects (Fig. 5) reveals the will to foster transversal relationships among fields of action for sustainability (from the energy transition to environmental redevelopment, to the regeneration of urban spaces and facilities, to the improvement of their accessibility and usability, to the launch of forms of collaboration for the management of resources and services, etc.). Further interdependencies and opportunities can be traced by comparing them with other projects and initiatives in the metropolitan area.

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Fig. 5. Framework of the integrated project structure and example of context-oriented guidelines

In closing, the last step is to focus the attention on each integrated project to define shared guidelines for urban planning and the implementation tools.

4 Conclusions Integrated projects for sustainability foster interdependencies between interventions and thus strengthen the synergistic and multiplier effects between individual initiatives. More precisely, these projects involve different aspects with respect to the central theme: together they broaden and extend the effects both in terms of activated functionalities and of spatial areas and actors involved. This last passage underlines the open nature of the integrated project whose main function is to trigger and promote interconnections between the proximity systems of the metropolitan area [12–16] in terms of places, services, organizational forms and methods, territorial figures, etc., acting at different scales. In closing, the integrated projects define the functional areas of the metropolitan territory with the aim to relate the existing activities, services, projects with a high density of social and institutional energies present in their organizational perimeters. Forms of association with a variable geometry are encouraged among territorial actors: they composed themselves in a different way in relation to the integrated projects carried out, acting as “catalysts” [14, 17] with the aim to foster agreements in terms of ways of operating and related problems, both from a procedural point of view and of specialist skills, good practices and experiences. In this sense, participation processes are encouraged in relation to the integrated project to be implemented. The program agreements, introduced for the first time by the Authority, actively contribute to innovating the metropolitan governance processes in terms of tools and procedures, in line with the EU and Ministerial requests.

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To summarise, the integrated projects for sustainability are the core elements of a new urban and territorial organization sustainability-oriented: the sustainable metropolitan infrastructure. In addition to building the interdependencies between the interventions and making the territories aware of the added value brought about by the synergies among projects, they allow each municipality to enhance the implementation tools, but above all, to start a systematization and evaluation of the policies and projects in relation to the SDGs.

References 1. Pagano, G., Losco, S.: EU cohesion-policies and metropolitan areas. Procedia-Social Behav. Sci. 223, 422–428 (2016) 2. Runkel, M., et al.: Climate Change and the EU Budget 2021–2027. Brussels (2019) 3. Van Lierop, C.: The New Leipzig Charter (2020) 4. Espadas Cejas, J.: Il rinnovo della Carta di Lipsia sulle città europee sostenibili (2020/C 440/20). European Union (2020) 5. Urban@it: Quarto rapporto sulle città: il governo debole delle economie urbane. Il Mulino, Bologna (2019) 6. Salzano, E.: Le nuove leggi urbanistiche: l’opportunità per costruire nuove strategie territoriali e nuove relazioni tra istituzioni, cittadini e operatori economici. In: Fondamenti di urbanistica, Editori Laterza, Bari. Editori Laterza, Bari (2003) 7. Arcidiacono, A., Ronchi, S., Salata, S.: Un approccio ecosistemico al progetto delle infrastrutture verdi nella pianificazione urbanistica. Sperimentazioni in Lombardia| an Ecosystemic approach to Green Infrastructure design in Urban planning. Experiments from Lombardy, Italy. Urbanistica 159, 102–114 (2018) 8. Rueda-Palenzuela, S.: El urbanismo ecosistémico. Estud. Territ. 51 (2019) 9. Rueda-Palenzuela, S.: La complejidad urbana y su relación con la morfología de los tejidos urbanos y la proximidad. Ciudad y Territ. Estud. Territ. 54, 227–250 (2022). https://doi.org/ 10.37230/CyTET.2022.M22.10 10. Kelly, G.: Personal construct theory. Beneath the Mask An Introduction to Theories Personality (1955) 11. Kelly, G.A.: A brief introduction to personal construct theory. Perspect. Pers. Constr. theory. 1, 29 (1970) 12. Boschma, R.: Proximité et innovation. Économie Rural. 280, 8–24 (2004) 13. Boschma, R., Balland, P.A., de Vaan, M.: The formation of economic networks: a proximity approach. Reg. Dev. Prox. relations. 7, 243–266 (2014) 14. Manzini, E.: Abitare la prossimità: Idee per la città dei 15 minuti. EGEA spa (2021) 15. Rueda, S., de Càceres, R., Albert Cuchì, L.B.: El urbanismo ecosistémico: Su aplicación en el diseño de un ecobarrio en Figueres (Ebook). Icaria Editorial, Barcelona (2018) 16. Rueda, S.: Certificado del urbanismo ecosistémico (Ebook). Icaria Editorial, Vilassar de Dalt, Barcelona (2022) 17. Latour, B.: Non siamo mai stati moderni. Saggio di antropologia simmetrica. Elèuthera, Milano (1995)

The Regionalization of Ecosystem Services to Support Sustainable Planning: The Case Study of the Province of Potenza Francesco Scorza , Simone Corrado(B)

, and Valeria Muzzillo

Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The term “Ecosystem Services” refers to the benefits provided by natural ecosystems to human society, which are crucial for human well-being and longterm sustainability. In order to effectively plan for the use of these services, spatial simulation of natural processes can help identify optimal methods of combining short-term economic development with long-term sustainability. This requires analyzing complex territorial systems and considering interactions between biodiversity, human activity, and the abiotic environment. Multifunctionality, or the joint provision of multiple services, functions, and benefits, is an important concept in the context of Ecosystem Services, as it measures the potential benefits provided to society and human well-being. This study proposes a methodology that uses regionalization algorithms to develop a territorial model capable of identifying sub-regions of specialization (areas with high provision of one or more ReMES) by analyzing maps of Ecosystem Services data. Regionalization is used to identify more geographically coherent regions that provide similar benefits for human well-being, rather than using cluster analysis. The results provide a measure of territorial performance that can be used to compare different development scenarios, including environmental protection and socio-economic development strategies. This information can help decision makers evaluate trade-offs associated with various policies and identify areas in which investments in Ecosystem Services can improve human actions and environmental conservation. Keywords: Ecosystem Services · Regionalization · GeoAI · Spatial Planning

1 Introduction The concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) gained momentum in recent years as a means of quantifying the benefits that ecosystems provide to human societies [1]. The ES framework is built on the principle of what ecosystem do for human wellbeing. In this vein, natural ecosystem are classified in terms of valuable services that they could provide for climate regulation, water yield, abundance of pollinator species and crop production among others [2]. Hence, the ES framework allows for an assessment of the complex relationship between natural ecosystems and human society. By quantifying the benefits © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 150–156, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_14

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provided and the spatial distribution of different type of ES, policymakers are able to develop more effective policies that balance the speculative needs of society with the long-term preservation of natural ecosystems [3]. The trade-offs associated with land use transformations and the reduction of natural capital are a topic widely discussed in academic debate [4, 5]. One of the key strengths of the integration of ES within spatial plans is their ability to facilitate spatially explicit assessments. By mapping the distribution of ES, stakeholders can identify areas where these services are most valuable and prioritize conservation efforts. This approach can also help to identify areas where development may have the greatest impact on ecosystem services, enabling decision-makers to take a more informed approach to land-use planning [6]. The typical land-use planning system faces structural weaknesses worldwide from both regulatory and informative perspectives. The lack of flexibility of conventional zoning and prescriptive models applied in urban and regional plans is the first area of concern. Therefore, ES zoning could be a useful and flexible tool for decision-making in planning due to its ability to identify complex dynamics between ecosystems and socio-economic sphere, facilitate spatially explicit assessments, generate consensus and promote more sustainable land-use practices that balance the needs of society. A recent study analyzed the concept of ES multifunctionality at the national level in Italy by referring to the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) [7] and using the model developed by Stanford University within the “Natural Capital Project,” InVEST [8]. The aforementioned work evaluated the distribution of nine different type of ES, specifically: carbon storage and sequestration, sediment delivery ratio, nutrient delivery ratio, water yield, crop production, abundance of pollinator species, supply of pollinator, habitat quality, habitat degradation. For each of the SEs analyzed, corresponding maps were published for the year 2018. This work presents a preliminary attempt to put in practice the regionalization of “specialization in ES provision”. The perspective is to consider “specialization” not as the prevalence of one ES function over the other, but, rather, is intended to make explicit the complexity of environmental characteristics generating the provision of ES in a specific context (region). Similarly, some types of ES such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and water yield have specific requirements in terms of the environmental conditions and resources that are necessary for their provision.

2 Regionalization Method for ES Specialization By applying the concept of regional specialization we would understand the conditions that are necessary for their provision and the factors that may influence their distribution and abundance across different spatial layouts. The delimitation of these sub-spatial domains was carried out through an analytical approach by applying a regionalization model. Regionalization is a critical concern in spatial planning. Regionalization is a subdiscipline of clustering that combines the general goal of unsupervised learning approach and geographical constraints. The delineation of significant region impact geospatial analysis and concerns related to delivering value to the sustainable development of the places [9]. Moreover, the process of aggregating areas in a coherent region is important to uncover the geography of a specific sub-domain, test new hypotheses and allow knowledge discovery [10].

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One of the main issues related to spatial analysis is the choice of the proper statistical unit with which to observe the phenomena. The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) is a statistical biasing effect that occurs when trying to get information or insight by different spatial data aggregation [11]. Indeed, spatial data can be aggregated in many different ways and the measurement such as a density estimation can differ widely based on shape and scale chosen for the analysis. Since the goal is to make planning choices aimed at spatial development most akin to places and to maximize positive socioeconomic impacts, this issue is important because accurate measurement also ensures that the various components of a given area are properly analyzed and understood [12]. But first and foremost, in the geospatial domain, how can a region be defined? The literature on this topic is vast and ranging from application in urban sociology [13], econometric [14], spatial outliers [15], and epidemiology [16]. Many authors concur with the same taxonomy in which a region is a set of spatially contiguous areas that have a high similarity in their attributes [17]. While the definition seems to be common and clear the regionalization process is complex and some authors pose it as an NP-hard problem [18]. Regionalization is an approach used to sub-divide a territory into homogeneous and/or heterogeneous regions based on specific criteria or defined objectives. The main objective of regionalization is to create groups of territorial units that share similar attributes value but respect the spatial constraint of proximity. The areas being aggregated must be geographically connected i.e.; they must respect the spatial constraint. In this way it allows spatial data to be aggregated and useful recursive spatial patterns to be highlighted. Many regionalization methods derived from clustering analysis are classified into two main groups: the simplest method is via conventional clustering algorithms without taking into account the geographical location, or by applying spatially constrained clustering that generates more geographically coherent aggregation but less feature-fit output [19]. For the latter method, strategies for applying spatial constraints are many and depending on the neighboring structure of the data. These approaches are not limited to adding location as x and y (or latitude and longitude) because otherwise such methods would tend to create regions of circular shape [20]. Nevertheless other approaches useful to ensure spatial contiguity are to introduce connectivity matrix in agglomerative clustering that follow a given structure of the data or to model topological inter-data relationships by graph theory [21, 22].

3 First Regionalization Attempt and Future Perspectives In this paragraph is briefly presented the initial attempt for regionalizing the specialization of homogeneous areas in the provision of ES using a hierarchical clustering approach. Specifically, we refer to the contiguity-constrained hierarchical clustering method proposed by [22]. This regionalization process uses an agglomerative clustering algorithm, which is a bottom-up approach, that starts with each area as an individual region and progressively merges the most similar neighboring samples iteratively until a desired number of regions is obtained. Ward’s method was chosen as a similarity criterion to merge homogeneous areas [23], meanwhile the neighbor structure or spatial

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contiguity condition was implemented through the connectivity matrix computed by Rook model [24]. In this study, the Rook model was preferred over the Queen model because otherwise the connectivity matrix had too many inputs and the computing time would rise significantly. This is due to the fact that the control grid is square and regular, and with the Queen model the edge connections would have been taken into account as well as the edge connections. This means that during the merging process, areas were constrained to be geographically adjacent and show low variance bias to maintain the spatial coherence of the resulting regions. This approach ensures that the regionalization reflects the spatial continuity and coherence. In particular, the study area refers to the second-level territorial unit for statistics (NUTS-3) of Italy and specifically to the province of Potenza, in the southern part of the country, which has a complex and extensive environmental system [25, 26]. A critical step was the definition of the correct number of regions that can serve as a basis for targeted urban and regional planning interventions for the preservation of ecosystem functionality. As with clustering algorithms, the number of regions to be identified is user-defined, and this is can generate a great deal of bias since validation of the result obtained can only be done by internal indices [27]. In this regard, a previous study referring to information theory and planning identified the parameters with the highest divergence variability that can help validate the regionalization output [28]. The result of the regionalization process that identified 200 homogeneous regions in the study area is presented in the figure below, (see Fig. 1). During the analysis of the results obtained from the regionalization process, we realized that as the number of regions changed, some shapes (regions) were preserved while others, as the number of subdivisions increased, became gradually more fragmented. This is due to the iterative process behind hierarchical clustering, which progressively merges neighboring areas that are homogeneous in statistical characters; in simpler terms, there is a dependency in the results at different scales [29]. Although there are several clustering algorithms that could be used to overcome this problem, e.g., the use of spectral clustering [30] or density-based method [31], even these methods have poor performance on high-dimensional data [32]. Due to the development of deep learning applications and the rising interest of AI in the geospatial domain, future applications will focus on applications of deep-learning –based clustering [33]. These types of algorithms outperform traditional clustering methods with high dimensional dataset. Since deep clustering jointly learn representative features into the data, preserving data structure, and clustering in a non-linear way [34]. To conclude, the methods that will be used to define sub-ambits of specialization in ES provision will refer to Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) and Variational Autoencoders (VAE).

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Fig. 1. The figure shows the 200 regions relevant for delimiting homogeneous areas specialized in ES provision. Similar colors do not represent similarity between different regions but rather were chosen to demarcate the boundary of regions. Map grid overlay is referred to WGS 84 / UTM zone 33N.

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Supporting the Transition Towards Ecologically-Oriented Urban Planning: What’s the Role of Early-Career Researchers? Innovative Findings, Experiences, and Ways Forward

Protected Areas: From Biodiversity Conservation to the Social-Ecological Dimension Angela Pilogallo(B)

, Federico Falasca , and Alessandro Marucci

University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The main strategy adopted by EU Member States to stem biodiversity loss is the establishment of new protected areas to be included in the Natura 2000 network. The effectiveness of this network is not satisfactory everywhere, with critical issues concerning poor consideration of socio-ecological system, planning that treats protected area as isolated entities, and conservation objectives that are not always synergistic with the objectives of maintaining a good level of both ecosystem services supply and multifunctionality. The paper explores these weaknesses in order to propose a conceptual framework to guide next steps within the LIFE IMAGINE project and provide the partnership with a fertile ground for discussion. The project pursues the aim of supporting the development of an integrated, unified, coordinated and participatory management strategy for the Natura 2000 network in the Umbria region (Italy). The integration between the ecosystem services framework, biodiversity conservation needs and the investigation of socio-ecological system shows potentials to derive planning implications useful to achieve the objectives and to support the multidisciplinary approach of the project. Keywords: Biodiversity conservation · Socio-ecological dimension · Ecosystem Services · LIFE IMAGINE

1 Introduction Biodiversity decline is proceeding globally at an unprecedented rate [1], and although there is no scientific unanimity in the choice of the most appropriate metrics to evaluate this trend [2], land use [3, 4] and climate [5] changes are certainly among the main drivers of these depletion phenomena [6]. More than three decades after the Natura 2000 network establishment, the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation strategies adopted by the European Union is lower than expected [7, 8]. The reasons for these unsatisfactory results are many and varied [9–11] but a relevant part of them pertains to a lack of attention paid to the complex social-ecological system that arises with the establishment of protected areas [12] and evolves over time due to the multiple interactions between biophysical and socio-economic structures [13]. Considering the EU ambitious goal of establishing additional protected areas preserving 30% of terrestrial land by 2030 [14], it is important to build on what already learned © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 159–168, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_15

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so far in order to make improvements in site identification and management, pursuing environmental and ecological goals without neglecting socioeconomic components. Decision-making and policy design affect the effectiveness of site designation and management [15], and the long-term success of site management heavily depends on the support of local stakeholders [16]. Many studies point out that the establishment of a protected area acts as a driver for land take [17], urbanization [18, 19] and a consequent increase in landscape fragmentation [20] over the areas immediately adjacent to its boundaries. Protected areas insularization is a symptom of awareness lack about their actual value and the multiple benefits they generate [21], but it is also the result of planning (and a management plan) that merely regulates what falls within without considering the entire context in which the protected area fits [22]. On the other hand, reports from EU Member States show that Natura 2000 sites alone cannot guarantee the preservation of biodiversity because most populations of species of community interest and birds seem to live outside their boundaries [23].

Fig. 1. Key components for a new conceptual framework

This paper explores the integration between the ecosystem services framework, biodiversity conservation needs and the investigation of socio-ecological system (Fig. 1)

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to derive planning implications useful to achieve the objectives set within the LIFE IMAGINE project1 and to support its multidisciplinary approach. The project pursues the aim of supporting the development of an integrated, unified, coordinated and participatory management strategy for the Natura 2000 network in the Umbria region (Italy) [24]. It focuses on actions and policies to be implemented to promote management models for Natura 2000 network sites that guarantee an adequate level of conservation by leveraging the increase of ecological connectivity and the implementation of governance processes characterized by a high level of stakeholder and citizen involvement [25, 26]. In light of the critical issues just outlined, the paper intends to open a discussion within the partnership and draw a renewed conceptual framework for the project follow-up that considers: – a more in-depth analysis of the socio-ecological system using the ecosystem services (ES) framework to explicate the existing relationships (synergies, trade-offs, conflicts) between ES demand/consumption, benefits provided (e.g., raw materials, services, attractiveness of the territory) and biodiversity conservation needs; – the hypothesis of conducting the above analyses along gradients, thus overcoming the oft-highlighted limitation of “planning limited to the protected area”, understood as the planning (i.e., the drafting of management plans) aimed at governing what happens within protected areas without including the interactions between the sites and the territorial context in which they are located. The aim is to formulate a new approach within the LIFE IMAGINE project, to test it - within the same project - on the reference territorial context (i.e. the Umbria Region), and to then verify its transferability to different contexts as well as its scalability to other territorial scales.

2 Socio-ecological Dimensions Looking at biodiversity conservation as ultimate goal, it is increasingly evident that the effectiveness of management plans for Natura 2000 sites is linked to support from local stakeholders [27]. In this perspective is thus crucial to consider the socio-ecological dimension, i.e. the complex system of human-environment interactions [12]. The scientific literature [28, 29], in fact, points out that the establishment of a protected area can also have a negative impact on welfare by encouraging the abandonment of land if it includes regulatory schemes that restrict or inhibit some human activities. The approaches used to deepen the socio-ecological dimension and to analyze the interactions between man and nature in order to derive policy implications that are then useful for the management of protected areas are very varied. Some authors have explored this dimension by focusing on tracing ES flows through a preliminary assessment of beneficiaries and a subsequent participatory approach [22]. Although basing on qualitative assessments, they derive some policy implications aimed at revising existing ones and hypothesizing the delimitation of new priority conservation areas, as well as identifying areas in need of ecological restoration measures. 1 Further information about the project are available at https://www.lifeimagine.eu/

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Other authors [30, 31], start from the premise that “conservation measures cannot be fully successful if poverty issues are not tackled” [32] and relate the assessment of socio-economic development to two main factors (population and GDP) recognizing them as most critical factors causing ecosystem changes [33]. Dealing with a panEuropean socio-ecological system assessment, they propose the economic density indicator (defined as the income resulting per square kilometer) as a synthetic descriptor of human pressure on natural ecosystem. At the local scale, is particularly interesting the methodological approach proposed by Biest et al. [34] who link human activities, ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation targets deepening ecological (biotic and abiotic) and anthropic processes. The formers are to be regarded as the set of ecosystem functions that support biodiversity and ES production. The latter are instead those processes of anthropogenic origin that exert an impact (positive or negative) on natural components. They thus include the sources of threats and pressures to ecosystems and habitats, being directly or indirectly related to ES demand and consumption. However, they encompass all those activities that contribute to generating co-benefits for natural capital [35–37].

3 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services In recent decades, ES framework has gained much attention as it is able to inform decision-makers on the multiple aspects that link ecosystem functioning to human wellbeing. Both in the debate about the most suitable ES classification schemes [38–40], and in the wide variety of scientific works related to ES framework [41, 42], the concepts of biodiversity and ES are often mistakenly confused [43, 44]. In fact, if according to CICES v5.1 [45] “maintaining nursery populations and habitats” (with which biodiversity value is often associated [46]) is considered to all intents and purposes a Regulating ES, on the other hand more and more research works are dealing with conflicts and trade-offs between ES provision and biodiversity conservation [47]. Many of these relate to the so-called ‘food-environment’ dilemma [48, 49] although agricultural production is not the only provision ES involved in conflict analysis [50]. In fact, a theme that recently emerged with the current energy crisis is related to the spread of renewable energy plants in areas with little urbanization and therefore suited to biodiversity conservation [51, 52]. There are also numerous studies analyzing trade-offs between biodiversity conservation needs and regulating [53, 54] or cultural ES [55, 56]. Conflicts between biodiversity conservation needs and regulatory ES are often related to the lack of awareness on the part of ES consumers of those services regarding the ecosystem processes and functions underlying their delivery [57]. A further limitation to understanding by non-experts is the mismatch between areas where ES are produced and the areas that benefit from them [58, 59]. Instead, trade-offs between biodiversity protection and cultural ES are often related to the role that protected or otherwise high-natured areas play in determining the attractiveness of an area and, therefore, in leading to increased pressures related to different modes of use [60, 61].

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4 Protected Areas: Hints for a New Conceptual Framework Several studies showed that the establishment of protected areas proved to be a driver for intensive land use, soil sealing and urbanization phenomena [62, 63]. In most cases, they alone are unable to mitigate landscape homogenization and loss of multifunctionality [64, 65], thus failing to effectively contribute to biodiversity conservation. This paper summarizes some considerations regarding three main critical issues that emerged regarding establishing and managing protected areas: – within planning, they are often treated as static and isolated entities [66]; – little attention is paid to socio-ecological dimension, which, however, is crucial in generating negative (pressures and threats) or positive (co-benefits) impacts for biodiversity conservation purposes and ES supply [12, 67]; – although ES provide a suitable methodological framework for making explicit the links between expected (demand) and delivered (supply) benefits, particular attention should be paid to any conflicts with conservation targets. The purpose of this work is therefore to propose a renewed conceptual framework (Fig. 2) for addressing these critical issues by enhancing the value of contributions that can be derived from the partnership involved in the LIFE IMAGINE project.

Fig. 2. Proposal for a new conceptual framework concerning Protected Areas

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Concerning the analysis of ES demand and supply, a first step could involve mapping considering the entire regional territory, consistently with the ecological continuum [68] that is in fact unaffected by administrative boundaries. The exploration of socio-ecological dimensions, aimed at characterizing the interaction between human activities and the state of biodiversity conservation, could include an assessment of urbanization degree (also using the concept of rural-urban gradient [24]), landscape fragmentation, demographic trends, and any other indicators useful for determining a significant impact on ES provision. The evaluation of the current status of biodiversity and conservation targets could take advantage of elaborations already produced (e.g. suitability maps for target species, bio-permeability map) by the partnership to calibrate models linking habitat quality and existing anthropic pressures.

5 Ways Forward Based on the results obtained and the elaborations carried out, there could be multiple implications for planning and management of protected areas: from the modification/integration of management plans to the signing of governance agreements aimed at reducing threats and pressures, from the development of environmental compensation schemes to a review of expansion forecasts, from the development of Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes to the individuation of area suitable to expand the actual Natura 2000 Network across the Umbria Region. The possibility of measuring and mapping interactions between anthropic and natural components, considering the benefits that stakeholders at the local scale enjoy (measured, for example, by considering gradients along which to make these relationships explicit), would support negotiation, participation in management plans, and eventually also the legitimization of constraint measures. Making relationships and processes explicit would finally make it possible to manage these processes while avoiding the application of new constraints. Acknowledgment. The analysis described in this paper are developing within the Integrated Project LIFE IMAGINE UMBRIA (LIFE19 IPE/IT/000015 - Integrated MAnagement and Grant Investments for the N2000 NEtwork in Umbria).

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Towards Denser and Greener Cities? Methods and Indicators to Monitor Trends and Impacts in Support of Urban Planning and Policies

Steering Net Zero Land Take Urban Growth. A Decision Support Method Applied to the City of Castelfranco Emilia, Italy Marco Oliverio and Elisa Conticelli(B) Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The primary aim of the research is to provide a flexible and easy-toapply method which makes it possible to identify the most suitable areas to be densified and the most critical ones, where the priority is to maintain green spaces. The method is structured into 5 main phases: collection of relevant indicators, their categorization and weighting through the involvement of experts, normalization and the calculation of synthetic indexes through GIS. The method has been applied on the territory of the medium-sized municipality of Castelfranco Emilia in the Emilia Romagna region, where the Regional urban planning law is forcing municipalities to design urban plans with a clear target of net zero land take by 2050 but can be easily scaled to different contexts. The results clearly show which urban areas are most suitable to be densified and their characteristics hampering or favoring densification. Keywords: Urban Densification · Urban Planning · Sustainability · Land take · Decision Support tool · Indicators

1 Introduction Nowadays, cities face numerous environmental problems such as pollution, effects of climate change, depletion of natural resources that affect quality of life of people living in the urban environments. One studied and constantly monitored phenomenon, which contributes to most of these problems is land take, which is considered as the loss of undeveloped land to human-developed land [1]. This phenomenon involves many areas within the European territory, provoking a political response from the European Commission with the EU Environment Action Programme to 2020 (7th EAP) which set the goal of no net land take by 2050 [2]. This is an important milestone for urban planning: soil is considered a non-renewable resource and therefore must be preserved and desealed according to a circular approach. In Italy land take is higher than in the rest of Europe [3], with rate of 6.9% of land taken in 2015, almost 3% above the EU average. This trend is constantly growing: ISPRA reports that by 2021 7.6% of the national territory is consumed (or artificialized) [4]. The values are even higher in some areas of the Italian territory, such as in Emilia-Romagna, one of the most economically © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 171–182, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_16

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dynamic regions and therefore affected by more marked urban development dynamics: land taken due to new infrastructures, residences or, more generally, urbanization is close to 9%, being one of the regions in Italy with highest rates of land take. To counteract this trend and in line with the European decisions, the Emilia-Romagna Region has decided to drastically limit land take by approving a new urban planning law (LR 24/2017) which introduced a land take target equal to 3% of the urbanized territory in 2017 to be reached by 2050. This represents the maximum overall sizing of the new developments allowed by the new General Urban Plans (PUG) that municipalities of the region will have to approve within 5 years since the LR 24/2017 approval. It is therefore clear that any forecast of future urban growth in Emilia Romagna must necessarily converge towards densification strategies, which do not consist on an exclusive vertical, compact and quantitative densification but a mixed use densification, which limits land take by increasing existing volumes or reusing abandoned areas or degraded or empty lots within urban boundaries and, at the same time, increasing the quality of the urban environment and life of residents, bringing services, greenery and public infrastructure where they are lacking [5]. Although densification may appear as a winning strategy to improve urban quality and efficiency in monofunctional and low-density contexts [6, 7], it might generate a counterproductive effect in contexts where density is already high, in which a further artificialization of the soil or a densification of functions might determine environmental issues, reducing urban green areas and resilience towards climate change effects. Some scholars [8, 9] identify a research gap concerning the need to deepen the investigation of densification and its positive and negative effects, with special focus on the loss of green spaces, to develop planning strategies that consider these aspects, therefore this research aims at contributing to overcome this gap. Starting from these assumptions, the research proposes a method to orient densification interventions towards sustainable scenarios, which do not hamper livability and efficient urban organization and do not undermine the local resources [10]. Therefore, the research questions considered are the following: what are the relevant urban aspects at the basis of the concept of sustainable densification? How to orient sustainable densification processes? This method is based on calculation and mapping of simple indicators through GIS systems that are summarized in a synthetic index, aimed at quickly identifying the urban areas which are most suitable for densification interventions and those areas that present criticalities that could undermine urban quality. This makes it possible to orient strategies, actions and urban planning rules more effectively, according to specific local constraints, in order to determine sustainable building rights and development conditions afterwards. The proposed method is quite simple with the aim of being easy to be applied by local technicians working in municipalities. The paper is organized into four main sections: presentation of the method and its main phases, application to the case study of Castelfranco, Italy, presentation of results coming from the method application, discussion of results and conclusions.

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2 Materials and Methods An analytical method, based on a spatial multicriteria analysis (SMA) and a selection of key indicators is proposed. SMA is frequently used for assessing different urban features and scenarios, such as seismic risk and vulnerability [11–14], urban infrastructures [15], mobility patterns [16–19] and the value of urban ecosystem service [20]. In the case of this research, SMA aims to assess which areas are most suitable to be densified or, conversely, which areas must undergo a reverse process to guarantee efficiency and urban livability, i.e., adequate spaces in which the inhabitants are able to meet their expectations in terms of well-being and quality of life. The method is based on five main stages: 1. Collection and clustering of relevant urban indicators, chosen in the sustainability domain. 2. Selection and weighting of the most appropriate set of indicators to measure and describe the process of urban densification. 3. Indicators calculation and mapping. 4. Normalization and final index calculation. 5. Densification assessment. 2.1 Phase I: Collection and Clustering of Relevant Urban Indicators The first phase of the method focused on collection of relevant indicators capable of measuring urban transformation processes oriented towards sustainability in general and urban densification processes in particular. Therefore, a literature review of indicatorbased sources and assessment methods was conducted to identify, on the one hand, the sustainability domains considered as most relevant in the literature and, on the other hand, the most recurrent indicators capable of measuring urban sustainability and the effects of urban densification. The review has been conducted by seeking both relevant scientific literature and nonscientific reports and literature referring to similar frameworks and methods already applied in several contexts and related to sustainable cities and densification. Sixteen main references were identified [21–34] and a total of 172 indicators were collected and classified into five main domains: environment, spatial planning, social structure, governance and local economy. The identified domains were further divided into 20 different categories in total and then into 56 parameters, to which one or more indicators were associated. The categories further specify the domains, while the parameters identify the aspect to be measured by the indicators. For each indicator, the “resolution” – municipal or sub-municipal – was also identified to highlight the indicator’s ability to show differences within the urban system analyzed. This characteristic was crucial for the final selection of the indicator set, made in the next phase of the method. 2.2 Phase II: Selection and Weighting of the Most Appropriate Set of Indicators Starting from the 172 indicators identified, those that were considered key to assessing the suitability of densification interventions were selected. Therefore, the indicators and their parameters and categories were considered in relation to: relevance for measuring

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direct effects or context conditions related to densification interventions, the ability to detect different situations within the same urban system, and the prevalence of use in the literature. Consequently, 28 indicators were chosen and grouped to form 17 parameters, 8 categories and 3 out of 5 domains among those previously identified: 1- Environment: it comprises categories and parameters related to impacts due to increased densification that could undermine environmental sustainability and livability such as pollution, and performance that can be indirectly improved through densification strategies, such as energy efficiency. 2- Spatial planning: categories and parameters belonging to this domain are fundamental for describing the general framework and organization of the urban context in terms of densities, presence and proximity to services and green spaces, and assessing the sustainability of densification processes. 3- Social structure: indicators relating to social aspects have received little attention so far, even though they provide valuable information on socio-economic fragilities distributed within the city that can be considered in the framework of a just densification. In principle increasing densification that reduce the level of public green spaces and facilities would be more problematic in areas with high socio-economic fragilities than in other areas with similar urban characteristics but with lower levels of socio-economic fragility. Despite the selection made, the domains identified comprise a vast range of urban topics, with the intention of considering all possible direct and indirect implications that a densification intervention may generate on a given territory. For each indicator, a brief description, unit of measurement and data needed for calculation are provided. In addition, the direction (i.e. the relationship between the growth/decrease trend and the associated positive or negative condition) was also defined (Table 1). The last task is the weighing of the selected parameters and indicators to highlight any differences firstly between parameters and secondly among indicators used for measuring the same parameter. This task was conducted by involving a group of experts in the field of urban planning. They have been interviewed to evaluate the importance of the selected parameters in leading sustainable densification processes by assigning a weight from 1 (not very relevant) to 5 (very relevant). In case of more than one indicator describing a single parameter, the expert could also rate the indicators if any differences in terms of importance was detected. Experts were also allowed to amend or integrate the list of proposed parameters and indicators. Each indicator and parameter thus received a weight, resulting from the average of the weights obtained by each expert. This task is particularly relevant in the current practice, allowing to consider specific priorities a territory might have. 2.3 Phase III: Indicators Calculation and Mapping In addition to the construction of a set of indicators, the assessment model requires the mapping of indicators to highlight the spatial differences of parameters value across the territory, recognizing that the city is a highly heterogeneous environment. For this reason, each indicator is mapped in a GIS environment, through a rasterization process.

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Table 1. List of the 28 selected indicators. The last column indicates the direction: (+) the higher the value of the indicator, the more favorable the densification; (−) the higher the value of the indicator, the less favorable the densification. Domain

Category

Parameter

No.

Indicator

Environment

Energy

Efficiency

1

Energy performance + index

Pollution

Lighting

2

Light pollution

−

Acoustic comfort

3

Population exposed to a daytime sound level above 65 dBA of the total

−

Smog and pollutants 4

Inhabitants exposed to emission levels above 40 µg/m3 of PM10 and NO2

−

Density

5

FAR surface ratio

−

6

Population density

−

7

Correct urban compactness (built volume/existing public spaces)

+

Housing asset

8

Age of buildings

−

Urban uses

9

Mix use

+

Accessibility to basic services

10

Accessibility to public facilities

+

Road reports

11

Road space for public and/or pedestrian transport

+

Public transport and shared mobility

12

Proximity to train stations

−

13

Proximity to a public − transport stop: bus/metro

14

Proximity to bike sharing stations

−

15

Proximity to car-sharing stations

−

Urban Planning

Built environment

Mobility and transport

Direction

(continued)

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Domain

Category

Green and permeability

Social structure

Population

Parameter

No.

Indicator

Direction

Cycling network

16

Proximity to a cycle path

−

Connectivity

17

Density of road intersections

+

Parks and green areas

18

Proximity to a green − space

19

Proximity to municipal vegetable gardens

−

Soil permeability

20

Degree of soil sealing

−

Socio-economic fragility

21

Elderly population (≥65 years) (%)

−

22

Foreign population (%)

−

23

Presence and + distribution of social housing on the territory

24

One-member households (%)

−

25

Households with 5 or more members (%)

−

26

Average household income

−

Occupation

27

Employment rate

+

Formation

28

Number of graduates −

This task requires the definition of the minimum rasterization cell, which must be chosen according to the urban context to be studied, assuming that it is possible to distinguish the different types of urban tissues, on which the PUG then defines the transformation rules. Each indicator is calculated by considering the identified mesh and will affect only the already urbanized territory, being only the one subjected to densification. 2.4 Phase IV: Normalization and Final Index Calculation Each of the proposed indicators assesses a specific aspect that positively or negatively affects the sustainability of the urban fabric in terms of density.

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To obtain a synthetic picture of suitable urban areas for being densified, a final synthetic index was calculated. The index allows assessing the impacts of possible densification scenarios and is the result of the overlap of each indicator; therefore, it requires that each indicator is normalized before being summed. The normalization process expresses the indicators value in a range from 0 to 1, also taking into consideration their direction. Then each indicator value is multiplied by the weight obtained in Phase II, and the results are summed, in case a parameter is described by more than one indicator. The same procedure is foreseen for normalizing the parameters values and categories values, thus obtaining partial indices by parameter and by category. The result obtained by this process is a cumulative normalized index, that synthesize the attitude of different urban areas to be densified. 2.5 Phase V: Densification Assessment The normalization and index calculation phase paved the way for assessing the goodness of specific urban areas to be densified by providing diversified and complementary information. The calculation of partial indices by category and eventually by parameter allows mapping and assessing where densification can be allowed or limited according to specific urban features. Indeed, partial indexes mapping is a crucial step for isolating specific aspects and assess how the different areas perform. Consequently, it is possible to identify sustainability conditions and requirements that make densification interventions sustainable once a certain condition has been improved. The final index mapping expresses an overall aptitude for densification where higher values identify areas more suitable to accommodate densification interventions; conversely, areas with low scores indicate the presence of possible limitations to densification.

3 Application of the Method to the Territory of Castelfranco Emilia The procedure has been applied in the territory of Castelfranco Emilia, an Italian town of about 33.000 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy. The city is located around 14 km from Modena and 27 km from Bologna. In addition to the main centre, Castelfranco, the Municipality counts eight hamlets: Cavazzona, Gaggio, Manzolino, Piumazzo, Panzano, Rastellino, Recovato, Riolo. The method has been applied to the first four only, which are the most populated and susceptible to be further developed and densified. The indicators that could be calculated with the data available were 18 out of 28 (no. 1, 2, 5–13, 16–20, 25 and 26). However, they represented a relevant sample of indicators, being able to ensure a good coverage of the different domains and categories identified, as well as having obtained the highest scores in phase II. The mesh chosen for all the indicators calculation and mapping is equal to one hectare (100 × 100 mt), representing the basis on which all indicators, partial indices and the synthetic index have been calculated. These tasks have been developed by using GIS. The values of the final synthetic index and partial indices were obtained thanks to a series of normalization operations, including the weights attributed to each parameter

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and indicator by the experts. The parameters that have obtained the highest weight are: accessibility to basic services, soil permeability, followed by energy efficiency and parks and green areas. Since the experts had the possibility to also weight indicators, those that received the highest weight were proximity to a public transport stop: bus/metro, degree of soil sealing, followed by energy performance index, FAR surface ratio and proximity to a green space.

4 Main Results The maps of the synthetic indicator calculated for the urbanized territory of Castelfranco Emilia were thus obtained. They express the aptitude of the different territorial cells to be densified. The final index obtained is the result of the normalization of the 18 indicators grouped in the different categories and domains and considers the weights provided by the experts (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Mapping of the final index for the different urban areas.

The main centre has optimal conditions for densification but also cells in which this strategy is highly critical. The most central areas, except for the historical core, obtain a very good evaluation to be densified, especially in the areas near the station, located in the north part of the town. Gradually, moving away to the south, east and west, the attitude to host densification interventions decreases. The hamlets, on the other hand, do not appear to be privileged places to be densified: in all the four hamlets the values of the final index obtained refer to medium-low attitudes. To understand the reasons why a zone has resulted as not suitable to be densified, it is necessary to analyze the performance to densification obtained by category. The mapping of the partial indices calculated by category highlights opportunities or limitations to densification according to specific urban features (Fig. 2). Notably each map obtained highlights specific critical issues that must be taken into account for developing more targeted and informed actions. For example, areas of the main centre most suitable for densification are the most served by public transport and the richest in services. On the other hand, if we consider the categories related to greenery or the built environment, the

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distribution of cells that present optimal situations for being densified is more variable and is not necessarily in favor of most central areas. Therefore the areas assessment is based both on the final and partial indices mapping.

Fig. 2. Maps of the six categories of indicators for the urban area of Castelfranco: (a) energy, (b) mobility and transport, (c) pollution (d) green and permeability, (e) built environment, (f) population. The higher the color intensity, the lesser the possibility to densify.

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5 Discussion and Conclusion The method proposed in this study can be a useful tool to guide urban densification strategies, aimed at limiting land take and urban regeneration. Using indicators, which have been weighed by the involvement of experts, the method allows to differentiate the urban tissues according to the greater or lesser attitude to host densification interventions respectful of sustainability conditions. The method therefore proposes the calculation of partial indices, related to each category of indicators, isolating specific causes affecting a greater or lesser attitude of specific areas to being densified. At the same time, the method provides a synthetic index that gives an overall assessment, to allow the planner to take decisions on how to modulate and differentiate building rights depending on the performance achieved by the different urban contexts. The information provided by partial and overall indexes allows planners identifying the causes of low performance and eventually foreseeing sustainability conditions that increase specific performance, making densification interventions sustainable. For instance, if there is a strong criticality regarding the good presence of green and permeability conditions, densification can be possible if the interventions clearly improve the current levels of permeability and greening. Although the results emerging from the synthetic index mapping as well as from each of the partial indices by category represent a first reference to support decisions in the planning phase, these results must in any case be analyzed and interpreted in the light of context wise factors that have to be considered: it is clear that densifying areas with a prevalence of tertiary or industrial buildings or in the historic center will not be possible or acceptable, therefore they should be eventually discarded. In this sense, the planner plays a crucial role in using the method and interpreting the results obtained. The set of indicators and indices allows supporting the planning phase by building different densification scenarios. In fact, these indicators can be changed according to different hypothetical strategies adopted and verify if critical situations arise, and consequently adopt corrective measures. Moreover, the method can be easily adapted and replicated to different contexts thanks to the wide set of indicators collected, that can be further selected both according to the available data and the strategic objectives and priorities that a given territory can manifest. In addition, the planned and implemented weighing process is a key element in adapting the method to different realities, which also identify different priorities in relation to the strategic choices that are made during the drafting of a new urban plan. Finally, the method is easily applied by technicians who are often unable to do overly complex processing. Despite its positive aspects already mentioned, the method can be further refined, being a first attempt to systematize relevant indicators to govern densification. Therefore, it has the potential of being improved with more sophisticated analysis, such as the pair correlation analysis, to see if and how the selected indicators influence each other, or by enriching some domains with specific insights, such as the use of simple indicators for mapping ecosystem services and green areas, which are often complex to calculate due to lack of data or structured knowledge.

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Moreover it can be integrated into the Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes accompanying the municipal urban plans design, to orient the definition of norms managing volumetric right and regulating volumetric incentives in those contexts that can host volumetric addictions without compromising the sustainability of the entire intervention.

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18. Gaglione, F., Gargiulo, C., Zucaro, F.: Where can the elderly walk? A spatial multi-criteria method to increase urban pedestrian accessibility. Cities 127, 103724 (2022) 19. Giuffrida, N., Fazio, M., Le Pira, M., Inturri, G., Ignaccolo, M.: Connecting university facilities with railway transport stations: the case of Catania. Transp. Res. Procedia 60, 568–575 (2022) 20. Kremer, P., Hamstead, Z.A., McPhearson, T.: The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: a spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios. Environ. Sci. Policy 62, 57–68 (2016) 21. Cabrera-Jara, N., Orellana, D., Hermida, M.A.: Assessing sustainable urban densification using geographic information systems. Int. J. Sustain. Build. Technol. Urban Dev. 8(2), 237– 243 (2017) 22. Agencia de Ecología Urbana de Barcelona & Red de Redes de Desarrollo Local Sostenible. Sistema de indicadores y condiciones para ciudades grandes y medianas, Barcellona (2009) 23. Angel, S., Lamson-Hall, P., Blanco, Z.G.: Anatomy of density: measurable factors that constitute urban density. Build. Cities 2(1), 264–282 (2021) 24. Berghöfer, A., Schneider, A.: Indicators for Managing Ecosystem Service, ValuES, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (2015) 25. Chao, A., Gallego, A., López-Chao, V., Alvarellos, A.: Indicators framework for sustainable urban design. Atmosphere 11, 1143 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111143 26. Cortinovis, C., Geneletti, D.: A performance-based planning approach integrating supply and demand of urban ecosystem services. Landscape Urban Planning 201, 103842 (2020) 27. Dublin City Council. Sustainability Report 2013 – Towards A Sustainable City Region (2013) 28. Economist Intelligence Unit. European Green City Index. Assessing the environmental impact of Europe’s major cities, Munich (2009) 29. Global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 11) 30. IDB. Emerging and Sustainable Cities: Indicators. Annex 2 Methodological Guide. ESC (2013) 31. Martino, N., Girlin, C., Lu, Y.: Urban form and livability: socioeconomic and built environment indicators. Build. Cities 2(1), 220–243 (2021) 32. OECD. Compact City Policies: A Comparative Assessment, OECD Green Growth Studies, OECD Publishing (2012) 33. Rueda, S.: Plan Especial de Indicadores de Sustentabilidad Ambiental de la Actividad Urbanística de Sevilla (2008) 34. STAR (Sustainability Tools for Assessing & Rating) Community. Leading STAR Communities Indicators Guide, USDN Innovation Fund (2016) 35. Sustainable Cities. Indicators for sustainability: How cities are monitoring and evaluating their success, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) (2012) 36. IV Reunión del Grupo de trabajo de Indicadores de Sostenibilidad de la Red de Redes de Desarrollo Local Sostenible. Sistema municipal de indicadores de sostenibilidad, Madrid (2010)

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Growth and Greening Goals Towards Sustainable Development Carolina Salvo(B)

and Alessandro Vitale

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria, Rende, (CS), Italy [email protected]

Abstract. A quantitative assessment of the complex relationship between urban growth and greening represents an efficient method to manage and understand the land cover transformation. A key solution to reach this aim is combining innovative Remote Sensing (RS) technologies and geospatial techniques to assess the interaction dynamics of urban and greening changes towards sustainability over time. Despite this, the research on this issue still needs to be fully explored. The authors propose an innovative methodology based on Deep Learning (DL) algorithms and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques that, considering the population dynamics and two new indicators, evaluate the co-relation between urban growth, vegetation and population changes. The overall methodology is tested on the urban area of Matera municipality (Basilicata, Italy), analyzing changes in urban, greening and population from 2000 to 2020. Thanks to a quadrant analysis, the results (i) highlighted development patterns of the built-up area and the vegetation cover, (ii) identified the quadrants of the study area characterized by valuable or critical levels of co-relation between urban growth, greening changes, and population dynamics towards sustainability. The applied methodology could support local administrators, technicians, and researchers in promoting strategies to improve sustainable urban development. Keywords: Greening Development · Urban Growth · Population Dynamics · Remote Sensing · Deep Learning · Geographic Information Systems

1 Introduction Over time, in the urban planning context, despite the increasing emphasis on greening to achieve a high quality of life and of the built environment (Tan et al., 2013), urban growth has determined adverse impacts on urban green areas (UGAs) mainly caused by the conversion of green natural areas into impervious surfaces (Elmqvist et al., 2018; Wolff et al., 2019). UGAs are defined as any vegetative natural areas within the urban environment, such as forests, trees, urban parks, residential gardens, playgrounds, and grasslands (Dinda et al., 2021; Nawar et al., 2022). The importance of urban green areas in increasing economic, social, and environmental quality by providing multiple ecosystem services © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 183–195, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_17

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is well supported by research (Andersson et al., 2014; Artmann et al., 2017). UGAs contribute to preserving and enhancing environmental quality by supporting biodiversity (La Sorte et al., 2020), reducing air pollution (Bhandari and Zhang, 2022), mitigating the environmental threats of climate change (Inostroza, 2014), and improving water retention conditions. Moreover, UGAs improve social and economic quality and give many advantages to public health (Zepp and Inostroza, 2017). For these reasons, the spatial-temporally explicit and integrated analysis of urban growth and UGAs development considering the population changes is essential to evaluate and define proper and suitable urban planning policies (Feng et al., 2021). A good system to identify and assess the urban and green cover dynamics is the combined and integrated use of remotely sensed data, innovative remote sensing technologies, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allow studying patterns of land cover changes at various scales accurately and efficiently (Hassan, 2017; Bhat et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2021). To detect changes in urban and green cover, many studies employed Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat-7 Enhanced TM Plus (ETM+) (Moody et al., 2017), and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) (Cheema and Bastiaanssen, 2010). They analyzed differences in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). Zhou et al. (2023) assessed changes in NDVI and urban boundary datasets to detect dynamic coordination or conflicts in vegetation and urban cover in urban environments. Moving from these methods based on classical spectral analysis, thanks to the recent intelligence systems development, many artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been developed to recognize and detect land features both based on pixel-based image analysis and object-based image analysis (Qin and Liu, 2022; Mollick et al., 2023). Traditional AI-based algorithms to detect land features, such as support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and kernel ridge regression (KRR), have now left space for innovative deep learning (DL) semantic segmentation techniques, which represent an advancement of traditional neural networks (Francini et al., 2023) and are more precise than others. Although progress in the study of the quantitative relationship between urban and green features is going on (Madad et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2023), the research field on the assessment of co-relation between urban and greening development with population dynamics is not fully explored. In this study, the authors aim to look at the relationship between urban growth, greening development, and population dynamics over time by combining innovative remote sensing methodologies, AI technologies and geospatial techniques. First, for a case study, the authors detected urban and greening features with a high level of detail through AI algorithms to remote sensing data (Francini et al., 2023). Then, the effects of the interaction between urban, and greening changes, and population dynamics on sustainability levels of the study area are determined by performing a quadrant analysis and using quantitative indicators. The co-relation between urban growth, greening changes, and population dynamics is quantified by assessing the mismatch between the supply of built-up areas and UGAs, represented by their provision in the study area, and their demand, linked to population needs and current law requirements. The research intends, therefore, to answer the following research questions:

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1. How has the extent of green areas changed in the selected urban context over a specified period? 2. What is the impact of urban growth and the loss or gain of UGAs on the sustainability levels of a study area, considering population dynamics? The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the materials and methods are presented. Section 3 presents and discusses the results, while Sect. 4 contains the paper’s conclusions.

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area The proposed methodology is applied to the municipality of Matera in the Basilicata region of Italy. Matera is known worldwide as the “City of Sassi” since it is the first inhabited zone dating from the Paleolithic in Italy. Matera’s Sassi is the first site in Southern Italy recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is also recognized as the European Capital of Culture in 2019. According to the national population census (ISTAT, 2001; ISTAT, 2011), considering the period 2000–2020, Matera’s population decreased over time while soil consumption increased (Munafò et al., 2022), with consequent progressive depletion of natural resources. Several reasons led the authors to consider the municipality of Matera as a significant case study for assessing the dynamics of urban growth, vegetation cover and population changes over time. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Matera is subject to specific regulations aiming to preserve its cultural heritage, which may impact urban development patterns and UGAs management. This offers an opportunity to understand the influence of regulatory frameworks on urban-green changes. Moreover, given that Matera has similarities to other Mediterranean cities, the findings and results of this study could be similar to other urban contexts. Specifically, the proposed methodology is tested on the city’s northwest area which is an expansion area characterized by the development of new residences, urban services, and commercial/productive areas over time. 2.2 Methodology Overview The proposed research uses data covering twenty years, from 2000 to 2020, about built-up area and vegetation cover obtained by applying innovative remote sensing technologies and GIS analysis methods. The urban and green features in urban areas are extracted using the AI-GIS method proposed by Francini et al. (2023). The AI algorithm used is a Deep Learning (DL) model, the U-Net model, that is trained and validated using the “Semantic Segmentation of Aerial Imagery”, adopting many data augmentation techniques to improve the model’s significance and goodness of fit (Francini et al., 2022). The DL model is tested through the classification and segmentation of buildings and vegetation areas from the 2000, 2011, and 2020 natural color orthoimage of the study area (Geoportale della Regione Basilicata, 2023). The classification and segmentation

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accuracy of the trained and validated U-Net model reaches F1-Score values of 0.95 and 0.97 for built-up areas and vegetation cover, respectively. All the classified and segmented buildings and UGAs are vectorized and imported into the open-source QGIS platform (QGIS, 2022). Starting from the results obtained from the automatic classification and segmentation of urban and greening features, the authors examined urban and greening changes by considering the population evolution. In particular, the authors evaluated the ratio (mismatch) between the supply of built-up and greening cover and the demand derived from population needs and law requirements within directional zones obtained from a quadrant analysis. Within the scientific literature, the geospatial analysis adopted to assess and study urban and greening changes over time are the grid cell analysis (Bai et al., 2022), multiring buffer analysis (Kushwaha et al., 2021), and zonal and quadrant analysis (Woldesemayat and Genovese, 2021), whose use differ in purposes and fields of application. The zonal analysis is performed on a zone-by-zone basis within a geographic area. These zones are usually defined by a particular attribute such as a political boundary, a land cover type, or a specific geographic feature. This method can help analyze and compare different zones within an urban area in a specific way. In grid cell analysis each cell represents a specific geographic location and contains a value representing a certain attribute. This method is highly suitable for continuous data, and common operations including map algebra, neighborhood analysis, and interpolation. Multi-buffer analysis involves creating multiple concentric zones (buffers) around a specific point or feature. These buffers are typically created at regular intervals and can be used to analyze the distribution of other features relative to the central point. The quadrant analysis consents to establish spatial relationship between the core and peripheral of the study area, as well as to identify the key direction of land cover and socioeconomic changes. Furthermore, the quadrant analysis, allows the integration of multiple types of data within each direction, gives a general assessment for strategic decision, and accounts for the spatial heterogeneity of urban environments. These reasons led the authors to adopt the quadrant analysis to assess urban, greening and population changes in an integrated and quantitative way. Specifically, the study area is divided into eight zones at 45-degree intervals from the center to the outskirt. Once the zones are defined, thanks to the powerful spatial analysis functions of GIS tools, it becomes possible to compare them with a high level of detail and at a variety of scales. The resulting eight zones are indicated with East-North-East (ENE), NorthNorth-East (NNE), North-North-West (NNW), West-North-West (WNW), West-SouthWest (WSW), South-South-West (SSW), South-South-East (SSE) and East-South-East (ESE) (Mandal et al., 2019). For each zone, the author assessed the change in the urban, greening cover and the population between the time points. The boundaries of the eight sectors obtained are marked by geographical coordinates and correspond to the real quadrant zones of the studied urban area. Using georeferenced boundaries, quadrant analysis can help to understand how different quadrant zones of a city differ in terms of urban and greening change levels over time at a variety of scales.

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Considering the supply and demand mismatch of urban development and vegetation cover, the authors assessed the level of co-relation between urban growth, UGAs and population changes towards sustainability over time for each of the eight zones. Indeed, both built-up areas (e.g., residential, commercial, and industrial areas) and green areas (e.g., parks, gardens, and green corridors) in urban areas are forms of supply that must meet the demand of the urban population. As the population increases, there is a higher demand for housing, workplaces, schools, healthcare facilities, and other infrastructures. The creation of these built-up areas is a response to this demand. On the other hand, the increase in UGAs can also be seen as a response to population demand. Urban residents require access to nature for recreation, relaxation, and the general improvement of quality of life. Given that, urbanization accompanied by a loss of green areas and population decrease, often referred to as urban shrinkage or depopulation, presents a unique set of challenges for urban sustainability. Urbanization, even with decreasing population, can lead to the loss of UGAs, reducing biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and natural air filtration. Fewer UGAs can negatively impact the well-being of residents by reducing recreational areas and opportunities for social interaction. The methodological workflow is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Methodological workflow.

2.3 Population Prediction Since no official population data is available for 2020, starting from population variation for the period 2001–2011 obtained from ISTAT population census, the predicted population for 2020 in each directional zone is calculated with Seigel and Swanson (2004) method (Eq. 1): Pi = P0 (1 + r)i

(1)

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In Eq. 1, Pi is the predicted population after i number of decades, P0 is the population at the reference year, i is the number of decade (1, 2, 3, …, i), and r is the population growth rate. The authors assessed the population for 2020 through this formula for each directional zone as the population growth rate differ from one quadrant to the other. Based on the ISTAT data, the authors used the period 2001–2011 as the reference. Moreover, the authors assumed that the population variation between 2000 and 2001 is not relevant for the study and, therefore, they considered the population data of 2001 for 2000. 2.4 Indicators to Assess the Co-relation Between Urban Growth, Greening Development and Population Changes For each of the eight zones of the study area, two different indicators relating to the spacetime dynamics of urban growth, changes in greening and in population are assessed. Specifically, two different conditions are considered: (i) an increase or (ii) a decrease in population. The authors considered only the positive changes in the built-up area. Cases of decreased built-up area linked, for example, to redevelopment and regeneration interventions are not considered in this study. Although these cases are of particular interest and importance in the context of limiting land take, the proposed methodology needs to be further developed to address these situations. The first indicator is the Urban Supply Demand Mismatch Index (USDMI), and it represents the ratio between the provision of built-up area and the built-up area standards to satisfy the demand of the population. The functional form of the USDMI indicator is as follows: USDMI = U/(P · SUL)

(2)

In Eq. (2), U and P are the variation of built-up area (m2 ), and the population variation (inhabitants) during the reference period, while SUL is the standard quantity of built-up area per capita (m2 /inhabitants). According to the Building Regulations of Matera, this standard corresponds to 40 m2 /inhabitants (Building Regulations of Matera, 2021). The second indicator is the Green Supply Demand Mismatch Index (GSDMI) which represents the ratio between the UGAs variation and the minimum UGAs standard to satisfy the population demand variation (Eq. (3)). GSDMI = V/(P · MGS)

(3)

V is UGAs changes (m2 ) for the reference period, P is the population variation (inhabitants) during the reference period, and MGS is the minimum area of UGAs per capita (m2 /inhabitants). The minimum UGAs standard is 9 m2 /inhabitants (DM 1444/1968; WHO, 2016). The combination of the two indicators described above and the definition of specific interval variations allows to evaluate how spatiotemporal changes in built-up and UGAs, with respect to population dynamics, is related to sustainability level (Table 1 and Table 2).

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Table 1. USDMI and GSDMI co-relation towards sustainability related to positive population variation (P > 0). 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 and GSDMI USDMI > 1 and GSDMI ≥ 1 ≥1 or 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 and 0 ≤ GSDMI < 1

USDMI > 1 and 0 ≤ GSDMI 1 and GSDMI < 0 or 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 and GSDMI 0

POOR

BAD

Considering the increase in resident population scenario during the analyzed period, 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 and GSDMI ≥ 1 identify the best scenario in terms of co-relation between urban growth, greening and population changes. Indeed, aiming to limit land take, 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 indicates that the newly increased population demand is satisfied for at maximum the best standards requirements. At the same time, a GDSMI > = 1 denotes an increase in green coverage in terms of surface area, which meets the green space minimum requirement. When USDMI > 1 and GSDMI ≥ 1 or 0 ≤ USDMI ≤ 1 and 0 ≤ GSDMI < 1, the scenario can be identified as characterized by a quite good level of sustainable interaction. In this case, an alternate condition of the following two has occurred: (i) the urban area has grown, exceeding the needs generated by the increase in population demand; (ii) the green area growth does not meet the minimum standards requirements. A poor sustainable scenario occurs when USDMI > 1 and 0 ≤ GSDMI < 1 or USDMI > 1 and GSDMI < 0. In this case, the population increase is accompanied with (i) soil sealing and an insufficient provision of UGAs, (ii) soil sealing and vegetated land converted in built-up land, or (iii) sufficient provision of built-up area and loss of vegetative land. Considering, over the reference period, a decrease in the population, negative values of USDMI and GSDMI related to soil sealing phenomenon denote a poor level of sustainability in urban and greening dynamics. The worst scenario occurs when USDMI is negative, and GSDMI is positive because of both negative terms in the numerator and denominator of the functional equation. This case corresponds to a population contraction followed by unjustified built-up growth and reduced UGAs.

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3 Results and Discussions As stated in the methodological section, the study area is divided into eight spatial zones: ENE, NNE, NNW, WNW, WSW, SSW, SSE, and ESE. Using the exponential model described in Sect. 3 for forecasting population growth, the population in 2020 is estimated for each of the eight sectors (Table 3). The population of each of the eight sectors is obtained by considering the sum of the population of all the ISTAT census areas contained in each directional zone. This operation is performed in the QGIS environment. Table 3. Population for each directional zone for 2001, 2011, and 2020. Directional zone

Population 2001 (inhabit.)

Population 2011 (inhabit.)

Population 2020 (inhabit.)

ENE

2063

2271

2500

NNE

461

1219

3223

NNW

268

1713

10949

WNW

287

433

653

WSW

958

862

776

SSW

1974

1815

1668

SSE

9691

9855

10023

ESE

3992

3804

3625

The authors assessed the built-up area, and the vegetation cover changes between 2000–2020 (Table 4), starting from the results obtained by the classification and segmentation of satellite imagery through the DL model (Francini et al., 2023). The classified and segmented built-up area and vegetation cover are shown in Fig. 2. Table 4 highlights that most of the quadrants had a decline in vegetation cover during the analyzed period. The highest value of vegetation cover decline for the period 2000– 2011 was registered for the NNW and SSE quadrants. It was equal to −131932 m2 and −113149 m2 , respectively. Only the quadrants ENE and NNE had an increase in the vegetation cover for 12729 m2 and 61326 m2 , respectively. For the period 2011–2020, the highest decline in vegetation cover, equal to −75045 m2 , is registered for the NNE quadrant. The population variation, the built-up area, and vegetation cover changes made it possible to identify the USDM and the GSDM and assess the co-relation between urban, greening and population changes toward sustainability over time. Specifically, the numerical results are shown in Table 5, while the geospatial analysis is represented in Fig. 3. Analyzing the co-relation between urban, green, and population changes between 2000–2011 from the obtained results, all the quadrants showed a poor level of sustainable development. During this period, in none of the directional zones of the study area, there

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Fig. 2. Built-up area and vegetation cover for 2000, 2011, and 2020.

Table 4. Built-up area and vegetation cover changes in m2 in each directional zone for 2000–2011 and 2011–2020. Directional zone

Built-Up Area Change 2000–2011 (m2 )

Vegetation Area Change 2000–2011 (m2 )

Built-Up Area Change 2011–2020 (m2 )

Vegetation Area Change 2011–2020 (m2 )

ENE

40091

12729

0

−26403

NNE

70708

61326

4824

−75045

NNW

146398

−131932

0

−20182

WNW

6814

−566

0

81212

WSW

14061

−20854

15734

48017

SSW

109139

−55373

19181

−61677

SSE

67007

−113149

1533

−20896

ESE

15767

−7019

57050

−8401

has been optimal urban growth aligned with the optimal development of the UGAs. During this timeline, the quadrants NNE and ENE experienced a quite good co-relation between urban, greening and population changes. On the one hand, it can mean that there has been an increase in built-up beyond the demand for residence accompanied by an increase in UGAs, satisfying the request for UGAs to reach a better quality of the built environment. On the other hand, it can be explained as the increase in the built-up area beyond the demand required by the increase in the population and, at the same time, an increase in the UGAs that goes beyond the request by users. Both NNE and ENE quadrants fall in the case of an increase in the built-up area beyond the demand

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Table 5. USDMI and GSDMI values in each directional zone for the 2000–2011 and 2011–2020 periods. Directional zone

USDMI 2000–2011

GSDMI 2000–2011

USDMI 2011–2020

GSDMI 2011–2020

ENE

14.46

6.80

0

−12.81

NNE

7.00

9.00

0.18

−4.16

NNW

7.60

−10.15

0

−0.24

WNW

3.50

−0.43

0

41.02

WSW

−10.96

24.14

−13.72

−62.04

SSW

−51.48

38.70

−9.79

46.62

SSE

30.64

−76.66

0.69

−13.82

ESE

−6.30

4.15

−23.90

5.22

Fig. 3. Urban and greening level of interaction towards sustainability in each directional zone for 2000–2011 and 2011–2020 periods.

requirements associated with increased availability of urban green areas per capita. During the same period, NNW, WNW, and SSE showed a poor coexistence between urban growth and greening goals. In all these cases, it was related to an exceeding realization of built-up area and a decline in the vegetation cover, which determined a negative amount of UGAs. Instead, WSW, SSW, and ESE experienced the worst scenario, as they showed a decrease in the population while realizing newly built-up area and having a loss in the vegetative land. Between 2011 and 2020, only the WNW quadrant manifested good coexistence between urban and greening development. In this case, indeed, there has been a balance between the increase in the built-up area and the vegetative land growth. On the contrary, ESE and SSW quadrants exhibited the worst level of coexistence between urban growth and achievement of greening goals as the population decreased. At the same time, the built-up area increased, and the vegetation cover declined. The other quadrants, such as NNW, NNE, ENE, SSE, and WSW, showed poor sustainable coexistence between urban growth and greening goals. Specifically, in ENE, NNE, NNW, and SSE, a built-up area realization has not exceeded the standard requirements associated with a decline in

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vegetative coverage. Instead, WSW experienced a decline in the population accompanied by an unjustified increase in the built-up area and urban green areas.

4 Conclusions This study aims to analyze the co-relation between urban growth and UGAs changes with population dynamics in urban areas. The authors employed the results obtained by Francini et al. (2023) on the identification of urban and greening features through the application of an innovative technological platform based on DL algorithms to assess urban growth and vegetation cover trends and the level of sustainability of the co-relation between these two planning policies with population dynamics across directional zones. The results on the co-relation between urban, green and population changes showed that the investigated urban area moved in a quite good level of sustainable coexistence only in NNE and ENE quadrants between 2000 and 2011. In all the other cases during the same period, the level of sustainable coexistence was poor and, in some cases, bad. Between 2011–2020 the situation has deteriorated. Except for the WNW quadrant, which has a good level of sustainable coexistence considering urban and greening supply demand mismatch indexes, the others have a poor and bad situation. The results demonstrated the paths of these two planning policies and their level of co-relation with population evolution towards sustainable development. The proposed methodology can be defined as a valuable method to understand the dynamics between urban growth, UGAs, and population changes. Indeed, it can help decision-makers to analyze the effective changes in the urban and greening over time and assess their degree of interaction with population dynamics in sustainable development achievement. By applying innovative DL algorithms to a time series of remote sensing data and quantifying urban and greening associated to population dynamics, local administrators, technicians, and researchers can obtain helpful information about the level of coordination that can define better urban land use planning policies. Starting from this methodology’s results decision makers could adopt policies and solutions aimed at: (a) promoting compact and mixed-use development patterns to reduce soil sealing, minimize the need for long commutes, and preserve UGAs; (b) promoting green infrastructure implementation policies, such as parks, urban forests, green roofs, rain gardens, and permeable pavement; (c) protecting existing UGAs and enhancing their quality; (d) employing smart growth principles in land-use planning; (e) monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness planning decisions at the large scale.

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Performance-Based Site Selection of Nature-Based Solutions: Applying the Curve Number Model to High-Resolution Layers to Steer Better Greening Strategies Andrea Benedini(B)

and Riccardo Roganti

Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic of Milan, Milan, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Urbanisation and consequential soil sealing are primary sources of urban vulnerability towards extreme water-related events, which will be even more frequent with climate change. The high rates of imperviousness characterising contemporary cities generate large volumes of stormwater runoff that traditional drainage systems may not be able to manage, even for small-intensity events. Several planning experiences have proven effective in designing green strategies and implementing nature-based solutions (NBS) to reduce stormwater runoff produced in highly impervious areas. Nevertheless, these experiences usually consist of local-scale plans necessary to evaluate NBS but incapable of providing practical methodologies to scale up NBS performance-based planning. Hence, the paper aims to develop a spatial indicator to identify where a specific type of NBS, namely green roofs, could provide the highest benefits by combining an index related to the need for runoff reduction with an index related to the suitability of green roof interventions. For assessing runoff reduction needs, the method applies the Curve Number model, developed by the Soil Conservation Service, to the Geo-Topographic Database of the Lombardy Region, a well know instrument used by urban planners. The same database is used to identify where green roofs could be implemented. This application allows us to obtain, even for dense cities, a site-specific assessment of good potential green roof locations, i.e., where green roofs are needed and where they can be built. The paper will test the proposed methodology to the city of Como, Lombardy (IT). Keywords: stormwater management · runoff reduction · green roof · environmental indicators · urban planning

1 Introduction Stormwater management poses a pressing challenge for contemporary cities, necessitating the proactive engagement of urban planners in creating resilient urban environments [1, 2]. The combined effects of climate change and soil sealing have significantly intensified the adverse consequences of precipitation events, leading to a raised frequency © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 196–207, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_18

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of local flooding that disrupts the regular functioning of urban life [3, 4]. Due to the escalating soil sealing rates caused by urbanisation and the dense concentration of population and economic activities, cities emerge as exceptionally vulnerable and exposed territories to this climatic concern [5, 6]. Therefore, it becomes imperative that resilient strategies be implemented primarily within urban contexts to mitigate these challenges effectively [7, 8]. Within the proposed interventions to address these challenges, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have gathered recognition from numerous scholars and practitioners as an effective tool for regulating stormwater runoff while providing broader advantages, namely ecosystem services (ES) [9–11]. The United Nations Environment Assembly defines NBS as “solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are costeffective, simultaneously provide environmental, social, and economic benefits and help build resilience” [12]. By integrating these solutions within urban settings, planners can introduce natural features and processes into cities while effectively combining green interventions with hard-engineering approaches to accomplish resource-efficient adaptation measures [13, 14]. Among the range of NBS that contribute to regulating stormwater runoff, green roofs have received considerable recognition from scholars as a particularly effective tool [15]. Green roofs demonstrate a notable ability to retain stormwater, particularly during light and moderate rainfall events, thus mitigating urban runoff and alleviating the burden on combined sewer systems [16]. Additionally, green roofs can improve runoff quality compared to conventional roofing materials, offer energy-saving and carbonsequestration benefits, and enhance biodiversity [17, 18]. However, the performance of green roofs varies depending on factors such as pre-existing environmental conditions (e.g., soil moisture), precipitation event characteristics, and the green roof’s specific typology [19]. While numerous studies have substantiated the performance and benefits of green roofs at the building scale, assessing their feasibility for achieving stormwater source control at the urban scale has only recently garnered attention [20, 21]. However, only a significant implementation of this NBS at the urban scale can enhance the capacity of the urban system to manage stormwater more effectively [22]. Fostering scaling-out processes thus represents a crucial objective for public administrations aiming to improve urban stormwater management [23]. Evidence-based, clear, and consistent plans and policies are necessary to trigger these processes and overcome some barriers to green roof adoption, such as scepticism by private stakeholders regarding the actual effectiveness of this NBS [24, 25]. To support the draft of these urban plans and policies, developing spatial indicators at the city-wide scale utilising advanced digital technologies and modelling tools becomes imperative [26, 27]. Hence, the objective of the present study is to establish an urbanlevel indicator, the Green Roof Suitability Index, that is both computationally straightforward and sufficiently precise to effectively assess the demand for reducing stormwater runoff rates and the feasibility of implementing green roofs. By applying this index to a high-resolution land use layer, namely the Geo-Topographic Database of the Lombardy Region (GTDB), the resultant indicator accurately identifies the specific areas within the city where green roof interventions are viable and urgently required. Furthermore,

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the computational efficiency of the proposed model ensures its high reproducibility, enabling its application to diverse geographical regions with ease. To test the methodology, this paper applies the proposed approach to the city of Como, in the Lombardy Region. Following an explanation of the methodology employed, the test results are presented and comprehensively discussed. This analysis highlights the distinctive characteristics of the case study and assesses the model’s strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, the study draws conclusions regarding the potential advancement of the model and its application in guiding greening strategies and policies within the domain of urban planning.

2 Methodology 2.1 Study Area

Fig. 1. The city of Como in the Lombardy Region. Zoom on the city of Como.

The methodology proposed in this study is implemented and tested in the city of Como, located in Lombardy’s northern region (Fig. 1). The city’s location near Lake Como and the Alps significantly influences its climate and urban morphology. Classified under the Köppen climate classification as having a humid subtropical climate, the city experiences short winters and hot, humid summers. Precipitation is more frequent during spring, while summer is prone to cloudbursts. Specifically, Como experiences among the highest levels of precipitation in the Lombardy Region, recording an average rainfall of 87.5 mm if considering 24-h, 1-year return period events (available online at IdroARPA). This characteristic is due to a northwest regional gradient of increasing rainfall, from the drier southeast plains to the wetter northwest mountainous areas. The urban fabric is characterised by high density and extensive impermeability, primarily driven by topographical constraints. This combination of precipitation patterns and substantial soil sealing renders Como an interesting and relevant location for applying the proposed methodology.

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2.2 The Green Roof Suitability Index The Green Roof Suitability Index is a synthetic indicator derived from two spatiallyexplicit indexes related to the runoff production under a specific precipitation scenario and the spatial availability of green roofs. The Runoff Production Index draws upon the Curve Number method, while the Roof Availability Index is calculated through a combination of physical characteristics and location within the urban context. Both indexes are computed on a high-resolution land use layer provided by the Lombardy Region: the Geo-topographic Database (GTDB), accessible via the Lombardy Region Geoportal (available online at Lombardy Region Geoportal). The GTDB is the informational basis of the Public Administration for collecting and managing territorial data in the Lombardy Region. The GTDB is developed using an aero-photogrammetric methodology, providing a scale of 1:2000 for urban areas. This level of detail offers a suitable resolution for performing calculations at the urban scale but considering the individual lot and building scale. Following, the Runoff Production Index, the Green Roof Availability Index and their combination into the Green Roof Suitability Index are presented. Runoff Production Index (RPI). The Runoff Potential Index (RPI) quantifies the runoff generated within each pixel in millimetres and is computed using the Curve Number (CN) model. The CN model was developed by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) to determine areas with higher runoff levels based on land cover parameters [28]. It establishes a relationship between land cover uses and parameters such as the CN, representing the soil’s ability to absorb water. Although this method does not capture detailed water dynamics during rainfall events, it effectively characterises the general water infiltration capacities of different land uses. Several input variables are required for the CN model, including precipitation amount, soil hydrological group, land use category, and a CN table. Precipitation data was obtained from ARPA Lombardy, the regional environmental protection agency (available online at IdroARPA), and the rainfall event with a 1-year return period was selected as input for the model. This event is chosen due to the green roof’s efficacy in managing high-frequency, low-intensity precipitation events [29]. To determine the hydrological group of the soil, the study utilised the pedological map provided by the Lombardy Region (available online at Lombardy Region Geoportal). This map offers detailed information on the soil texture of the top meter of soil, categorised on the percentage of clay, silt, or sand present. According to recommendations from the literature [30, 31], the specific soil texture types were associated with corresponding hydrological categories, i.e., group A, group B, group C or group D. Land use categories were extracted from the GTDB. Each element was assigned one of six type values, i.e., ‘agricultural’, ‘impervious areas’, ‘open spaces’, ‘streets and roads’, ‘water bodies’, and ‘woods’, to match the classification provided by the SCS CN table [28]. Specific land use categories, i.e., ‘open space’ and ‘streets and roads’, underwent further refinement using a quality assessment based on the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), computed starting from Sentinel-2 satellite images (referring to May 2022 scenes). Open spaces were classified into three categories: ‘poor’ (low NDVI, 0.25 and 0.5). Streets and roads were classified into two NDVI categories using 0.25 as the threshold.

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Woody areas classification was based on the tree cover density using the Copernicus product (available at the Copernicus website). Using the CN model, the RPI was computed for each combination of land use and hydrological category class. The results were then converted into a high-resolution raster with a pixel size of 5 m and subsequently aggregated into a new raster with a pixel size of 100 m. This aggregation was performed to enable a higher-scale overlap between different high-resolution metrics. Four RPI classes were defined according to the value of the pixel compared to the maximum runoff value: class 1 (low runoff production, 80%)” to 13300 “Construction sites” have been considered as artificial, while categories ranging from 13400 “Land without current use” to 50000 “Water” have been considered as “green/blue areas” (Table 1; Fig. 3 point 2). The subsequent intersection between the reclassified UA dataset and the hexagonal mesh grid allowed to calculate the areas occupied inside every cell, distinguishing those with a total artificial cover (i.e. static cells) from the ones with green/blue areas (i.e. dynamic cells) (Fig. 3 point 2). This procedure has been repeated for each grid shift. After the identification of the static and dynamic cells, the new grid shifts categorization has been merged, to obtain the general static and dynamic areas.

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Table 1. Urban Atlas Reclassification URBAN ATLAS CODES

RECLASSIFICATION

11100 > 13300

Artificial areas

13400 > 50000

Green/Blue areas

In the final step imperviousness layer has been overlapped. Arbitrarily setting a threshold value of 90% of imperviousness density, static cells have been populated with this data, considering the ones falling under this criterion as “semi static” (Fig. 3 point 4).

Fig. 3. Static and dynamic cell recognition. The reclassification of the Urban Atlas (UA) classes (point 2) allowed the recognition of static and dynamic tiles (point 3). Finally, semi static cells have been identified overlapping the imperviousness density (point 4). The images refer to only one shift.

2.5 UESs Elaborations Finally, the obtained static, dynamic and semi-static areas have been associated with two ESs values. Specifically, the Urban Flood Risk Mitigation (UFRM) and the Urban Cooling (UC) InVEST models have been calculated [36]. For these elaborations, LULC classes coming from the UA dataset (not reclassified) have been used.

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The main value considered from the UFRM is the runoff retention, calculated as the ratio between the runoff on each pixel and the design storm P (mean precipitations have been considered): Ri = 1 −

Qp,i P

where: Ri = Runoff retention per pixel (adimensional) Qp,i = Runoff for each pixel i, based on the design storm p P = Design storm depth in mm. The values of the formula have been retrieved though sources proposed by the InVEST manual (https://storage.googleapis.com/releases.naturalcapitalproject.org/inv est-userguide/latest/en/index.html#) and data coming from the Simulsoil software (http://www.sam4cp.eu/simulsoil/). From the UC model Cooling capacity index (CCi ) has been retrieved, based on shade, albedo and evapotranspiration values. CCi = 0.6 ∗ shade + 0.2 ∗ albedo + 0.2 ∗ ETI where: CCi = Cooling capacity index (adimensional) shade = Proportion of area in the single LULC class covered by tree canopy at least 2 m high albedo = Proportion of solar radiation that is directly reflected by the single LULC class. ETI = evapotranspiration index Shade data has been retrieved through the elaboration of the ESA worldcover dataset (https://esa-worldcover.org/en). Albedo values have been retrieved by Stewart and Oke (2012). Evapotranspiration index has been calculated based on the InVEST model (https://storage.googleapis.com/releases.naturalcapit alproject.org/invest-userguide/latest/en/index.html#), retrieving the relative evapotranspiration values through MODIS data (https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/dat asets/catalog/MODIS_061_MOD11A1). Finally, ESs elaborations have been associated to the static and dynamic areas, to deepen the mean values associated to each class.

3 Results The distribution of semi static, dynamic and static areas show the main urbanized axis of the city of L’Aquila, primarily characterized by high portion of areas classified as semi static. Here, the imperviousness sometimes saturates almost all the urbanized area. Although being at high rates, the artificial cover percentage of the semi static area never exceed 90%, implying a certain portion of free soil. Indeed, the spatial configuration of the city of L’Aquila is characterized by high levels of urban fabric dispersion, therefore presenting many voids, meaning portions of unsealed soil.

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Additionally, some hotspots (of static cells) have been identified in specific areas of the city (Fig. 4). In these areas, corresponding to the historic city center and to the main industrial hubs, the evaluation of the calculated ecosystem services indicates lower values in terms of runoff mitigation and cooling capacity (Fig. 5). Furthermore, it emerges a distribution of the ecosystem services that shows lower values inside the main urbanized axis of the city. Finally, values tend to be higher moving away from the so called “hot spots” (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. Spatial distribution of the static, dynamic and semi static cells along the urban axis of L’Aquila.

Fig. 5. Ecosystem services elaborations. Considered values are: colling capacity for the urban cooling (UC) model (left) and runoff retention for the urban flood risk mitigation (UFRM) model (right).

This observation is further supported by the association of the average values for the UC and the UFRM ecosystem services, based on the area’s classification.

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Specifically, higher values occur into the “dynamic areas”, with an average cooling capacity of 0,33 and a runoff mitigation ratio of 0,84. Instead, lower values are associated to the semi static and static areas, with an average cooling capacity of 0,16 and a runoff retention ratio of 0,45 (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Mean UC and UFRM values in the static, dynamic and semistatic cells.

4 Discussion and Conclusions In the presented work the subdivision of the urban fabric into static, dynamic and semistatic areas defines the potentiality of expressing ecosystem functions and services, based on the land cover, basically artificial or natural. Specifically, the condition for the City of L’Aquila shows a prevalence of dynamic and semi static areas, thus presenting some main hotspots, represented by the city historic center and by the main industrial hubs. Furthermore, the methodology presented is strictly linked to the future association of de-sealing and/or greening interventions that must take place, to correctly manage and connect the UESs supply/demand. Although the study provides some insight into the topic, it is important to discuss about some of the potential limitations of our research methodology, to ensure the validity and generalizability of the conclusions drawn. First, the dataset resolution of 10 m/pixel could still be too coarse to highlight urban scale infrastructures such as small pervious areas. Furthermore, ESs results show no differences between UFRM and UC values for the semi-static and static cells. Although being the same values, it can be seen a strict correspondence between the spatial distribution of the cell classification (Fig. 5) and the ESs values in Fig. 4, substantially confirming the differences between static and semi-static cells in the considered ESs expression. Nevertheless, it will be fundamental to stimulate the production of finer scale dataset. Another simplification is represented by the UA reclassification. Indeed, although all

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classes ranging from 11100 “Continuous urban fabric (S.L. > 80%)” to 13400 “Land without current use” have been considered as artificialized, they can comprehend areas whereas the possibility of intervention is still present, due to the low urban fabric density. Here, the use of the imperviousness density dataset partly obviates to this limitation, thus needing further analyses. Future directions will be aimed at identifying a procedure able to enhance urban environment quality, acting on its configurations though UES management.

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Denser and Greener Cities, But How? A Combined Analysis of Population and Vegetation Dynamics in Berlin Chiara Cortinovis1,2(B)

, Dagmar Haase1

, and Davide Geneletti2

1 Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

[email protected] 2 Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento,

Trento, Italy

Abstract. Urban greening is increasingly advocated as a strategy to counteract the loss of green spaces and associated ecosystem services due to urban densification. However, how to combine greater population density with more green spaces is still a topic of debate. Recent studies revealed cases of cities that became overall denser and greener during the last decades, but the underlying types of vegetation trends and their spatial distribution in relation to population growth have not been investigated yet. We focus on one of the mentioned successful cases, Berlin, and apply an owndeveloped algorithm to examine urban vegetation dynamics using NDVI temporal series. The algorithm distinguishes between abrupt changes linked to variations in the extent of vegetation cover and gradual changes associated to vegetation growth or decline. We analyze the two dynamics between 2004 and 2017 in a 500-m circular neighborhood around the more than 332,000 residential address points in the city of Berlin, and quantify population change within the same areas. An increase in both population density and NDVI characterized the surroundings of most of the analyzed residential address points. However, the observed NDVI increase was most frequently an effect of vegetation growth, which sometimes compensates for the loss of vegetation cover. The results question the relevance of simple NDVI-based indicators to monitor greening trends. Furthermore, they raise doubts about the greening strategies associated to densification interventions and their effectiveness in providing the ecosystem services demanded by a growing population. Keywords: urban density · green spaces · population growth · vegetation cover · urbanization dynamics · NDVI

1 Introduction Increasing population density and strengthening the provision of green spaces are two key strategies to improve the sustainability of cities and urban settlements [1]. Pursuing a compact urban development model through the densification of existing settlements is the only way to preserve land and biodiversity in the context of a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 219–229, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_20

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growing city [2]. Sprawling low-density suburbs have many negative environmental and socio-economic impacts, including land take, habitat fragmentation, inefficient use of resources, community segregation, and un-healthy lifestyles. On the contrary, dense settlements allow for a rational use of energy and an efficient provision of infrastructure and services, promote walkability and public transport efficiency, reduce the use of private cars and the need for commuting, and increase social interaction and social cohesion [3, 4]. As such, high density developments and densification interventions to redesign low-density neighborhood are promoted by several policies at multiple levels [5, 6]. Greening cities is another, increasingly popular strategy to enhance the health and wellbeing of urban population while supporting local biodiversity [7]. Strengthening green infrastructure and integrating nature-based solutions within the urban environment can generate multiple benefits not only in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk reduction, and air and water quality improvements, but also in terms of urban regeneration, social justice, and economic opportunities and green jobs [8]. In the last decades, several initiatives have promoted urban greening and supported cities in integrating greening actions into their plans at multiple scales [9]. Indeed, many cities have already set ambitious greening targets into their plans [10, 11], and more are expected to follow pushed by initiatives such as the European Union Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 [12]. While both densification and greening receive a large consensus, there is a risk of trade-offs and conflicts between the two strategies [13]. Paradoxically, among the drivers of sprawl is the desire of living in greener areas and closer to nature [14]. On the other hand, authors have raised concerns that densification may lead to a decrease in the availability of green space [15] and acknowledged the provision of urban green space as a major challenge during densification processes [16], thus calling for “moderate and qualified” densification that ensures adequate consideration for green space and the wellbeing benefits it provides [17]. Despite these potential trade-offs, recent studies revealed several cases of cities that became overall denser and greener during the last decades. Corbane et al. [18] measured changes in greenness associated to urbanization in more than 10,000 cities across the globe between 1990, 2000, and 2014 and found a prevailing increase in NDVI -a proxy of the amount of vegetation- in most cities, including the majority of the 32 analyzed megacities, although fast-growing Chinese cities stand out as an exception [19]. Hwang et al. [20] found an overall increase in NDVI in the rapidly urbanizing city of Seoul, with a greening trend affecting 39% of the city area between 1987 and 2018. Interestingly, the increase was observed also in many prevalently sealed areas such as several residential districts. Similarly, Persson et al. [15] found that in Stockholm, one of the fastest growing and densifying cities in Europe, the average values of NDVI increased significantly in all types of neighborhoods (including urban, sub-urban, and rural neighborhoods) between 1990 and 2015. Similarly, Berlin turned from highly diversified trends of densification and greening at the neighborhood level to a city that has consistently gained both population and vegetation in recent years [21]. However, while these studies demonstrate that it is possible to combine densification and greening, they do not investigate in detail the underlying types of vegetation trends and their spatial distribution in relation to population growth. For example, it is

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not clear whether the observed increase in NDVI corresponds to an actual increase in vegetation coverage or is due to vegetation growth, and whether it happened close to the new settlements or further away from densification areas. This information is key to understand if greening was intentionally combined with densification, hence if it has the potential to compensate for the negative impacts of densification and to respond to the greater need for green spaces of a growing population. Only a study in Denmark explicitly considered combined population density and greening trends around residential locations [22]. They found that the most common change within 500 m neighborhoods around individual address points across Denmark was a joint increase in population and NDVI, observed in 28% of the sample. However, as in the other studies, the reasons for the observed increase in NDVI remains unclear. The authors mention the possible role of a warmer climate in promoting faster vegetation growth, a potential explaining factor also acknowledged by [18]. They also mention the potential contribution of voluntary planning actions such as the creation of new green spaces within densification areas, or as a compensatory measure in their proximity, but the adopted method cannot distinguish the impacts of such actions from that of other factors. The aim of this study is to conduct an in-depth analysis of one of the cities where greening and densification have been successfully combined, to reveal what types of greening trends prevailed and how they were spatially distributed with respect to densification areas. We focus on Berlin, the capital city of Germany and - with its 3.7 million inhabitants, one of the largest cities in Europe. After a period of shrinkage following reunification, the population of Berlin increased again in the new millennium, reaching its historical maximum in recent years. Despite very different conditions in terms of population density between the former Western and Eastern parts, population grew in all neighborhoods after 2010, in most cases in combination with an increase in green space [21]. Replicating the approach by [22], we look at the surroundings of residential areas, thus analyzing how greening and densification impacted the neighborhoods where people live. In addition, using a dedicated algorithm, we distinguish changes due to vegetation growth from changes in vegetation cover, revealing the factors that drive the observed vegetation trends in each location.

2 Methods As in several previous studies, our analysis of vegetation dynamics is based on NDVI [15, 18, 22]. Being linked to vegetation’s photosynthetic capacity, the index is a convenient indicator of its amount and conditions. Small values close to 0 correspond to sealed surfaces and bare soil, while higher values indicate progressively denser and healthier vegetation. The availability of long-term temporal series of high-resolution satellite images and the increasing ease of manipulation through platforms such as Google Earth Engine [23] is rising the interest on NDVI as a potential indicator to monitor the implementation of urban greening policies [24]. To capture different types of vegetation trends, we applied an own-developed segmentation algorithm that classifies changes in NDVI time series. The algorithm conducts

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Fig. 1. Application of the segmentation algorithm to the annual greenest NDVI time series of an exemplary pixel in Berlin. The series is broken down into a gradual positive trend before 2008, an abrupt negative change in 2008, and a stable value after 2008. Small variations due to the variability of NDVI values between the years, not corresponding to actual changes in vegetation, are neglected.

the analysis pixel by pixel. First, it identifies break points corresponding to discontinuities in the series. Then, it applies statistical tests to distinguish between flat and sloped segments. Break points where the values of the series show a “jump” are interpreted as abrupt changes, corresponding to a change in vegetation extent. Sloped segments where the values of the series gradually increase or decrease are interpreted as gradual changes, corresponding to progressive vegetation growth or decline (Fig. 1). A detailed description of the method and the results of its validation in Berlin can be found in [25]. We applied the algorithm to analyze changes in Landsat NDVI time series from 2004 to 2017. The temporal limits were set to match the availability of population density data. As input, we used annual greenest pixel composites that are created by choosing for each pixel the highest NDVI value (i.e., the greenest pixel) from all the scenes available for the same calendar year. This process produces a series of images showing the best conditions achieved by vegetation during each year, cleaned from the effects of seasonal variability. We combined the composites from Landsat missions 4, 5, 7 and 8 following the procedure in Zulian et al. [26] and downloaded the area corresponding to a buffer of 1 km around the administrative boundary of Berlin, excluding water areas that were preliminarily masked. Based on the results of the algorithm we generated three maps that show for each pixel: i) the total net NDVI change observed during the analyzed period, ii) the net contribution of abrupt changes, and iii) the net contribution of gradual changes. A moving window average filter was then applied to the three raster maps using a circular neighborhood of radius 500 m, thus substituting the value in each pixel with the average value in its surroundings. The radius corresponds to a standard maximum distance considered

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when assessing green space accessibility [27] and is also a common way to approximate the surroundings of residential locations in studies measuring green exposure [28]. Population density data for each year from 2004 to 2017 were retrieved from the municipal geodata catalogue for each census block. From the density value we calculated the number of people per pixel using the same resolution as the NDVI maps (30 m) and stored the values on raster maps. A circular moving window sum filter with a radius of 500 m was then applied to the maps to calculate the number of people living in the surroundings of each pixel. Finally, we extracted from the density and the NDVI maps the values corresponding to each residential address point and stored them in a table for further analysis. We provide descriptive statistics of the changes in the two variables and of the combined changes that affected the surroundings of residential address points during the analyzed period, as well as maps showing the spatial distribution of the variables. The analyses were conducted in R [29] and QGIS was used to prepare the maps.

3 Results Most residents in Berlin experienced an increase in NDVI in their immediate surroundings (Fig. 2a). In some areas, the average change in the annual greenest NDVI value during the analyzed 14 years reaches values above 0.1: a significant increase considering the range of NDVI values (between −1 and 1) and the area on which they are averaged (i.e., 78.5 hectares around each residential address point). Hotspots of NDVI reduction are limited to some specific and small areas of the city. The biggest ones are visible close to the city boundary in the Easter and Southern peripheries. Other minor ones are more central, but their size is very small. Two thirds of residential locations are characterized by a negative abrupt change in their surroundings during the analyzed period (Fig. 3a). Negative changes are mostly small, although they reach a maximum value of almost 0.1. Net positive abrupt changes are visible in the North-western periphery and in the most densely populated areas of the city center. Instead, gradual changes in the surroundings of residential address points (Fig. 3b) always show a positive value, indicating that existing negative gradual changes are compensated by positive changes in the close vicinity. Large hotspots of high values of positive gradual changes can be found especially in the Eastern part of the city, also close to the city center. Changes in population density in the surroundings of residential areas are positive in four out of five cases (Fig. 2b). Their intensity is mostly limited (on average, 475 people, corresponding to 6 ppl/ha), but it reaches peaks of up to 50 ppl/ha. Densification hotspots are mostly located in the city center and in some small peripheral areas corresponding to specific interventions of urban expansion. The opposite trend, i.e., a decrease in population density, emerges mainly on the borders of residential areas, especially close to the city boundaries. By combining gradual and abrupt changes in NDVI with changes in population density, it is possible to distinguish six different types of transformations around residential address points (Fig. 4). Two classes, in which almost 80% of the address points fall, include areas that became both denser and greener during the analyzed period. However, only a quarter of these show a positive contribution of both gradual and abrupt

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Fig. 2. Average NDVI (a.) and population density (b.) changes in a 500 m buffer around each residential address point in Berlin between 2004 and 2017.

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changes. In three quarters of the greening and densifying areas, NDVI increased thanks to positive gradual changes that more than compensated for negative abrupt changes. Around 20% of the surroundings of the analyzed address points became greener but less dense between 2004 and 2017. Among these, areas where positive gradual changes compensated for negative abrupt changes prevailed. The remaining two classes, characterized by an overall decrease in NDVI, are very small and concentrate around few places characterized by large abrupt NDVI changes during the analyzed period.

4 Discussion and Conclusions Our results are coherent with previous findings indicating Berlin as a city that successfully pursued both densification and greening in the last years [21]. As also suggested by studies on other cities [15, 18, 20], our results confirm that the potential trade-off between densification and greening [13] is not unavoidable. Differently from those studies, which provided estimates only for entire cities or large neighborhoods, we looked specifically at the surroundings of residential address points, responding to the call made by Artmann et al. [17] to consider the effects of compact development not only at larger scales, but also at neighborhood and household scales to pursue moderated and qualified densification. By considering a 500 m buffer around each address point, the analysis focuses on the changes that are expected to have a greater impact on the living environment of each inhabitant [22], especially in terms of green space accessibility and exposure to greenness. In fact, 500 m correspond to the walking distance often recommended as a standard for green space accessibility [27], and similar approaches have been used in epidemiological studies that explored the correlation between the greenness of residential surroundings and health indicators [28]. While densification and greening were combined in the large majority of the address points in our sample, the application of the algorithm to classify NDVI changes [25] revealed that the increase in NDVI -defined as greening- was in most cases only due to gradual processes linked to vegetation growth, such as the enlargement of existing tree crowns. In areas of increasing population density, abrupt NDVI changes associated with changes in the extent of vegetation cover, such as the removal of existing green areas or the creation of new ones, were mostly negative. Overall, these findings suggest that densification interventions, which often have a direct impact on-site in terms of reduction of available green space, are in most cases not accompanied by adequate compensation measures. While overall greenness increases thanks to the growth of existing vegetation, the total extent of areas covered by vegetation decreases, worsening the condition of those living in the surroundings. It is important to note here that the indicator that we adopted, NDVI, is not linked to a specific type of green space, but accounts for both public and private green areas and elements, irrespective of their accessibility. This is in line with studies that found correlations between overall greenness and physical and mental health [28, 30], and with recent recommendations for urban greening that are not limited to public green areas, but assume a more holistic perspective (e.g., the proposal of a minimum number of trees that should be seen from each window) [31]. However, irrespective of its property and use, the reduction of the extent of green space associated with densification processes

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Fig. 3. Average NDVI change in a 500 m buffer around each residential address point in Berlin between 2004 and 2017 broken down into abrupt (a.) and gradual (b.) change.

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Fig. 4. Combined NDVI and population density changes in a 500 m buffer around each residential address point in Berlin between 2004 and 2017, considering the contribution of gradual and abrupt changes to the total NDVI change.

should be offset, at least partly, by the provision of more public green areas, to meet the needs of the new inhabitants and avoid crowding effects in the existing ones [32]. Overall, the results reveal the importance of distinguishing between different greening processes underlying the observed changes in NDVI and question the relevance and usefulness of simple NDVI-based indicators to monitor greening trends. The methods applied proved to be a valuable support in assessing the impacts of urban transformations from the perspective of the inhabitants. Indicators based on NDVI greenest pixel composites have been recently proposed as key attributes to monitor the conditions of urban ecosystems in the European Union [33]. Our study demonstrates that, if correctly interpreted, they can effectively help to monitor the impacts of densification and greening strategies, thus supporting policies aimed at enhancing urban sustainability.

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Identifying Accessibility Gaps to Urban Functions and Services – Examples of Italian Medium-Sized Cities Daniele La Rosa(B) , Federica Pennisi, Viviana Pappalardo , and Riccardo Privitera Department Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The accessibility to urban ecosystems, functions and services (transport node, public services or areas, historical areas) represents a crucial issue to be addressed when planning contemporary cities toward higher levels of sustainability and a more equal spatial distribution of these services/functions. Accessibility is directly linked to the issue of environmental justice, because it relies on the general principle that all people have a right to have access to the same services. However particular social groups may benefit from different level of accessibility more than other, depending on where the services/functions are located and how they can get to the service. This work proposes a method to identify in a spatially explicit way accessibility gaps to urban function and services for three Italian medium-sized cities, namely Catania, Bari and Modena. By mapping different type of functions and services (green areas, education, health care, sport and leisure) and their areas of influence, the three cities are classified in sub-basins with different degree of accessibility. The integration analysis on different social subjects (children, elderly people, all population) allows to identify gaps to specific functions and services needed by the social subjects living in the area. Results are used to suggest a new or modified system of urban functions and services able to take into consideration the different demands and needs of social groups living in the three cities and therefore to maximise their overall accessibility. Keywords: urban functions · urban services · Urban planning · accessibility · Spatial Analysis

1 Introduction Contemporary cities are complex systems starting from the organization of the necessary urban functions and services (UFS) for the daily life of residents and workers. The complexities of urban systems extend to the significant changes that affect the territorial system, including land use, transportation systems, the allocation of functions, and urban renewal processes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 230–238, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_21

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In particular, the urban system appears fragmented, posing evident difficulties, especially in terms of spatial mobility for users and decreasing levels of access and utilization times for services, and eventually leading to new forms of social exclusion. The easy access to key functions of the city, such as urban green spaces, squares and public spaces, areas, education, healthcare, or administrative services, is of fundamental importance. It enhances the overall functioning of the city by simultaneously providing services to a larger number of potential users. It is crucial to quantify the accessibility to these essential UFS to identify specific areas of the city where some or all of these functions are lacking, to maximize their accessibility and re-design existing parts of the urban contexts based on the following principles (Sipala and La Rosa, 2021): • Maximizing relative accessibility: the less time it takes to reach a particular place, the more willing people are to access it, resulting in easier access in terms of time or distance; • Minimizing social disparities: It is essential to prevent minorities or less affluent social groups from facing difficulties or even being unable to access the benefits provided. To achieve this, it is necessary to first define the concept of accessibility, a widely used, broad, and multidimensional concept. In social sciences and urban planning, accessibility is an attribute of individuals and not just a means of transportation or service provision, with inherent spatial characteristics that relates to citizens’ ability to reach a particular place (El-Geneidy and Levinson, 2006). Attention must be paid to a fundamental element: the population, as they are the active subjects who must be able to access and benefit from the services provided by the existing functions. However, requests and needs for public functions and services can differ among social groups according to the different values assigned (Shipperijn et al., 2010). Providing adequate access to particular functions and services can have significant advantages for certain social groups, including children, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and those with mental or psychological conditions (Arnberger et al., 2017; Boone et al., 2009). For example, children and elderly people represent social groups requiring mobility and physical activity, care, and, when necessary, assistance. They need to become or remain fully autonomous, avoid loneliness, and therefore, it is evident how crucial it is to have places that allow for these needs (Takano, 2002). Achieving adequate standards of urban accessibility is a requirement through which the performance of a city can be judged. It becomes one of the essential characteristics of public space and must be considered as a requirement for the relationship between different places in the city. This emphasizes the importance of urban planners considering the diverse needs and preferences of various social groups residing in cities when designing UFS (Ives et al. 2016). To this end, it is crucial to accurately assess the accessibility of UFS for different social groups and make informed planning decisions accordingly. This work proposes a method to identify in a spatially explicit way accessibility gaps to UFS for three Italian medium-sized cities, namely Catania, Bari and Modena. By mapping different type of functions and services (green areas, education, health care, sport and leisure) and their areas of influence, the cities are classified in sub-basins with different degree of accessibility. The integration analysis on different social subjects

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(children, elderly people, all population) allows to identify gaps to specific functions and services needed by the social subjects living in the area.

2 Method In this paragraph, the method adopted in this work for modeling accessibility to key UFS is presented, along with its applications to the three selected cities. 2.1 Identification and Classification of the Categories of Functions/Services Within the concept of accessibility lies the idea of a place to which one can have access or the concept of a space that can be used and reached. As reported in previous section, it is important to remember that this possibility is crucial because the greater the number of functions that can be accessed, the greater the benefits that can be derived from them. For this reason, it is fundamental for a city to be equipped with the greatest number of services in order to provide circumstances conducive to a progressively improved life. A specific choice for the functions to be included in the analysis was made, attributing an unique code for each category (Table 1). The analyzed functions and services can be considered as essential, and for this reason, they should be present in any urban context, by responding to different needs expressed by different social subjects. Table 1. Categories of UFS Category code

Urban Function/service

Description

1

Urban green areas

Public greenery, including parks, gardens, squares, and any areas that are potentially accessible and usable by the population

2

Local health services

Local public places aimed at providing healthcare services, assistance, and care for citizens

3

Hospital

Central spots aimed at providing healthcare services, assistance, and care for citizens

4

Sports facilities

all equipped spaces intended for sports and recreational activities

5

Schools

schools of all levels, from nursery schools to primary and secondary schools, are included

6

Subways and railways stations

Main railway stations, including national, regional and local services

7

Administrative Services

Main public services including public administration, cultural and educational services

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2.2 Spatial Analysis The chosen model for assessing accessibility uses a set of simple distance indicators that quantify the number of people within a fixed distance who can access a particular location (La Rosa, 2014, Ekkel and de Vries, 2017). In this case, four different thresholds were established, and thus, four different buffers were generated to calculate the population falling within them. Starting from the centroids of the previously identified functions, buffers of varying distances are created, defined in relation to the type of function under consideration. Specifically, for functions at the neighborhood scale, two different thresholds were set: • 300 m for functions such as urban green areas, sports and recreational facilities, subway stations, schools, administrative services, and railway stations (La Rosa, 2014). • 500 m for a healthcare function, such as a medical clinic (Parvin et al. 2020). For functions and facilities of interest of the entire municipalities, two additional thresholds were established: • 3 km for universities. • 5 km for hospitals. Regarding the two aforementioned functions, once the corresponding buffer areas (3 and 5 km, respectively) were generated, it was seen that the entire study area was fully covered, ensuring possible accessibility by all residents. This consideration applies to every city examined and therefore these buffer has not been considered and only the buffers related to the functions of urban green areas, medical clinics, sports and recreational facilities, schools, administrative services, railway stations, and subway stations were included in the analysis. The generated buffers were spatially intersected with the vector layers of the census sections from Istat, connected with the population census database from 2011. In the database, in addition to the total resident population, various population classifications are available, including age, gender, marital status, occupation, number of dwellings, resident families, and residential and non-residential buildings. The total number of residents, children (65 years old) (La Rosa et al. 2018). Within the different buffers generated by the considered UFS were calculated according to the percentage of the intersection between the buffer and the census tracts. Furthermore, the generated buffers were overlaid to create a map of function density, in order to assess the overall potential accessibility to all UFS for each city. The method was tested in three Italian cities: Bari, Catania, and Modena were chosen as examples of medium-sized cities located in southern, central-southern, and northern Italy, respectively. The source of spatial information for the functions and services analyzed was Urban Atlas Land Use/Land Cover service by Copernicus (https://land.copernicus.eu/local/ urban-atlas/urban-atlas-2018) and the GIS information included in the GIS of single municipalities, validated by Google Map imageries and Street view.

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3 Results and Discussions Figure 1 maps the distribution of urban/function services for the 3 cities analyzed, while Table 2 summarizes the number of residents with accessibility for each of the considered function/services and for social profiles (all residents, children and elderly). Maps and table show that overall, Bari has the best score in terms of percentage of residents with accessibility, however differences are present when looking at single function/service.

Fig. 1. Map of the UFS for Catania, Bari and Modena

For example, in terms of accessibility to urban green areas, Modena has the highest percentage of residents with accessibility, Bari has the highest percentage of Administrative services and sport facilities and Catania has the highest percentage for schools and Local health care. Overall, these ranks are also respected when looking at children or elderly people. Some scores that call for specific actions of planning new functions

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are the low percentage of elderly people with access to local health care facilities and children with access to sport facilities. Table 2. Number of total residents, children and elderly with accessibility to single function/service and all services Green areas All Population

# residents

%

Local Health Care Sport Facilities

Schools

# residents

# residents

%

# residents

%

%

Bari

225367

82,3

447 13

16,3

97608

35,6

241287

88,1

Catania

144974

49,9

65462

22,5

60386

20,8

2627 7 4

90,4

Modena

136878

87,8

24889

16,0

17854

11,4

71051

45,6

Bari

17946

78,8

3372

14,8

7838

34,4

19562

85,8

Catania

11898

43,7

5200

19,1

5914

21,7

24393

89,5

Modena

12496

88,5

2285

16,2

1488

10,5

6596

46,7

Bari

52201

86,6

10567

17,5

22412

36,7

53983

89,5

Catania

33850

57,6

15534

26,4

11617

19,8

53987

91,9

Modena

32228

87,3

5692

15,4

4263

11,6

12276

44,1

Children

Elderly

Administrative services

Railway station

Metro Station

All functions

All Population

# residents

%

# residents

%

# residents

%

# residents

%

Bari

127900

46,7

47425

17,3

38599

14,1

99589

36,4

Catania

65159

22,4

11633

4,0

40110

13,8

84254

29,0

Modena

30458

19,5

11263

7,2

/

/

31103

19,9

Children Bari

10214

44,8

4067

17,8

3807

16,7

8143

3,0

Catania

5576

20,5

1069

3,9

2930

10,8

7514

2,6

Modena

2912

20,6

1071

7,6

/

/

2870

1,8

Bari

28749

47,7

10022

16,6

7219

12,0

22114

8,1

Catania

14923

25,4

2603

4,4

10248

17,4

18152

6,2

Modena

6607

17,9

2443

6,6

/

/

7056

4,5

Elderly

From Fig. 2, it can be seen that the areas with no accessibility are mostly concentrated in peri-urban part of the municipality. However, the three cities present no/very low accessibility also in more central areas, where highest number of residents belonging to

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Fig. 2. Maps the density of functions/services, obtained by spatial overlaps of the single buffers.

social groups considered are present. These represent critical areas with strong lack of services and therefore are priorities for the concentration of public investment for adding the missing UFS. Table 3 reports the number of residents with no accessibility, with Catania being as the cities with the highest percentage of residents with no accessibility, followed closely by Modena and Bari. However, it has to be underlined that the results are highly dependent on the accuracy and date of data about services and functions. For example, it is not always easy to have the complete and updated picture of schools and sport facilities, because these information can sometimes be limited to public services only. Other functions, such as green areas, are usually more reliable and updated.

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Table 3. Number of total residents, children and elderly with no accessibility to any function/service

4 Conclusions The concept of accessibility intersects dynamics of different spatial scales and social hierarchies. It is a key factor in urban planning for ensuring higher level of sustainability and equity of the urban environment. This works has modelled accessibility to major UFS for three Italian cities (Bari, Catania, and Modena) and has quantified the available functions in their respective contexts, the number of residents with access to different functions, and, most importantly, identifying urban areas where residents have limited or no accessibility to one or more functions. In particular, the following results were obtained: in Bari, out of a total population of 273,965, 9,582 individuals have no access to any UFS, with nearly 30% of them being children and the elderly. In Catania (total population: 290,562), 18,003 individuals have no accessibility, with again almost 30% of the total consisting of children and the elderly. In Modena (total population: 155,958), 9,651 individuals lack accessibility, with over 30% of them being children and the elderly. Being based on easy accessible spatial data, this research can be easily extend to any cities in Italy, thus allowing comparison about the degree of urban accessibility in urban context presenting similar size and number of residents. Limitations related to use of an Euclidean distance with fixed thresholds can be overcome by more refined, yet time consuming, network distance analysis that are based on the evaluation of a continuous distance variable. Example in this direction are the use of accessibility model such as the gravitational one, weighting the number of possible users of a specific service with their actual distance from the service itself. These results have identified in a spatial explicit way the distribution of existing UFS to determine the degree the target population can have access to the most important UFS, thus defining the areas that need attention in terms of increasing of accessibility. Particularly, voids or gaps in the accessibility of UFS have been identified and potential opportunities for the inclusion of new UFS have been proposed, supporting decision making aimed at increasing the overall distributional equity of UFS in the urban environment. Acknowledgement. This work has been partly funded by Project “Planning sustainable solutions to contemporary urban issues” (Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 2023-2025).

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References Arnberger, A., et al.: Elderly resident’s uses of and preferences for urban green spaces during heat periods. Urban Forestry Urban Greening 21, 102–115 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug. 2016.11.012 Boone, C.G., Buckley, G.L., Grove, J.M., Sister, C.: Parks and people: an environmental justice inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 99(4), 767–787 (2009). https://doi. org/10.1080/00045600903102949 Ekkel, E.D., de Vries, S.: Nearby green space and human health: evaluating accessibility metrics. Landscape Urban Planning 157, 214–220 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016. 06.008 El-Geneidy, A.M., Levinson, D.M.: Access to Destinations: Development of Accessibility Measures. Report # 1 in the series Access to Destinations Study (2006). http://www.lrrb.org/PDF/ 200616.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2023 Ives, C.D., Oke, C., Hehir, A., Gordon, A., Wang, Y., Bekessy, S.A.: Capturing residents’ values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice. Landscape Urban Planning 161, 32–43 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.12.010 La Rosa, S.D.: Accessibility to greenspaces: GIS based indicators for sustainable planning in a dense urban context. Ecol. Indicators 42, 122–134 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind. 2013.11.011 La Rosa, D., Takatori, C., Shimizu, H., Privitera, R.: A planning framework to evaluate demands and preferences by different social groups for accessibility to urban greenspaces. Sustain. Cities Soc. 36, 346–362 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.10.026 Parvin, F., Ali, S.A., Hashmi, S.N.I., et al.: Accessibility and site suitability for healthcare services using GIS-based hybrid decision-making approach: a study in Murshidabad, India. Spat. Inf. Res. 29, 1–18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-020-00330-0 Sipala, M., La Rosa, D.: From preferences of social groups to planning and management solutions of green spaces in Bucharest. In: La Rosa, D., Privitera, R. (eds.) Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning. INPUT 2021. LNCE, vol. 146, pp. 53–62. Springer, Cham (2021). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68824-0_6 Schipperijn, J., et al.: Factors influencing the use of green space: results from a Danish national representative survey. Landscape Urban Planning 95(3), 130–137 (2010). https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.landurbplan.2009.12.010 Takano, T., Nakamura, K., Watanabe, M.: Urban residential environments and senior citizens’ longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walkable green spaces. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 56(12), 913–918 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.12.913

Innovative Approaches and Methodologies for Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Regeneration

Social Media as a Database to Plan Tourism Development: “Venac” Historic Core in Sombor, Serbia Branislav Antoni´c(B)

ˇ , Aleksandra Djuki´c , Veljko Dmitrovi´c, and Rastko Cugalj

Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73/2, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia [email protected]

Abstract. One of the most significant novelties in urban planning last decades has been the inclusion of ICT tools. The most common approach is to form geographical and territorial information systems (GIS and TIS) to create, monitor and visualise urban plans. However, accurate statistical data is necessary in this process, which can be a challenge for the sectors with fast development, such as a tourism. It exemplifies a fast developing, unconventional and often hard-to-control sector. Official statistical data for tourism quickly become outdated for urban planning. In the other side, tourism has vibrant social-media coverage and rich available e-data shared through it. Although such e-data can be found everywhere today, it is still new for formal documents like urban plans. The core aim of this research is to show how the e-data in social media can be utilised to analyse city space for a new urban plan. The case in the research in the “Venac” Historic Core of Sombor. Despite being the best-preserved medium-sized city in Serbia, Sombor peripheral location in the country hindered its development. Nevertheless, the recent rise of cultural tourism means that Sombor has been rediscovered for tourists. The city authorities recently initiated a new urban plan for the regeneration of “Venac” Area, where local experts and the team from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade worked together with e-data from online social media to address the recent tourism development in planning measures. This research analyses four locally popular social media applications: Instagram, Google Maps, Google reviews, and Snapchat. Keywords: Urban planning · Social media · ICT · Heritage city · Cultural tourism · Urban regeneration

1 Introduction – Digitalisation, Urban Space and Tourism The rise of the use of and information and communication technologies (ICT) and the overall digitalisation have been probably the main breakthrough in urban development in the last decade [1]. It is evident in all its sectors: data gathering, research, planning, design, implementation, and the maintenance of urban space. It can be even said that the use of ICT has led to a “digital” revolution in certain spheres of urbanism [2]. Digitisation and ICT-driven development has enabled that incomparably more data is available, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 241–252, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_22

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while working tools and means are also advancing through this process. Finally, there is a question to what extent will the general digitisation leave an impact on the urban established norms, standards and procedures in urban planning and design, or, even, on a creative element in them [3]. The aforementioned challenges have been in the spotlight of scientists recently. Some sectors of urban studies are more scientifically and professionally covered in this sense. This is especially true for the development and use of geographic and territorial information systems (GIS and TIS). By definition, these are complex e-databases of geodata for the storing, managing, analysing and displaying new urban and regional plans, as well as urban and architectural design projects [4]. Apart of the digital component as a key element for data processing, the formation of GIS/TIS also implies the experts who do the given data processing, the devices on which they work, the (new) standards and norms of work, as well as the wider institutional framework for the functioning of all named segments (Fig. 1):

Fig. 1. The simplified scheme of the functioning of geographic and territorial information systems – GIS and TIS (Author: Martin, 1995; Visualisation: Antoni´c, 2023).

The implementation of GIS and TIS has triggered the formation of huge e-databases with different geodata in recent years, which have further brought significant advantages in contemporary urban planning and design. However, there are certain drawbacks in this process. First, digitisation, ICT and all modern technologies require a very complex work structure, where good cooperation between GIS experts and non-GIS experts (data providers and first users) is a prerequisite. This is conditioned by the integration of different economic segments, scientific disciplines and institutions and organisations [5]. This complex structure is often difficult to achieve, at least in a short-term perspective. Second, this process has a vertical hierarchy, where the harmonisation of all levels, from upper to lower ones and vice versa, is required [6]. Third, it is also not unimportant that for the whole given process it is necessary to have very well-trained professionals, which is often not easy, especially outside of big cities. All these obstacles are certainly reflected in urban design and planning, so further improvements and adjustments are inevitable. In addition, the intensity of some segments of urban development is such that GIS/TIS can not adequately cover all needs for geodata. This is the case with tourism, i.e., tourismled urban development. Tourism as an economic sector can develop fast and through unusual ways compared to other economic sectors [7]. This affects the way it is planned in urban areas, calculating with a greater unpredictability.

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Despite these challenges of spatially responding to tourism development, relevant cartography has a long history – for instance, numerous medieval “maps” for Christian pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land [8]. Maps and mapping are the integral part of tourism today. Tourist mapping covers all elements of tourism, such as accommodation, sightseeing, services, transportation, etc. [9]. Moreover, contemporary tourist maps are usually not just a “mere” cartography, but also include a creative side and high-quality graphic presentation, which means that they incorporate the elements of spatial identity [10]. All mentioned elements only gained importance with the introduction of digitisation in the field of tourism through ICT, Internet or GIS [11]. Official geodata related to tourism in GIS is much rarer than some other data, which change more slowly, such as administrative boundaries or land use. Due to the rapid development of tourism, they are often not up-to-date. On the other side, there are many well-known web search engines for tourist subjects and sights, such as Booking.com or Tripadvisor. They are often the focus of relevant research, too. Finally, a large amount of tourism data, such as photos and comments about major landmarks, are well-covered by mainstream social media, but which are still missing in both the research and practical use in urban planning and design. The aim of this research is to show how this element, popular social media, can be utilised for the analysis the tourist potential of a city and, based on that, direct its urban planning and development. This is exemplified on the case of the historic core of “Venac” in Sombor, Serbia, where local experts and the team from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade worked together with e-data from four social media applications to address the recent tourism development through planning measures.

2 Context: Sombor, Serbia Sombor is one of the official 28 cities in the Republic of Serbia and the administrative seat of the Western Baˇcka District in Vojvodina Autonomous Region. The city is located in the extreme north-west of Serbia, close to tripoint border with Hungary and Croatia. According to the census from 2022, Sombor as a local self-government unit (city plus nearby villages) had 72,000 inhabitants, of which 42,000 live in an urban area. Sombor has faced a significant economic and demographic shrinkage since 2000 due to a distance from the main cities and borderland position. Its stagnation was actually evident much earlier, since the early 20th century, when the city lost of the seat of the large Baˇc-Bodrog County after the First World War [12]. This slower development and subsequent urban shrinkage have paradoxically enabled the better preservation of Sombor historic core then other Serbian cities. The city matrix still possesses the features of a medieval and Ottoman city, with additional regulation and beautification during the city’s heyday in the Habsburg period [13]. Therefore, present-day Sombor still looks like a central European city of 18th –19th centuries [14]. The high degree of the preservation of Sombor is particularly visible in “Venac” Historic core. This is probably the best-preserved city core in Serbia. Its value can be summed up by the following statement: “The city centre of Sombor, framed by a coronet consists of four boulevards …, is a harmonious, homogenous urban-architectural and cultural-artistic ambience continuously developed during two centuries, with the

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zenith in the 1870s, enriching the heritage with the architectural heritage of baroque, classicism, and eclecticism with elements of neo-renaissance, neo-baroque, but also the outstanding examples of art nouveau and early modernism” [15]. Within the “Venac”, a number of city palaces, churches, merchant houses, as well as the whole ensembles of historic buildings along several streets and around the squares have been preserved (Fig. 2). Furthermore, the city is still famous by old crafts, traditional events and lively cultural scene. Sombor has a well-visited theatre, several active museums, galleries and libraries, the state-protected production of stained glass, damask and carpet rugs. Important cultural manifestations are “Dužionica” in Bunjevac ethnicity and carriageride festival. This is complemented by lush urban greenery, parks, and especially “bodoš” (hackberry trees) alleys along the main streets (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2. (left) The main street of Sombor with protected buildings along it;

Fig. 3. (right) One of “Venac” boulevards with rich urban greenery (Author: D. Siljanovi´c Kozoderovi´c, 2021).

Tourism, especially cultural tourism, has risen in Sombor recently. It has been driven by more and more popular tourist route along the Danube, 15 km far away from the city. However, tourism is still underdeveloped despite all mentioned local advantages. Based on fieldwork, a key obstacle is the quality of local accommodation. The large “Sloboda” Hotel from the socialist era is almost inactive, so accommodation is tied to smaller facilities: guesthouses, apartments and B&B options, located in or around the core. The other tourism-related content (hospitality, culture, entertainment, retail, tourist services) is also situated the in central part. For instance, the western part of the “Venac” is getting the distinctions of a small museum and creative quarter. Moreover, the newest development is not just related to quantity; new cultural places, restaurants, bars, cafes offer more variety and quality than previous. Fieldwork findings, as well as Internet research, also indicate that most tourism content in Sombor targets cultural tourists and that the current offer is better adapted to short-term stays and domestic visitors. For more foreign tourists, it is crucial to speed up the renovation of urban, architectural and natural heritage, to adapt local museum presentation to international level, and to connect the city to the Danube Riverside and other nearby cities across national borders. Several projects undertaken by the city in recent years have this as the main goal.

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3 Methodology This paper is a case study developed in several sections: (1) theoretical introduction; (2) context presentation – the City of Sombor; (3) methodology; (4) the analysis of the case study – the mapping of the data important for local tourism extracted from four social media applications; and (5) concluding notices on the case-study findings. This structure enables the comparison of different social media analyses. The research on the case of Sombor was done within “Methodology of Urban Design” Course in the 2nd semester of “Integral Urbanism” Master Programme at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. This faculty course is thematically dedicated to the research and design small and medium-sized Serbian cities, such as Smederevo, Golubac or Sombor. It was realised through two international INTERREG projects DANUrB (2017–2019) and DANUrB+ (2020–2022), including student workshops and fieldwork (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Students during a workshop in Sombor, March 4, 2022: fieldwork (1), workshop with local experts (centre) and cultural visits (3) (Author: D. Siljanovi´c Kozoderovi´c, 2022).

The research polygon was the aforementioned “Venac” Historic Core of Sombor, which is officially a cultural heritage under state protection (Fig. 5). According to law, it is a spatial cultural-historic ambience of a great importance, with the area of 54 hectares [16]. Serbian word “Benac/Venac” means “Coronet”, with origin in its form – four main city boulevards surround the historic core making the form of coronet. This urban matrix was formed from the former water tranches around the core from the end of the 17th century [12]. In line with importance and preservation necessity, two urban plans for “Venac” in Sombor were created and adopted; in 2009 and 2022. Apart of the urban level of protection, a large number of old buildings and open spaces within the “Venac” also have the different levels of protection as architectural monuments (Fig. 6). The most impressive complex is Županija/Country court with the city park and entrance square (right side). The highest concertation of valuable buildings is the central part of the core, around two main squares: city hall, big orthodox church, the main catholic church, cultural institutions in the former administrative buildings (city library, city museum, public art galleries, etc.). In addition, four ring boulevards with lush old hackberry trees are under protection as a natural heritage. The research uses new data, created from June 2021 to March 2022. This is in accordance with the already indicated position that the studies of tourism request the latest data due to rapid changes in this economic sector. The inner analyses on concrete online social media have a shorter time range, which is explained later. This is an inevitable

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limitation in this research, as different social media channels are characterised by the different speed of data publication; in the case of Instagram, reviews are posted in a short time, while Google Maps reviews take a longer period. The other limitation is the relatively small sample of analysed data in same cases. However, the collected data is still accurate to understand trends and spatial representation.

Fig. 5. (left) the axonometric drawing of Sombor, with a focus on “Venac” historic core (Source: “Prostor” PE Sombor);

Fig. 6. (right) The protected area of “Venac” Historic Core with protected buildings (Author: B. Antoni´c, 2022).

4 Analysis of Social Media The analysis of social media was done in order to determine the intensity of activities and the use of space within the “Venac” Core by extracting the e-data that can be accurately determined in a spatial manner. The results of the analysis are a series of maps of the “Venac”, which show the spatial distribution and zones that stand out. These are mostly the zones that are more active, more visited and thereby more represented through social media. The social media selected for the analysis are: Instagram, Google Maps, and Snapchat. They are selected due to the large number of users, rich e-databases applicable for this analysis and special functions and options that enrich the analysis itself, such as the number of reviews on important locations on Google, or the analytics of so-called ‘popular time’. All data were then entered into GIS software for processing, manipulation and the visual presentation of results. The analysis of each of four social media also include a separate discussion regarding obtained results. 4.1 Instagram The first spatial analysis of the location was done using data from Instagram. It is the fourth most popular social media worldwide, especially among young people, who make up about 70% of its users. Instagram is also often used by the elderly, as well as various commercial users, associations, movements, etc. [17].

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One of the options of this social media is that the location where the photo was taken can be added to the post. By reviewing the photos that have SOMBOR/COMBOP as their location, mapping was done of those photos that can be spatially determined, to belong to the “Venac”. The mapping was done by assigning for each photo a location point from where it was taken within the GIS software, and point/photo density maps were created as a result. The analysis was done for two periods of 2½ months during summertime and wintertime, to compare activity within the “Venac”. More precisely, the first part of the analysis was done for the period from June 1 to August 15, 2021, while its second part was done for the period from January 1 to March 15, 2022. A so-called Heat map symbology is used to display the photo points suitable for density analysis and to clearly define the points, moves and zones of activity. The goal of its use is to show regularities in the distribution of a large number of points [18].

Fig. 7. The comparative view of the analysis of Instagram data for the location SOMBOR/COMBOP for the winter period of 2022 (left) and the summer period of 2021 (right) ˇ (Authors: Dmitrovi´c and Cugalj, 2022).

In the wintertime (Fig. 7 left), the Instagram analysis revealed a total of 173 posts/photos with the location label SOMBOR/COMBOP. This could be determined as taken inside the Sombor historic core. Based on the map, several points can be distinguished, so-called “hotspots” for photos such as, as expected, the Square of Car Uroš with grandiose “Županija” (Country Court) building, Sveti Ðorde/St George Square of (the main square), Sveto Trojstvo/Holy Trinity Square with the city hall, etc. The analysis also indicated that most prominent pedestrian corridor in Sombor along the main street (Kralja Petra I/King Peter 1st ) is also the most popular on Instagram, then, to a lesser extent the corridor from Holy Trinity Square to north, as well as the recently refurbished Kosta Trifkovi´c Square. It is also observed that the central part of the “Venac” has incomparably greater activity than the others parts, especially to east and southwest ones, from which no photos were taken. In the summertime (Fig. 7 right), a greater activity of tourists is expected in Sombor, with more Instagram posts about “Venac”. Using the same methodology, 267 photos/posts that meet the criteria were found. This is significantly more compared to the wintertime observation. Nevertheless, the results are similar, points or “hotspots” are

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approximately the same, but it is also noticeable that the corridor of the main pedestrian street is less dispersed and that the spots are more concentrated near the Carmelite Monastery and the city fountain at the southern edge of the corridor. Moreover, it is noticeable that there are smaller ‘dispersions’ from the main street to side streets, espeˇ cially to Citaoniˇ cka and Pariska streets, which are generally seen as less active within the “Venac”. It is interesting that the area around the museum, the theatre and the Evangelical Church in the western part of the Sombor core is much less active during the summertime, while the park areas are incomparably more active then. 4.2 Google Maps Google Maps represent the world largest website of this type and therefore can be considered as the largest and richest WebGIS application globally. This website uses a combination of a large amount of vector data, with the raster basis of satellite images and the same amount of attribute data that is linked with spatial objects, which allows interactive experience in exploring locations. In addition to the basic data associated with locations (address, working hours, phone number, photos, etc.), Google gives the traffic estimation of the place according to week days and time interval (most often on an hourly basis) in the form of a histogram – ‘popular times’. This estimation is done by scrutinising aggregated anonymous data about the location of the device, i.e., mobile phone [19]. All those locations for which Google Maps provide data on popular time were entered into the GIS software to conduct the explained analysis. For each location, its activity rating was given based on the histogram. The ratings are in an interval from 1 to 3 for three periods a day, morning (up to 12 noon), afternoon (from 12 noon to 6 p.m.) and evening (after 6 p.m.). Friday was taken as a reference day for the analysis, because it is a market day in Sombor and therefore more activity was expected. Then, maps (Fig. 8) were created for each time of day showing zones/locations according to activity – active, medium active, inactive – based on the location ratings. Zones on the maps were obtained by the IDW interpolation (Inverse distance weighting interpolation), which is a method of the spatial interpolation of points using their values (‘weights’), which are activity ratings in this case. Three maps reveal the changes in activity within the “Venac” during an ‘average’ Friday. The first map for the morning activities (Fig. 8 left) show that the most active locations are around the farmers’ market in the north-western part, the south half of the pedestrian zone where the most of administration is located and the north-eastern edge of the Venac”, with a very frequent crossroad. In the afternoon period (Fig. 8 middle), the surroundings of the “Venac” are more active, especially in the south, the Car Uroš Square with the “Županija” Building and the city park, as well as the north of “Venac”. They are the greenest part of the core. Finally, after 6 p.m. (Fig. 8 right) the most active is the western part of “Venac”, around the city museum, the Kosta Trifkovi´c Square and several other individual locations where there are nightlife facilities (cafés, clubs, pubs, etc.).

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Fig. 8. Google Maps analysis: Results of activities according to “popular time” for three periods during the selected day (Friday): morning – up to 12 noon (left); afternoon –from 12 noon to 6 ˇ p.m. (middle); and evening – after 6 p.m. (right) (Authors: Dmitrovi´c and Cugalj, 2022).

4.3 Google Reviews The next analysis was done according to the number of Google reviews of locations within the “Venac” Core of Sombor. The reviews given to commercial entities were not taken into account, but only to sightseeing locations. The markers of these locations are put on maps, where the size of the markers matches the number of the reviews. There are five categories according to size. Locations with the highest number of reviews are located in the central and western parts of the Venac”, while the reviews for locations in the other parts are negligible (Fig. 9 left). The individual locations (buildings) with the highest number of reviews are: the “Županija” (County Court) Building with Car Uroš Square (1511 reviews), the National Theatre (883) and the City Hall (534). 4.4 Snapchat Snapchat is a social media which is mostly used by young population; 65% of users are between 18 and 29 years old [20]. Hence, it is an excellent source of data on how young people use the “Venac” area. The Snapchat application shows the exact locations (‘objects’) with the most activity on an interactive map in real time. A peculiarity of Snapchat is that this application gives the possibility of viewing only current activities in an area. This is in a contrast to the previous social media analyses, where larger time periods are considered, such as months or week days. On the other side, the adjustment of the Snapchat analysis can be utilised for deeper analyses, by extending observation period, e.g., for the whole day with data reading every hour. The activity on March 26, 2022 in the evening was taken as a reference period (Fig. 9 right). This was Saturday evening, the most active period for nightlife and when most of the people of the age 18–29 are active. Based on the data insight from the application, all points with activity, as well as the zones around them are mapped. The Snapchat analysis showed that the most active areas are along the pedestrian street (central northsouth axis), Kosta Trifkovi´c Square (cultural and nightlife zone on the west) and the area around the farmers’ market (northwest) with pubs and cafes.

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Fig. 9. (left) The sightseeing locations of the “Venac” according to the number of Google ˇ Reviews (Authors: Dmitrovi´c and Cugalj, 2022); (right) The results of Snapchat analysis (Authors: ˇ Dmitrovi´c and Cugalj, 2022).

4.5 Conclusion Digital databases are increasingly important in urban planning and design, because they have great possibilities for geolocating. Sometimes they provide an access to the data that is difficult to obtain through the ‘traditional’ ways of spatial analysis. This is the case with the data for of tourism planning as a rapidly growing economic sector. By uploading to and manipulating these digital data by GIS tools, it is possible to reach the most active points/locations in the urban fabric where the users of the given area spend their time, regardless of whether they are residents or tourists. In addition to the points, the most active corridors and zones in the considered area can also be obtained by such analyses. It is also important to note that the data provided by social media is not systematised and it is necessary to process it in a clear methodological manner. This is the only approach to achieve the spatially defined results to properly evaluate of the current state and, subsequently, to plan and design urban interventions. Thus, this kind of methodology is appropriate when setting the basic development directions, planning measures and programming the tourist offer and services as an integral part of urban development. The case study – the geodata analysis performed in the “Venac” Historic core in Sombor – indicated several interesting findings, which can be further interpreted. This is especially important by taking in account that four analysed social media have different temporal scope and characteristics. Such situation requires the connection acquired results with the data of urban context – the city of Sombor and its core. The most striking conclusion is that two elements of urban fabric are especially important for local liveability: pedestrian accessibility and mobility and physical attractiveness. Therefore, the Kralja Petra I Street (the main pedestrian zone), the zone around the ‘Županija’/County Court (the most grandiose building in the city) and the City Hall stand out as the ‘epicentres’ of the gathering and spending time in Sombor. In addition,

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locations with specific content also stand out, such as Kosta Trifkovi´c Square (arising museum and nightlife quarter) and Zmaj Jovina Street (cultural institutions). The analysis also confirms the importance of urban greenery for the vitality of urban space, especially in terms of its use during summertime, when there is a greater concentration of the use of the city parks and alleys. In contrast to this, the peripheral parts of the “Venac”, especially in its eastern and more residential half, had a weak activity, so the future measures should be done to activate them with new and different content. Finally, certain social media are particularly suitable for analysing the importance of tourist attractions, such as Google reviews. This analysis highlights precisely those locations that caused the most reactions among the people who used them or be there. Acknowledgements. This paper was done as a research contribution for two EU-funded international projects: (1) Erasmus+ KA203 Project “Creative Danube: Innovative teaching for inclusive development in small and medium-sized Danubian cities” (2019–2022); and (2) INTERREG Danube Project “DANube Urban Brand + Building Regional and Local Resilience through the Valorisation of Danube’s Cultural Heritage – DANUrB+” (2020–2022).

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13. Antoni´c, B.: Ctanovanje y fynkciji pokpetanja ypbanog pazvoja degpadipanix gpadova: clyqaj gpadova y Bojvodini/Housing as an activator of urban development in shrinking cities: the case of cities in Vojvodina (Doctoral thesis). Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade (2018) 14. Djukic, A., Stupar, A., Antonic, B.: Chapter 8: The orthogonal urban matrix of the Towns in Vojvodina, Northern Serbia: genesis and transformation. In: Carlone, G., Martinelli, N., Rotondo, F. (eds.) Designing Grid Cities for Optimized Urban Development and Planning, pp. 128–156. IGI Global, Hershey, PE (2018). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3613-0. ch008 15. Puši´c, L.: Upbanictiqki pazvoj gpadova y Bojvodini y 19. i ppvoj polovini 20. Beka/Urban development of cities in Vojvodina in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Matica Srpska, Novi Sad (1987) 16. Cultural Monuments of Serbia (no date) Ictopijcko jezgpo Combopa – ‘Benac’/Historic Core of Sombor – ‘Venac’. spomenicikulture.mi.sanu.ac.rs/spomenik.php?id=992 17. Statista Research Department. Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of January 2022, by age group, 22 March 2022. www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-globalage-group/#professional 18. ESRI (no date) Heat map symbology. pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/2.7/help/mapping/layer-pro perties/heat-map.htm 19. D’Zmura, M.: Behind the scenes: popular times and live busyness information. The Keyword, 15 October 2022. https://blog.google/products/maps/maps101-popular-times-and-livebusyness-information/ 20. OMNICORE: Snapchat by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts, 2 March 2022. www.omnicoreagency.com/snapchat-statistics/

Using the GIS to Assess Urban Resilience with Case Study Experience Ebrahim Farhadi1,2(B)

, Sarah Karimi Basir1

, and Beniamino Murgante3

1 Department of Geography and Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

[email protected]

2 Department of Architecture, Bologna University, Bologna, Italy 3 School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 10 Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, Potenza, Italy

Abstract. Urban resilience refers to the degree, limitation, or extent to which cities can withstand change before reorganizing into a new set of structures and processes. Research shows that the concept of resilience was introduced for the first time in 1994 at the Center for Unexpected Events Research States Unites states. The aim of this research is to analyze the spatial components affecting the urban resilience of Tehran’s metropolitan area; in the form of physical and spatial indicators identifying the main factors affecting urban resilience. Initially, indicators in 11 categories, including Red Crescent centers, fire departments, hospitals, green spaces and parks, emergency rooms, crisis management centers, medical centers, blood transfusion centers, police centers, subway stations and food production centers based on land use studies have been established. Available in the GIS software environment demonstrated the resilience of regions through the use of recovery tools. Increasing marginalization and, subsequently, urban poverty in areas such as the southern region and inequality and inequality in terms of infrastructure perception and a range of development indicators. The magnitude of 24% of Tehran’s unstable tissue, and the residence of about 42% of the city’s inhabitants in the crisis tissues are among the other dangerous things for the citizens, that brings us geographers and urban planners to consider all these risks in terms of location and space to identify them, provide the programs and solutions required to make these zones resilience. Keywords: Urban Resilience · GIS software · Hexagon · Spatial analysis · Tehran

1 Introduction Resilience is interpreted as an approach or branch of approaches capable of responding to the high level of uncertainty in complex urban challenges. (Wardekker et al. 2020:1) Community resilience generally refers to a community’s ability to prepare for unforeseen risks, adapt to changing conditions, withstand and recover from disturbances in a timely manner (Serre and Heinzlef 2018:2). United Nations (2015): A resilient city is defined as a city that has comprehensive, knowledgeable and responsive local governments that are concerned with sustainable urbanization and commit to providing resources before, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 253–265, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_23

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during and after any regrettable natural event. It is required for managerial and organizational capabilities (Pede 2020:24, Dakey et al. 2023, Lerbinger 2012, Linnenluecke 2017, Tondelli et al. 2022, Hosseini et al. 2022). Urban resilience is one of the most important and key approaches that guarantee the survival of human settlements (Ziervogel et al. 2017). Unfortunately, in recent years, Iranian cities have become more vulnerable to unforeseen accidents and incidents, making the need for foresight in this area even greater (Farhadi et al. 2022; Aqbelaghi et al. 2018; hataminejad et al. 2021). The growing rapidity of change over the first decade of the 21st century has led to the emergence of an era called uncertainty and has placed an environment full of opportunities and threats in front of the current complex systems (Bahers et al. 2022). In this volatile and rapidly evolving context, traditional medium- and long-term planning approaches will not be appropriate (Farhadi et al. 2022). Over the past two centuries, and particularly from the 20th century until today, a completely different approach has emerged in spatial planning, but the nature of planning, i.e. pur-posefulness, systematically and having future guidelines, remains intact (Hussaini et al., 2023). The importance of the issue comes from the fact that the city of Tehran has a population of 8,693,706 people, and this city, as the capital and the first metropolis of Iran, faces many challenges, including the ever-increasing population and the subse-quent abnormal development of the urban body (In case of an earthquake, we will witness a human disaster and fewer victims worldwide), the increase in marginaliza-tion followed by urban poverty in areas such as the southern region and the gap and inequality in terms of the use of infrastructure and various development indicators. Furthermore, according to surveys, currently 15% of the total population of the capi-tal (despite the 3.5% share of worn fabric) lives in buildings located in worn tissue, 9% of residents in buildings located in fault zones, 2.36% of residents in buildings located in fault zones or at the risk of landslides, 1.2% of the population lives in buildings located in the river bed, 19.35% of the inhabitants of the buildings with fine texture, and 1.01% of the residents of the capital in buildings with impermeable texture, which in the event of a crisis, They are capable of creating the greatest human disas-ter of the century. 1.1 Terminology of Resilient Resilience is a new dimension to analyzing disaster. In the dictionary, it results in the ability to recover, recover quickly, and change, buoyancy, and elasticity, jump, and come back to the top spot, as well as spring and elasticity. The term resilience is often used in the sense of “back to the past” which comes from the Latin root “resilio” which means “back” (Klein et al. 2003). Resilience is one of the most important re-search topics in the field of achieving sustainability (Yan et al. 2022). In terms of time, the concept of resilience since the 1970s with the beginning of Holling’s work (1973), it has been examined and assessed daily. There is a difference of opinion as to where that word first came from. Some refer to ecology, others to physics. In the area of ecology, this word became popular after Holing’s major book Resilience and Sustainability of Ecological Systems was published in 1937 (Holing 1973, Goenechea and Moya 2022).

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Urban resilience is the degree, limit or extent to which cities are capable of resisting change; before being reorganized into a new set of structures and processes (Zeng et al. 2022). Godschalk considers urban resilience as a term used to measure the ability of a city to recover from a disaster; Indeed, resilient cities are designed in advance to anticipate, overcome and recover from the impacts of natural or technical risks, and the physical and social systems of such a city are capable of surviving and operating under pressure and stress (Godschalk 2003). Allen and Bryant (2010), described city resilience as the ability of cities to absorb and adapt to the disruption (Allan and Bryant 2010). The previous viewpoint considers that the resilience of cities depends on the connection and coordination between the physical and social systems and emphasize that the link between these two systems plays a decisive role in case of accident. At the time of an accident, cities as a system that includes all the mentioned components, must be able to withstand the stressful conditions of the accident and maintain their performance (Zimmeman, 2001). Resilient cities are cities that are resilient across all economic, social, physical and institutional dimensions and are the least vulnerable. Because all dimensions are arranged together in a way and vulnerability to one dimension can directly or indirectly affect other dimensions as well. Within a dimension, all components are important, and ignoring a component will increase vulnerability, and the vulnerability of one component puts the dimension in question in terms of resilience in a lower degree than perfection (Abedini et al. 2022; Vale 2005). According to Berno (2017), there are four dimensions to resilience that can be defined in Commentaries: • The technical dimension, consisting in the capacity of physical systems. (Including components, their interactions and mutual relation and internal systems) operating at acceptable levels for the aftermath of an earthquake. • The organizational dimension refers to the capacity of the organizations running the essential facilities and their responsibility is to conduct operations in the event of an accident in order to take decisions and measures to reach the resilience conditions mentioned above. • The social dimension consists of criteria specifically designed to minimize the negative consequences of the interruption of vital services due to an earthquake for the communities affected by the earthquake. • The economic dimension is taken to mean the ability to reduce direct and indirect economic losses caused by earthquakes (Berno 2017). Cutter (2008) also classifies the thematic dimensions of resiliency research into the following six categories (Table 1).

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Dimensions of resilience

Description

Variables

Source

Ecology

It is influenced by factors such as biodiversity, redundancy, diverse responses, spatiality, and management plans

The amount of wet areas and damage, the amount of erosion, biodiversity, coastal defense structures

Edgar (2006), Edgar et al. (2005); Fulk 2006, Malone and Brenkert 2008

Social

It may promote assurance to facilitate the recovery process through enhanced communication, risk awareness, preparation, development and implementation of disaster management plans

Population, social networks and acceptance, community values, honest organizations

Patton and Johnston 2001

Economic

Using damage estimation models to determine financial damages and the effects of interruption of activities after the accident, it seeks to reduce damages in accidents through risk reduction strategies

Employment, asset value, wealth generation, income and budget

Edgar 2000

(continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Dimensions of resilience

Description

Variables

Source

Institutional or organizational

It includes the review of institutions and organizations and requires the assessment of their physical characteristics such as the number of members, communication technology, emergency facilities and elements such as how to manage or respond to accidents such as organizational structure, leadership capacity, training and experience

Involvement in risk reduction plans, emergency services, building standards, zoning, emergency response plan, mutual communication, continuity of operational plans

Tierney and Burneau 2007

Infrastructure

Investigating physical and infrastructure systems such as pipelines, roads, and their dependence on other infrastructure

Critical infrastructure, Ciccullo 2016 transmission system, age and quality of buildings and production plans

Social competence or capability

It defines well-being, quality of life, mental health and social functions (sense of community, ideals and desire to maintain cultural standards) before and after the accident

Local perception of risk, counselling services, lack of psychological damage, health and wellness, quality of life

Norris et al. 2011

2 Research Methodology In terms of the goal, the research is of an applied type, which was carried out in a descriptive-analytical method based on documentary library studies and field investigations. Considering the nature of the data and the inability to control the behavior of efficient variables in the problem, this research was of a non-experimental nature and was carried out as part of the analytical model. The investigated community was the statistical block and all urban and residential uses of Tehran city, and the main data were obtained mainly using data from the urban blocks of the Iranian Statistical Centre and

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available documents, including the complete and detailed plan. Existing information layers, field observations, targeted questioning of municipal experts and specific data produced in the software environment of the GIS geographic information system, as well as a documentary and library study, provided another portion of the information required for the article. To achieve the research objectives, indicators in 11 categories, including Red Crescent centers, fire centers, hospitals, green spaces and parks, emergency rooms, crisis management base, medical centers, blood transfusion centers, police centers, metro stations and food production centers based on existing land use studies and revision of the detailed plan of Tehran city areas were extracted. Subsequently, the hexagonal method was used in the ArcGIS software environment to spatialize the indicators studied in terms of the texture of the regions. (Farhadi et al. 2022; Hussaini et al. 2022). Although the use of hexagonal basic units (meters or metric) differs according to the 3 principles of reach, the subject and purpose of the research and the data analyzed, but the use of this method is based on three reasons: Accuracy, link ability and Sharing is recommended. Because by joining the analyzed information at spatial levels and adding them from very small values (parcel and block) to larger sheets (land use), the resilience status of the regions can be related to residential units, neighborhoods, districts and urban areas (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Conceptual model of research

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2.1 Case Study Tehran is the largest city and capital of Iran (Fig. 2). According to the census of 2015, the population of Tehran is 8,693,706 people and the area is 730 square kilometers (Statistical Centre of Iran, 2016). The flood of immigration to this city has started since 1335. Following these migra-tions, many urban problems have plagued this city. According to the first official census done in 1335, this city had 1560934 inhabitants. Related to the physical development process of Tehran for more than a century, the demographic development of this city, as the center of the country, has increased exponentially. (Shieh, 20).

Fig. 2. Limited map of the study

2.2 Research Findings In the maps below (Fig. 3 to Fig. 14), each of the indicators includes Red Crescent Centers, Fire Stations, Hospitals, Green Use and Parks, emergency rooms, crisis management centers, medical centers, blood transfusion centers, police centers, metro stations and centers, food production with the hexagonal GIS method and its integration, their degree of resilience is determined and classified into various classes. As can be seen in Fig. 3, the distribution of emergency services and ambulance centers in Teheran is scattered. According to the numeric output, the closest neighborhood index is 1.34 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is 1.70, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is scattered in the city of Tehran, as well as the pattern.The distribution of fire departments in Tehran is random. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.95 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −0.76, we may conclude that the index mentioned has a spatial autocorrelation and that this index is random in the city of Tehran (Fig. 4). The distribution of clinical centers in Tehran is clustered. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.92 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is

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Fig. 3. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the Fig. 4. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - emergency medical centers form of hexagons – Fire Stations

Fig. 5. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - medical Clinics

Fig. 6. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Blood transfusion centers

Fig. 7. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Parks and green space centers

Fig. 8. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Police centers

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Fig. 9. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Subway station

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Fig. 10. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Hospitals

Fig. 11. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the Fig. 12. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Red Crescent form of hexagons - Food production centers

Fig. 13. The state of Tehran’s resilience in the form of hexagons - Crisis management centers

Fig. 14. The state of resilience of Tehran in the form of a hexagon - integration of all indicators

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−1.71, we can conclude that the index mentioned has a spatial autocorrelation and that this index is grouped at Tehran city level (Fig. 5). In addition, the distribution of blood transfusion centers in the city of Tehran is dispersed. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 1.29 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is 1.88, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is scattered in the city of Tehran (Fig. 6). As illustrated in Fig. 7, the distribution of green spaces and parks in Tehran is grouped together. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.69 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −17.93, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is clustered in the city of Tehran and also the distribution model of police centers in the city of Tehran is bundled. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.90 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −2.03, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is clustered in the city of Tehran (Fig. 8). Also, the distribution pattern of metro stations in Tehran is clustered. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.139 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −30.44, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is clustered in the city of Tehran (Fig. 9) and also the pattern of distribution of water and wastewater treatment centers in Tehran is random. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 1.11 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is 0.64, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is random in the city of Tehran (Fig. 10). The distribution pattern of Red Crescent centers in Tehran is random. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.97 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −0.18, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is random in the city of Tehran (Fig. 11). Also, the pattern of distribution of food and vegetable production centers (major) is scattered in the city of Tehran. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 1.13 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is 3.00, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is scattered in the city of Tehran (Fig. 12). Also, the distribution pattern of the crisis management base in Tehran is clustered. According to the numerical output, the Nearest Neighbor index is 0.92 and since its value is positive and the z-score value is −1.71, we can conclude that the mentioned index has spatial autocorrelation and this index is clustered in Tehran city level (Fig. 13) .

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Fig. 15 State of resilience of Tehran in the form of a hexagon 3D - integration of all indicators

3 Conclusion Urban resilience is the ability to recover in the urban system as a result of unforeseen events. Recent academic literature focused on the reasons why urban resilience differs from urban sustainability. Meanwhile, urban policy programs use these terms almost interchangeably. The results show that resilience in Tehran follows the macrostructure of the economic system of this metropolis. So that more privileged areas have more resilience and less privileged areas have lower resilience (Fig. 15). In general, the whole urban structure of Tehran is at an inappropriate level of resilience. Failure to improve, neglecting sustainable development, and continuing the current situation will lead to disaster scenarios in environmental, social, and economic fields, and in the event of a crisis, it will cause irreparable damage to Tehran. The data obtained from the figures confirm that resilience in the metropolis of Tehran is unstable, in the best case, if the current situation continues, the resilience in the metropolis of Tehran will increase the vulnerability, decrease the coefficient and it will lead to the penetration of vital arteries and the reduction of improvement and retrofitting measures, the vulnerability of historic buildings, the increase in the distribution of incompatible uses, the reduction of building quality, and etc. In general, Tehran’s entire urban structure is insufficiently resilient. Failure of enhancement, neglect of sustainable development and the continuation of the present situation will lead to disaster scenarios in the environmental, social and economic fields, and in case of crisis, it will cause irreparable damage to Tehran. The scenarios that are most conducive to Tehran’s resilience are: • Planning to improve the spatial organization of land use as the core of urban planning. • Increased emphasis on building quality, especially in worn urban contexts. • Improving the physical permeability of the tissue in regions 11 and 12, increasing the access to space and decreasing the impermeability coefficient.

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• Allocate more economic resources and equipment to buildings in which seismic improvement measures have been carried out than to all buildings (on a local or general basis). • Expansion of emergency evacuation and rescue space capacity and establishment of security (emergencies, firefighters and police station). • Planning to improve the condition of the improvement and modernization measures in the buildings of each zone. • Ensure the removal of obstacles to the instability of historic buildings and increase measures for the renovation, improvement and regeneration of all buildings in each zone. • Planning to improve the state and development of infrastructure by reducing reliance and increasing the performance of critical infrastructure.

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Map4Accessibility Project, An Inclusive and Participated Planning of Accessible Cities: Overview and First Results Raffaele Pelorosso1(B) , Andrea Zingoni2 , Sediola Ruko2 , and Giuseppe Calabrò2 1 Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo,

VT, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, VT, Italy

Abstract. Map4Accessibility is a recently founded ERASMUS+ project aimed at fostering Higher Educational Institution (HEI) service-learning (SL) through the implementation of various activities for community accessibility mapping to improve physical and digital accessibility of universities and cities. To achieve this purpose, the Map4Accessibility project targets multiple profiles, including higher education students, higher education staff, people with disabilities, elderly people and residents in the areas being mapped. Following the SL criteria, the project adopts a co-design process involving all stakeholders in all parts of the process from issues identification and understanding to the mapping accessibility solution generation. In this contribution, jointly with a global overview of the project, we present the main results of the first work package, related to the facilitation guide for explorative walks and the digital accessibility mapping review. The facilitation guide aims to support students’ evaluation of accessibility issues in different urban contexts following the SL pedagogical approach. The digital accessibility literature and projects have fed some proposals for developing an inclusive citizen science app for accessibility mapping. Keywords: inclusion · urban planning · disabled · university

1 Introduction Addressing the multifaceted challenges of urban accessibility requires a comprehensive understanding spanning various fields, such as transportation, urban planning, disability studies, human geography, and urban sociology [1, 2]. Consequently, numerous definitions of accessibility exist within the literature. Here followings, we present an exemplificative definition of accessibility that emerged from focus groups and surveys conducted as part of a recent project on disability. “Accessibility refers to the possibility to access a place, an urban area for all and in all its aspects: places, buildings, shopping areas, public transports. Accessibility refers to how a place is inclusive, allowing people to reach every place they want without the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 266–277, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_24

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necessity to be assisted by a caregiver. Achieving urban accessibility equals to having accessible paths, roads, allays, parks etc. (e.g., ramps, pathways for the blind people with tactile markings, traffic lights with sound marking, special equipment to light during the night on roads with STOP signposts). In general, to define something as accessible in the city it must be easy-to-use or possible-to-use from all the citizens of the community without excluding anyone - regardless of disability, age, sex, ethnicity etc.” [3]. Ensuring accessibility for all individuals is a fundamental prerequisite for creating sustainable and equitable cities, and the provision of accessibility across institutions serves as an indicator of inclusiveness. This notion aligns with the focus on quality education for all, a prominent theme on the agendas of academic institutions and recognized international organizations like UNESCO and the United Nations. The shift in perspective from facilitating access to education towards the quality of learning necessitates equitable access, adequate resources, and inclusive teaching and learning processes for all students [4]. Inclusive education within higher education (HE) has become a global movement. However, expanding access to non-traditional students, including those with disabilities, presents a significant challenge for most HE systems [5]. University education offers a valuable opportunity for personal and professional growth, social interactions, and increased employability, which is particularly crucial for persons with disabilities [6]. However, studies consistently show higher dropout rates among students with disabilities compared to their peers, along with numerous barriers that impede their successful completion of studies [5, 7]. To identify factors contributing to the success of disabled students in higher education, researchers have examined both internal and external influences. Internal factors include personal attributes such as self-advocacy, self-awareness, self-determination, self-esteem, and executive functioning. External factors involve the support of families, disability offices, faculty members, and peers, all of which significantly impact the academic success of students with disabilities [4, 8]. These findings underscore the need for a human-centered and relationship-based approach to higher education. In the context of education, students’ abilities encompass both hard and soft skills. Hard technical skills refer to concrete and measurable competencies valued in professional environments, such as knowledge of environmental assessment principles or urban planning. On the other hand, soft non-technical skills, on the other hand, encompass interpersonal qualities like communication, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, and adaptability [9]. Integrating both soft and hard skills becomes essential, especially when community and civic engagement are required to advance the societal goals of universities [10]. High Educational Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in fostering the development of these skills by incorporating relevant topics into their curricula and establishing connections with NGOs in the local community. One pedagogical approach that exemplifies the development of soft and hard skills is Service-Learning (SL). Since its formalization by [11] in 1979, numerous definitions and applications of SL have emerged. For the purpose of this work, we present an exemplificative definition of SL that emerged from focus groups and surveys explicitly conducted within the university context.

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“SL is an educational approach involving projects and programmes of community service aiming to satisfy an actual need within a certain territory in collaboration with, but not only, the community. Students’ participation is central - from the initial planning phase to the final evaluation - and intentionally linked with their learning experience, including curricula, reflections, skills development. The SL approach implies seeing the institution as a civic space open to community reference groups. It is a different way of conceiving the university and organising it as a ‘community’: or students, citizens and employees. SL presupposes links with the economic, social and cultural context in which the institution is located.” [3]. This chapter presents the initial results of the Map4Accessibility 3-years project, funded by the ERASMUS+ program in December 2021. The project integrates social inclusion, disability accessibility, civic participation, and ICT-enabled solutions with the aim of involving HEI students in the co-creation of a pan-European Progressive Web App (PWA). This app emphasizes both digital and physical accessibility at the urban level through service-learning activities. The specific objectives of the Map4Accessibility project include: a) To promote and increase Service-Learning, community engagement, and civic skills among HEI students; b) To gather and share best practices and expertise on digital and physical accessibility for HEIs and cities at large; c) To design a Pan-European accessibility mapping tool based on an existing mobile application that allows people with disabilities to be better informed on the accessibility of public space. d) To support the inclusive education agenda, including but not limited to HEIs, by working with disability advocacy groups and organizations to promote accessibility and inclusion in all facets of society. Figure 1 shows the conceptual diagram of the Work Packages and Project Results. The chapter focuses on two main outcomes of the project’s first Work Package and Project Result 1. Firstly, the identification of best features to be introduced in a new inclusive citizen science app for accessibility mapping. Secondly, the facilitation guide for explorative walks (EW), which assists students in evaluating urban issues using the SL pedagogical approach. In particular, the following sections will present surveys and reviews related to the digital accessibility mapping and the EW concept. These two project tasks are closely interconnected. The findings from the surveys, literature and project review on digital accessibility mapping will inform the development of the Map4Accessibility app, known as Project Result 3. Subsequently, this app will be utilized and tested in specific and tailored urban mapping operations called urban walks, which are part of Project Result 4. These urban walks will be based on the preliminary results obtained from the EW. 1.1 Digital Accessibility Mapping Digital Mapping (DM) is a methodology that involves creating maps containing spatial information to facilitate specific tasks for users [12]. Currently, DM technology is widely utilized across various sectors and fields such as geology, engineering, architecture, land surveying, mining, agriculture, forestry, tourism, environmental studies, sports, archaeology, and more [3]. Therefore, digital accessibility mapping can be described as a set of methods that involve creating digital maps with valuable spatial information to enhance accessibility in urban environments.

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Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of the Work Packages and Project Results.

1.2 Exploratory Walks The concept of Exploratory Walks (EWs) originated in the 1990s in Montreal, Quebec, as an inclusive tool to combat violence against women and children. Today, EWs have evolved into a response to the need for participatory planning, providing a deeper understanding of urban life and spaces, and seeking shared and sustainable solutions [13, 14]. EWs serve as a community participatory tool for assessing the needs of public spaces, including squares, streets, green spaces, and even public institutions like university campuses. Participants are encouraged to engage in walks lasting 1–3 h, during which they identify issues that hinder their access to and enjoyment of the city. They collectively explore solutions to enhance public spaces and address their needs, such as through urban regeneration projects. The walks combine research and intervention functions, aiming to increase knowledge and foster social change through social cohesion. They also empower vulnerable and marginalized groups, granting them a “right to the city” in the spirit of Lefebvre. Walking is considered the most democratic form of movement, available to individuals from various social and demographic backgrounds, including children, women, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, immigrants, and the homeless. EWs can investigate several characteristics of urban areas as attractiveness, security, accessibility, walkability, and connectivity [15]. The targeted participants may vary depending on the specific issues at hand, encompassing disabled individuals, women, children, the elderly, local citizens, and students. While EWs predominantly gather qualitative information about the urban environment, the use of technology, such as apps and digital maps, is highly encouraged.

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2 Methods 2.1 Benchmarking Digital Accessibility Mapping During the initial phase of the Map4Accessibility project, the focus was on providing an overview and conducting benchmarking of existing accessibility mapping projects and publications. The ultimate goal was to develop a Progressive Web App that would offer free accessibility information to disabled individuals on a global scale. Work Package 1 extensively examined various ongoing applications and projects related to inclusive accessibility mapping. Examples of these include + Acesso Para Todos, mPass, Jaccede, Wheelmap, WheelMate, and other accessibility projects. The primary objective of this phase was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing initiatives and identify the most effective approach for developing a mapping tool. To achieve this, two questionnaires utilizing a Google module were administered, and a focus group involving disabled individuals was organized. Additionally, a systematic review of publications and projects was conducted. This short communication presents the final suggestions for the contents and features of the Map4Accessibility App. 2.2 The Facilitation Guide on Explorative Walks Currently, there is operational information available on explorative walks (EW) on the web, which is related to some past projects [16, 17]. However, there is a need for an updated facilitation guide that incorporates current literature and is specifically designed to include the Service-Learning (SL) approach and accessibility issues. To facilitate the implementation of EWs, a training event was conducted during the transnational meeting held in Lisbon in May 2022. Additionally, a survey specifically designed for EWs was developed to be utilized during the subsequent walks in the four study cities, Catania (Italy), Berlin (Germany), Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) and Lisbon (Portugal). Section 3.2 will present the facilitation guide that emerged from the insights gained during the four conducted walks and the relevant literature on this topic. This guide aims to establish an initial framework for future EWs conducted by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) using a SL and Digital Mapping approach.

3 Results 3.1 Towards the Map4accessibility App The surveys, which involved a total of 98 participants, along with the Focus Group consisting of disabled individuals, proved to be effective in gathering valuable feedback from relevant stakeholders regarding digital mapping and accessibility issues. The results revealed several gaps and needs in digital accessibility mapping. Based on the questionnaires, the main shortcomings of the current mapping systems, as identified by the participants, include: • Insufficient information about the accessibility of places and alternative accessible paths.

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• Inadequate information about the presence of barriers. • Lack of real-time and updated data on the status of streets. • Inaccurate information, where streets may be marked as accessible by the administration but have actual barriers. • Inconsistent effectiveness and reliability of voice-over systems. Simultaneously, the project study highlights the key accessibility features that new apps should possess, ensuring: • • • • •

Real-time and reliable information. The ability for registered users to provide real-time updates. Reliable and up-to-date information on public transportation. Provision of a support phone number or an "assistance" button if needed. Alternative accessible path options, similar to Google Maps’ offering of longer or panoramic routes. • Customization of app features to suit the user’s profile. • A reliable and preferably interactive voice-over system. In recent years, several apps addressing accessibility issues have been developed. However, their reach is often limited to the specific city or country of development. Additionally, many apps have limited availability, installation, and evaluation. Only Wheel Map and Wheel Mate have been rated by users on Play Store, highlighting the limited adoption of such tools. The analysis of questionnaires, the focus group, and the review of digital accessibility mapping publications and projects have identified the most innovative and noteworthy features for the development of the Map4Accessibility app. Table 1 provides a summary of these features, including a brief description, potential users, associated benefits, and the level of innovation. 3.2 The Facilitation Guide for Explorative Walks The following list of 16 points in the facilitation process and the six questions presented in Fig. 2 form the facilitation guide for Exploratory Walks (EWs). The guide aims to assist walk leaders and teachers in organizing successful EWs based on a SL approach. Facilitation Process 1. The teacher presents the general objectives of EW to students following the ServiceLearning pedagogical approach (WHY), 2. The teacher organises the discussion on the other Question Words (WHAT, WHERE, WHO and WHEN): make the choice of EW really born from the student, 3. The teacher provides participants with materials or (preferably) leaves students producing and organising their materials (HOW), 4. At least one walk leader is defined for each EW. If necessary, the teacher can be the walk leader or a co-walk leader, 5. The walk leaders lead the walk with selected stops determined in advance and listed. At each stop the participants consider how safe, connected, accessible, walkable, and attractive the node is for specific groups of students and citizens (e.g., disabled, children or the elderly),

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Feature / Innovation

Description

Possible users/benefits

Path calculation / High

Calculation of the shortest or the best route (with fewer barriers) for users to reach their desired destination. Users can indicate the specific type of barriers they need to avoid based on their personal special needs

This functionality allows the app to tailor the route recommendations to individual accessibility requirements, ensuring that users can navigate the city more easily and efficiently

The route planning and navigation system / High

The feature should have four interconnected modules. 1) The Pre-planning Journeys module allows users to input their desired destination and specify accessibility preferences, generating route options based on these inputs. 2) The Journey Execution module provides step-by-step directions and guidance to help users navigate the chosen route efficiently. 3) The General Information module offers access to relevant information about the city and its surroundings, such as public transportation options, points of interest, and amenities. 4) The Orientation and Navigation Assistance module provides real-time guidance, alerts, and notifications during the journey to ensure users stay on the right track and avoid obstacles or barriers

Comprehensive solution for route planning, execution, information provision, and navigation assistance. This enhances accessibility and improves the overall user experience for individuals with specific needs

(continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Feature / Innovation

Description

Possible users/benefits

Evaluating place accessibility / Medium

Accessibility evaluation of places and services using a rating system (e.g., 1 to 5 stars). Users have the option to provide descriptions of specific locations, such as bars or theaters, highlighting relevant barriers that may affect accessibility

This feature enables a citizen science approach, allowing all users to share their experiences and contribute valuable information about the accessibility of various establishments and locations

Audio descriptions for images / Medium

Audio descriptions of images captured using the camera sensor

The feature ensures that users with visual limitations can still understand and engage with visual information within the app

Interface for visually impaired / Medium

Text-entry interface enabling All people with different visually impaired individuals to disability can potentially use a regular mobile device accomplish even the most challenging tasks such as writing messages or managing contacts

Offline Work / Medium

The feature allows to download base-maps to work offline

The feature allows user to check routes and place accessibility in closed environments without internet coverage

Virtual 3D map / High

Virtual and immersive experience (3D game) that allows users (i.e. avatars) to explore and navigate different environments without physical limitations

Training tool to simulate real-world scenarios, helping individuals to learn and develop their navigation and orientation skills, to evaluate the effectiveness of different urban design elements, and to inform the design of accessible and user-friendly urban spaces (continued)

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Feature / Innovation

Description

Possible users/benefits

Public transport information / Medium

Reliable on-time information on Enhancement of the ability to public transportation plan, navigate, and use public transit systems with greater ease, efficiency, and confidence. Promotion of inclusivity, independence, and a more seamless travel experience without stress and anxiety

Multi-language / High

Adoption of multiple languages Enhancement of accessibility, for different users inclusivity, user engagement, global reach, localization efforts, and customer support. Broadening the app’s user base, improves user satisfaction, and contributes to its overall success

6. If the weather is bad, the number of stops and the amount of information to be recorded can be reduced and the discussion periods moved in a sheltered area. Alternatively, the EW can be shifted or anticipated in other day or time, 7. A conversation at each node is realised to discuss the principles of good design – e.g., observed physical or digital barriers. Participants can rate the node on a scale of 1–5 (5 being the most adequate) on different criteria (e.g., accessibility by walking, wheelchairs, or biking). The walk leader controls the registration of participants observations at each node on the survey, 8. Once the EW is completed, participants’ experiences are discussed. The walk leader asks a few open-ended questions to encourage discussion around additional community improvements (e.g., which node the participants felt the least/ most accessible and why), 9. Do not focus only on negative aspects (what can be improved) during the EW but also on what people like in the area, 10. Do not limit the participants in their recommendations (let them be creative), 11. Do not let people monopolize the discussion, 12. Use social media (e.g., Facebook) or local media to promote the experience and the active role of walkers, 13. Make the walk fun but make sure the walkers take it seriously, 14. Ensure a follow up for a long-lasting engagement in case of a successive urban walk, 15. The walk leader collects all the participants’ surveys and writes a final report with the collaboration of all students. 16. The teacher and the walk leaders disseminate the outcomes of the EW in the proper channels, as identified by students, and an evaluation of impacts on communities and territory is done.

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Fig. 2. Six questions for EWs (Source: Pelorosso et al., 2022).

4 Conclusions Several accessibility apps have been developed in recent years, but their reach is often limited to the specific city or country where they were created. Additionally, many of these apps are not widely available, installed, or evaluated. Therefore, there is a need for a new app dedicated to digital accessibility mapping. This paper presents the most innovative and noteworthy features for developing the Map4Accessibility app. While budget constraints may prevent the inclusion of all features, the aim of the consortium is to create an expandable tool that caters to a wide range of users with different disabilities. Furthermore, the app aims to be a citizen science tool, allowing all users to contribute data and suggestions to monitor and evaluate various aspects of urban accessibility for research institutions and administrations. Exploratory Walks (EWs) play a crucial role in engaging students and citizens in civic participation and can be employed for various purposes. This paper introduces a facilitation guide designed to effectively organize EWs. The guide is based on six fundamental questions (Why, What, Who, Where, When, How), which aid in issue identification. It draws on a literature review and the experience gained from the EWs conducted in the Map4Accessibility project, providing solid yet flexible rules for EW organization. The guide has a general nature and can be utilized to create EWs for different urban contexts and issues using a Service-Learning (SL) pedagogical approach. Currently, several EWs have been realized in the project, and more time-consuming urban walks are planned for the same study areas of the EWs. These upcoming urban walks (WP3) will quantify the obstacles and issues identified in the previous EWs,

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adopting the same SL approach and the new Map4Accessibility app. Through these urban walks, participants will have the opportunity to test the functionality of the app and propose possible improvements. Additionally, localized interventions will be further studied and recommended to enhance accessibility in the four study cases, promoting an operational and bottom-up planning approach. Creating a more inclusive and accessible society goes beyond meeting basic accessibility standards. It involves fostering a culture of inclusivity that appreciates diversity and promotes the active involvement of every individual. It’s essential to provide comprehensive information about accessibility to all individuals, rather than solely concentrating on accessibility for those with disabilities. The integration of digital tools, such as the app being developed and released at the project’s end, along with inclusive participatory EWs based on SL, serves as an additional means to foster the creation of more accessible and inclusive cities and universities. Further information on the Map4Accessibility project can be found on the map4accessibility.eu website and the Project Result 1 report [3].

References 1. Guida, C., Caglioni, M.: Urban accessibility: the paradox, the paradigms and the measures. A scientific review. TeMA - J. L. Use, Mobil. Environ. 149–168 (2020). https://doi.org/10. 6092/1970-9870/6743 2. Saha, M., Chauhan, D., Patil, S., Kangas, R., Heer, J., Froehlich, J.E.: Urban accessibility as a socio-political problem : a multi- stakeholder analysis. ACM Trans. Graph. 4(2), 39 (2020) 3. Pelorosso R., et al.: Map4Accessibility Service-Learning and Community Mapping Methodology. Erasmus+ Map4Accessibility project, KA-2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, Cooperation Partnership for Higher Education. Project Number: 2021–1-IT02-KA220-HED-000030320 (2022) 4. Moriña, A., Biagiotti, G.: Academic success factors in university students with disabilities : a systematic review disabilities : a systematic review. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 00, 1–18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2021.1940007 5. Carballo, R., Morgado, B., Cortés-Vega, M.D.: Transforming faculty conceptions of disability and inclusive education through a training programme. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 25(7), 843–859 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1579874 6. Hewett, R., Douglas, G., McLinden, M., Keil, S.: Developing an inclusive learning environment for studens with visual impairment in higher education: progressive mutual accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 32(1), 89–109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2016.1254971 7. Munir, N.: Factors influencing enrolments and study completion of persons with physical impairments in universities. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 1–16,(2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116. 2021.1879959 8. Russak, S., Hellwing, A.D.: University Graduates with learning disabilities define success and the factors that promote it. Int. J. Disabil. Dev. Educ. 66(4), 409–423 (2019). https://doi. org/10.1080/1034912X.2019.1585524 9. Martin, T.N.: Review of student soft skills development using the 5Ws/H approach resulting in a realistic, experiential, applied, active learning and teaching pedagogical classroom. J. Behav. Appl. Manag. 19, 41–57 (2019) 10. EC, Communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions on a renewed EU agenda for higher education. COM(2017)247 (2017)

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11. Sigmon, R.: Service-learning: three principles. Synergist 8(10), 9–11 (1979) 12. Comai, S., Kayange, D., Mangiarotti, R., Matteucci, M., Yavuz, S.U., Vallentini, F.: Mapping city Accesibility. Rev. Anal. 1 (2015) 13. Bazu´n, D., Kwiatkowski, M.: Exploratory walk as a method of studying urban tourism space: a case of charles bridge in Prague. J. Spat. Organ. Dyn. 8, 92–106 (2020) 14. Bazu´n, D., Kwiatkowski, M.: Exploratory walk and local cohesion— the concept and application. Mobilities 00, 1–20 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1999775 15. Odzakovic, E., Hellström, I., Ward, R., Kullberg, A.: Overjoyed that I can go outside’: using walking interviews to learn about the lived experience and meaning of neighbourhood for people living with dementia. Dementia 19, 2199–2219 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/147 1301218817453 16. Facilitation Guide: Exploratory walk. Bring people together to explore and discuss neighbourhood public spaces. Co-Designing the Active City (Access April 2022). https://participa toryplanning.ca/tools/exploratory-walk 17. Kit Exploratory Walks. Womenability (Access April 2022). https://issuu.com/womenability/ docs/kit_explowalk_womenability

Universities, Cities and Sustainability Cristian Cannaos , Giuseppe Onni(B)

, Alessandra Casu , and Tanja Congiu

Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, 07041 Alghero, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The aim of the article is to discuss the involvement between universities and the cities that host them, analyzing the physical and functional relationships that are established between them. Universities not only experiment with sustainability, but they also promote, educate, research, and actively collaborate with the community. However, their role within the cities is influenced by their physical characteristics and how they interact with the city. In this article, we will focus on “universities integrated with the city”, those dispersed within the urban fabric rather than concentrated in a campus, highlighting some pros and cons of implementing sustainability. We will begin by discussing how sustainability has become a guiding principle for universities and how it is - or should be - applied within them. We will then examine and evaluate the role of universities within their respective cities or towns. In addition to providing examples from other institutions, the University of Sassari will be analyzed as a specific case study. Keywords: University sustainability · Sustainable urban development · City Universities · SDGs

1 Introduction Educating new generations plays a central role, and universities, representing the highest level of education, are also called upon to be continuously and focusedly engaged in sustainability [1], in which Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a crucial role. In recent decades, we have witnessed a progressive and unstoppable integration of sustainability issues within HEIs [2, 3]. However, this transition is still ongoing, and the challenges for universities are not over, with a “whole-institution approach” (WIA) [4, 5], which calls on universities to design and implement their own transformation based on sustainability [6]. Before discussing the challenges that universities are called upon to face, we will attempt to describe the ways in which universities can fulfill their role as key actors in promoting sustainability. We will also address the issue of the city-university connection, and the role that universities have a duty to promote sustainability within the cities that host them. This role is both intangible (cultural, social, and economic) and connected to the physical relationship between the university built environment and the urban © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 278–289, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_25

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structure. The implementation of sustainability in HEIs is somewhat connected to the typology they assume in various contexts. In the last part, we will analyze the case study of the University of Sassari (Uniss). To evaluate whether and how sustainability is applied in teaching, we study the educational programs of a Department of Uniss, taken as a sample. For the research, reference will be made to the classification offered by Scopus based on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Finally, to illustrate how sustainability enters the third mission and the dissemination of know-how, some projects developed in collaboration with other organizations will be briefly presented.

2 Universities and Sustainability Universities are complex systems, akin to small-medium towns, where thousands of people live and move daily using their own vehicles or public transportation, generating atmospheric emissions, producing waste, and consuming water and energy, with significant environmental impacts. Referring to Bowen [7], universities can be compared to organizations that should adopt desirable behaviors in terms of objectives and values for society, with an increasing and progressive relevance of sustainability goals, with utmost priority to the social and environmental ones [8]. Especially state-funded universities are expected to provide adequate responses in these terms. Italian universities have the primary missions of teaching and research, to which the so-called “Third Mission” (outreach) has been added since 2012 (DL 19/2012). The term refers to all activities of scientific, technological, and cultural knowledge transfer, and productive transformation through direct interaction between universities and social and entrepreneurial contexts [9]. The goal is to promote growth by applying and sharing academic research and experiments with society to actively contribute to collective improvement. Therefore, sustainability should be integrated into these three main missions. Trencher et al. [10] describe the expansion of the universities’ role in producing sustainability knowledge through the participation of other actors. Universities worldwide are making efforts to place students, faculty, and civil society at the center of sustainability issues through applied research, capacity building, and communication of knowledge to the public [11, 12]. The generation of these partnerships allows for the study of characteristics and functions relevant to sustainability in real-world settings and the monitoring of their impact. Another dimension of sustainability involves universities: they serve as examples of sustainability; so, for HEIs, implementing sustainable development principles becomes a fundamental issue [13]. Almost all universities have embarked on pathways to reduce their environmental impact, and sustainability has also become a means to enhance reputation, which is increasingly important in a world in which they are also called upon to compete with each other. Over time, sustainability reporting frameworks –such as the applied Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – have been developed, which have led to the creation of university sustainability rankings (UI GreenMetric, THE, STARS). Producing a sustainability report is also an essential act, serving as evidence of how universities fulfill their mission of promoting the Sustainable Development Goals

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(specifically SDG 4.7). Universities have only recently entered this reporting system, and the challenges related to producing reports are still under debate and development [3, 14–18]. One of the limitations is precisely related to the physical relationship between the university and the city. For this reason, the Network of Universities for Sustainable Development (RUS), an Italian network that includes 84 universities, has recently developed guidelines tailored to the Italian context [19]. In addition to being a driving force of knowledge [20], universities are also faced with the challenge of finding a sustainable way to engage with the cities and territories that host them. In the case of Italian universities, what makes sustainable management complex is their positioning within cities rather than being isolated from the urban context (like many Anglo-Saxon-style campuses), the historical nature of the structures that house them, and the transportation and connections between the various university campuses [21].

3 Universities and Cities The term ‘campus’ was first used to describe the grounds around a college at Princeton University and later adopted to refer to the grounds of other colleges and universities, especially in the Anglo-Saxon context. These campuses were often physically separate from cities, either on the outskirts, in close proximity, or completely isolated and independent. Over time, many peripheral campuses have been incorporated into the urban canopy, expanding beyond their original perimeters and spreading within it [22]. On the other hand, universities in other parts of Europe have followed a different path, often being established internally within the city urban canopy, either remaining there or later relocating externally, usually with some degree of proximity. For example, the University of Bologna still has all its facilities within the city center. However, some faculties have moved outside the urban perimeter or to peripheral areas to have more space while still retaining the use of historical buildings located in the city center [23]. As mentioned earlier, the unique spatial structure of universities influences their interaction with the surrounding context. We can classify the relationship between the university and the city into two different categories: physical and functional [22]. According to den Heijer [24], there are three main spatial configurations in the physical relationship between the university and the city: outside the city, enclosed within it, or integrated with it (Fig. 1). The functional relationship between the university and the city refers to the types of spaces and services, available within or outside the university campus, that could also serve the city. This functional relationship can encompass academic, residential, sports, commercial, leisure functions, infrastructure, and activities related to businesses [22]. The public dimension of the university and the social life of students depend heavily on the university’s model since each generates its own social life, both internally and in relation to the city [25]. In fact, students and staff raise service-related demands, and if these are not met internally within the university, they inevitably impact the surrounding urban environment [26]. The Italian university system [27] consists of a total of 97 higher education institutions, including 67 state universities, 19 legally recognized non-state universities, and

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Fig. 1. Spatial configurations of physical university–city relations. Source: den Heijer, own elaboration.

11 legally recognized non-state telematic universities. Among these, we can distinguish [28] 9 universities (mostly of relatively recent foundation) built as campuses, located outside cities and almost self-contained, while the other 58 ‘historic’ universities are mostly integrated with them. As the range of subjects increased, with laboratories and classrooms requiring spaces not always readily available in the city, some universities created peripheral and relatively independent satellite campuses, as we will see later in the case of the University of Sassari. In discussing the case study, we will also see how universities, in some cases, have expanded across territories, going beyond the boundaries of a single city and occupying spaces in multiple, even non-contiguous municipalities. This integrated urban condition distinguishes Italian universities from the Anglo-Saxon model often cited as a reference for university sustainability [21]. If we consider the extremes of spatial models (integrated university with the city or separate university apart from the city), both morphologies have advantages and disadvantages. From an educational standpoint, there should not be significant differences between the two models. What one university can teach, the other can as well. However, when it comes to research, things change. In a mutual process of involvement and collaboration, the research agenda of universities is influenced by where it takes place. Academics from different disciplines engage with the city as an urban laboratory. This is simultaneously a subject of study, a field of research, and a place for collaboration, experimentation, and intervention [29]. Therefore, research often involves applying theoretical models to the urban context, directly involving the city in its progress and advancements. Physical proximity facilitates students and researchers leaving classrooms and laboratories to take immediate action in the context. However, this also imposes constraints. The external context is not managed by the university, so it is necessary to activate collaborations, mediate certain positions, and, in some cases, even forgo certain types of experimentation. A study has also shown a relationship between the research’s ability to obtain funding and its distance from the city [30]. The Third Mission similarly requires strong engagement with the context. A university integrated within the city offers more opportunities for interaction with the urban environment. We can say that each university has its unique spatiality and relationship with the context, and as key actors in society, universities are inevitably involved in projects and interactions with other institutions and the community inhabiting that place [29]. In the case of isolated campus models, there is a certain degree of separation

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between the city’s community and the campus community. In contrast, in universities integrated into the urban fabric, there is a large overlapping area, resulting in extensive areas of interaction, even without structured relationships between the university and other entities. Therefore, these interactions may not even be categorized as part of the Third Mission. In their daily lives, students, teachers, and university staff are called upon to interact with the surrounding society, actively participating in social life and collectively building a sustainable vision. This overlap manifests itself through both synergies and conflicts that are less prevalent or intense in universities less connected to cities. As part of a national project forecasting the future of cities in the UK until 2065, Newcastle University, which defines itself as a ‘world-class civic university,’ sought to mobilize the academic expertise of the city’s two universities to work with public, private, and voluntary sector partners on the long-term future of the region and the city [31]. The sustainable functioning of a university is also greatly influenced by its spatial characteristics. In the case of isolated campuses, it is relatively easier to implement policies and initiatives aimed at changing user behavior or minimizing certain impacts (e.g., focusing on waste separation or in wastewater management). However, in universities integrated with the city, the university is often required to comply with municipal regulations rather than promoting its own. While this is a limitation, it also opens up the possibility of improving urban management under pressure from the university, which demands improvements for its own users. In other words, the university can propose initiatives to promote the sustainability of its own infrastructure, which inevitably affect the entire urban sector, improving its sustainability in the process. It may be more challenging to implement, but it can be more effective in the long run. Regarding energy autonomy and reducing building energy consumption, the isolated campus model allows for greater autonomy and fewer issues. Within the city, there are more constraints due to the presence of neighboring buildings, which can represent limitations in some ways. Additionally, a portion of the university’s built heritage within cities consists of historic buildings, limited in their transformative possibilities due to architectural and monumental preservation. On the other hand, the restoration and improvement of buildings within the city adds value to the urban context they are situated in, promotes greater emulation (both from public authorities and private individuals), and the university often leads campaigns to improve the conditions of the surrounding public and private spaces. The university’s openness to the city and the continuous presence of students often serve as deterrents to certain types of vandalism or minor crimes, helping to create a safer urban environment [32]. Universities have also played a significant role in the restoration of historical heritage within the cities. Many classrooms and university offices are housed in previously abandoned historic buildings that were restored and repurposed solely for academic use [23].

4 A University Integrated with the Town: Uniss We will attempt to make some inferences about sustainability, illustrating the relationships between a dispersed university inside a town, using the University of Sassari (Uniss - Fig. 2) as a case study.

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It provides ample space for academic functions, significant space for related business functions (where expertise is transferred from the research to the business, including incubators, spin-offs, and spaces for advanced training and lifelong learning), and has some space for infrastructure and accessibility services, albeit limited. Students’ mobility primarily depends on the urban transportation system or the use of private vehicles. In terms of residential functions, apart from a few small guest accommodations, the university is completely dependent on the city. Students either rent private apartments or turn to the facilities provided by ERSU (Regional Agency for the Right to University Education). This means that the sustainability policies promoted by the university (such as for teaching and research) can be relatively independent of urban policies, while other policies (housing, leisure, public transportation, waste management, wastewater treatment) require evident involvement from the city, as the management of these services lies with the municipality or other public or private entities. Uniss is a university that originated within the town, with the foundation of Jesuit schools and the first teachings of Philosophy and Theology in 1562, later becoming a Royal University in 1612. In 1637, the disciplines of law and medicine were added to the curriculum [33]. Therefore, the initial buildings that the University began to use (some of which are still occupied) represent architectural assets of significant importance. This can make their ‘sustainable’ transformation more complex, but not impossible. The presence of the university adds value to certain contexts, so interventions on these buildings serve as important examples to emulate, and can enhance entire neighborhoods. The presence of medicine and surgery has led to the establishment of hospital spaces over time, for the practice and training of medical professionals. As field-based learning is a key mechanism in public health, the university-city connection in this case is direct [29]. Over the centuries, the university has expanded its educational offer, and it currently occupies the spaces illustrated in Fig. 2. There are two main campus areas: one is related to the botanical garden (no. 5, newly built on the outskirts in the early 2000s), and the other (no. 13) is a kind of mini-campus dedicated to Sciences, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine, developed since the 1980s. This part of the university is relatively self-contained and independent from the city, lacking dormitories, so students seek accommodation in the urban area. With Schools of Agriculture and Veterinary medicine, the university also has various scattered companies throughout the territory that serve as training and research locations. Sassari experiences high demand for housing from students, offering 62 degree programs [34]. Uniss is organized into ten departments: Agriculture; Architecture, Design, and Urban Planning (located in Alghero); Law; Veterinary Medicine; Medicine, Surgery, and Pharmacy; Biomedical Sciences; Chemical, Physical, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences; Economics and Business; Humanities and Social Sciences; and History, Human Sciences, and Education. The dissemination of knowledge across various fields is undoubtedly an advantage to make a university sustainable, in fact it requires expertise in many different areas. Moreover, the intersection and contributions of different disciplines expand the possibilities for innovation and research. Unfortunately, this does not mean that Uniss is organized and works as a sustainable university. At present, a

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Fig. 2. Areas and buildings occupied by Uniss activities within the city of Sassari. Own elaboration.

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clear and explicit pathway to manage the transition towards the sustainability of the entire university has not yet been defined. However, this does not mean that there are no ongoing processes and transformations aimed at promoting sustainability in teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and internal organization. Currently, there is a Rector’s delegate for sustainability promotion, Uniss is part of the RUS (Network of Universities for Sustainable Development), and it has an energy manager and a mobility manager. However, as is often the case, there is a lack of structured management, no sustainability report exists, but there are offices, professors, and researchers who practice and promote sustainability. For example, Uniss has an office called ‘real estate management and energy efficiency,’ which not only ensures property management and coordinates the evaluation of real estate assets but also plans, designs, and manages energy efficiency interventions for buildings, developing projects to secure funding. To understand if sustainability is integrated into teaching, a preliminary survey was conducted on the curriculum of the Department of Architecture, Planning and Design (DADU), analyzing the syllabus, a part of the university web site that collects all the course programs. We read each program and analyze it through a series of keywords. The result is that 33 out of 58 courses explicitly refer to sustainability. Considering that the sample (58 courses) represents about one-tenth of the total courses offered by Uniss, this could demonstrate that sustainability is very present in teaching, even in the absence of a central coordination. In the future, we want to extend the investigation to the other departments of Uniss, and this will help determine whether this department is an isolated case or represents the norm. Promoting sustainable behaviors among students is also part of teaching. For example, there are regulations that award academic credits to students for participating in seminars or lectures related to urban waste management, and a competition aimed at promoting waste recycling has been launched to raise awareness among the student population. We conduct a second sample survey to verify if research at Uniss is also oriented towards sustainability. The analysis focused on the scientific output indexed in Scopus and attributed to Uniss. It is possible to make a simple research through all the Scopus databases using a filter affiliation (Università degli Studi di Sassari). In total, we identify 21,407 research products (including articles, essays, books, and conference proceedings). To understand their contribution to sustainability we used the SDGs filters of Scopus. Elsevier data science teams built pre-generated search queries for 16 of the SDGs (the SDG 17 is named as very difficult to quantify, and there is no satisfactory search query to define it at this time). These search queries are available as part of Scopus Advanced search. Each search query generates a predefined query string to exhibit areas that describe the work that researchers and institutions are doing for each SDG. To avoid duplication in the count, we collected all the predefined Scopus queries for each SDG, and applied them all together with the “OR” operator (in fact, a single article can match multiple SGDs). We arrived at 7,873 products classified by Scopus as referencing at least one of the first 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This means that over one-third of Uniss research indexed in Scopus addresses sustainability-related topics. By narrowing the search to the period between 2013 and 2023 (as of May 31, 2023), 4,856 indexed scientific products that reference the SDGs were selected, out of

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a total of 10,904. This represents 44.5% of the publications that cover sustainabilityrelated themes in the last ten years. We think this can prove how sustainability is a very important theme within Uniss research. Uniss is classified by Censis [35] as a medium-sized university, with 12,707 enrolled students in the academic year 2021/22 [36]. With 862 teaching and research staff members, and 525 non-teaching staff, there are a total of 14,094 individuals directly involved with Uniss. This plays a fundamental role in the transmission of knowledge from the university to the external community. Considering that Sassari has a population of 121,021 residents [37], the university community represents 11.6% of the resident population. Promoting and teaching sustainability practices can therefore directly impact the urban behaviors of these individuals, who in turn disseminate them to other parts of the population. The size comparison between the university and the city is such that the urban repercussions are almost immediate. Moreover, with approximately 2,300 graduates each year, who could go to important positions in public institutions and private companies, it is clear how this sustainability education can immediately orient the city in the same direction. Lastly, we explored the participation in external processes. Uniss is involved in numerous projects related to sustainability, both as leader and as partner. Several of these projects related to energy efficiency of the university itself, but many others aim to promote sustainability in the territories of Sardinia. Since 2017, in collaboration with the University of Cagliari and with the financial support of the Regional Government of Sardinia, Uniss has been working on two pilot projects to develop Smart Grids and make university structures more energy-efficient. Uniss aims to achieve 72% energy autonomy where smart grids are implemented, with a 50% reduction in overall energy consumption, minimizing reliance on the national grid and increasing energy self-sufficiency. As part of the same project, called UnisSmartGrid, the implementation of an inter-campus and city electric mobility system has been planned, providing electric car sharing services for the university community. In 2018, the research project “Maslowaten” was funded under the European research and innovation program Horizon 2020. It focuses on the development of an ecocompatible irrigation solution, consisting of a Photovoltaic Irrigation System that operates without using fossil fuels, resulting in a 30% water saving. In 2019, the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy produced the research project “Biomarmo,” which aims to transform industrial waste from the processing of stone materials into a valuable resource. Through the creation of new composite materials, these waste materials can be utilized in various sectors, such as construction, furnishing, and artistic craftsmanship. As a partner, Uniss participates in the RES4CITY (Renewable Energies System For Cities) project, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe program. Led by Maynooth University (Ireland), this project addresses the excessive skills gap in the renewable energy sector, which is hindering the sustainable transition of society and the European Union. These examples demonstrate that Uniss is quite active in disseminating sustainability beyond the university and that its urban location also contributes to enhancing the town’s

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sustainability. However, significant efforts are still needed to achieve a sustainable university. The ongoing projects and transformations, while in an early stage, if properly supported, will also contribute to creating a more sustainable town.

5 Conclusions This article represents a preliminary approach to studying sustainability in universities and their contribution, based on their physical and functional relationships, to the sustainability of the cities that host them. We made an initial, small comparison has between campuses and universities integrated with the city, which we intend to expand in future developments. Many metrics used today for sustainability rankings are designed for campuses and can be quite complex and penalizing when applied to universities integrated with the city, which is, however, the most common model in Italy. The immediate objective is to establish a system (the RUS proposal seems to be a good starting point) to measure sustainability both within the university and, at the same time, its contribution to the sustainability of the cities and territories hosting them. In the article, two surveys were conducted for the evaluation of sustainability in teaching and research (which will be expanded in the future) and are intended to be replicable in other universities. The one based on teaching programs was carried out on a limited sample, with a direct reading and analysis of all programs. The goal is to extend it to the entire university, but considering the volume of materials to be analyzed, it will be necessary to initially filter programs using keywords before proceeding to a direct reading of a more limited number of them. The evaluation of sustainability in research through the Scopus portal proved to be interesting (it may also warrant further details, and we intend to dedicate a separate study to it). However, it faces the challenge that not all academic research output is indexed in Scopus. A preliminary analysis revealed that some fields (mostly bibliometric) are better represented, while others (generally non-bibliometric) are less present. We need to find ways to better assess research products not covered by Scopus. Even for the third mission (knowledge transfer and community engagement), the listing of some projects is considered a still rudimentary system, but the diversity of initiatives in this field makes evaluation quite complex. It is believed that a more qualitative rather than quantitative approach will always be necessary. The fundamental theme remains central: universities must act as drivers for sustainability by teaching, researching, setting an example, and disseminating knowledge as much as possible. The goal to be achieved is to have a sustainable society, enabling us to address the complexities of a world that increasingly demonstrates the importance of “pass lightly on the earth” [38].

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Urban Regeneration and Architectural Quality in Inner Areas of the Italian Apennines. Indicators and Models for Projects and Planning Camilla Sette(B) Department of Civil, Building-Architecture and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The issue of inner areas cyclically resurfaces in the attention of Italian politics in different way. Currently, both SNAI (National Strategy Inner Areas) and PNRR (National Plan for Recovery and Resilience) are dealing with this issue. The intent of the research, that is now in development, is to describe a procedure for diagnosing and classifying the conditions of the centers/towns/urban tissues of inner mountainous areas, identifying the different categories of intervention and efficiency indicators of possible interventions for the recovery of functional roles, paving the way for quality architectural projects. It is evident that the Italian settlement, with its very dispersed configuration, is extremely burdensome for the provision of public services with important consequences on the finances of municipalities and, especially for the “smaller” ones, the contradictory building/urban development outlined above has generated over time conditions of high de-qualification of the fabrics and their functional organicity, generating also neglected building landscapes, far from any kind of attractiveness or architectural and urban quality. In addition to that, the pandemic of Covid-19, with the systematic and generalized affirmation of “smart working,” has given a strong impetus to the leitmotiv of returning to small towns with a vast supply to which, out of the emergency, is corresponding a demand contained in numbers. This generates a form of “competition” among municipalities in which the quality component will be considered discriminating in the choice among these. Thus, for small municipalities in inner areas, architectural and urban interventions will have to be highly qualifying, suitable for generating a recovery of role, significant improvements in the quality of life and environmental value, as well as a high impact on the reaffirmation of identity of resident communities. Keywords: urban regeneration · inner areas · architectural quality · urban quality · functional quality

1 Urban Regeneration: State of the Art The renewed attention to the landscape, intended not only as natural but as a set of artificial, material, and immaterial factors, has long assumed a prevalent role in scientific research in Italy, as well as in Europe [1–11]. Of all of them, the dominant one in the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 290–301, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_26

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national collective culture is certainly the urban landscape: this generally corresponds to historical contexts, where the building patrimony presents in most cases a valuable value, but which at the same time is in urgent need of urban regeneration and rehabilitation. Thus, the aim of the research is to propose a methodology to guide urban and architectural regeneration of small villages/municipalities that can be used as a Decision Support System (DSS), as it is aimed at directing the choice of which villages are most “recoverable” with the least technical and economic effort, and with the best results. In the introduction of this paper, we find the different facets of urban regeneration, then moving on to the second paragraph, with a description of the characteristics of the study area (the municipalities of the Gran Sasso National Park), continuing in the third paragraph with the methodology used in this approach, the criteria and methods for classification and clustering. In the conclusions there are some reflections on the importance of urban and architectural regeneration programmes, and the role they can play in contexts characterised by high marginalisation such as the inner areas of Apennines chain, also stressing the need to activate synergies with cohesion policies. Urban regeneration is by no means “new”, as the etymology of the term suggests: regenerate means “to generate again,” “to reconstitute, to make efficient again” “to renovate or restore to its initial state” (Treccani Encyclopedia definition). In fact, the refunctionalization and recovery of spaces over the years has been the subject of several research [12, 13]. In the second part of the 1900s, in fact, we begin to talk about urban renewal in the United States, and from the mid-1970s about urban regeneration in Europe [14–19]: in fact, in 1975 in the Amsterdam Declaration, the “European Charter of Architectural Heritage” was drafted, promulgated by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Already in this charter we find some of what will be the cornerstones of urban regeneration: “transformation of a place (residential, commercial, or open space) that has displayed the symptoms of environmental (physical), social and/or economic decline. What has been described as: breathing new life and vitality into an ailing community, industry, and area (bringing) sustainable, long-term improvements to local quality of life, including economic, social, and environmental needs” [20]. The 1970s-1980s also coincided with the time when the notion of “plan” was replaced by the notion of “urban project” [21]. This type of project straddles the line between planning and architectural design: it can have the most disparate consistencies because the areas and scales of intervention are disparate: from large cities, to neighborhoods, to brownfields, to small villages [22]. Coming to today, in the Territorial Agenda 2030. A future for all places, the framework of urbanization forms includes “capital regions, metropolitan areas, small and medium-sized towns, peri-urban areas, rural areas, inner peripheries, peripheral areas, northernmost areas, sparsely populated areas, islands, coastal areas, mountainous areas, outermost regions, cross-border regions, macro-regions, areas of demographic decline and areas in economic transformation and industrial transition” [23]. In Italy, where we find most of these typologies, the relationships between central urban areas and rural fringe areas have come back in the spotlight, due to the spread of the Covid19 pandemic. Many have highlighted the need for an integrated approach to spatial

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regeneration [24], which goes to bridge the huge gaps between large cities and small towns. The PNRR focuses on the urban and architectural regeneration of small historic centers/villages to counter the long-standing problems of ageing built and cultural heritage and over-urbanization of land. In fact, the pathological character of land consumption that has characterized Italy in the last 70 years, resulting from speculative policies and ineffective planning, has finally been affirmed, which, although still not exhausted in its incremental dynamics, has certainly been reduced in scope, but has left municipalities with a legacy of difficulties and problems that have decisively disproved the general belief of the 1980s–90s, that less land control corresponded to an advantage for citizens and businesses [25–27]. The PNRR is then complemented by funding from the new Cohesion Policy 2021– 2027 [28], so, this historic moment, is shaping up to be the one in which key actions can be put in place for the improvement of the situation in which the villages pour out. Certainly, such programs, aimed at post-pandemic recovery and achieving firm territorial cohesion, represent an opportunity that cannot be missed this time. Especially for small municipalities in inner areas, interventions will have to be highly qualifying, suitable for generating a recovery of role, sensible improvements in the quality of life and environmental value, and a high impact on the identity reaffirmation of resident communities. There is a need to look at urban regeneration with a different gaze than the way the issue has been approached in previous decades: in the last thirty years, projects within historic villages have been characterized by the conservation and enhancement of the historical and natural resources of the territories, while reuse or rehabilitation interventions have now become repetitive and homogenized, in which the whole thing is often reduced to a mere issue of traditional materials (or considered as such) and forms: it is necessary to know how to find the right middle ground between past and present, not by chasing simplistic emulations of tradition, but by going more to interpret it in the light of the culture of the present [29]. There is also a need for “emotional reconstruction” [30] More than just physical regeneration/reconstruction…. There is a need for a regeneration that is not mimetic of pre-existences but produces spaces that “…. Generate emotion, memory and associations in those who observe them…” [30].

2 Study Area: The Villages of the Gran Sasso National Park The research study area is the one of the municipalities that fall within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. There are 41 municipalities analysed, belonging to the three provinces of L’Aquila, Teramo and Pescara (the territory analysed is therefore only that of Abruzzo region) (Fig. 1). The Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park is one of the three national parks in Abruzzo and is one of the largest protected nature reserves in Italy, undoubtedly also relevant at European level. The park covers an area of approximately 141 hectares on a predominantly mountainous terrain, comprising the Gran Sasso massif and the Monti della Laga chain, located just north of this along the same eastern ridge of the central Abruzzo Apennines.

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Fig. 1. Study area: the villages of the Gran Sasso National Park

The naturalistic aspects are not the only beauty of the park, which is characterised by the existence of a perfect combination of nature and urban settlements: truly striking natural environments such as peaks, lakes, and clear rivers. The numerous villages of medieval origin present architectural emergencies of notable historical, artistic, and cultural interest, and the Campo Imperatore ski facilities are an attractor of winter tourist flows, while the hiking trails attract enthusiasts in the milder seasons (the Sentiero Italia CAI is a famous hiking trail that crosses the whole of Italy from north to south and passes through the Gran Sasso National Park). The total population of the analysed municipalities is 9.78% of the regional population (based on ISTAT data), with a high presence of the elderly population, which amounts to more than 30% of the resident population. Moreover, this area has suffered a

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strong depopulation over the long term: between 1971 and 2011, the percentage change in the area’s resident population decreased by more than 40% (based on ISTAT data). In fact, this area has a natural vocation for tourism of a naturalistic, historical, cultural and agro-alimentary nature; however, there is a need to valorise both the ‘territorial capital’ (disused building, unmanaged cultural assets, uncultivated woods and fields, etc.) and the ‘human capital’, which undoubtedly creates a basis not only for implementing the existing tourist offer, but above all for attracting new residents (or returning residents) to the Park’s villages. The territorial structure of the park, is largely similar to that of other Mediterranean areas, characterized by small villages/settlements, numbering from a few thousand to a few hundred inhabitants. In such a system, with low population density and without significant social and economic dynamics, the network of villages, characterized by architectural and cultural peculiarities, represents an extraordinarily rich identity of the inhabitants and a testimony to the relationship between man and the environment and how it has inevitably changed over time. The value of most of these villages is far from monumental; their historicalarchitectural-cultural value lies rather in the totality of the whole settlement and in the urban layout, which proves to be valuable because they are almost always foundation villages. Instead, the quality of construction appears to be present only rarely, and not even of a high standard. The villages in the park, show numerous differences in the typology and in the state of conservation. Alongside centers dating back to the 12th century, in which the original urban layout and building structures, such as Santo Stefano di Sessanio, are still perfectly legible today (Fig. 2), there are small villages completely distorted in their architectural and urban structure, by renovations and expansions devoid of quality, such as Collebrincioni (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2. The village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio

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Fig. 3. The village of Collebrincioni

Abandoned historic villages, in the absence of strong transformative drives or economic-political interests of various kinds, have remained intact, hardly ever having undergone interventions to disrupt the urban fabric (such as Santo Stefano di Sessanio, in Fig. 2). In contrast, the centers closest to the hubs of attraction, which have become highly residential and subjected to ordinary urban pressure (i.e. urban pressure as expressed by ordinary town planning instruments and real estate market trends), are now comparable to urban suburbs (such as Isola del Gran Sasso, in Fig. 3). Interventions, both on the built and on the urban plot, having had on their side urban planning instruments, that proposed (and propose) new urban growth areas, have been carried out in total neglect of the pre-existing historical urban structure (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. The village of Isola del Gran Sasso

Alternate and different historical events have characterized the various centers of the Park, and it is worth noting some singularities: although most of them are subjugated to a phenomenon of progressive and mostly unstoppable depopulation, the population has recovered over the years in the centers close to the arterial roads and toll booths.

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A number of centers on the Teramo side of the Park belong to this category, including Isola del Gran Sasso and Castelli (the latter is a site that has international relevance for its famous ceramics: these are important endogenous resources, which make this village escape the dynamics typical of other villages). The settlement of L’Aquila side is more dispersed because it is characterized by an economy more linked to semi-permanent agro-sylvo-pastoral activities, such as pastoralism (this is also the reason why the forest is not present here: the trees have been cut down and used for energy reasons, and at the same time the fields have been cleared for pastures). In most villages, the settlement is structured around a building complex or a building, with a role as a historical fulcrum (with original functions mainly military or religious, but not always). Relationships with such context-structuring factors constitute the identity and specific characterization of each settlement, distinguishing it from other neighbors, which have similar settlement models and building characters, but differ in their individual peculiarities. Next to the structuring factors, there are also some invariant elements that remain constant over the centuries, which resist to stratification and/or replacement, and thus represent the identity of places. It is necessary to find these invariants and adapt them to temporary situations and conditions, and it is on this wealth of specificity that a successful urban regeneration process must be based. To best explain what is meant by pressure invariants, I quote Bonesio here: “The signatures of the past thus contribute to the physiognomy of a place or a region, from the way the territories of habitation and cultivation are differentiated from wild and forested ones to the types of agricultural crops, to the road layouts, to the methods of construction, to what we call “monuments” and the oldest architectural and topographical traces. It is a complex and sensible palimpsest of actions, memories, identities: it is a kind of diagram of the meaning that a community or culture has recognized in its living, handing it down in the visible configuration of its landscape, making visible to posterity the love and identification with its land through the care lent to it over the centuries.” [31]. Still Bonesio adds: “It is this that allows us to ‘feel at home,’ to recognize ourselves in belonging to a well-defined horizon, which is never just the aesthetic and momentary compensation of a tourist enjoyment, but, precisely, to feel part of that culture and those traditions that have informed the places of themselves, receiving in return possibilities and symbolic richness” [31].

3 Methodology To achieve the main aim of the research, it is therefore necessary to develop an innovative quantitative and qualitative methodological approach, to classify the areas under analysis based on architectural, urban, socio-economic, and landscape features. At the analytical-quantitative level, a compilation of the state of the art on issues concerning planning and design is carried out, including a review of the scientific literature [32–37] and the existing cartographic heritage through site surveys, identification of study perimeters and confrontation with the current regulatory framework. Alongside

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these, qualitative reflections are carried out, concerning the relationship between the quality of the built environment and aspects such as, for example, landscape quality, dependence on the city, the quality of territorial matrix, the historical semiotic value..; criticalities, such as declining demographic trends, the abandonment of residential, productive, and service spaces, etc.; potentials, such as slow tourism, the presence of local excellence, ecosystem services, equipment and infrastructure, possible partnerships between public and private entities and community associations in the area, the sense of social identity, etc. Urban regeneration is in fact a complex process in which there are several actors: from public entities, to planners, to stakeholders, to citizens, and the need for the coparticipation of all parties is now well established for the success of the process [38, 39]. To this end, interviews will be conducted with various actors involved in one of the most successful urban regeneration interventions in recent years: the village of Civitella Alfedena (Fig. 5). it was one of the most successful interventions because in this village, the architect Carmelo Bordone initiated a kind of urban regeneration masterplan in the last century, i.e. he started to realise some exquisite interventions and, subsequently, by emulation, the inhabitants of the village started to realise interventions according to his criteria; this led to a revitalisation of the village and an economic-social return. Nature, the historic centre, and the population are optimally integrated here.

Fig. 5. The village of Civitella Alfedena

From the inspections and surveys that will be carried out in the main centers of the Park’s municipalities, a condition descriptor will be derived, that can be traced back to the analyses of their architectural and urban matrices. This descriptor can be associated with the newly minted indicator that expresses, in a synthetic and expeditious form, the “State of Residential Conservation of Historical Architectural Features of High Textural Value”, formulated as “Qualitative Recoverability Credential” (QRC). In Fig. 6 is summarized by what evaluative parameters the indicator will be composed of. This is to set up a typical “closed-scale comparative” classification, easily transposable into a synthetic descriptor (1 very low, 2 low, 3 medium, 4 high, 5 very high). Thus, for each survey item (historic village), a maximum of 25 points can be scored for the

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condition of the urban layout, 25 points for the condition of the proximity spatial matrix, and 25 points for the social and economic condition, for a total max of 75 points (so you can have 15 < = QRC < = 75).

Fig. 6. The new indicator: “Qualitative Recoverability Credential” QRC

Based on the scoring, justified by the explanatory notes present for each point, the clustering process will take place, whereby a grid of the scale of values that can be assumed by the classification should be constructed. Still downstream from this, a final synthetic descriptor will be set up and the clustering of centers belonging to similar value classes will be handled (the distribution of final values will have to be checked, to choose whether to use quantiles or whether a Jenks classification may also be more appropriate). Here it is reported, as an example, one of the condition descriptors being perfected (dropped in this case on the village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio): Urban layout of medieval origin almost completely preserved and legible, with buildings in the central core for the most part still intact in their original structures or, in cases of intervention, well renovated and restored with compliance to finalized rule sets, particularly regarding the enhancement of valuable architectural details and building apparatuses in the complex. To this day, a sampling study and fine-tuning of the descriptive/analytical register is being carried out with the centers of greater proximity to the urban center of L’Aquila by experimenting with a mixed reconnaissance method using Google Earth/View Street

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and then physical verification survey. This should make it possible to set up a file-type to be then extended to the other villages according to the said protocol. The exploration of these data, together with the theoretical input section, will lead to the drafting of a geographic mapping, that shows the spatial distribution of the various degrees of quality and possible grouping categories (clusters), within which to be able to embed groups of villages with similar characters and problems, as well as by common dynamics of transformation. The research will then continue with the identification of guidelines for the drafting of a normative building architecture, with trajectories of actions and design projects interventions, customizing according to the characteristic peculiarities for individual villages/municipalities.

4 Conclusions The design work that will be carried out in such neglected inner areas will have to be attractive and compatible, building on the best practices of urban regeneration and reactivation of places, with the awareness that such a constructed historical palimpsest requires careful and measured interventions [40–42]. The focus should not be on the individual object, but on the whole, and the role that the individual element plays within the whole and its ability to redevelop void spaces and/or full spaces that have undergone low quality and inappropriate maintenance interventions. Also necessary will be the development of social policies of territorial cohesion that go, at least, to stem the depopulation taking place in the inner and marginal areas of the country, while also fostering cooperation and collaboration among villages that have common (or, on the contrary, complementary) characteristics [43, 44]. Finally, it is necessary to build images of the future of the different municipalities and surrounding territories: regenerating these places that are in a state of abandonment, or even in the process of increasing fragilization, means rethinking and reimagining them even profoundly, being places characterized by a style marked mostly by self-referential or spontaneous actions, except for sporadic interventions due to cultural sensitivity of the owners. In fact, the evidence from the case studies mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, the analysis of the data and the indicators and descriptors derived from them, allow us to make other considerations. Based on the scores obtained by the individual villages, we can identify those in which, with the least economic and technical effort, it is possible to implement quality urban and architectural regeneration of spaces that can help halt depopulation and try to reverse the current trend. These villages should be seen as terrain for overcoming the urban, economic and social challenges of the coming years [45]: to elaborate a methodology that has the strength to change the paradigm of mountains and inner areas as places to be preserved and enhanced, and that has as its center the nature and specificity of the territories, “its being inescapable intertwining,” to quote Rossi-Doria, “of bone and pulp”, to give new life to these complex and very diverse historic centers [46].

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Using Decision Aiding Software for a Project-Oriented Planning: The Urban Agenda for Sustainable Development of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari Tanja Congiu1(B) , Paolo Mereu2 , and Alessandro Plaisant1 1 Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

[email protected] 2 Città Metropolitana Di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Abstract. Metropolitan Cities, already engaged in the definition, updating and implementation of their governance tools, such as Strategic Plans, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, etc., have the task to define the Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development in accordance with the SDGs. Starting from the construction of a shared reference framework on sustainability initiatives and strategies at different levels, the policymaking process for the Agenda of the Metropolitan city of Cagliari identifies nine fields of action (FoA) to summarize the contents and objectives of the sustainability strategies in interrelated thematic areas. The FoA prompt the debate with the local governments and their technostructures starting from the projects ongoing and in planning. The outcome of 5 meetings with the 17 municipalities around the FoA represents the metropolitan framework in relation to problems, opportunities, plans, projects and places. A decision support tool based on cognitive mapping technique together with specific criteria for the selection and analysis of the projects allows to identify several clusters, as embryonic forms of integrated projects for sustainable development. This paper presents preliminary outputs of the two groupings emerged during the discussion of the technostructures of the Metropolitan city of Cagliari which inform the formulation of integrated projects and reveal critical factors for their implementation. Keywords: SDGs · Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development · integrated projects · decision support tools · smart and sustainable mobility

1 Introduction Today the ways in which development planning is tackled are an important aspect to reflect on, to manage a sustainable urban growth scenario. The European impulses to counter the effects of climate change, with the commitment of the Member States, and the recent Local Authorities reforms have paved the way for the definition of flexible tools to foster a multi-level governance. In 2019, the MAATM (today the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security – MASE, Italy) has undertaken a process of collaboration and support to the 14 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 302–313, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_27

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Italian Metropolitan Cities to define consistent strategic tools for the achievement and implementation of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at an urban and metropolitan level and to set the interventions in a multi-level government context. This process, known as Metropolitan Urban Agenda, responds to the need to contextualize the otherwise too general SDGs by use of integrated cross-sectoral policies. It is part of the broader process of implementation of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (SNSvS), approved by the CIPE (Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development) in 2017. At the European level, numerous initiatives lead to define a common Urban Agenda, from the Amsterdam pact to the renewed Leipzig Charter, aimed at building a multilevel governance useful for involving cities in EU policies. The metropolitan size represents the optimal dimension for experimenting with integrated and multilevel interventions toward sustainability. According to the renewed Leipzig Charter, metropolitan cities are suitable and appropriate functional urban areas for the implementation of an integrated land use approach, strengthening the links between urban and rural areas to achieve a balanced territorial development [1, 2]. In line with these premises, this paper proposes a participatory method to reveal the interdependencies between context-specific proposal of interventions and to inform the formulation of integrated urban project of sustainability. In particular: Sect. 2 describes the policymaking process for the urban Agenda of the Metropolitan city of Cagliari, Sect. 3 details the use of cognitive mapping method and tools for the formulation of integrated projects of sustainability and Sect. 4 takes one of them as an example that shows how integrated projects can lay the foundation of a new model of urban and territorial organisation inspired by the principles of sustainable development.

2 The Policymaking Process for the Agenda of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari The Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development is intended as a device for the orientation and integration of planning and programming tools towards SDGs: this device is functional to strengthen and qualify the attention towards sustainable development within the Metropolitan Strategic Plans, with a view to full integration of all the dimensions of sustainability in the metropolitan planning, programming and management tools [3]. Thus, metropolitan planning requires the involvement of a multiplicity of actors and stakeholders with diverse skills and responsibilities which currently are often fragmented. In this perspective, the path started by the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (MCC) is a continuous process of contextualization of the SDGs at local level. The Agenda suggests a modus operandi for the implementation of a sustainable oriented model of urban growth for the metropolitan area: the “sustainable metropolitan infrastructure”, as a new urban and territorial organization inspired by the principles of sustainability. More specifically, the Agenda translates the SDGs and principles into shared guidelines for urban planning intended as operational and procedural indications and good practices. It also provides the methodological elements for identifying and promoting integrated

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projects for sustainability with which to stimulate dialogue among stakeholders and mutual commitments and agreements.

Fig. 1. The policymaking process

The integrated projects for sustainability gather interventions with evident interdependencies to strengthen the synergistic and multiplier effects of individual projects in the metropolitan government framework. They allow to act in a complementary way on multiple dimensions of urban and territorial organization and on multiple spatial scales with the aim of implementing the SDGs referred to the MCC. In this sense, the key features of the sustainable metropolitan infrastructure are: • Multi-scalarity: aims to compare and to match urban projects and programs at different scales through coherence requirements and sustainability objectives; • Multi-sectoral perspective aims to relate policies of different sectors (environmental, economic, socio-cultural) and actors and stakeholders involved in territorial governance at all levels, starting from the metropolitan priorities • Multi-dimensionality: aims to connect the actions that affect the multiple organizational dimensions of the city (green, blue and grey components, tangible and intangible services, activities, behaviours, etc.) to trigger processes of sustainable territorial development. According to this perspective the policymaking process was structured into three interconnected steps (Fig. 1):

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• The activation of the metropolitan Governance framework; • The construction of a shared reference framework for knowledge management (Cognitive framework); • The construction of an operational device (Operational framework) that guides metropolitan planning with the aim to identify and promote integrated interventions for sustainability and to agree reciprocal commitments and obligations for their implementation in the form of agreements. After the institution of the Authority Board Committee (A), that gather the delegates of the MCC sectors and fosters the dialogue with other metropolitan cities and with the local municipalities, the first step aims at the construction of the background knowledge from the superordinate sustainability tools and strategies (B). For our purposes, we compared extra-territorial and territorial strategies for sustainable development, such as the UN 2030 Agenda, the National and Sardinian Regional Strategies of Sustainable Development (SNSvS and SRSvS), and the strategic planning tools of the MCC, such as the Strategic Plan and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). To broaden the spectrum of principles and emerging perspectives on sustainability, the Bologna Charter for the environment: metropolitan cities for sustainable development 1 , the Urban Agenda for EU 2 , and other successful experiences, such as the sustainable development model of Urbanismo Ecosistémico [4–6], have been examined. The contents of the cognitive framework, i.e. the set of themes, objectives and related operational guidelines, emerging from extra-territorial and territorial sustainability strategies, have merged into nine ‘fields of action’ (FoA) with the related relevant aspects, to be understood as thematic in-depth areas of supra-municipal and metropolitan interest. For our purposes, the communication and involvement processes of the technostructures and institutions have been launched around the FoA and the related relevant aspects. Hence, nine thematic in-depth areas are identified to focus on future territorial and urban transformations: ‘sustainable soil use’; ‘quality of public space and services’; ‘sustainable mobility’; ‘circular economy’; ‘urban metabolism and energy transition’; ‘green spaces and biodiversity’; ‘equity and social cohesion’; ‘adaptation to climate change’; ‘organizational process innovations’. Note that ‘sustainable mobility’ is intended as transversal to all the FoA since it promotes multiple interconnections between the proximity systems of the metropolitan area [7–10] by: expanding the transport alternatives, reducing the impacts and improving the quality of trips through interventions on spaces and services for mobility, enhancing the accessibility to urban opportunities and increasing conditions of greater equity. These objectives recur in all FoA and lead the regeneration of all local contexts of MCC.

3 The MCC Sustainability-Oriented Urban Planning The participatory process involved local institutions and technostructures, stakeholders, citizens. The activation and dialogue activities were carried out with the representatives of the 17 Municipalities of the MCC. Each Municipality identified the meeting participants 1 https://www.cittametropolitana.bo.it/portale/Engine/RAServeFile.php/f/comunicati_stampa/

carta_di_bologna_per_l_ambiente.pdf 2 https://www.urbanagenda.urban-initiative.eu/

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for each FoA discussion, selecting the most qualified (technical/political) representative in relation to the local urban planning strategies. 8 meetings (5 workshops) took place, 9 thematic areas were analysed in-depth resulting in almost 130 projects collected. Operationally, through comparison criteria and a decision aiding software, the authors carried out an overall reading of the metropolitan sustainability-oriented urban planning. This activity flowed into the identification and representation of some groupings of urban planning actions and projects which were discussed by the Authority Board Committee. Hence, the groupings of the connected projects are the germs of the integrated projects for sustainability and act as inputs for further exploration through an interaction between experts and stakeholders. For our purpose, the authors have tested cognitive maps technique [11, 12] through a cognitive mapping software to represent goals, actions, problems, key concepts, options and, finally, to structure the projects groupings. Banxia Decision Explorer™3 allows the development of a model (Fig. 2) by highlighting “values, beliefs, and assumptions an individual has about a particular issue” [13], and so it captures not only knowledge about the background context but also the possible relationships between the concepts and the underlying motivations. More specifically, a cognitive map is made up by nodes representing constructs – options, facts, goals and so forth, which are also linked to each other by arrows, to form action-oriented chains of argument. Such maps are often structured in a way that identifies values, aspirations, aims and goals at the top, and more detailed options and actions for achieving those goals at the bottom. Furthermore, links are inserted between constructs to indicate that one construct ‘causes’ or ‘may lead to’ another one. Note that a chain of argument starts with a ‘tail’ concept and ends with a ‘head’ concept. ‘Tail’ concepts represent triggering events or initial causes or drivers of change, such as action possibilities that could lead to desirable outcomes, while ‘head’ concepts represent end states or aspirations. Different styles of font, font size and colour are used to display different kind of constructs, such as goals, strategies/issues, options/assertions, actions and analyses results. Facilitators prompted participants to list the local projects attaining sustainable goals related to FoA in argument and to discuss some of the cause-effect connections between them. This involved asking participants questions like ‘how?’ and ‘why?’, both to elicit the issues and to draw the network of interdependences among them. Asking such questions is named ‘process of laddering’ [13]. For example, with reference to the thematic area ‘18.’ Connecting green spaces and parks of the MCC. The interconnected metropolitan park, the ‘26.’ Cycle-pedestrian paths along the waterways makes it possible the ‘7.’ Connection of the linear parks along the urban rivers and ‘6.’ The environmental corridor of the green and blue infrastructure among the municipalities. Afterwards, the authors tidied up the maps and built up the model’s hierarchy, by identifying and discussing what concepts seem to be actions (blue), objectives (red), what seem to be key issues (yellow), and what appear to be the agreed actions and objectives (square). 3 Banxia Decision Explorer Software Decision Explorer (1990), 3.3.0 academic v., Banxia

Software ltd., Kendal, UK (web site: < http://www.banxia.com >).

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Fig. 2. The cognitive map of the projects of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari

Decision Explorer™ software allows to perform several analyses for highlighting key issues in the model, by using for example cluster analysis, domain analysis and centrality analysis4 [14–16]. Yet, the analysis of the clusters allows us to define the areas of interest or thematic areas that emerge from the model (Fig. 3). It is worth noting that sustainable mobility comes out as highly relevant topic on a supra-local scale, despite participants often considered it in a very local perspective. This result suggests that almost all the proposed projects require to be reconsidered at the metropolitan scale and it also highlights the necessity of coordination between local levels. Sustainable Mobility projects relating to ‘25.’ Alternative modes of travel/ provision of diverse sustainable mobility services are transversal to and show multiple links and interdependencies among the main thematic areas: ‘15.’ Environmental redevelopment of the metropolitan coastal system and ‘18.’ Connecting green spaces and parks of the MCC. The interconnected metropolitan park. Moreover, in the systematization phase, the following criteria guided the groupings of actions/projects: • Generative / structural character: capacity to trigger other projects in the same and/or other FoA; • Interdependence with other projects and/or FoA: capacity to establish relationships with other sectors and to produce synergistic and multiplier effects of individual initiatives; • Relevance on the metropolitan scale: importance and potential of the project in producing changes on the whole metropolitan region; • Aggregating potential, in terms of social and institutional energies: capacity to build ties, aggregations and commitments between stakeholders for tackling relevant issues 4 The latter, on the one hand, gives an indication of the importance of some fundamental themes

within the model and, on the other hand, highlights the necessity of further tests on less represented constructs. Domain analysis gives an indication on the complexity of each elementary point of view in the whole model, by calculating density of links. By contrast, centrality analysis allows to explore the complexity of each theme in the whole model, by calculating how many links it forms with other issues in more than one level from the centre. The higher the score in both analyses the more significance the issue has into the model.

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Fig. 3. One of the clusters emerging from the analyses of the model

(e.g. water, waste, energy, transport, etc.) taking advantage of local conditions and ability of the project to bring out actors who could act autonomously and make an important contribution to the activation of the project; • Recurring nature: occurrence in various territories of the MCC and capacity to respond to common problems; • Replicability: capacity to be repeated in several territories of MCC without major modifications. The following groupings of interventions (oval and back colour) are confirmed as embryonic forms of integrated projects for sustainability, organized into thematic areas (rectangle and back colour), which can be further explained through some key objectives (rectangle) (Fig. 4). On the one hand, the thematic areas allow to contextualize the sustainability goals, by spatializing them; on the other hand, they are the inputs for discussion and further exploration. The interaction among MCC sector delegates, experts and stakeholders aims to precisely define the integrated projects for sustainability and the MCC functional areas for their implementation. In order to reveal the possible interdependencies among constituent projects, the delegates of the Authority Board Committee were invited to analyse and discuss their ordinary way of working and related problems, both from the point of view of employed procedures, methods, expertise, specialist knowledge, experiences and good practices developed.

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Fig. 4. The cognitive map showing two interrelated integrated projects “The urban and environmental redevelopment of the metropolitan coastal system” and “Project of connections between green spaces and parks of the MCC. The interconnected metropolitan park” (coloured)

In this perspective, the five identified integrated projects for sustainability aim at stimulating collaborative action between the sectors of the MCC and the MCC and the Municipalities with the purpose of building consensus on sustainability goals and on operational ways to achieve them. In such a way they promote the definition of agreements among stakeholders based on the example of the River Contracts, Program Agreements (see Artt. 68 bis e 205 D. Lgs. 152/2006 and a&a). In addition to the promotion of vertical and horizontal agreements within the MCC organisation and with local stakeholders, the last step focuses the attention on each integrated project in order to define ‘project attentions’ that is shared guidelines for urban planning and implementation tools. The articulation of the integrated projects (Fig. 5) reveals the will of MCC to foster transversal relationships among FoA and the corresponding advantages for the achievement of sustainable goals (from environmental redevelopment to the regeneration of urban spaces and facilities; from the improvement of accessibility and usability of places to collaboration forms for the management of resources and services, etc.). Further interdependencies and opportunities can be traced by comparing them with other projects and initiatives in the metropolitan area. All in all, the integrated projects for sustainability resulting from the Agenda’s participatory process are to be intended as ‘catalyst’ elements for actors agreements [9, 17] around specific FoA.

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Fig. 5. The framework of an integrated project structure and an example of context-oriented guidelines below

4 The Project of the Connectors of the Metropolitan Sustainable Infrastructure The integrated Project of connections between green spaces and parks of the MCC is offered as representative in laying the foundations of the new model of urban organisation for the MCC: the metropolitan sustainable infrastructure (see Sect. 2). Connections, understood both in ecological and spatial sense, and in cooperative sense, represent a catalyst towards sustainability and an ordering element for the metropolitan organisation. In its environmental and physical dimension, this project recognises the spatial device of green and blue infrastructures as the connectivity “framework” [18] of an original urban and territorial network: it incorporates and combines the ecological components with those at support of urban life (activities and services, transportation, open and builtup areas, etc.) with the aim to complement the organisation of basic universal services and to improve their quality and synergies. The integrated Project 5 puts these assumptions into practice by proposing a spreading system of green and blue corridors which connects, maintains, and improves the multifunctionality of ecosystem services [19] of the metropolitan area and enhances their accessibility. The project provides physical and functional conditions for the incorporation of nature in the city and its coexistence with urban flows and services. In the case of mobility projects, the improvement of physical networks and services in favour of alternative sustainable modes (adjustment of walking and cycling paths, more efficient collective transports, integrated management of mobility services) is preferred and combined with nature-based solutions (urban 5 The integrated project confirms the systemic action of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan ‘Sus-

tainable ring’, launched by the Metropolitan City (‘interdependencies with MCC planning programs’) which envisages a sustainable belt made up of a network of open spaces with multiple values and functions (ecological, recreational, cultural) well connected with the urban fabric by a number of interventions on mobility system that act as catalyst actions.

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drainage systems to mitigate climate change, greenways and green roads) which provide multiple benefits to both humans and the environment [20]. With respect to the social dimension, the integrated project contributes to establish and strengthen the relationships between citizens and their living environment. The increasing connectivity and accessibility to urban ecosystems improves the quality of life of different groups of people (wider availability and easier reachability of urban opportunities, possibilities for social interaction, more autonomous usability of the city, healthier lifestyles). A pervasive contact with landscape elements increases the awareness of territorial identity and promotes more responsible behaviours and attitudes (shift to more sustainable mobility styles and practices of space). Connections also contributes to balance territorial inequalities: easier and greater equality in access urban opportunities between the coastal and peri-urban areas of the Metropolitan City and its related services. From the institutional point of view, the integrated project encourages and supports the establishment of agreements and collaboration among actors involved at different levels and with different competencies and responsibilities (institutions, stakeholders, associations and organisations, citizens) in the management of metropolitan processes (i.e. mobility, innovation of urban services). The adoption of a collaborative and integrated approach between urban planning agencies, public transport authorities and private operators of the mobility sector (taxi, rental and sharing services,…) represents one of the core actions of the recent SUMP of MCC6 . The integration and interaction between mobility services and actors is essential for an efficient functioning of urban settlement. Especially at metropolitan level the networking of essential services depends on high level of physical connections, integration and coordination of the existent services. According to these considerations, the integrated project of connections reveals and bears out the transversal and generative property of sustainable and smart mobility projects of relating the various dimensions of the metropolitan organisation. Actions act syncronically on different levels allowing the integration and consistency of planning and design instruments and awakening the responsibility of actors involved.

5 Conclusions To summarize, the case study of MCC Agenda showed how the development of integrated projects at the metropolitan scale allows to accomplish two practical purposes: • The contextualization of the general SDGs in relation to problems, opportunities, plans, projects and places at metropolitan level; • The translation of the interdependencies into interventions, involving tangible and intangible aspects. 6 The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan of the Metropolitan city of Cagliari recently approved

(spring 2023) encompasses a set of integrated land use and transportation policies aimed at increasing the accessibility and liveability of built environment while reducing car use and its negative impacts. Specific interventions referred to the thematic area Improvement of the accessibility and usability of the territory are: the integration and optimization of alternative modes of travel; the diversification of sustainable mobility services; the use of ICT based integrated management system of mobility

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More precisely, tangible aspects concern the transformation of spaces and structures, e.g. the improvement of physical connections between basic services and the design of new ones, etc.; intangible aspects include forms of collaboration for the management of resources and urban facilities and the provision of new services, e.g. new commitments and agreements among stakeholders, the constitution of groups of associations sharing spaces and cooperating on specific tasks; the enhancement of activities which contribute to dematerialize the economy, multiplying the number and diversity of legal entities with a high knowledge density [4], etc. Working on all these interlinked aspects corresponds to structure and qualify the constitutive dimensions of the metropolitan sustainable infrastructure a new model of urban organisation based on the paradigm of equitable accessibility and responsible connectivity.

References 1. Van Lierop, C.: The New Leipzig Charter (2020) 2. Espadas Cejas, J.: Il rinnovo della Carta di Lipsia sulle città europee sostenibili (2020/C 440/20), European Union (2020) 3. Pagano, G., Losco, S.: EU cohesion-policies and metropolitan areas. Procedia-Social Behav. Sci. 223, 422–428 (2016) 4. Rueda, S., de Càceres, R., Cuchì, A.L.B.: El urbanismo ecosistémico: Su aplicación en el diseño de un ecobarrio en Figueres (Ebook). Icaria Editorial, Barcelona (2018) 5. Rueda-Palenzuela, S.: El urbanismo ecosistémico. Estud. Territ. 51 (2019) 6. Rueda S.: Certificado del urbanismo ecosistémico (Ebook). Icaria Editorial, Vilassar de Dalt, Barcelona (2022) 7. Boschma, R.: Proximité et innovation. Économie Rural. 280, 8–24 (2004) 8. Boschma, R., Balland, P.A., de Vaan, M.: The formation of economic networks: a proximity approach. Reg. Dev. Prox. Relations 7, 243–266 (2014) 9. Manzini, E.: Abitare la prossimità: Idee per la città dei 15 minuti. EGEA spa (2021) 10. Rueda-Palenzuela, S.: La complejidad urbana y su relación con la morfología de los tejidos urbanos y la proximidad. Ciudad y Territ. Estud. Territ. 54, 227–250 (2022). https://doi.org/ 10.37230/CyTET.2022.M22.10 11. Kelly, G.: Personal construct theory. Beneath mask An Introd. to Theor. Personal (1955) 12. Kelly, G.: A brief introduction to personal construct theory. Perspect. Pers. Constr. theory. 1, 29 (1970) 13. Eden, C., Ackermann, F.: Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage (1998) 14. Wyatt, R., Plaisant, A., Smith, J.: Using decision-aiding software, and participatory workshops, for better strategic management of a public authority. In: AESOP 2004 Congress, AESOP (2004) 15. Plaisant, A., Verona, M.: Ideas for a better place: e-participation tools supporting decision making process at the local level. In: Planning Support Tools: Policy Analysis, Implementation and Evaluation, pp. 1571–1584. FrancoAngeli (2012) 16. Blecic, I., Cecchini, A., Plaisant, A.: Constructing strategies in strategic urban planning: A case study of a decision support and evaluation model. In: Murgante, B., Gervasi, O., Iglesias, A., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O. (eds.) ICCSA 2011. LNCS, vol. 6783, pp. 277–292. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21887-3_22 17. Latour, B.: Non siamo mai stati moderni. Saggio di antropologia simmetrica. Elèuthera, Milano (1995)

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18. Arcidiacono, A., Ronchi, S., Salata, S.: Un approccio ecosistemico al progetto delle infrastrutture verdi nella pianificazione urbanistica. Sperimentazioni in Lombardia| An Ecosystemic approach to Green Infrastructure design in Urban planning. Experiments from Lombardy, Italy. Urbanistica, vol. 159, 102–114 (2018) 19. Leemans, R., De Groot, R.S.: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment (2003) 20. Lipiec, E.: Nature-Based Infrastructure: NOAA’s Role. Congressional Research Service Report (2020)

Children-Oriented Urban Regeneration: An Inclusive Co-design Approach for the Italian Recovery Processes Ludovica Simionato1(B) , Aline Soares Cortes1 , Silvia Di Eusanio2 , and Michela Gessani3 1 School of Architecture and Design (SAAD), University of Camerino, Viale della

Rimembranza, snc, 63100 Ascoli Piceno, AP, Italy [email protected] 2 Economic and Social Sciences (ESS), University of Teramo, Via Renato Balzarini, 1, 64100 Teramo, TE, Italy 3 CoCreiamo APS, Via Giannina Milli, Teramo, TE, Italy

Abstract. Italy is a country highly vulnerable to natural disasters and their effects have been amplified by climate change. Moreover, its inner areas are undergoing a process of depopulation, population ageing and financial marginalisation. Post-emergency urban regeneration (fast-track project), however, has been done mainly from a financial perspective and in some cases seen as an opportunity to build back better, responding to the complex issues of ecological and digital transition. So, how can regeneration processes answer the complex questions of equity, collaboration, health and green spaces? The complexity of these processes can be approached by simplifying the target, narrowing it down to the most sensitive segment of the population in terms of perceptions, health, responsiveness and justice: children. Using child-oriented indicators then means promoting gender equality and creating more sustainable and inclusive regeneration projects. In this framework, individual citizens, associations and networks are more effective and ready to intervene and collaborate with administrations (open government) than national policies that struggle to translate general guidelines into place-based projects. Collaboration also means networking different competences involving several dimensions of citizens’ well-being. This work aims to orient existing methodologies for regeneration to the gaze of children, playing an active role in co-design processes, with a free, intuitive, inclusive vision and ensuring that the city is truly a right for all. The research is the result of inter-disciplinary work that seeks to promote an integrated vision of design through experimentation in four areas: urbanism and architecture, social science, inhabitable nature and health, and engaging graphics. Keywords: Child-oriented urban regeneration · Indicators · Interdisciplinarity · Risk · Place-based approach

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 314–325, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_28

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1 Vulnerability and Depopulation in the Inner Areas of the Central Apennines 1.1 A Complex Scenario The inner areas of Central Apennine are characterised by what the National Strategy for inner Areas (SNAI) has defined as inner areas, or geographic environments significantly distant from centres of essential service provision. The character of “service supply centre” is reserved for municipalities, or aggregations of neighbouring municipalities, that can simultaneously offer a number of services that identify citizenship: education (all secondary school offerings); health care (at least one hospital with an emergency department and acceptance of DEA level I); mobility (at least one Silver category railway station). According to Pierantoni and Sargolini [1], “investigating the origins of the term inner areas requires comparison with research strands that aim to define processes of marginalisation, isolation of territories, degradation of natural and cultural heritage, and local sustainable development.” The inner areas of Central Italy, although rich in environmental, cultural, historical and craft resources, are strongly diversified by nature and by centuries of anthropization processes. According to Pazzagli [2] “during the 20th century, with the emergence of the industrial model and the urban-centric society based on consumption, Italy slid downhill, inexorably descending towards the plains and the sea. After the middle of the century, the great exodus from the mountains began (…) Then, the phenomenon assumed even greater and more widespread proportions in the following decades, taking on the characteristics of the abandonment of significant parts of the Italian territory, predominantly mountainous and rugged, generating apparently opposite forms of hardship, but converging to cause a weakening of territorial consciousness: the depopulation of inner areas and the urban and social intensification of the cities and the coast”. Such phenomenon caused a geographical and economic marginalisation of the inner areas, generating an insidious rarefaction, the ageing of the population, the fragmentation of the settlement system, and an extension of the unused housing stock that lasts until today (with a worsening of the situation with each new disaster pressure). These same areas are characterised by intense and recurrent seismic activity and hydrogeological instability, and in the more remote and rural territories, vulnerability will be exacerbated by combined processes including high out-migration, reduced livability and high dependency on local and climate-sensitive livelihoods, lack of adequate infrastructure and services, weak economy and depressed labour market. The unpreparedness of communities and the ineffectiveness of local governments weaken the affected area, which often has fewer resources and access to funding, technology, and political influence, making recovery after the event difficult. In these areas, it is difficult to find actors and skills that are able to catalyse resources and projects and are therefore unable to adapt quickly to change processes [3]. Even before suffering the drastic effects of the seismic events of 2009, 2016, and 2017, Central Italy showed a worrying set of negative demographic and socioeconomic trends arising from its own structural and identity characteristics [4]. Although the regions show an average annual population growth rate, the regions impacted by the 2016 earthquake show a balance through a positive migration balance and a negative natural increase. Nevertheless, these values hide an imbalance between the continuous depopulation of the inland municipalities

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(with both values negative) and the demographic increase of those close to the coast [4]. Several factors have been identified by the literature as the cause of the downturn, and they are usually closely linked to spatial characteristics [5]. It is a well-known fact that our country has been showing clear signs of demographic and birth rate decline for several years. For some years now, every survey has marked a new record low in births since the unification of Italy. However, there are cases where these trends are to be reversed, through initiatives and policies aimed at repopulation and innovation. Unbalanced territorial development models compromise the economic system, limiting growth possibilities, worsening the quality of life and increasing exposure to natural hazards. Seismic events have demographic effects that can attenuate or amplify preexisting vulnerabilities, in addition to the unexpected increase in the number of deaths, the decrease in the number of births and the not always temporary relocation of habitual residence [4]. In this region, small and medium-sized cities play a determining role in structuring urban systems with influence on local communities and organisations. The overlapping of calamitous events (earthquakes, floods, crises, pandemics, wars) and the complexity of risk management - increasingly interconnected or cohesive with each other - indicate the need for interdisciplinary and participatory action plans that take into account the vulnerability of territories to the multiple risks to which they are exposed, but that also consider their potential, interpreting physical and social reconstruction as a development opportunity for inner areas and orienting towards ecological, economic and digital transition. The aim is to promote a regeneration that looks at the benefits that this transition could bring in terms of new population growth, creating a fertile ground for those who intend to arrive with new life projects, in line with the desired innovation of living. However, ensuring only community participation in decision-making does not define democratic urbanism and often neglects intergenerational equity. By giving more advantages to some than others, children are often excluded from decision-making processes. 1.2 Building Back Better To cope with such a complex picture a massive amount of funding is moving to promote urban regeneration that fosters more resilient communities. But, how can regeneration processes answer the complex questions of equity, collaboration, health and green spaces? Authors such as [6–8], among others, emphasise the importance of understanding resilience strategies not as a simple rebound to pre-event normality, nor aimed at privileging the status quo, rather as a balancing point to the capacity to adapt to change, which characterises phases of “creative destruction” [9]. This conception argues against the desirability of a return to equilibrium or increased capacity to cope with disruption and instead supports a new form and function better equipped to cope with shocks or stresses [10]. Indeed, in a scenario where climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of disasters every day, there is more talk of adaptability because mitigation is not always possible. The main aspect of adaptability is the reduction of vulnerability through information and preparedness. For this reason, the disaster cycle knows many variations of implementation, dependent on local contextual and cultural factors, and

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among them, the most current issue that is playing an increasingly relevant role is citizen participation. So, for the success of the objectives of Building Back Better [11], and the Next Generation EU, it is necessary to aim for new visions of the organisation of cities and the territory that are overall and holistic, preparatory to the punctual design translation of major strategic directions already shared, in which public communication has a strategic role in the enhancement of listening and community involvement. The guidelines defined by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015– 2030 recognize a primary role for states in facilitating the achievement of the goal of preventing the creation of new hazards and strengthening the resilience of communities, based on the community-based approach, which directly involves local communities in identifying and delineating responses and solutions to their needs, issues and concerns. In this regard, the concept of social capital becomes relevant [12]. Recent literature, in fact, notes that a society’s ability to respond to disaster depends both on the conditions in which local communities exist before the traumatic event occurs [13] and on the characteristics of the social fabric, which are a determining variable in the reconstruction path [14, 15]. In recent years, local initiatives, projects and policies explicitly aimed at the creation of processes of this kind have begun to spread and multiply, around the perspective of urban regeneration understood not only as the identification of new functions for available spaces, but also and above all for the triggering of actions that produce impacts (direct and/or indirect) on the territorial context, in terms of economic reactivation, social promotion, environmental enhancement, and cultural revitalization. Improving the accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability of cities and small towns requires significant investment, but also substantial changes in governance processes. Initiatives and opportunities in the field of urban regeneration, and the appropriation of approaches and methodologies in which public communication and urban policy design are integrated, define a possible operational path toward defining transformative community resilience, grounded in new all-of-society engagement networks, for post-earthquake redesign. Viewing disaster as an opportunity for digital and ecological transition requires the participation of ordinary citizens in decision-making and implementation of urban and social projects. Topics such as urban regeneration, environmental sustainability, community resilience, and citizen participation in design processes, especially in the aftermath of disaster and natural disaster situations, now stimulate different areas of public communication [16–18]. The hypothesis that we intend to support is that the emergency situation can be an opportunity to revitalise territories and question the forces and places that, as resources, can actively intervene according to the principles of Building Back Better. Disasters, in fact, intensify shared awarenesses about risks and development policies and often generate new collaborative networks that can activate economies and changes in the use of urban centres, working on the empowerment of local communities, which goes from reducing the distance between the most fragile and the least fragile [19]. In this sense, some categories are more clearly represented in recovery policies, and the processes activated often intercept a target audience that is not representative of the excluded condition of those who live in these places. Working tables at which only white, working adult men sit cannot be considered processes of equitable co-design.

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If regeneration must look to the future of these territories, the needs of the citizens to come must be taken into account, so that new families are attracted to places equipped to welcome children and educate them in a lifestyle of proximity.

2 Child Oriented Regeneration 2.1 Children as Part of the Open Government Policy Innovation is found in the combinatorial capacity that the concepts of vulnerability and resilience have to address new needs and demands. The importance of listening to communities is increasingly recognised in the development of participatory redesign of territories affected by natural disasters and co-design processes, through communication tactics and tools adopted in urban planning and regeneration processes. This involves bringing into play a new participatory role for the inhabitants of places, who must be placed in a position to make a proactive contribution to the overall design, rather than an assertive or disagreeing opinion, to be introduced only downstream of a completed decision-making process. In this scenario, the identification of a specific target can represent an opportunity to stimulate modes of collaborative governance and at the same time co-design urban space. One of the cardinal principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is Article 12, which enshrines the right of every child and adolescent to be heard. In 2009, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child dedicated a General Comment to this article, an in-depth document that outlines the meanings and implications of each passage of the article. There it specifies that “States Parties shall ensure that a child who is capable of discernment has the right freely to express his or her opinion on any matter concerning him or her, which shall be given due consideration, taking into account his or her age and degree of maturity” [20]. The necessity and effectiveness of having spaces designed for or directly with the most fragile citizens is widely recognised by trend-setting urban policies. The points of contact between the scenarios proposed by the strategies of the city of 15 min [21]; of children [22]; child-friendly [23]; of Care [24]; slow [25], to name a few, is symptomatic of a new and increasingly propulsive interest in the issues of inclusion, sustainability, collaboration and slow to “design for all ages and abilities” [26]. These strands follow founding documents such as the 2030 Agenda and now seem to overlap in meaning, although they arise from seemingly different needs and critical issues. 2.2 Children’s City It is generally considered that children are well protected, and represented, by people who know how to respond to children’s needs (parents, teachers, carers, social service workers in cases of overt distress, public administrators for general issues). This would also apply to decisions concerning the urban environment. This is definitely not the case. The world of children does not fit into our ways of seeing the city, the territory, the landscape; designing with children means continually discovering non-canonical interpretations of physical space, places and their meanings. Children are unrepresentable; and through the usual modes of political delegation they remain unrepresented. Thus, conflict is still

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relevant as a traditional way of involving weak, marginal actors. From this point of view, children are assimilable, albeit with peculiar modalities, to other categories traditionally considered weak: the elderly, the sick, the handicapped, foreigners, nomads, women, the poor and antagonistic cultures that continue to have no hope of direct access through the traditional channels of representation [27]. Children and young people suffer most perniciously from the inequality of urban centres: the greater supply of services, the presence of better performing social networks, to greater ease of movement [28]. Over the years, the social construction of childhood has changed positively: boys and girls demand - and in many cases succeed in obtaining - to be considered as an autonomous, competent subject, as an active and influential component of the new forms of citizenship. Various experiences show the opportunity to make these two lines of innovation converge. The participation of children in urban design processes is a positive bet for the processes of defining urban development in a strongly qualitative sense. Indeed, the involvement of children adds to the multiplicity of interests and points of view a specific vision of the world and of things. Their gaze on the city is corporeal, linked to places, concrete; it is naturally ecological, oriented towards environmental well-being; it is relatively free of prejudices, mediocre interests, economic and profit expectations; finally, it is an imaginative, desiring gaze, open to the future, to experimentation, to innovation. It is possible to say that a participatory design workshop without the decisive contribution of children is a workshop that is defective at root, monolithic, incomplete, less rich in energy and hope [29].

3 An Interdisciplinary Approach The regeneration that is desired for these fragile, complex and diverse territories, as Appenine central areas can be described, must have a transdisciplinary approach that looks at the characters and makes them the driving force behind a child-friendly recovery. Children thus become measures, not passive subjects, and allow the creation of transdisciplinary indicators that take into account space as a tool for growth (Table 1). Table 1. Children-oriented indicators. Fields

Indicators

Source for data

Urbanism

Endowment of public services

Census

Walkability

Gis survey

Ratio between open space and roads

Gis survey

Reuse of space

According to the project

Flexibility of use

According to the project

Degree of intervenability by users

According to the project

Endowment of schools and kindergartens

Census (continued)

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Fields

Indicators

Source for data

Social science

Presence of all age groups at the collaborative process

Social surveys (typically questionnaires) Interviews Participant observation

Location of common, public and open spaces for aggregation

Participant observation

Active vitality of spaces (presences and phenomena of reappropriation)

Structured or formal interviews Semi-Structured interviews

Passive vitality of spaces (events)

Unstructured or Informal interviews

Evaluation of the participation process defined through Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Focus group Interviews

Community engagement and satisfaction defined through Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE)

Ethnographies and case studies

Land consumption

Gis survey

Ratio of permeable to impermeable surface area

Gis survey

Nature and heath

Graphics

Increased tree stock

According to the project

Presence of green schoolyards

Gis survey

Proximity of pedestrian paths for home-school routes

Survey

Reflecting the identity of the place

According to the project

Reflecting the principles of inclusion and sustainability

According to the project

Agreed with the community

According to the project

Both online and offline

According to the project

Participation at the disseminated meetings

Survey

Urbanism fits into this framework as a practice that helps children interact with space, makes them autonomous and helps them perceive the city as educating. To be considered as such, the planner must listen to the different needs and fragilities of this type of user, necessarily avoiding a spectacular project, but rather one that is a theatre of relationships and experimentation.

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It therefore opens up to a (new) season of urban planning, which seeks harmony and is not rational, signs on a map that define master plans, obligations and limits; but which are integrated with a vision of care: intuitive, relational, loving. The project therefore seeks to address experimentation for a future that is in the visions of the youngest, reversing the arrogant anticipation of what is yet to come. In the traditional regeneration project we approach it with a methodology that aims to solve a more or less tangible problem and often results in its displacement to other areas of the city, generating gentrification and marginalisation. The projects show the vulnerability of each planned open space because they are intervenable, modifiable and at the service of people [30]. By rejecting given and fixed forms, children can interpret space, promoting practices of re-appropriation, stimulating creativity, problem solving processes and vitality. Starting with the most activating services (school, library, markets, etc.), the urban planner must succeed in intercepting forms and energies to favour the development of flows and uses, opening up schools, libraries, markets, etc., and the force they can deploy. The indicators identified are inspired by the theories of proximity urbanism, walkability, the educating and equitable city. The sole purpose of the indicator, however, is to ensure a fair endowment that focuses on the usability, attractiveness and accessibility of the most vulnerable, which the city must take care of and which those citizens can also take care of. In this sense, the reference is to the city of care, where one is encouraged to co-construct, generating new uses and not forced into an imposed function, including and innovating, not dividing or separating. Endorsing the care system as a knowledge based on complexity, flexibility, management of the unexpected, sense of responsibility, the project culture must thus aim to be generative of the space for the possible [24]. The project relies on an essential aspect in this care perspective: the social sciences. In their various fields, the social sciences approach political issues, child-oriented urban regeneration, indicators, interdisciplinarity, open government, and a place-based approach. They maintain a strongly interdisciplinary and inclusive approach, combining concepts and methods inspired by different domains of expertise. They utilise empirical data collected through observation, interviews, surveys, and other techniques to understand human behaviour and social interactions in urban space. Through the social sciences, a critical perspective can be adopt and we can observe how the gap between public space and society narrows when we consider placing people at the centre of the design of the places they will eventually utilise. The critical perspective of the social sciences allows us to examine social inequalities, violence, injustice, and forms of oppression present in society and urban space. For example, Harvey [31] highlights how spatial inequalities are closely linked to social and economic inequalities, with marginalised groups being excluded from certain spaces or facing discrimination based on their social belonging. One of the emerging approaches in the social sciences is placing people at the centre of urban space design. This approach, known as “participatory urbanism” or “inclusive urbanism,” is supported by authors such as Gaventa and Cornwall [32], who emphasise the importance of actively involving people in the planning and design of spaces that impact their lives. This results in a closer connection between public space and society, with greater attention to the needs and perspectives of the individuals who will make use of those places.

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In his book Evaluate the Architecture, Sociological Research and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), Paolo Costa [33] emphasises the significance of utilising methodologies that facilitate the development of social indicators in order to comprehend the impact of our projects. Through POE, a comprehensive understanding of people’s experiences after occupying the urban spaces can reach, going deep through a design, allowing to evaluate the effectiveness of a solution and identify areas that need improvement. Another usefull methodology is participatory action research (PAR). By actively involving the community, including children, in the evaluation process, the goal is to unveil latent urban potentials that may not be easily identified. Children’s perspectives, as pointed out by Ciocoletto and Collectiu Punt 6 [34], assume a central role in bringing to light particular insights and illuminating aspects that might otherwise go unnoticed. Through PAR, an inclusive and collaborative approach can be facilitated, in which community members, including children, become active participants in the research and evaluation of urban spaces. Their unique perspectives, experiences, and observations provide valuable input to the evaluation process. By involving children, we recognize their ability to offer new perspectives and highlight aspects of the urban environment that adults might overlook. Health has recently been described as “one of the most effective indicators of a city’s sustainable development” [35], this is why we have described the relationship between nature and health in built-up territories as a third area. Urban regeneration is the imagination of alternative forms of the city environment, where abandoned spaces have the potential to be brought back to life and returned to the community (men, women, children, the elderly, fauna and flora). In this frame, nature is an index of well-being: cardiovascular, immune, hormonal. The interaction of the senses in a natural environment promotes psychophysical well-being and the reduction of stress, with all its attendant pathologies. It is essential to consider the city environment a healthy and changing environment according to the needs of its inhabitants, of all ages and possibilities. Simply living in proximity to sounds, smells, colours and natural materials contributes to a better state of health, with benefits found especially in the training (children) and recovery (hospitalised) phases [33]. The urban regeneration project that takes these concepts into account makes room for Nature. The city listens and allows itself to be inhabited because it is green and liveable. Urban and natural space together take care of the individual without exclusion, promoting a free and accessible healthy lifestyle. Designing healthy places because they have a strong relationship with the landscape and natural elements, regardless of the marginality of the area. Within such programmes, community empowerment is becoming increasingly central for the ‘health gain’ it can produce [36]. The final area is visual communication. The result of good visual communication is to reach the target audience with a clear and well-understood message. In crisis contexts, engagement is a priority in order to activate collaborative processes, to bring into play the kind of graphics that have long been trying to go one step further: to activate a dialogue with and between the target audience. So graphics become a facilitating, interactive and playful tool. To this need must be added that of intercepting an unheard of target audience, such as children, who must be drawn into processes they are unfamiliar with and may view with distrust.

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In recent years, local initiatives, projects and policies explicitly aimed at creating processes of this kind have begun to spread and multiply. The first trigger is precisely engaging, new communication, which can intercept because it has listened. In the event of a disaster, communication plays an important role both in managing the emergency, to respond appropriately to an unforeseeable or dangerous event, and in the subsequent stages of recovery and reconstruction of places, to build resilient communities with strong social cohesion [37]. This tool complements and is contaminated by other disciplines. A graphic that wants to drag its audience along with it in an action of free rethinking of spaces, rules, things. A graphic that generates an action/reaction of both information and activism. Graphics “digests” concepts and transforms them to generate reactions.

4 Conclusions This first result of a research experiment by the APS Cocreiamo is the definition of a number of indicators aimed at plumbing the four areas presented. Adopting an approach that is as trans-disciplinary as possible is considered decisive for the effectiveness of reading a territory and for the consequent evaluation of projects that can be considered “community-oriented” because they are “child-oriented”. In the experimental model that we wish to propose, in fact, an impact assessment ecosystem has been configured that takes into account “child-oriented” indicators that, on the one hand, detect elements of vulnerability of the realities taken into consideration and, on the other, highlight the social, socio-economic and territorial resilience and development factors that can be triggered by targeted and/or integrated project interventions. It will be possible to attribute positive values if the projects examined go in the direction of enhancing the resilience and development of communities, or, on the contrary, negative values if they open up to present or potential elements of vulnerability. Important weight is given to the evaluation of the projects’ capacities to enhance the capital represented by children, to promote/enhance inclusive participatory processes of open government, to create communities and lead to their empowerment.

References 1. Pierantoni, I., Sargolini, M.: Aree interne. In Urbanistica Informazioni, 305. 2. Pazzagli R, (2021) Risalire. Dinamiche demografiche e tipologie del ritorno. Scienze Del Territorio 9, 40–49 (2022) 2. Habluetzel, A., Russo, M., Pagliacci, F., Pacifici, L., Bisci, C., Casabianca, S.: Effetti economici e sociali del sisma sugli allevamenti dell’Alto Maceratese In CAPPaper 161, 1–14 (2018) 3. Sargolini, M., Pierantoni, I., Polci, V., Stimilli, F.: Progetto Rinascita Centro Italia: Nuovi sentieri di sviluppo per l’Appennino Centrale interessato dal sisma del 2016. Carsa Edizioni, Ancona (2022) 4. Rotondo, F., Marinelli, G., Domenella, L.: Shrinking phenomena in Italian inner mountainous areas. In: Resilience Strategies in ICCSA 2020: Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2020 pp 195–206 (2020)

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5. Davoudi, S., Shaw, K., Haider, L.J., Quinlan, A.: Resilience: a bridging concept or a dead end? “reframing” resilience challenges for planning theory and practice interacting traps. Planning Theory Pract. (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2012.677124 6. Amin, A.: Surviving the turbulent future Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 31, 140–156 (2013) 7. Yamane, A.: Climate change and hazardscape of Sri Lanka. Environ Plan A 41, 2396–2416 (2009) 8. Graziano, P.: Rischio, vulnerabilità e resilienza territoriale. In: Quaderni del dipartimento di scienze economiche e sociali (2012) 9. Simmie, J., Martin, R.: The economic resilience of regions: towards an evolutionary approach Cambridge J. Regions Econ. Soc. 3, 27–43 (2010) 10. Esposito, F., Russo, M., Sargolini, M., Sartori, L., Virgili, V.: Building Back Better: idee e percorsi per la costruzione di comunità resilienti. Roma, Carocci ed. 12. Putnam R. (1993), Making Democracy Work, Princeton University Press, Princeton (2017) 11. Mela, A., Olori, D., e Mugnano S.: Territori vulnerabili: verso una nuova sociologia dei disastri italiana, Franco Angeli, Milano (2017) 12. Cutter, S.L., et al.: A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Glob. Environ. Chang. 18(2008), 598–606 (2008) 13. Bazzoli, N., Lello, E.: Divari territoriali e cambiamento politico. Una geografia critica a partire dal caso marchigiano in Sociologia urbana e rurale 123, 126–145 (2020) 14. Canel, M.-J., Luoma-aho, V.: Public Sector Communication: Closing Gaps Between Citizens and Public Organizations. John Wiley & Sons (2019) 15. Lovari, A., Ducci, G.: Comunicazione pubblica. Istituzioni, pratiche, piattaforme, Mondadori Università, Milano (2022) 16. Sotarauta, M.: Tales of resilience from two finnish cities, self-renewal capacity in the heart of strategic adaptation. In: Duke, C., Osborne, M., Wilson, B. (eds.) 2005 Rebalancing the Social and Economic Learning, Partnership and Place, Niace. Leicester (2005) 17. UN Habitat Urban Regeneration as a Tool for Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery, Bilbao (2021) 18. Unicef. Convenzione sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza, Comitato Unicef Italia. www. unicef.it 19. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, C40 Knowledge Hub (a cura di) 15-minute cities: How to develop people-centred streets and mobility (Online) (2021). https://www.c40kno wledgehub.org/s/article/15-minute-cities-How-to-develop-people-centred-streets-and-mob ility?language=en_US 20. TONUCCI, Francesco. La città dei bambini: Un modo nuovo di pensare la città. Roma: Zeroseiup (2005) 21. UNICEF. CFCI-The Child Friendly Cities Framework (2004). https://childfriendlycities.org/ cfci-framework/ 22. Anzani A., Scullica F.: The City of Care: Strategies to Design Healthier Places. Springer Series in Design and innovation. Springer Nature (2022) 23. ARUP Tactical Urbanism. Make it happen. Joanne Carmichael. Leader Advisory Planning and Design. NSW & ACT (2020) 24. NACTO Designing for All Ages & Abilities. Contextual Guidance for High-Comfort Bicycle Facilities (2017). https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NACTO_Designing-forAll-Ages-Abilities 25. Giusti M.: Progettazione, bambini e conflitto. Prospettive Sociali e Sanitarie, pp. 18– 19 (1998) 26. Unicef Advantage or Paradox: The Challenge for Children and Young People Growing Up Urban (2018)

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Is Rome (Italy) Undergoing Passive Ecological Gentrification Processes? Angela Pilogallo1(B)

and Dani Broitman2

1 University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

[email protected] 2 Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Abstract. Urban greening interventions are intended to improve citizens’ quality of life but often lead to increasing the value of real estate assets, excluding vulnerable residents, and attracting wealthier dwellers. We refer to this process as “active ecological gentrification”. The Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns and social distancing measures, provoked, at least in some cities, an appreciation of the urban green infrastructures, expressed by rising property values in closely located urban areas. We call this process “passive ecological gentrification” because it occurs despite the lack of any noticeable improvements of the green infrastructure. The hypothesis is that the way people interact with their local environment has changed, leading to a higher willingness to pay for living near green and open areas, presumably because of its increasing appreciation by city residents. In this paper we ask whether Rome (Italy) may be experiencing “passive ecological gentrification” processes. Using statistical data about tree coverage and real-estate values before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, we show that there are, indeed, initial signs. However, in order to demonstrate the existence of passive ecological gentrification in Rome, further research using extensive data is required. The paper concludes describing the limitations of the current study and delineating future research paths regarding this topic. Keywords: Ecological Gentrification · Residential Property Value · Urban Greening · Urban Green Infrastructure

1 Introduction The recent Covid-19 pandemic was a huge natural experiment that seems to have impacted on most of the aspects related to the daily human life [1]. One of these aspects is the form, morphology, and spatial structure of cities [2]. For example, during the first stages of the pandemics there were predictions about a massive exodus out of city centers [3, 4]. Although these early auguries did not realize, there is evidence of a shift from urban cores to the suburbs in some cities [5], and changes in the location choices of certain types of populations [6, 7], probably caused by widespread teleworking and crowd-avoiding behaviors. In any case, experts claim that the pandemic itself and its associated long-term effects have the potential to change the face of cities worldwide [8]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 326–336, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_29

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It is well known that natural and green areas have beneficial effects on the residents nearby [9, 10]. Among others, these effects were associated with a wide range of psychological and physiological benefits [11–13]. In many cities, closeness to green infrastructures (as urban parks of ecological corridors) is a decisive factor in higher housing prices, that decline as the distance with these urban infrastructures increase [14–16]. This positive impact of proximity to green and open spaces is interpreted as willingness to pay for these beneficial effects [17, 18]. Therefore, it is not surprising that the importance of available and nearby green and open areas in times of restricted mobility, as during the Covid-19 pandemic, has increased greatly [19–22]. Indeed, there is evidence of a changing perception of green urban structures during the pandemic and even after its aftermaths [23, 24]. This phenomenon led to the coining of a new concept: “passive ecological gentrification” [25]. In contrast with the wellknown ecological gentrification concept [26–28], caused by purposeful intervention in the urban arena, passive ecological gentrification is triggered by a change of context, as the pandemic impacts. Recently, examples of passive ecological gentrification, or at least possible first signs of its emergence, were studied in the Netherlands [25] and in Israel [29]. This paper suggests that there are good reasons for the assumption that similar processed may be experienced by other European cities. Using the test case of Rome (Italy), we correlate the evolution of residential values in the metropolitan area with the locally available green infrastructure, hypothesizing that a positive relation may indicate an ongoing passive ecological gentrification in the city.

2 Materials and Methods The aim of this paper is to evaluate the possibility that passive ecological gentrification processes are taking place in the metropolitan area of Rome as a result of the pandemic crisis. The analysis is performed correlating the evolution of residential values with the availability of green areas, that in turn, is operationalized by measuring the tree coverage in the metropolitan area. The proposed methodology essentially is articulated in the following two steps: First, the creation of both datasets, relating respectively to property values change (considering the period 2019–2021) and the percentage of tree cover in nearby areas. This is done with reference to the spatial units in which the study area is discretized. The second step is the correlation analysis between both datasets, using different real estate property characteristics. The choice of spatial unit is not arbitrary but bound to the availability of data on the historical series of property values. In order to compare the pre (2019) and post (2021) pandemic residential property values, the only data available are those collected by the Italian Revenue Agency1 and available with reference to “homogeneous territorial zones” (hereafter referred to as “OMI areas”2 ). 1 Agenzia delle Entrate: This is the Italian governmental agency responsible for collecting

revenues and taxes. 2 OMI is acronym for Real Estate Quotations of the Real Estate Market Observatory (Quotazioni

Immobiliari dell’Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare) and correspond to an attribution of

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Each OMI area is characterized by a local homogeneous real estate market, where there is a substantial uniformity of assessment for localization, economic and socioenvironmental conditions. The key criteria used to define these areas relate to their centrality, in terms of presence and accessibility to public and private facilities, their level of urban and extra-urban transport services and road connections, and, finally, the presence of educational, health, sport, and commercial facilities.

Fig. 1. OMI areas classification

A total of 234 OMI areas are included in the study area, that roughly encompasses all the metropolitan area of Rome. There are 14 areas classified as ‘central’, 42 as ‘semicentral’, 60 areas in the urban periphery, 94 areas that are ‘suburban’, and, finally, 24 areas classified ‘rural’3 (Fig. 1). The ‘periphery’ boundary corresponds to the ring road (A90), a circular highway of key importance for vehicular traffic in the city of Rome. It is about 70 km long and has an exit every 2 km or so, playing a key role both for vehicular traffic between different areas of the municipality and as a link to the major national highways. 2.1 Datasets Building Property Value The data set made available by the Revenue Agency provides a minimum - maximum range of market (and rental) values per surface unit and per property type for each OMI value to a property or land. It is calculated using zones (OMI areas) that are homogeneous from the point of view of their environmental and construction characteristics. 3 The whole municipal territory is classified in 5 belts (B = ‘central’, C = ‘semi-central’, D = ‘periphery’, E = ‘suburban’ and R = ‘rural’). Therefore each one of the 234 OMI areas considered belongs to one of these belts.

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area every six months. It refers to the standard state of conservation prevailing in the homogeneous area. Therefore, it excludes outliers, as quotes referring to buildings of particular value, or that are in advanced stages of decay, or showing characteristics that are not ordinary for the building typology of that specific area. With respect to residential use, data are collected with reference to 4 building categories: – Economic housing: Real estate units belonging to buildings of the economic type, characterised by ordinary finishing level and lacking valuable elements. The vertical and horizontal connections are of limited size. The finishes and materials are of average quality while the equipment is sufficient but in some cases of considerable obsolescence. – Civil dwellings: Property units included in buildings with good general, constructional and distributional characteristics. They extend over suitable areas with adequate distribution of interior spaces, good external works as well as wide and well-lit vertical and horizontal connections. Both the finishes (coatings, floors, fixtures, accessories) and materials are of good quality; facilities and systems are of ordinary technology. – Villas and cottages: Single or two-family units with characteristics - in terms of finishes and materials - similar to civil and/or luxury dwellings. This category includes cottages, elegant and comfortable country houses generally in rustic style – Luxury dwellings: Property units belonging to buildings with architecturally valuable features. Extending over surfaces larger than those of ordinary residential dwellings, they are also equipped with high-tech facilities. Furthermore finishes and materials have high-quality characteristics. The data were collected with reference to each OMI zone and for each of the building types just described with reference to the pre- and post-pandemic period considering 2019 prior to the spread of COVID-19 in Italy and 2021 as the year in which containment restrictions ended. Tree cover Density In order to assess the presence of tree cover in each OMI area, the dataset was built from the layers made available within the Copernicus Program, relating to tree cover density [30]. These are information layers in raster format with a resolution of 10 m representing the percentage (0–100%) of pixel area covered by tree vegetation. Although the resolution is very high, some authors [31] suggest the possibility of inaccuracies in the values corresponding to pixels with sparse vegetation. In order to obtain a unique value for each OMI area to relate to the property values, a zonal statistical analysis was performed in the GIS environment to assign the average tree cover value to each polygon (i.e., each OMI area of reference). 2.2 Correlation Analysis Correlation analysis is a statistical method used to verify the existence of a linear relationship between two variables/datasets and estimate its strength. In other words, correlation analysis calculates the level of change in one variable (property value) as a result of variation in the other (tree cover density).

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The hypothesis to be tested in this work is a relationship between the increase in residential property prices and the presence of green areas, assessed using tree cover density as a proxy. The correlation analysis returns a correlation coefficient between -1 and + 1: values close to 1 indicate that the two variables are perfectly linearly correlated; a correlation coefficient of zero indicates that no linear relationship exists between the two datasets. The sign is positive if the two variables move in the same direction, otherwise it is negative.

3 Results The first working hypothesis is that, if correlations between changes in property value and average tree cover density are observed, they should differ along different building categories. The assumption behind this hypothesis is that on one hand, the characteristics of dwellers in different building typologies, particularly regarding their valuation of open spaces, may differ. On the other hand, the property typologies themselves are supposed to influence the dweller’s perception of nearby green infrastructures. For example, the importance of public open spaces for villas and cottages dwellers that generally have a garden, should be different than those of a dweller in an apartment. Figure 2 represents the percentage change in property value for each building category. Green gradations represent decreases while red scales represent increases in property value. As can be seen from the figure, property variations are very different for the 4 building types. The typology that experienced the largest increases is economic housing, while luxury housing is the one for which there are significant changes only in a very limited number of OMI areas. Within the ring road, the prices of “luxury dwellings” and “villas and cottages” remained almost unchanged. On the other hand, the values of economic housing increased, while those of civil dwellings mostly decreased. In suburban areas, the value of economic housing grew, while the value of civil dwellings and villas decreased. The high variability with which property values changed over the period considered does not seem to correspond with distance from the city centre, nor with proximity to the ring road. As far as the presence of vegetation is concerned, the distribution within the OMI areas is less variable. The most vegetated areas are mainly located in the northern part of the municipal territory while OMI areas with the lowest tree density values are mainly located in the eastern part of the municipal territory, both inside and outside the ring road. As can be seen from Fig. 3, most of OMI areas have an average tree cover of between 7% and 34%, with several areas averaging between 19% and 34% also within the ring road and near the historic center. In order to test the first hypothesis described in the beginning of this section, a first correlation analysis was performed analyzing changes in property values for the 4 building categories separately as a function of tree cover density. The results are shown in Fig. 4.

Is Rome (Italy) Undergoing Passive Ecological Gentrification Processes?

Fig. 2. Change in property value for each building category.

Fig. 3. Tree Cover Density distribution across the study area

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Fig. 4. Regression analysis between tree cover density and property value changes for the four building categories

With regard to civil dwellings, no relationship seems to emerge, while a linearly increasing trend emerges with regard to economic dwellings (although not statistically very significant). Looking at “luxury dwellings” and “villas and cottages”, the relationship seems to be of inverse proportionality. These different results suggest that the first hypothesis is reasonable: The green urban infrastructure seems to be more influential for dwellers in civil and economic apartments, than for people living in villas, cottages, or luxury dwellings. The second hypothesis evaluated in this analysis is that an aggregate analysis of different dwelling typologies should provide a clearer picture. Unfortunately, the dataset only provides average values for each dwelling type, and therefore we don’t know what the relative weight of each type of dwelling in the total housing stock is. To overcome this difficulty, two assumptions were defined: First, given the lack of data, we assumed that all the building types are present in similar proportions. Second, following the first hypothesis and the results shown in Fig. 4, the “villas and cottages” typology was not considered in this analysis as it presumably concerns a different target market, characterized by dynamics scarcely influenced by tree cover. Therefore, a further regression analysis was performed considering the average changes in the residential property’s value without distinguishing building type (Fig. 5). The result of the regression shown in Fig. 5 confirms that, although the relationship is weak (R2 = 0.0142), the trend line shows a positive slope. This means that there are good reasons to assume that there is a positive relationship between the increase of the property values in the metropolitan area of Rome, and the amount of tree cover observed in the urban fabric.

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Fig. 5. Regression analysis between tree cover density and combined property value changes

4 Conclusions This work is part of a research stream that is gaining attention in many parts of the globe and concerns gentrification processes linked to the presence of green areas in urban settlements [32]. The scientific literature has developed the topic by distinguishing between active and passive gentrification processes [33]. The development of green infrastructures in urban areas is linked to actions undertaken as part of climate change mitigation and adaptation plans and aimed at increasing tree cover within urban contexts [34]. In addition, a significant impulse to the research and development of this type of natural infrastructures was achieved following the recent pandemic crisis [35], in which the social distancing measures highlighted the importance of green areas as bearers of multiple benefits [36]. This paper describes preliminary elaborations carried out with the aim of verifying whether the city of Rome may be experiencing ongoing processes of ‘passive ecological gentrification’ [37]. The proposed methodology is useful to identify areas that, showing a relationship between an increase in property value and the presence of green areas, are worthy of further investigation. It, therefore, does not identify these processes with certainty, but highlights the areas where they are most likely to take place. The importance of identifying ecological gentrification processes lies in providing decision and policy makers with the necessary knowledge framework to ensure fair accessibility to green areas and the ecosystem services they provide. This cognitive framework is the basis for possible redevelopment and urban regeneration programs aimed at enhancing the services offered where greater demand emerges and/or implementing policies aimed at limiting inequalities related to the rise in property values. The limitations of this study are related to the relatively thin datasets used and their discretization in OMI areas. This is because they do not allow for more detailed elaborations, e.g. considering the distance of buildings (both in terms of physical distance

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and travel time) from public green areas. A further limitation is related to the layer used as a proxy for green areas, i.e. tree cover density. In fact, it is indicative of the presence of vegetation but does not give any indication of accessibility or hypothetical fruition modes, to which the benefits expected by citizens are linked. But the main limitation is the inability to control the performed regressions with additional and relevant data, related to social, demographic, economic and urban characteristics of the considered units of analysis. Furthermore, with a view to analyse the main drivers of real estate units value increase, it would be worth noting the so-called “Ecobonus”, which started in July 2020 and was aimed at granting a 110% deduction for renovation work carried out to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Therefore, the development of future research will be aimed at expanding the time interval considered and verifying the suitability of the proposed methodology also in the case of active ecological gentrification, for example with reference to the implementation of the urban forestation plan approved by the City of Rome and already being implemented. In addition, a multivariable spatial regression will also be developed to investigate the role of the presence of green areas with respect to additional geographic variables, related to service provision and infrastructure accessibility as well as socio-economic variables. Summarizing, even though the Covid-19 pandemic is officially over, considering the harsh preventive measures implemented while it was in force, it is hard to believe that it spatial impacts were negligible. A different question is whether these impacts will be long lasting or not, but at least, at this stage, it is important to understand how long emergency periods can affect the structure and functioning of cities. This is relevant not only for possible future pandemic episodes, but also towards the climate change processes that seem to be increasingly influencing our daily lives.

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10. Fancourt, D., Aughterson, H., Finn, S., Walker, E., Steptoe, A.: How leisure activities affect health: a narrative review and multi-level theoretical framework of mechanisms of action. Lancet Psychiat. 8(4), 329–339 (2021) 11. Nowak, D.J., Hirabayashi, S., Bodine, A., Greenfield, E.: Tree and forest effects on air quality and human health in the United States. Environ. Pollut. 193, 119–129 (2014) 12. James, P., Banay, R.F., Hart, J.E., Laden, F.: A review of the health benefits of greenness. Curr. Epidemiol. Rep. 2, 131–142 (2015) 13. Labib, S.M., Lindley, S., Huck, J.J.: Spatial dimensions of the influence of urban green-blue spaces on human health: a systematic review. Environ. Res. 180, 108869 (2020) 14. Brander, L.M., Koetse, M.J.: The value of urban open space: Meta-analyses of contingent valuation and hedonic pricing results. J. Environ. Manag. 92(10), 2763–2773 (2011) 15. Gibbons, S., Mourato, S., Resende, G.M.: The amenity value of English nature: a hedonic price approach. Environ. Res. Econ. 57, 175–196 (2014) 16. Bertram, C., Rehdanz, K.: The role of urban green space for human well-being. Ecol. Econ. 120, 139–152 (2015) 17. Tu, G., Abildtrup, J., Garcia, S.: Preferences for urban green spaces and peri-urban forests: an analysis of stated residential choices. Landsc. Urban Plan. 148, 120–131 (2016) 18. Votsis, A.: Planning for green infrastructure: the spatial effects of parks, forests, and fields on Helsinki’s apartment prices. Ecol. Econ. 132, 279–289 (2017) 19. Day, B.H.: The value of greenspace under pandemic lockdown. Environ. Res. Econ. 76(4), 1161–1185 (2020) 20. Fagerholm, N., Eilola, S., Arki, V.: Outdoor recreation and nature’s contribution to well-being in a pandemic situation-Case Turku, Finland. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 64, 127257 (2021) 21. Maury-Mora, M., Gómez-Villarino, M.T., Varela-Martínez, C.: Urban green spaces and stress during COVID-19 lockdown: a case study for the city of Madrid. Urban Forest. Urban Green. 69, 127492 (2022) 22. Reid, C.E., Rieves, E.S., Carlson, K.: Perceptions of green space usage, abundance, and quality of green space were associated with better mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among residents of Denver. PLoS ONE 17(3), e0263779 (2022) 23. Uchiyama, Y., Kohsaka, R.: Access and use of green areas during the covid-19 pandemic: green infrastructure management in the “new normal.” Sustainability 12(23), 9842 (2020) 24. Spotswood, E.N., et al.: Nature inequity and higher COVID-19 case rates in less-green neighbourhoods in the United States. Nat. Sustainabil. 4(12), 1092–1098 (2021) 25. Broitman, D.: “Passive” ecological gentrification triggered by the covid-19 pandemic. Urban Plan. 8(1), 312–321 (2023) 26. Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J., Brand, A.L.: From landscapes of utopia to the margins of the green urban life: for whom is the new green city? City 22(3), 417–436 (2018) 27. Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J.J., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Cole, H., Pearsall, H.: New scholarly pathways on green gentrification: what does the urban ‘green turn’mean and where is it going? Prog. Hum. Geogr. 43(6), 1064–1086 (2019) 28. Rigolon, A., Németh, J.: Green gentrification or ‘just green enough’: do park location, size and function affect whether a place gentrifies or not? Urban Stud. 57(2), 402–420 (2020) 29. Rybnikova, N., Broitman, D., Czamanski, D.: Initial signs of post-covid-19 physical structures of cities in Israel. Lett. Spat. Resour. Sci. 16(1), 25 (2023) 30. https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/high-resolution-layers/forests/tree-cover-density 31. Congedo, L., Sallustio, L., Munafò, M., Ottaviano, M., Tonti, D., Marchetti, M.: Copernicus high-resolution layers for land cover classification in Italy. J. Maps 12(5), 1195–1205 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2016.1145151 32. Cucca, R., Thaler, T.: Social justice in the green city. Urban Plan. 8(1), 279–282 (2023). https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v8i1.6850

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Advanced Technological Approach for Risk Mitigation and Land Protection: The SICURA Project Sara Pietrangeli, Lucia Saganeiti(B)

, Lorena Fiorini , and Alessandro Marucci

Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering – DICEAA, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The SICURA project: Smart House of Security Technology, aims to catalyze new business models driven by 5G technology, focusing on enhancing the security of infrastructure, urban areas and the environment. Facilitated by IoT and AI solutions, with a focus on cybersecurity, the project envisages a permanent research laboratory as a hub for innovation within the future Smart City of L’Aquila. The initiative is funded by Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and aligns with emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT for nextgeneration networks. Taking advantage of 5G capabilities, the SICURA project facilitates the collection, processing and integration of data from sensors in the field to identify and address vulnerabilities. The city of L’Aquila is an ideal site for such initiatives thanks to its experimental 5G network and advanced optical network infrastructure. However, despite its natural riches, the municipality struggles to capitalize on ecosystem services due to limited soil knowledge and urban expansion patterns. To mitigate these challenges, the project employs spatial planning and innovative monitoring techniques to quantify and meet the demands for ecosystem services. This approach seeks to adapt and protect the territory from risks, harmonizing with urban planning regulations and addressing climate change issues. The article introduces a methodological approach to urban risk assessment, addressing settlement and socio-demographic systems. Keywords: SICURA Project · risk scenario · smart land · risk management

1 Introduction The project “caSa Intelligente delle teCnologie per la sicURezza (Intelligent Home of Security Technology)” – SICURA aims to support the development of new business models enabled by 5G technology, focused on the security of infrastructures, the environment, and cities [1]. This will be achieved through the use of solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on cyber security. With this project, it is intended to build a permanent laboratory for research, innovation and experimentation of new digital technologies. This laboratory, which aspires to become the hub of ideas for the future L’Aquila Smart City, is financed through a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 337–348, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_30

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Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (MIMIT) aimed at implementing projects for experimentation, applied research and technology transfer based on the use of emerging technologies, such as blockchain, AI and the IoT, linked to the development of nextgeneration networks. In the context of SICURA’s activities, 5G technology makes it possible to collect, process and integrate a vast amount of information from the field in order to identify and, if possible, correct any vulnerabilities. This is made possible by the network’s ability to handle large amounts of data from sensors in the field and to provide emergency and disaster management services with high levels of quality. The city of L’Aquila represents an ideal environment to implement such projects due to the presence of the 5G experimental network, the research center dedicated to the development of 5G (ZIRC- a leading company in the provision of telecommunications products and services) and a highly advanced metropolitan optical network, available for use in industrial and academic experimental activities. In this context the municipality of L’Aquila plays a fundamental role. In fact, it covers an area of approximately 474 square kilometers but, despite its impressive natural heritage, it is unable to take full advantage of the services that ecosystem functions provide. This is dependent on a variety of factors, including the general lack of a complete ecosystem knowledge of soils, their spatial distribution, their qualitative aspects, and the lack of control over the urban expansion pattern. These factors in turn lead to an acceleration of the phenomena of decreasing ecosystem services and the expansion of the city, in other words, urbanization. Furthermore, the lack of an advanced technological approach to land sciences and fast monitoring systems should not be underestimated. In this project, spatial planning has the role of building a functional link capable of expressing the demand/supply of ecosystem services in urban contexts with monitoring techniques based on innovative technologies. It is therefore intended to use the ecosystem services approach to respond to risk mitigation and land protection issues in order to highlight how important it is in a territorial context to both adapt and use the territory itself in order to make it safer by means of innovative monitoring systems. All of this must necessarily follow a parallel direction with the innovation of urban planning regulations, which in the case of the municipality of L’Aquila is of fundamental importance due to the obsolete nature of the urban development plan (1975) [2]. In this framework it is also essential to include the theme of urban and territorial resilience related to the response of territories to climate change and risk conditions. The aim of this article is to introduce a methodological approach for risk assessment in the urban environment useful for the development of risk scenarios which take into account different factors from the settlement system to socio-demographic dynamics. The article addresses the topic of smart lands as an omnicomprehensive concept of smart cities and the territory surrounding urban settlements in the case study of the city of L’Aquila (par.2) and then goes on to describe the methodological approach developed for the SICURA project (par. 3). As a first development, in Sect. 4 the details of a punctual risk analysis according to two methodologies will be given and their comparison results are discussed. Finally, the last paragraph (par. 5) contains future developments and the limitations and advantages of the developed analysis.

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2 From Smart City to Smart Land: The Case Study of L’Aquila The seismic crater areas of Central Italy and, in particular, the municipality of L’Aquila the study area of the SICURA project - have become an international reference point for the application of all-encompassing regeneration processes, since reconstruction does not only concern the built heritage (urban context), but the entire territorial area. The regeneration of the urban context requires close coordination with a new and efficient system of territorial governance in which territorial sciences and urban studies can make a major contribution. Indeed, the new technological resources available are fostering a convergence between them, but a multi-scalar approach has not yet been fully achieved. A new interdisciplinary approach aims to fill this gap by creating a linear approach to problems addressing different scales. This will be possible due to the increasing ability of different disciplines to handle different data sources, knowledge of software systems and familiarity with planning procedures at all levels. Thus, the field of urban planning will have to understand how it can fit into these disciplines that use artificial intelligence and fast data networks in order to obtain scenario analyses oriented towards more effective city planning. These activities benefit from integration with modern 5G network architectures and the enabling technologies identified by the project to support the development of Technology Houses. In this regard, the scientific activity being pursued aims to go beyond the concept of smart city to affirm that of smart land, a territorial context with variable settlement density, determined by a complexity of relationships between artificial spaces and ecosystemically active ones where the balancing of these relationships is functional to protecting from natural and anthropic risks. In this article we refer with the term smart land to an area that aims to be sustainable, smart and inclusive, through the implementation of widespread and shared policies in order to increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of the entire area. In fact, if smart cities are based on the implementation of digital technological infrastructures at the service of the urban context, smart lands should refer not only to these, but also to the design of green and blue infrastructures at the service of a broader territory [3, 4]. In the first case we speak more appropriately of a vector of technological services, in the second of a vector of ecosystem services and, with a view to using these vectors as a response to risk mitigation and land protection, the resultant of these two vectors can be interpreted precisely as the reduction of the risk factor. In the light of the recent extreme events that have affected part of the Emilia-Romagna region (May 2023 flooding events), the concept of smart land takes on crucial importance in which territorial planning plays a fundamental role in defining the rules of the substratum in which economic and entrepreneurial activities are present, and in which the phenomena linked to safety, understood in terms of risk for companies and businesses, take place. The main goal to be met with the SICURA project’s activities is to understand how technological and methodological innovation can be incorporated into spatial planning tools and facilitate the preservation of the socio-economic framework. In this initial phase, the activities of the spatial sciences group, in synergy with the other scientific sectors of reference, are expressed in the role of control and coordination

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that these, supported by new technologies, can express in the conceptual and technological seam between Urban Planning and city regeneration. The purpose is to suggest a new conceptual framework for a dynamic spatial planning system integrated with emergency management and risk assessment tools.

3 Methodological Framework In the context described so far (project and case study) it is necessary to frame, the theme of urban and territorial resilience related to the territories’ responses to climate change and risk conditions in order to transform territorial risk scenarios from static to dynamic. A static risk scenario is related to the exposure of population or buildings and infrastructures as registered presence on the basis of residence and localization respectively [5]. A dynamic risk scenario, for example, should take into account the movement flows of the population in order to identify the potential risk of specific areas at specific times of day [6]. The methodology elaborated is based on a reference framework useful to meet the objectives set out in the introduction and is composed of several elements that will be summarized below. An extract of the methodology is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Methodological framework

The proposed framework is composed of six main assets, all of which engage the territory as an opportunity, pressure/threat or benefit depending on how they are analyzed. 1. The urban asset includes all the factors that affect urbanized areas, artificial areas, roads, and the quality of the urban environment. Urban planning can take on the character of an opportunity when it is managed and regulated by effective spatial planning instruments. On the other hand, it can assume the character of a threat or

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pressure if it settles in territories that are not suitable to host them, such as areas at hydrogeological/seismic/flood risk, intensively natural areas and other. The ecosystemic asset is composed of the demand and supply of ecosystem services and specifically can take on the character of pressure, opportunity or benefit. The risk asset includes both natural and anthropic risks. It has the character of a perturbation on the ordinary status quo, because at the same moment in which the risk manifests itself a status quo is broken, as well it as the character of a threat or pressure. The urban planning asset in which one must necessarily consider the current scenario, the future scenario and the transformations resulting from new instruments (pressure or opportunity). The socio-economic asset includes all demographic factors, transport flows, demand/supply of services and the economic conditions. This asset can represent an opportunity for the economic and social development of an area and a threat/pressure when individuals are faced with territorial risk situations of a natural or anthropic nature. The policies asset aims to understand how European (e.g. Biodiversity Strategy), national and regional strategies, ordinary and extraordinary regional planning (National recovery and resilience plan - PNRR) impact on urban transformations, social aspects and other assets of the current frameworks.

All these assets will initially compose a static overall scenario. They are based, in fact, on data characterized by a slow updating mode (annually, biennially, and beyond). The measurement of which is possible by means of purpose-built and already tested indicator consoles (project Sosten&re [7]). In this first phase, work is being done on characterisation analyses of the urban structure [8], planning tools [2]and ecosystem and natural hazards. The scenario of this first phase is static, i.e., it is the substratum in which the SICURA project will have to implement innovative monitoring tools based on 5G sensors (e.g. traffic sensors, sensors for detecting the movements of people, etc.) that will make it possible to transform the scenario from static to dynamic. The aim is thus to move beyond the classical approach of GIS-based urban studies dependent to a large extent on data produced by government agencies [9] that is a longterm analysis measured over months and years, to the dynamic approach based on data that are as short as a minute [10]. The dynamic scenario is like an equalizer in which the indicators of the various assets can be balanced according to the specific need and territory analyzed. This is of fundamental importance if planning is to be oriented towards a dynamic approach, one that is continuously updated in accordance with changing boundary conditions and is more oriented towards land protection.

4 The Risk Asset in L’Aquila City In this first step of the project, the purpose of the analyses is to highlight the hydraulic risk areas present in the territory of L’Aquila city and provide an estimate of the municipality’s resident population exposed to this risk.

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To perform the analyses, the following data have been collected: – Land use and land cover, obtained from the Urban Atlas 2018 dataset developed by the European Union (EU) as part of the Copernicus program [11]; – Population data, also available in the Urban Atlas 2018 dataset; – The hydraulic risk areas, mapped as part of the Flood Defence Master Plan (PSDA) and available on the GeoPortal of the Abruzzo region (Geoportal website [12]); – The layer of the buildings located in the municipality of L’Aquila, elaborated partly by the research group of the CentroPlaneco (University of L’Aquila) [13] and partly by the Regional Civil Protection Agency (Abruzzo) (Regional Civil Protection Agency website [14]).

Fig. 2. Artificial surfaces and populated areas in the Municipality of L’Aquila.

It should be noted (see Fig. 2) that the presence of scattered buildings represents a challenge in exposure assessment. In fact, widespread urbanization is often difficult to identify, even with dataset like Urban Atlas, despite the good spatial resolution (higher than that of the Corine Land Cover (CLC) [15]). Therefore, even in large rural areas, there is localized presence of urbanized areas and corresponding resident population. However, in several studies, the estimation of the population exposed to risk assumes that the resident population in an area is uniformly distributed within it. This approach can lead to approximate results, especially in rural areas because, in reality, the population is not uniformly distributed throughout the area but rather concentrated in specific locations where urbanized areas are actually present.

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Two methodological approaches were used to estimate the population exposed to hydraulic risk: Method 1 estimation of the population exposed by ‘proportionality’; Method 2 estimation of the population exposed to hydraulic risk according to the number of buildings present within the areas identified by the PSDA. With Method 1, the population is considered uniformly distributed over an area since it is not possible to know the exact location of the population in each area with the available data. Accordingly, land use and land cover polygons with: population greater than 0 (populated areas) and partial or total overlap with the hydraulic risk areas of the municipality of L’Aquila were used to estimate the population. The intersection of the populated areas with the hydraulic risk map returns the portions of populated areas classified as moderate (R1), medium (R2), high (R3) and very high (R4) risk. For each populated area polygon, the following is known: the polygon ID, the land use and land cover class, the 2018 resident population, the total area (sq.m.), the area (sq.m. and perecentage) at risk R1, R2, R3, R4 and at zero risk (R0). To estimate the exposed population, the following formula is applied:   ARi (1) PopRij = pop2018 ∗ A j where: i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 0 respectively for R1, R2, R3, R4 and null risk; PopRi j is the resident population in the j-th polygon exposed to risk Ri; pop2018 is the resident population in the j-th polygon in 2018; ARi is the area of the j-th polygon classified as risk Ri; A is the total area of the j-th polygon. The results map (Fig. 3) shows all populated areas divided by the different risk levels and the distribution of the exposed population grouped into five classes. The color gradation from light to dark corresponds to the increase in population density. Method 2 consists of estimating the population exposed to hydraulic risk based on the number of buildings present in the areas identified by the PSDA. This method offers the possibility of overcoming some of the limitations of estimation by “proportionality” (Method 1) because it considers the population localized at the buildings and no longer homogeneously distributed over an area. Method 1 has, in fact, a good accuracy in the case of continuous urban fabric, moderate in the case of discontinuous urban fabric and insufficient in the case of dispersed urban fabric. In order to obtain the necessary data for population estimation, the information layer of buildings was intersected with the populated areas. Each building was assigned its own ID and the polygon ID of the populated area to which it belongs. According to the precautionary principle [15], if an element falls only partially within a populated area, it is considered entirely within it. If a building falls within two or more populated area polygons, it is assigned to the polygon in which it falls with the largest percentage of its area. This data thus constructed is further intersected with the polygons of populated areas classified as at risk in order to assign each building the corresponding risk level (R1, R2, R3, R4, R0). It is then possible to determine the number of buildings within the individual populated areas interfering with the hydraulic risk areas, as well as the total number of buildings exposed to risk and the relative percentages, and to derive

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Fig. 3. Populated areas classified as moderate, medium, high and very high hydraulic risk.

the population exposed to risk using the following formula:   BRi PopRij = pop2018 ∗ BTOT j

(2)

where: i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 0 for R1, R2, R3, R4 and zero risk respectively; PopRi j is the resident population in the j-th polygon exposed to risk Ri; pop2018 is the resident population in the j-th polygon in 2018; BRi is the number of buildings in the j-th polygon exposed to risk Ri; BTOT is the total number of buildings in the j-th polygon (Fig. 4). Figure 5 shows the resident population in “Populated Areas” overlapping with the hydraulic risk zones, of the municipality of L’Aquila, exposed to R1, R2, R3, R4, R0 and their respective percentages. The difference between the values of the “Total population” resulting from the application of the Method 1 and the Method 2 is due to the difference in the temporal reference of demographic data (2018) and building data (2014) used in the second one. It highlights the increase in the percentages of the population exposed to medium and very high risks, from the first to the second method, against to the decrease in the percentages related to low and high risks. 4.1 Methods Comparison In this research, two methods were presented for estimating the population exposed to hydraulic risk in certain areas. Two different approaches were outlined: the ‘proportionality method’ (Method 1) and the ‘number of buildings method’ (Method 2). These methods have their respective advantages and limitations.

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Fig. 4. Classification of buildings into moderate, medium, high and very high risk.

Fig. 5. Population exposed to different levels of hydraulic risk resulting from the application of the Method 1 (on the left) and the Method 2 (on the right).

The method 1 is advantageous in terms of replicability, as it allows the analysis to be carried out again by changing the input data, making it suitable for various types of risk assessment (hydrogeological risk, seismic risk, avalanches, fires, etc.). It offers reasonable accuracy, particularly for continuous urban areas, but its accuracy decreases as we move from discontinuous to highly dispersed urban fabrics. One of its limitations is that it does not take into account the actual presence of urbanized areas within risk zones, which may lead to lower accuracy in some scenarios. The Method 2 offers advantages in terms of accuracy and consistency with the actual presence of urbanized areas. It allows the presence of population to be taken into account

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where urbanization is actually present, rather than distributing it uniformly over a large area. The accuracy of this method is influenced by the quality and accuracy of the input data, and therefore it works better when up-to-date information on buildings and resident population is available. However, at the same time, it has a number of limitations, such as the need for consistent and up-to-date data on buildings and population. More accurate results could be obtained with the availability of information on the use, type and number of flats per building in at-risk areas. It is interesting to note that although both methods give similar results, method 2 can be considered more accurate, especially when reliable and up-to-date data are available. The differences between the two methods are mainly due to the accuracy and consistency of the input data. Therefore, for more accurate population estimation, it is essential to focus on collecting and maintaining high quality data for both building and population estimation in risk areas. In conclusion, the choice between the two methods depends on the availability of data and the specific context of the risk assessment. Method 1 is more flexible and suitable for scenarios where detailed building data may be lacking but should be used with caution in areas characterized by high settlement dispersion. In contrast, Method 2 offers greater accuracy and reliability, but requires up-to-date and complete data to obtain optimal results.

5 Principal Conclusions and Future Development (Open Issues) The text discusses the application of spatial mapping in a complex area such as the municipality of L’Aquila, characterized by a significant natural heritage. However, the obsolete 1975 urban plan clashes with the requirements of environmental protection and risk management. The text emphasizes the importance of understanding disaster risk, specifically hydraulic risk, which comprises four factors: hazard, vulnerability, exposure, and resilience. It highlights the difficulty of directly mitigating hazard but underscores the potential to reduce risk by addressing vulnerability, exposure, and increasing resilience. The text presents two methodological approaches to estimate the population exposed to hydraulic risk. The first method estimates the exposed population through proportional distribution analysis, with limitations in areas with dispersed urbanization. To overcome these limitations, Method 2 estimates the exposed population based on the buildings in the risk areas, offering the potential for high accuracy with detailed building data. Although the percentage results of both methods are similar, they depend on the quality of the input data. The second method has significant potential with more complete data, enabling accurate population estimates and planning of future scenarios based on demographic and environmental trends. Nowadays, spatial planning can make use of innovative and technologically advanced tools that exploit a constant flow of data and simulations to explore different possible scenarios. In this context, the use of GIS-based technologies and methodologies plays a fundamental role in both vulnerability assessment and complex decision support, risk, impact and consequence analysis. In fact, in the last few years, the scientific community has increasingly focused on the application aspects of GIS technologies and on the need for standardized processes and effective spatial interfaces, as well as spatial analysis tools and integrated

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hardware/software platforms (such as the Spatial Data Infrastructure, SDI), which have played a key role in the development of these activities. This approach makes it possible to exploit information and communication technologies (ICT) to advantage. In particular, new research in this field focuses on the application of indicator engineering techniques to identify appropriate indices that can provide information on the response of urban areas to environmental disturbances that generate risk scenarios. This research therefore aims to be part of this framework in which the concept of ‘Smart Land’, which goes beyond the ‘Smart City’ paradigm to include territories with varying settlement densities, is brought forward [16, 17]. This approach combines digital and natural systems to improve urban resilience, particularly in areas where spatial planning plays a key role in the security of businesses and economic activities. Acknowledgement. This contribution is realized within the framework of the project “SICURA – caSa Intelligente delle teCnologie per la sicURezza – L’Aquila” (Project code: S.I.C.U.R.A.). Project funded by the Italian Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and the Italian Fund for Development and Cohesion. Authors Contributions. Conceptualization Lucia Saganeiti (LS); formal analysis Sara Pietrangeli (SP); investigation SP; methodology LS, Lorena Fiorini (LF), SP, Alessandro Marucci (AM); supervision AM; validation AM and LF; writing original draft LS, SP, LF.

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The Innovative Management of Community Space as a Key Strategy to Guide Urban Regeneration Programs: The Experience of the Neighbourhood-Hub Project Ivan Bleˇci´c, Emanuel Muroni, and Valeria Saiu(B) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR), University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected] Abstract. The effective use and management of public spaces for socio-cultural activities is a key factor in urban regeneration initiatives. This is one of the most challenging tasks for public administrations due to a range of factors, including securing sufficient funding, defining clear objectives and strategies, effectively managing social aspects and community participation, and ensuring long-term sustainability of these spaces. Traditional models of public space management may no longer be adequate in addressing these complexities. Innovative tools are necessary to simplify procedures and promote greater collaboration between public authorities and citizens. With this in mind, this paper presents the “NeighbourHub Model” (NHub), a novel management model designed to enable digital participation between public administrators and socio-cultural associations, improving the alignment between the supply and demand of community spaces by promoting temporary and rotational use of spaces. NHub prioritizes transparency, accessibility, and accountability, which are key principles for public administrators to follow when assigning public spaces. We describe a case study that investigated the applicability and utility of NHub in two social housing neighbourhoods in Cagliari (Italy) that are characterized by a significant number of underused and abandoned public spaces and of social and cultural associations that are deeply embedded in local communities. Our findings demonstrate that the model allows, on one hand, to enhance the knowledge of the heritage by increasing its utilization capacity, and on the other hand, to improve the capacity of action of the community. NHub, in fact, provides a tool to negotiate potential conflicts and facilitate participatory decision-making among stakeholders, supporting the governance of urban commons. Keywords: Socio-Cultural Activities · Abandoned and Underused Spaces · Management Model · Cost-Benefit Analysis · Urban Regeneration

1 Introduction The global economic and financial crisis that began in 2008 has had a great impact on public administration capacity and performance, especially on the implementation of social policies and interventions. Economic resource scarcity causes the budgets to fall © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 349–360, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_31

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short of the needs of the design and management of public spaces. Thus, in recent years, various forms of community management have emerged [1]. Among these is the concept of “community hubs” (CHubs) or “community centers” which bring together multiple neighborhood groups to provide different activities, programs, and services, facilitated by a community-based organization [2–4]. These CHubs have been established with the aim of offering a wider range of services, promoting social gatherings, and making more effective use of buildings and spaces. In fact, many CHub projects have been developed by repurposing abandoned buildings and vacant lots, thereby serving as an effective strategy for urban regeneration. Within the degraded areas of cities, this management model has the potential to become an integral part of urban regeneration policies, thereby contributing to the enhancement of the quality of life for the most vulnerable population groups [5, 6]. We can observe such instances in English experiences like the “Ameina Center” in Luton (2013), the “Levenshulme Inspire” in Manchester [7] and the “Soho/Victoria Friends and Neighbors” initiative in Smethwick (2011) [8]. These projects exemplify the power of community-based organizations in transforming and revitalizing neighborhoods. By adopting such community management models, cities have the potential to address the needs and aspirations of their residents, particularly those from marginalized groups. Over the years we have moved from the project of a single community hub to the networking of various hubs for the purpose of an increasingly interconnected system of resources and public goods [9]. The new concept of the Neighbourhhod Hub (Nhub) allows to pool resources, share best practices, policies and opportunities on an urban scale [10]. In Italy the project “Rete delle Case del Quartiere” (the Network of the Neighbourhood Houses) in Turin (2017) includes eight CHubs (or “houses”), located in different neighbourhoods. These spaces include different abandoned or underutilized public buildings such as old farmhouses, former factories or warehouses, that are transformed in social and cultural laboratories [11]. This network are coordinated and managed by a single legal and formal entity that represents them [12]. Among the tools that this entity uses is the “Regolamento dei Beni Comuni Urbani della Città di Torino” approved in 2016 that provides for interventions of different levels of intensity and complexity, defined on the basis of the type or nature of the urban common good and of the people to whose well-being it is functional. This experience emphasizes the necessity of incorporating context-specific interventions to construct an effective NHub project. Such interventions, in fact, should take into account, on one hand, the specific needs and aspirations of local communities and, on the other hand, the urban and spatial characteristics that shape the capabilities of the population [13–17]. The intricate relationship between spatial features and social dynamics holds the potential to inform decision-making processes, establish investment priorities, and ultimately influence the success of the project. This needs innovative tools that streamline procedures and promote collaboration between public authorities and citizens.

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To contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this field, we have developed a novel digital tool – developed by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture (University of Cagliari) and founded by the Fondazione di Sardegna for the years 2020–2021 – that enables an automated authorization procedure to match demand and offer of public spaces [18]. The procedure that underlies the design of the proposed tool consist of three steps: 1. Analysis and evaluation: recognition/involvement of socio-cultural groups and space analysis/evaluation to match socio-cultural activities offer and space availability and to define priority of interventions. 2. Development of the regulatory system to set out the rights and duties of assignees and of the public administrations that manage the spaces. 3. Digital implementation to define a platform for spaces reservation (pages with restricted access by registered users) and to publicize public activities and events (pages with open access). This paper presents the first step of this procedure that is based on Participatory CostBenefit Analysis (PCBA) that incorporate both social visions, preferences and feelings, and spatial and functional analysis are particularly useful [19–25]. Thus, this is structured around two main criteria: the expressed interest of the community in utilizing specific spaces (social benefits) and the estimated economic costs associated with the interventions required to enable the use of these spaces (public expenditure). The primary goal of this cost-benefit assessment is to define more cost-effective and socially acceptable solutions than the current practice [26]. Thus, this assessment can serve in decisionmaking processes, especially when evaluating alternative scenarios. This methodology, in fact, is aimed at assisting decision-makers in the selection and prioritization of urban interventions for the progressive development of a NHub project. The model, in fact, promotes a gradual and incremental procedure to construct a system of spaces that can be allocated for temporary uses by different socio-cultural associations and groups. This paper presents the outcomes of applying this model to a case study conducted in the city of Cagliari, Italy. The findings are presented, analysed, and discussed to demonstrate their validity for informing policy-making processes and policy design. The paper is structured as follows: next section describes the procedure of preparing and analyzing the data for the proposed cost-benefit assessment; Sect. 3 presents the results of the case study analysis. Finally, Sect. 4 discusses these results in light of the objective of the paper and offers some concluding remarks and future directions for advancing the research.

2 Methodology Many studies have used the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to estimate the social benefits and economic costs associated with a regeneration intervention. In some cases, the economic analysis is combined with the participatory evaluation also including qualitative indicators that are based on citizens perceptions. This specific procedure – called Participatory Cost-Benefit Analysis (PCBA) – are employed to define more effective and equitable decisions [27–30].

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According to these studies, the proposed NHub model focused on these two aspects that are analyzed in detail through different techniques: 1. Project Cost - Spatial analysis. We have mapped the spaces that can be included in the NHub and then we have evaluated their spatial features and current functions. All these information is needed to verify the new and integrative uses and the associated cost of intervention required to enable them. 2. Social benefits. We have identified the different social actors including formal and informal organizations and associations, key individuals (see [25]) that work within the selected area of study. Then we conduct a participatory design study aimed at achieving their interests in the selected spaces. Semi-structured in-depth interviews are provided to better understand local community perception and demand on their use. The outcomes of these two phases of the “community interests – project costs analysis” allows to evaluate three levels of priorities for regeneration interventions: (1) High: priority interventions (high social effective – low expensive); (2) Low: secondary interventions (low effective – low expensive) and (3) Medium: questionable interventions (low effective – low expensive/high effective – high expensive).

3 Case Study To validate this procedure, it has been applied to a case study regarding two neighbourhoods’ “San Michele” and “Is Mirrionis” located in the city of Cagliari (Italy). These neighbourhoods was built since the 1950 with social housing estates that were designed and conceived under a combination of different master plans [31]. This urban area is particularly interesting for the great number of public spaces and assets and for their social vitality, in terms of activities of different groups. In total we have identify and mapped 53 spaces (33 buildings and 20 opens spaces) and 14 social actors who play an active role in these neighbourhoods. Among the 33 mapped buildings, 16 are schools (about the 50%) (Fig. 1 and Table 1). Thus, this paper focused on these buildings that can offer more to local communities than formal education through different forms of partnership and collaboration [32]. Then, we have conducted in parallel both social and spatial analysis and evaluation. In detail: 1. Social Analysis. In this phase conducting semi-structured interviews with 14 social actors to better understand the current perception about the selected spaces. These actors, in fact, operate different sectors – religion, social, health, culture, arts, environmental – and provide different points of view. This multiple and complementary visions allow to define inclusive and equitable interventions, according to the needs and desires of the community. Respondents were asked to express their level of interest using a three-tiered scale, which ranged from low to high. The collected scores were then aggregated employing the Borda count ranking method [33] which assigned respective points of 0, 1, and 2 to the low, intermediate, and high levels of interest. The overall score for each space was defined by summing up the points assigned to each level of interest. Consequently, we have established four categories of community interest: Very low (4) (see Table 2).

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2. Spatial analysis: This phase is divided into two contemporaneous sub-phases: the open data analysis and the on-the-ground field visits to case study area by the research team. The documentation includes a coincide description and a detailed analysis of each space. In particular, the available spaces for new and integrative uses and the current maintenance level that allow to estimate the cost of interventions required to make them usable are evaluated. The cost analysis is performed by interviewing an expert group that consisted of 8 academics, postgraduate researchers, and professionals. The analysis considers direct costs related to buildings and/or site use and (if foreseen) for improvement projects. Additionally, costs associated with potential additional expenses (legal/ownership issues) were considered [34]. As a result, five categories of interventions/project costs are defined: Very Low (350 ke) (Table 2). This classification provides a decision support aid when evaluating investment impacts.

Fig. 1. Map of the 16 identified schools.

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Table 1. Case study analysis. For each school: code/name, type of space, estimated cost of intervention and declared interest of social actors (associations and groups). Code

Name of School

Education stage

Estimated Cost for intervention (ke)

Interest

E01

“Meilogu” School

Primary School

250

2

E02

“Ciusa” School

Primary School

200

0

E03

“Pacinotti” Lyceum

Secondary School

100

3

E04

“De Sanctis” Lyceum

Secondary School

100

0

E05

“De Sanctis-Deledda” Istitute

Secondary School

250

1

E06

Xaverian Missionary Institute

Secondary School

500

3

E07

“Serbariu” School

Primary School

100

3

E08

“Italo Stagno” School

Primary School

100

0

E09

“Azuni” Institute

Secondary School

50

0

E10

“Mameli” School 1

Grade School

50

0

E11

“Mameli” School 2

Primary School

50

0

E12

“Medaglia Miracolosa” Kindergarten

Primary School

500

11

E13

“Galileo Galilei” Institute Secondary School

350

2

E14

“L’erbavoglio” Kindergarten

Primary School

500

0

E15

“I pulcini” Kindergarten

Primary School

100

0

E16

Pontifical Seminary

Secondary School

100

5

4 Results and Discussion Our findings suggest that only 3 between the 16 selected schools can be categorized as priority spaces for intervention (low cost-high interest), 5 can be defined as secondary spaces for intervention (high cost-low interest) and 8 as questionable spaces for interventions (Fig. 2 and Table 2). Among the projects with greater social interest (Fig. 3), three are priorities (S03, S07, S16) and two are questionable. Despite the higher costs, in fact, the interest of the interviewees is dominant in these spaces (S06, S12). In detail: – S03 “Pacinotti” Lyceum: has already established collaborative arrangements with various cultural associations to organize performances (e.g., theater festivals) and sporting events. Several interviewees express a keen interest in this school, envisioning potential supplementary activities such as the development of after-school programs aimed at diverse segments of the population, ranging from children to the elderly.

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– S07 “Serbariu” School: it is already at the center of several collaborations with neighborhood associations, including international projects such as the ESC (European Solidarity Corps) project “LIVE: Promoting Volunteering and Human Rights”. This project has facilitated the implementation of joint activities involving residents of the neighborhood. These activities are also seen as positive in countering certain negative practices that occur near schools (e.g., drug dealing), which jeopardize the safety of children and residents. The interest in this building is therefore directed towards the creation of “alternative cultural micro spaces” that can gradually expand the cultural offerings and transform the use and perception of the surrounding space.

Fig. 2. The evaluation of community interests – project costs of the 16 selected schools.

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Table 2. The different levels of priority obtained from the proposed evaluation (the spaces without interest are excluded). Code

Name of space

Interest

Estimated Cost

Priority

S03

“Pacinotti” Lyceum

High

Very Low

High

S06

Xaverian Missionary Institute

High

Very High

Low

S07

“Serbariu” School

High

Very Low

High

S12

“Medaglia Miracolosa” Kindergarten

Very High

Very High

Low

S16

Pontifical Seminary

Very High

Very Low

High

– S16 Pontifical Seminary: the seminary is identified not only as one of the most important religious centers in the city but also as a place that can offer various services to the city and becoming “a point of reference for local communities”. The interest in this complex is due to its typological-morphological and dimensional characteristics, which provide a wide variety of spaces capable of accommodating different functions. Among the supplementary activities identified by the interviewees are sports activities that could take place in the extensive equipped areas. Currently, these spaces are not well perceived due to the enclosing walls that create a closed perimeter, separating the complex from the neighborhood. In this regard, almost all interviewees propose the demolition of the walls, a solution that would contribute to improving its visual as well as functional relationship with the neighborhood.

Fig. 3. Case study analysis: priority (S03, S07, S16) and questionable (S06, S12) interventions.

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– S06 “Xaverian Missionary” Institute: Its location near the “San Michele Castle Park” makes it particularly attractive to the interviewees. The complex is perceived as a potential “box of events” that can bring vitality to a currently underutilized space, especially during certain times of the day. In terms of potential uses, cultural and artistic animation events are seen as the most suitable way to provide space for associations and indirectly activate processes of progressive physical redevelopment of the area. – S12 “Medaglia Miracolosa” Kindergarten: It has a unique spatial location. The school is situated within a residential block adjacent to a square, which serves as an open space surrounded by buildings. Both the school and the square are not visible from the surrounding streets, which are the main urban thoroughfares in the San Michele neighborhood. The kindergarten serves as a meeting point for many families in the area. Among the suggested proposals, there are activities aimed at fostering interaction. The interviewees recognize the potential of the school as a place to host various activities that can change the current state of isolation in the neighborhood. One of the proposed activities is to facilitate encounters between the elderly population and children.

5 Conclusions In this paper, we present a novel tool for match space availability and local community demand, and for assessing priority projects for urban regeneration that breaks away from traditional top-down approaches. Our approach centers on comprehending the intricate relationship between public spaces and local communities to harness their potentials, knowledge, and expertise. To this end, the methodology we have devised integrates a combination of social and spatial analysis methods to empower communities and foster their active engagement in decision-making processes. Regarding spatial analysis, our methodology acknowledges the crucial role of public spaces in community development. We delve beyond superficial evaluations and conduct an in-depth examination of the existing condition of these spaces. Through meticulous mapping and categorization, we gain a nuanced understanding of their potential for future growth and enhancement. The methodology adopts a systematic approach to mapping and categorizing public spaces, providing a more precise comprehension of their distinctive features and prospects for future development. By taking into account the current state of each space and the required level of intervention, we furnish a qualitative cost estimate that are invaluable for decision-making and planning purposes. The social analysis departs from the imposition of preconceived solutions and instead promotes a bottom-up approach, wherein communities actively shape and guide the process of regeneration. We underscore the significance of comprehending the unique characteristics and needs of each community, as this serves as the foundation for targeted and effective interventions. Ultimately, our objective is to facilitate a collaborative and inclusive approach to urban regeneration, wherein communities are actively involved in decision-making and planning processes. By leveraging their knowledge and expertise, we can cultivate vibrant and sustainable communities that flourish.

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The case study results demonstrate that the Participatory Cost-Benefit Analysis (PCBA) allows for a comparative evaluation of the economic costs and community benefits associated with a project. This approach enhances our knowledge of the potential role of urban regeneration in promoting social inclusion objectives. Additionally, qualitative analysis aids in estimating the economic expenditure that public administrations could cover for each project, emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making during the early design phase. The proposed methodology can be improved by incorporating digital participation systems in the NHub Platform such as online forums and surveys that enable the structured engagement of local communities in decision-making processes. Furthermore, the platform can be more efficient by the implementation of Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to create and update the database of spaces by combining different information (current and potential uses, space condition, cost for use) [35–37]. Finally, we can note that the PCBA presented here is just a first step and needs a more structured approach to have a deeper evaluation of the costs, preferences and potential outcomes of different activities. This requires further data collection of cost and performance data which may also be useful to define a more accurate tool for selecting public buildings and spaces for several socio-cultural activities.

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Decision-Support Tools for Territorial Regeneration: A GIS-Based Multi-criteria Evaluation Utilizing the Territorial Capital Framework Ivan Bleˇci´c1 , Arnaldo Cecchini2 , Valeria Saiu1(B) , and Giuseppe Andrea Trunfio2 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR),

University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (DADU), University of Sassari, Alghero, Italy

Abstract. In recent years, the issue of territorial regeneration has become increasingly important, especially for fragile regions such as inner areas. However, frequently such interventions appear as isolated and sectoral proposals with specific details and outcomes, lacking an overarching vision for the territory. One approach to address this challenge can consist in the operationalization of the concept of “Territorial Capital”, which encompasses various dimensions crucial for sustainable development, including human, social, cognitive, infrastructural, productive, relational, environmental, and settlement capital. Territorial regeneration, in fact, requires an integrated approach that considers not only the physical and environmental aspects of a region but also its social, cultural, and economic dimensions. A comprehensive and systematic methodology is provided by the evaluation framework presented in this study, which is specifically designed to support policy development for fragile regions. This framework employs open data sources in a multi-criteria spatial assessment, generating a dashboard for real-time monitoring of the geographical distribution of various indicators of Territorial Capital. To showcase the potential applications and outcomes of the framework for territorial analysis and policy design, a case study focusing on the Island of Sardinia is presented. This research is significant in three ways: first, it conceptualizes the notion of territorial capital in terms of development capabilities; second, it employs a spatial evaluation model that accounts for potential interactions between territories; and third, it highlights the potential usefulness of the results for territorial analysis and policy design, with a particular emphasis on the role of technology in the process. Keywords: Inner Areas · Peripheral Territories and Regions · Territorial Regeneration · Territorial Capital · Evaluation Models

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 361–372, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_32

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1 Introduction One of the main topics in the European political agenda are “Inner Peripheries” (IP), those territories that are significantly impacted by population and economic decline over time. IP exhibit relatively lower overall performance, developmental levels, access to essential services, and quality of life for the population compared to their neighbouring regions [1]. Thus, these territories can be defined as “marginal”, in terms of low competitiveness and high socio-economic disparities [2–5]. During the years the concept of Inner Peripheries has gradually gone beyond the traditional core-periphery dichotomy to comprehend the intricate interplay of numerous and complex processes (spatial, environmental, economic, social, cultural, political, and historical) that affect the potential development of specific territories differently. Inner Peripheries, in fact, «now are starting to be recognized as a composite interdisciplinary problem type that embraces socio-economic and environmental specificities» [6]. As a result, it is need to establish appropriate interventions and allocate financial resources in accordance with the multiple territorial material and non-material characteristics [7]. For instance, in certain cases, population decline is structural and unlikely to be reversed, necessitating a focus on the recovery or preservation of biodiversity and ecological integrity. In other situations, it may be suitable to implement temporary uses of properties and spaces for diverse purposes, such as cultural activities. Meanwhile, specific areas must be maintained as stable settlements through incentives for housing, services, and for promoting economic growth, in order to attract new investments and expand employment opportunities and, consequently, resident population [8]. According to this, different European funds and policy instruments are available for the implementation of various projects and development plans – from Rural Development Programs to Cohesion Funds – to make the most of territorial potentials [6]. Over the years, many methods and techniques have been developed and employed to assess different dimensions of peripherality and better suit territorial strategic priorities (e.g. [4, 9, 10]) but this remains a controversial issue. One of the promising approaches to address this challenging task is based on the “Territorial Capital” concept that encompasses a wide array of tangible and intangible territorial assets [7, 11], according to the complex nature of Inner Peripheries. In order to contribute to this area of research, the aim of this paper is to operationalize this concept in order to provide a multidimensional model for identifying, classifying and prioritising territorial goals. We have identified eight main areas of intervention, or sub-capitals: human, social, cognitive, infrastructural, productive, relational, environmental, and settlement elements, collectively representing the development potential of a given territory [7, 12]. For each of these dimensions, a comprehensive set of indicators is proposed to effectively measure and monitor the progress towards specific policy objectives. These indicators are designed to be easily calculable and understandable, ensuring accessibility for a wide range of audiences. Furthermore, the utilization of a GIS tool enables the automatic generation of spatial distribution maps, thereby enhancing transparency by visually representing the various dimensions of territorial capital. Finally, to validate the proposed methodology, this was applied to a case study in the Region of Sardinia (Italy). The obtained results demonstrate the accuracy and the effectiveness of the methodology, highlighting its advantages in addressing the unique

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challenges faced by peripheral territories. This underscores the utility of territorial capital as a comprehensive framework that aids in the formulation of informed policies and strategies tailored to the specific needs and potentials of each territory, fostering inclusive and balanced development. The paper is organized as follows: First, after this introduction, the Second Section discusses definitions and context of Inner Peripheries debate. Then, Sect. 3 presents methods, indicators, and data sources. Section 4 describes the results of the case study. Finally, concluding remarks about the utility of the assessment of Territorial Capital in planning, design and decision making are discussed, suggesting potential uses and implementation of the proposed assessment model.

2 Context Significant progress has been made in developing tools and methodologies to understand and map Inner Peripheries, according to the changing cultural and political context. Initially, “peripherality” was defined in terms of economic potential that was determined through gravity models [13–17] and, then, it was extended to capture other development dimensions, such as social, relational and political factors that influence territorial development (e.g. [10]). Thus, peripherality is a condition of all territories that are distant from or have limited equipment and/or accessibility to various services and socio-economic opportunities. For example, the Italian Government stands as one of the pioneering European nations to have devised a distinctive methodology in the classification and mapping of “Inner Areas”, constituting a specific subset within the broader realm of European Inner Peripheries. This methodology – introduced as part of the “Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas” (SNAI) for the period 2014–2020 [18] – primarily aims to enhance the quality of life and economic well-being in the underdeveloped regions of Italy. It achieves this by focusing on the enhancement of three specific categories of Services of General Interest (SGIs): (1) health services (first-level emergency care hospitals); (2) education (secondary schools, according to the Italian education system), and (3) mobility (regional railway stations) [19–22]. These SGIs represent only a small subgroup of elements that do not consider other crucial aspects that are relevant in the assessment of peripherality. In this context, territorial peripherality can be directly related to the “territorial capabilities” [23, 24] – according to Amartya Sen’s capability theory [25] – that includes the well-being and quality of life, according the objectives of EU Cohesion Policy [2, 26]. Therefore, the concept of “territorial capital” allows to acquire a profound knowledge that enables analysis and scenario evaluation [27]. This concept was first introduced in the late 1990s by various European directives and regulations – among the most important the is the Territorial Outlook of 2001 drafted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [28] – became a central concern in current European Territorial agendas. As the TAEU 2020 “Towards an Inclusive, Smart and Sustainable Europe of Diverse Regions” (19 May 2011, Hungary) highlighted, «places can utilize their territorial capital to realise optimal solutions for long-term development, and contribute in this way to the achievement of the Europe 2020 Strategy objectives» ([29], p.4). Ten years later, the TAEU 2030 “A future for all

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places” (1 December 2020, Germany) point out the importance to adopt a place-based approach to policy making «to unleash unique territorial potential related to place-based territorial capital, knowledge, and assets (…) [that] will contribute to long-term development and competitiveness for places» ([30], pp.5–6). Hence, the concept of Territorial Capital can be used as a guide to perform detailed analysis and evaluate potential scenarios for selecting appropriate policies and interventions for all territories, especially for peripheral areas. To make operational the concept of territorial capital, one the primary challenge is to articulate a comprehensive set of categories (or “sub-capitals”) that accurately capture their multiple distinctive aspects and to find suitable metrics, variables, indicators, scores, and measurement units for their assessment [11]. In one of the first studies, conducted in 1999 by the LEADER Observatory’s Innovation Working Group, coordinated by Gilda Farrell, the concept of territorial capital «represents all of the elements available to the area, both tangible and intangible, which in some respects constitute assets and in others constraints» ([31], p.19). This study present different analytical methods used by LEADER groups for determining these multiple components. Among the most interesting, the “Methodology guide for the analysis of local innovation needs” (European LEADER Observatory/AEIDL, 1996) that identifies eight key points to pinpoint the innovation needs of a territory: (1) Image/ Perception; (2) Markets, external relations; (3) Activities and business firms; (4) Governance and financial resources; (5) Know-how and skills; (6) Culture and identity; (7) Human resources; (8) Physical resources. Accordingly, in 2010 Camagni and Dotti [32] have been defined seven components – Productive, Cognitive, Social, Relational, Environmental, Settlement and Infrastructural – with a positive effect on the competitiveness, attractiveness and well-being of a territory. In 2012, Brasili [33] proposes a similar framework, structured around eight subcapitals, by introducing the “human capital” as an intrinsic part of the development of the territory, especially at the regional level. In 2018 Fratesi and Perucca [34] define seven territorial capital assets – Accessibility, Collective Goods, Private Capital, Behavioural modes, Human Capital, Population Density, Relational private services – of EU NUTS 3 regions to analyse their variation in the medium and long-run period in relation to Cohesion Policies to demonstrate the effectiveness of an integrated approach focused on complementary investments. Benassi et al. 2021 [35] delve into the exploration of territorial capital’s “meso dimension” by examining the unique and essential resources and endowments associated with a territory. These resources, including cultural heritage, landscape heritage, and intangible qualities, hold paramount importance, as they significantly shape the territory’s performances. The measurement of the “meso dimension” entails the application of multivariate analysis techniques to identify clusters of municipalities that share similar characteristics. These clusters are subsequently analyzed in conjunction with demographic and socio-economic variables, revealing how elements traditionally perceived as disadvantages can serve as potential opportunities when harnessed in sectors that can derive substantial benefits from them.

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Hence, as highlighted by these studies, one of the major difficulties is to identify potential variables and indicators associated with social and relational values, which still appear to lack a comprehensive definition [36].

3 Methods and Data In the present study we started from these findings to develop a framework that integrates several main aspects that influence specific territorial functioning and capabilities. In total we define 33 indicators divided in eight “sub-capitals” that integrate tangible and intangible aspects that influence each of these (see Fig. 1). These specific sub-capitals can be aggregated to provide a concise representation for the overall territorial capital. In particular:

Fig. 1. Categories and indicators of the proposed “Territorial Capital Index”. The data are collected from many different sources including the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the Italian Ministry of Health, the Business Register of the Italian Chambers of Commerce, the Italian Energy Services Manager (GSE), the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), the Sardinia Region.

1. The Human Capital (HC) considers aging, education, occupation, and migration rates that provide information about individuals characteristics and attitudes and territorial attractiveness. 2. The Social Capital (SC) considers electoral participation, associationism, social and educational services and users that provide information about civic engagement and welfare system.

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3. The Cognitive Capital (CC) incorporates cultural and recreational associations, services and investments, and barriers in the internet fiber access that affect people’s lives. 4. The Infrastructural Capital (IC) includes assets and services including safety, health and public transport, and postal offices that enable to exchange of information and products between different territories. 5. The Productive Capital (PC) refers to the business economy and innovative productivity using four measures: jobs (number of total local businesses, start-up companies and tourism accommodation enterprises) and income of inhabitants. 6. The Relational Capital (RC) considers different types of “relational goods” useful to implement material and non-material relations between different actors and territories [37], including material and immaterial assets such as the number of university Students of the business networks. 7. The Environmental Capital (EC) comprises natural resources for agricultural productivity and for human well-being (parks and protected green areas) [38], but also the exposure to environmental risks caused by landslides and hydrological events. This sub-capital includes also the environmental resources used for improving productivity and for preventing pollution such as the technologies for renewable energy generation and for waste management and treatment. 8. The Settlement Capital (SC) assesses housing quality through uninhabited houses, structural quality, average age, and income from buildings that are used as proxies of maintenance and degradation. The proposed indicators were developed considering available data and information from National and Regional authorities, statistical institutions, and open data sources, with reference to the territory of the Sardinia region in Italy. For each Sardinian municipality we have calculated the value of the eight sub-capital, normalised with a value from 0 to 1 (see Table 1). Then, these values are aggregated in a composite index, the “Territorial Capital Index” (TCI), calculated as the average of the indices of each sub-capital. Data, indicators, and index values are collected in a web-GIS platform (e.g., Mango Map) that makes it easy to visualize and implement data to allow a constant quasi-automatic update [39, 40]. The platform allows to improve the evaluation structure overtime by adding or changing indicators, and to define different aggregation between municipalities in order to produce different analysis and scenario evaluation.

4 Case Study Application – Sardinia Region, Italy We have employed this procedure to compute the TC index for the 377 municipalities in the Sardinian Region, which exhibit variations across different dimensions, including social, economic, administrative, environmental, and settlement attributes (refer to Table 1). The level of analysis underlined all these different characteristics that can’t be evaluated at the provincial or regional scale. The results show different scenarios. In this paper, we briefly describe the values obtained for the seven Sardinian major cities (>30.000 inhabitants) (see Fig. 2 and 3, and Table 1).

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Fig. 2. The seven analysed cities.

Table 1. Data from seven selected cities. City

Province

Population

Surface (sq Km)

Demographic density (inh. Per sq Km)

Cagliari

Cagliari

154.106

85,01

Sassari

Sassari

126.769

547,04

231,74

Quartu Sant’Elena

Cagliari

70.879

96,41

735,17

1.812,71

Olbia

Sassari

60.261

383,64

157,08

Alghero

Sassari

43.979

225,40

195,12

Nuoro

Nuoro

36.579

192,06

190,45

Oristano

Oristano

31.671

84,57

374,49

Although overall all the 7 cities have a high value of TC, the eight sub-capitals indices show many differences. In general, lowest values are related to Environmental and infrastructural Capitals while maximum values are reached in Human and Settlement Capitals. In detail: 1) Olbia and Nuoro have a low level of Cognitive Capital due to indicators CC01 (0.00 Olbia – 0.20 Nuoro) and CC02 (0.25 Olbia – 0.30 Nuoro). Cagliari has the maximum value due to the high score of indicators CI03, CI04, and CI05.

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Fig. 3. Results of the seven selected cities.

2) Six out of seven municipalities have low values of the Environmental Capital. Among these, Cagliari have very low values of the indicators CA04 (0.12) and CA05 (0.00) and Quartu has the higher values of CA02 (0.90) and CA03 (0.86). 3) The Human Capital reaches higher values in the cities of Olbia – with best performances in the indicators CU01 (0.77) and CU03 (0.66) – and Cagliari whit the maximum value for the indicator CU03 (1.00).

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4) The Infrastructural Capital is low in all analyzed cities. Olbia and Nuoro have low values of the indicators CI01 (0.14 Olbia – 0.07 Nuoro) and CI04 (0.04 Olbia – 0.11 Nuoro). 5) The highest value of Productive Capital is reached by Olbia, followed by Cagliari where the indicators CP01, CP03, CP04 and CP05 have the maximum value (1.00) while the indicator CP02 (0.13) has the minimum score. 6) The lowest value of the Relational Capital is reached by Quartu where CR01 (0.05) and CR04 (0.13) have very low values. This sub-capital is higher in Cagliari where CR02 (0.72) and CR03 (1.00). 7) The maximum value of Settlement Capital is reached by Cagliari and Nuoro with high values of the indicators CIN01 (0.95 Cagliari – 0.92 Nuoro), CIN02 (0.94 Cagliari – 0.95 Nuoro), CIN04 (0.99 Cagliari). 8) Finally, Social Capital has the lowest value in Quartu and the maximum value in Cagliari. For both cities, the lower value is reached by the indicator CS04, with scores of 0.07 and 0.12, respectively.

5 Conclusions The proposed tool serves a valuable purpose by providing suggestions for potential territorial strategies and policies. By employing a comprehensive set of indicators, a more nuanced understanding of the diverse factors influencing peripherality, as defined in the TC evaluation, can be achieved. Similar Territorial Capital Index (TCI) values, in fact, may arise from different levels of various forms of capital. This offers valuable insights for decision-making, both in terms of identifying possible goals and interventions, as well as determining their priority. The proposed methodology suggests that acquiring a better understanding of the local context enables local actors to focus on pertinent issues and undertake appropriate actions tailored to the specific context. The TC framework provides an extensive and integrated structure that facilitates a customizable evaluation, offering valuable guidance for decision-making in strategic contexts and assessing the impacts of specific interventions. The TC evaluation not only “measures” the present performance in a particular analytical domain (sub-capitals), but also provides insights into the development potential of a territory within that specific domain. One limitation of the proposed Index lies in its omission of agglomeration factors. Some aspects are valuable at a larger scale due to their association with processes that transcend municipal administrative borders. In this context, the future development of this study will be to investigate these broader processes, which are vital for fostering integrated, multi-sectoral, collaborative, and inclusive policies and interventions. Such information enables the identification of optimal policies and the formulation of plans to account for the diffusive impacts of actions within these areas.

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Public Space-Led Urban Regeneration. The Identity and Functional Role of Rocco Petrone Square Francesca Perrone(B) Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, 00196 Rome, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The article addresses the issue of urban regeneration guided by the ‘reinvention’ of the functional role and the ‘enhancement’ of the identity role of public space. It is a strategy capable of promoting assets and resources that interface with public space because it encourages interaction between existing structures and living communities. The urban regeneration strategy assumes public space as an element that can foster perspectives, not only of urban-ecological and morphological-functional quality, but also of urban sustainability, equity, social and cultural inclusion and revitalization, efficiency and local economic development. The specificity of place and interaction with its context is taken into account to prepare interventions capable of returning livable and recognizable environments to cities based on the needs of their users. The case study of Rocco Petrone square, a public space that currently has no particular peculiarities, located into the Sasso di Castalda Municipality (Italy) is examined. The “Urban and Functional Redevelopment of Rocco Petrone Square” project has different phases: consideration of the design context; evaluation of design requirements; and identification of design goals. These are followed by: the selection of the design concept and the proposal of the design intervention. It is intended to reorganize and redefine the configurational features and promote its role as the center of social life through a mix of compatible uses, services, and activities with strong cultural, symbolic, communicative, ethical, identity, pedagogical, and inclusive connotations. This means making, not only the project area well-structured and usable, but also the context environment ecologically balanced and enjoyable in an aesthetic sense. Keywords: Public space · Urban Regeneration · Socio-cultural Identity · Functional Role · Urban Sustainability

1 Introduction Urban regeneration as a strategy for governing the contemporary city is able to promote public space as a driving force of urban development, while protecting and, at the same time, enhancing its assets and reference resources [1–3]. Urban regeneration is a strategy capable of making the most of the potential of public space as a nodal point © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 373–382, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_33

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of accumulation and reverberation, synergistic and interactive, because it enables functional and proactive confrontation between existing structures and living communities: it appears as the result of a response between interrelated drivers of change, whether physical, environmental, social, cultural or economic [4, 5]. This strategy is capable of fostering, not only perspectives of urban-ecological and morphological-functional quality, but also equity, social and cultural inclusion [6] and revitalization, efficiency and local economic development by providing livable environments for cities and their inhabitants [7–9]. “For these purposes, the strategy assumes… [public space]… Both as a physical matrix of reference and load-bearing framework, and as a framework of coherence of structuring choices of an overall and compensatory process of regeneration of the contemporary city, as an expression of historical-cultural and social identity, and a means for the recomposition of the link between physical continuity and social integration, between formal specificity and cultural identity, between representation and self-representation of communities” [2]. The regeneration of the contents and functions of a public space is allowed, not only through the defense of its values, but especially from their ‘reinvention’. In this regard, the specificity of the place and the interaction with its contextual container are taken into account in order to prepare interventions capable of restoring recognizability to the public space, “[…] arousing new attributions of meaning, which stimulate, even in the settled local communities, new forms of appropriation, recognition and self-representation” [2]. It is possible through the reorganization and redefinition of configurational features and the enhancement of a mix of compatible uses, services, activities with a strong cultural, symbolic, communicative, ethical, identity, pedagogical and inclusive connotation [10]. It proves necessary to activate processes of strategic planning on the one hand and of reappropriation, by local society, of the affected public space on the other hand, “[…] creating new opportunities for a community to design its future starting from the cultural resources of the territory” [11]. The key issue lies in finding the right compromise and balance between ad hoc programmed redevelopment interventions and community needs for refunctionalization of the dynamics of the public space in question [12]. It must be kept in mind that urban systems are subject to constant development and change, rather than radical design and redevelopment interventions, given the natural cycle of obsolescence and degradation inherent in urban fabrics and structural components themselves. The need for an urban regeneration process for the development of public space starts from an understanding of the physical-functional qualities of its components and the ways and abilities to actively relate to the context, in a state of continuous evolution and transformation. Initial objective is to intuit the connection and/or gap between services offered in a given urban and territorial area and corresponding user needs. Urban regeneration is used as a strategy aimed at reconsidering the role of the system of physical elements of the public space with a view to sustainable renewal (economically, socially and environmentally) [13–15]. The main challenge to be addressed concerns the ability to manage urban-territorial changes from a socio-cultural point of view (e.g. through functional diversification interventions) while keeping alive the intrinsic and established role and value of public space (e.g. through adaptive redevelopment

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and reuse interventions) in relation to the context of reference. In other words, the balance between ‘identity quality’ and ‘functional quality’ is the key challenge of public space-led regeneration [16, 17]. Gaining such understanding means arriving at original solutions that combine the benefits of identified public space with those derived from new interventions. To achieve the above mentioned aim, we selected a public space named ‘Rocco Petrone Square’ located into the Sasso di Castalda Municipality (Basilicata region, Southern Italy). The “Urban and Functional Redevelopment of Rocco Petrone Square” project intends to restore its role as the center of social life through the revitalization of the concept of a place for community gathering and economic activities [18]. The purpose of this intervention is to enhance, from a morphological-structural, socio-functional and perceptual point of view [19], a public space that currently does not have any particular peculiarity other than that of a parking lot. This means making, not only the project area well-structured and usable, but also the context environment ecologically balanced and enjoyable in an aesthetic sense [20]. In carrying out such an ambitious task posed by the focus on the landscape and its identity characters, it is necessary to analyze the elements derived from the interaction between anthropogenic and natural factors, in order to grasp the values of the territory, in its physical, ecological-environmental and socio-cultural characters.

2 Materials and Methods The work was carried out reflecting on the idea of public space as a multifunctional and dynamic forum capable of revitalizing a specific area of the city [21, 22]. As an essential component of the urban infrastructure, it contributes significantly to defining its distinctive image and identity. The project idea aimed at the urban and functional redevelopment of Rocco Petrone square included the articulation of the intervention in procedural steps, listed below: – consideration of the design context, that is of the morphological-functional environment affected by the intervention; – evaluation of the design requirements, that is of the feasibility of the intervention in relation to the pre-existing urban-infrastructural and ecological-environmental nature; – identification of the design goals, referring to the hypothesized solutions and proposals. The previous methodological steps lead: – to the choice of the design concept, which has the ability to weave a thread capable of knotting the functions assigned to the area with the various physical-morphological and theoretical-conceptual segments conceived for the regeneration of the public space in question; – to the proposal of the design intervention, thanks to the identification of the specific design components and functional aspects of the parts of which the project is composed.

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2.1 Design Context Rocco Petrone square, the public space that is the subject of the design interventions, is characterized by a continuous area of about 1,000 square meters of trapezoidal shape with porphyry block pavement and tree species arranged along the perimeter. The square, currently used as a parking lot, is substantially devoid of street furniture elements functional to its livability. It is bordered: – to the southeast by a stone retaining wall along Roma street (an urban street along which existing public parking spaces are arranged diagonally to the travel lane) from which it can be accessed by a staircase; – to the south by Provincial street from which it can be accessed by a level crosswalk; – to the southwest by the municipal playground and a pedestrian path equipped with a railing overlooking the surrounding landscape (which leads to the neighboring pedestrian junction stairway to Rione Ospizio street); – to the north by a wooded area located on a slope that has a difference in elevation of about 1.8 m, bordered by a stone retaining wall (whose internal paths lead to the neighboring Roma street). The crosswalks, which allow people to cross Provincial street, connect the square to an additional set of parking spaces and some services rendered to the community: post office, space designated for catering, commercial activity, and pharmacy. It is the first square one encounters when wanting to enter the urban center from Provincial street. A public space of introduction and presentation of the town with multiple potential functions, currently under-exploited. 2.2 Design Requirements The design idea must make it possible to safeguard the pre-existing parking function of the public space in question. At the same time, it must ensure that it relates to the contextual urban and ecological-environmental elements: – maintaining direct and continuous accessibility on Provincial street; – ensuring the visibility of the playground; – favoring the pre-existing connection with the neighboring pedestrian graft staircase to Rione Ospizio street; – allowing the usability of the adjacent grove, a connection point to reach street Roma, which must be safeguarded and enhanced together with the tree species placed along the perimeter. In this way, the square retains its role as a link to the entire urban and infrastructural system of reference. 2.3 Design Purposes Rocco Petrone square must be the center of an overall unified irradiation, an important landmark of the country.

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The architectural design of the public space in question responds to the various functions of practical utility and the clear accouterments of aesthetic quality, the right historical-cultural, representative, symbolic requirements, and also the various needs expressed by citizens. It was prepared with the aim of making up for pre-existing functions (1 and 2) and providing for new ones (3 and 4) (Fig. 1): 1. public space designated for parking, for cars only; 2. place of meeting and social life, due to the presence of the weekly market and the holding of temporary events; 3. place of aggregation, passage and strolling; 4. strategic point of panoramic enhancement.

Fig. 1. The figure shows the multiple functions planned to incentivize the different use of Rocco Petrone Square.

3 Results The above points are resolved with the present project of “Urban and Functional Redevelopment of Rocco Petrone Square” (Fig. 2). It conceptually envisions dividing the space into two integrated areas offering a variety of different services: 1. the first dedicated to pedestrianism and livability of the place; 2. the second intended for the fulfillment of practical utility functions (parking, weekly market, events and demonstrations). 3.1 Design Concept Conceptually, the Rocco Petrone Square project envisions an illustration, a symbolization, a materialization, a celebration of Rocco Petrone’s work, the spatial enterprise related to him, and the migratory flow that resulted in his family’s arrival in America.

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The hypothesized project has the task of bringing to light the memory of some important historical and socio-cultural aspects, enhancing: – the commemorative memory of Nasa engineer Rocco Petrone (1926–2006) to whom the square is dedicated; – the phenomenon of migration, which so many times has been a source of bitterness and sadness, but sometimes also of social revenge and great success; – the spirit of the Lunar Enterprise (man’s conquest of the moon). 3.2 Design Intervention The integration between the design proposal and the main architectural and landscape emergencies is expressed by mixing forms and using elements of tradition in a modern way. The architectural design makes it possible to create, not only an emotional aesthetic context by changing the face of the square-parking lot, but also environments enriched by their own morphological-functional peculiarity, combining the concepts of design and sustainable architecture. The choice of materials adopted that reflects the use and forms characteristic of local tradition combined with the choice of additional innovative methods and technologies becomes the means to ensure a good functional and perceptual quality of the intervention area [23]. The ultimate goal of the project of the public space is to create a recreational and multipurpose space that reflects the needs of the place and its users [24]. The main design interventions are described below. Paving. The Mosaic Floor, the generator of the aesthetic-perceptual metamorphosis of the square, has the function of illustrating and evoking the “Earth-Moon System” and symbolically (and materially) interprets the “Landing,” referring to the action of wave motion along the sandy shores and, at the same time, to the Milky Way. It is characterized by the integration of a compositional element into the pavement: a conceptual stone pathway, decorated with inlay (in this specific case, an ornamental text was assumed to be created), illuminated by a photoluminescent resin glaze (highly efficient and sustainable), schematically recalling the stages of the Apollo 11 Mission throughout its composition (form and phrases). The strength lies in the careful and meticulous color matching and combination of shapes, which determines the outcome of the first impact, sensory and emotional. There are many reasons for the choice: design, durability, eco-friendliness, and costeffectiveness. The flooring, acquiring new unprecedented expressive and functional values: it is able to fully reflect the ethical and aesthetic canons of a more responsible contemporary architecture; it can boast an optimal ratio between applicable load and wear level and a truly high durability. It has an extraordinarily natural effect made possible by the choice of texture, color gradations and different color shades of the adopted elements, which can physically and emotionally bond with the surrounding urban context. Rest and Recreation Area. The multifaceted and multifunctional seats and tables provide places for gathering, socializing and meeting. The following have been chosen as furnishing elements of the rest and recreational area, located in such a way that the following can be admired and observed: the mosaic walls; the grove; the playground; and

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Fig. 2. The figure shows the main design interventions of Urban and Functional Redevelopment of Rocco Petrone Square.

also temporary events and demonstrations, thanks to the installation (at certain times of the year) of a temporary stage within the square.

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These are modular elements designed to function as individual elements and also in different combinations, with unlimited possibilities in terms of aggregation and versatility. Their arrangement can be easily changed, creating different configurations. The resulting lines and geometric shapes become graphical elements and have an aesthetic value: they are reminiscent of some of the possible combinations of Tetris tiles as they can be arranged at the base of the game. The seats and tables are meant to illustrate and evoke the baggage of migrants, hypothesizing the design of gathering places, through the placement on some surfaces of strategy games (e.g. chess) and the transformation of some blocks into display cases containing books (on the theme of emigration from Sasso di Castalda, Rocco Petrone and the Moon landing), echoing the idea of the “Little Free Library.” Pixelated Photo Trail. The creation of the pixelated photographic path is done by laying an art installation mosaic along the retaining wall of the square-parking area. The Pixel wall echoes the compositional technique of the pavement, creating a spatial continuity with it. It has the function of illustrating and evoking, through the choice of “photographic fragments”: the migration phenomenon; the Apollo 11 Launch Director, Nasa engineer Rocco Petrone; the Lunar Enterprise. Overview Installation. The sculpture made of COR-TEN steel reproduces the stylized profile of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and, at the same time, the view of Earth from inside the lunar module. It integrates perfectly with the pre-existing parapet, thus creating panoramic windows without visual interference. It has the function of directing the user’s gaze to specific points in the surrounding landscape.

4 Conclusions Designing a square, understood as a multifunctional urban centrality implies its total renovation in a sustainable way, regenerating the space socially, culturally and environmentally [12, 25, 26]. Significant elements of the interventions in question are to be considered the contextual qualities of the area, that is the geometric features and the characteristics of attendance and transit. In fact, they require an adequate organization of spaces, for the purpose of the enhancement and development of urban functions located there. Due to the variability of the elements that make up the intervention as a whole, different solutions and scenic narratives can find hospitality. The intervention is closely connected to a reconsideration of collective space as a place of active pause. The evocative dimension of the project engages the viewer in original experiences of space and movement, thanks to the mutability of the elements of which it is composed. The intervention, as a whole, not only has the task of revitalizing the square, and making it a symbolic and characteristic place, but also allows it to reaffirm, through its form, its specific components, the arrangement of street furniture elements, architectural and sculptural expressions, its role as the urban centrality of the town, as a functional space to be experienced and, at the same time, foster in citizens a sense of identity and belonging.

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In this regard, in addition to the necessary enhancement of the existing urban and environmental layout, the careful choice of details, the use of sustainable and locally available materials is preferred wherever possible, in order to make the square a gathering place capable of supporting and promoting the combination of functions proper to the public space in question and strongly connected to the history of the area.

References 1. Alseragy, A., Elnokaly, A., Abul-Ela, M.: Heritage-led urban regeneration as a catalyst for sustainable urban development (2018) 2. Ricci, L.: Spazio pubblico, arte e identità. Una dimensione sperimentale e comprensiva della rigenerazione urbana. Spazio pubblico, arte, identità. Per una strategia di rigenerazione urbana 019, 8–12 (2021) 3. Botto, I.S.: La dimensione metropolitana della rigenerazione. Strategia e progetti di un campo di azione multilivello e multiattoriale. In: Lo stato dell’arte della rigenerazione urbana: spunti teorici e casi pratici, pp. 40–47. CEAS, Milano (2022) 4. Inroy, N.M.: Urban regeneration and public space: the story of an urban park. Space Polity 4(1), 23–40 (2000) 5. Bassett, S.M.: The role of spatial justice in the regeneration of urban spaces: Groningen, The Netherlands. MUP Capstone, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2013) 6. Galvis, J.P.: Planning for urban life: equality, order, and exclusion in bogotá’s lively public spaces. J. Lat. Am. Geogr. 16(3), 83–105 (2017) 7. Ricci, L.: Governare la città contemporanea. Riforme e strumenti per la rigenerazione urbana/Governing contemporary cities: reform and measures promoting urban regeneration. Urbanistica 160, 91–96 (2017) 8. Ricci, L., Tang, Y., Ravagnan, C.: Italy and China, between history and nature. A network of networks for urban regeneration and territorial rebalancing. In: Gambardella C., (ed.) World Heritage and Contamination, pp. 453–462. Gangemi, Roma (2020) 9. Naya, R.B., de la Cal, N.P., Medina, C.D., Ezquerra, I., García-Pérez, S., Monclús, J.: Quality of public space and sustainable development goals: analysis of nine urban projects in Spanish cities. Front. Arch. Res. 12(3), 477–495 (2023) 10. Akkar Ercan, Z.M.: Public spaces of post-industrial cities and their changing roles. ODTÜ Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi 24(1), 115–137 (2007) 11. Sciacchitano, E.: L’evoluzione delle politiche sul patrimonio culturale in Europa dopo Faro. In: Zagato, L., Vecco, M. (eds.) Sapere l’Europa, sapere d’Europa 3, pp. 45–62. Ca’ Foscari, Venezia (2015) 12. Cooper, D.: Regard between strangers: diversity, equality and the reconstruction of public space. Crit. Soc. Policy 18(57), 465–492 (1998) 13. Ravazzoli, E., Torricelli, G.P.: Urban mobility and public space: a challenge for the sustainable liveable city of the future. J. Public Space 2(2), 37–50 (2017) 14. Equipaje, R.M.I.: The role of public space in sustainable urban development. In: Amoruso G (ed.) Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design. INTBAU 2017. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol. 3. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-57937-5_145 15. Orsetti, E., Tollin, N., Lehmann, M., Valderrama, V.A., Morató, J.: Building resilient cities: climate change and health interlinkages in the planning of public spaces. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19(3), 1355 (2022) 16. Muminovic, M.: Place identity and sustainable urban regeneration: public space in Canberra City Centre. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. Plan. 12(4), 734–743 (2017)

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17. Mariano, C., Gràvalos Lacambra, I., Di Monte, P.: Open urban space regeneration strategies based on urban welfare: a project and experiment in the San Lorenzo district in Rome, Italy. Sustainability 14(24), 16487 (2022) 18. Li, M.: Urban regeneration through public space: a case study in squares in Dalian, China. Master’s thesis, University of Waterloo (2004) 19. Carmona, M.: Public Places-Urban Spaces: The Dimension of Urban Design. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. New York (2021) 20. Manehasa, K., Çoniku, X.: The use of public space as urban regeneration tool: a case study in residential block “1 Maji” in Tirana, Albania. Eur. J. Soc. Sci. Educ. Res. 8(1s), 140–151 (2021) 21. Ramlee, M., Omar, D., Yunus, R., Samadi, Z.: Revitalization of urban public spaces: an overview. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 201, 360–367 (2015) 22. Borja, J., Muxí, Z.: El espacio público: ciudad y ciudadanía. Electa, Roma (2001) 23. El-Husseiny, M.A.: Role of public space in achieving social sustainability in Cairo. Asian J. Environ.-Behav. Stud. 4(14), 145–158 (2013) 24. Carmona, M., Heath, T., Oc, T., Tiesdell, S., Carmona, M.: Public Places - Urban Spaces, 1st edn. Routledge, London (2003) 25. Carr, S., Francis, M., Rivlin, L.G., Stone, A.M.: Public Space. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1992) 26. Harun, N.Z., Zakariya, K., Mansor, M., Zakaria, K.: Determining attributes of urban plaza for social sustainability. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 153, 606–615 (2014)

The Innovation of Urban Planning Tools for Energy-Resilient Cities

Utilizing Spatial Multi-criteria Analysis to Determine Optimal Sites for Green Hydrogen Infrastructure Deployment Shiva Rahmani1(B)

, Rossella Scorzelli1 , Federica Ragone1 , Grazia Fattoruso2 and Beniamino Murgante1

,

1 School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza,

Italy [email protected] 2 Photovoltaic and Sensor Applications Laboratory, ENEA RC Portici, P.Le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Naples, Italy

Abstract. Green hydrogen has emerged as a promising solution to tackle the challenges of urban regional planning and energy resilience. The production and use of hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier can play a critical part in reaching these objectives as cities worldwide work to lower their carbon footprint. The main challenge is to identify the most suitable areas for the Green Hydrogen Infrastructure (GHI) location. Several criteria are essential to select these areas to ensure efficient distribution and accessibility. This paper proposes a spatial multi- criteria analysis integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in the Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify the most suitable locations for hydrogen infrastructure. This approach considers multiple criteria, such as demand, accessibility, environmental impact, and cost. In addition, three different scenarios were analyzed, emphasizing the technical, economic, and environmental criteria. The final result saw the comparison of three different land suitability maps to identify the best sites for plant placement. The GIS component allows for spatial analysis, making it possible to visualize and analyze the spatial relationships between potential locations and other relevant factors. The method is applied to an energy-intensive industry in Matera municipality (Italy). This approach offers suggestions on how urban planners, decision-makers, and other stakeholders may help green hydrogen become developed and used as a sustainable energy source. This research claims that green hydrogen could significantly improve energy resilience in the face of climate change and other global concerns while transforming energy systems. Keywords: land suitability · Multi-criteria Analysis · Green hydrogen (GH) · Sustainability

1 Introduction Green energy is generated by minimizing all possible negative environmental impacts, making it a renewable energy source. Sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy are being developed and promoted as alternatives with minimal contributions to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 385–396, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_34

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climate change. These sources are commonly called “green” because they do not produce harmful pollutants or greenhouse gases (GHGs). While transitioning to green energy is crucial for addressing climate change and reducing GHG emissions, it is essential to recognize that relying solely on green energy will not fully solve the climate crisis. Additional measures such as energy efficiency, conservation, and behavioral changes that reduce the demand for fossil fuel and power plants are necessary to cut emissions and address climate change issues effectively. In this context, the importance of rational environmental and urban planning, rooted in the principles of sustainable development [1], cannot be overstated [2, 3]. Rational environmental and urban planning based on sustainable development is also essential in this regard. Green hydrogen derived from water electrolysis, a process that separates water into oxygen and hydrogen gas through the passage of an electric current, has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon energy system and contribute to mitigating climate change [4]. Green hydrogen, especially, has garnered considerable interest for two primary reasons. Firstly, the process of water dissociation into oxygen and hydrogen gas does not result in greenhouse gas emissions. Secondly, the electricity used for the electrolysis can be sourced from renewable energy, making the entire process environmentally sustainable. Therefore, green hydrogen can be considered a genuinely green fuel when produced using electricity from renewable sources and employing low-impact production and transportation methods. However, one of the significant challenges has been the higher cost of hydrogen, mainly green hydrogen, compared to fossil fuels. Today, hydrogen has already positioned itself as a competitive option against traditional fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and gasoil. This shift is partly due to the incentivization policies implemented by the Italian government through the National Restoration and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which allocates 3.2 billion euros to the “Hydrogen” initiative [5]. Looking towards the 2050 horizon, the goal is to achieve broader hydrogen utilization in chemical and transportation industries (including up to 80% of long-haul trucks) and “hard-to-abate” sectors that currently rely on non-electric energy sources [6]. This paper aims to investigate and identify the optimal scenario for establishing a green hydrogen infrastructure. To accomplish this, we will employ a spatial multicriteria analysis technique that integrates the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Spatial analysis approaches have proven to be cost-effective, rapid, and reliable tools for assessing the potential of renewable energy sources. By utilizing these methodologies, we can consider multiple criteria and components such as renewable energy availability, existing infrastructure, population density, and transportation systems. Our objective is to identify the most viable and desirable location for implementing green hydrogen infrastructure by evaluating and contrasting different scenarios based on these principles. Selecting the optimal scenario for constructing green hydrogen infrastructure is a complex task that requires considering various geographical, environmental, and economic factors. We intend to develop a comprehensive framework that incorporates these variables and enables us to make informed decisions based on data analysis using GIS and AHP techniques. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the methodology employed, which is spatial multicriteria analysis. In the second section, we apply these techniques to identify the optimal site for green hydrogen production to serve the

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“Italcementi” industry in Matera, Basilicata, Italy. After the land suitability map, further elaborations were developed to propose three different alternative scenarios to the final result previously obtained. The three different scenarios result from emphasizing the three main criteria already identified. Finally, the third part presents the results of our study and outlines future research perspectives.

2 Methodology Land suitability analysis plays a crucial role in addressing the challenges associated with establishing the Green Hydrogen Infrastructure (GHI). It involves the consideration of multiple criteria, presenting a complex decision-making problem that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative aspects [7, 8]. According to the literature [9, 10], the multicriteria method most frequently employed is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this study, the methodology implemented is Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis, which integrates AHP in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. This integration has emerged as a support tool for planners and decision-makers in decision-making processes [11]. The scientific literature evaluates this approach as robust and well-established [12] because it offers several benefits, such as the capability to consider multiple criteria and handle diverse spatial information. GIS enables us to visualize and analyze geographical data, such as renewable energy potential, population density, and existing infrastructure. On the other hand, AHP offers a systematic and logical approach to assess the relative importance of different criteria factors and make optimal selections. By integrating these methodologies, we gain a robust tool for analyzing and comparing alternative scenarios, including developing green hydrogen production facilities, transportation networks, and distribution systems. While several studies have been conducted to evaluate the suitability of renewable energy sources [13–15], only a few studies have focused on assessing the optimal locations for Green Hydrogen Infrastructure [16–18]. The main challenges lie in identifying the appropriate criteria and sub-criteria for this purpose. This research’s first step is defining criteria, sub-criteria, and constraint factors. The result of the analysis is the map that displays the layer of restrictions. Subsequently, the weights are computed for each sub-criteria using AHP. The individual weights are recorded within the GIS environment. By utilizing the Overlay tool in ArcGIS, Map Algebra expressions are executed to generate the final result of the methodology, which is the map depicting land suitability. This paper aims to create land suitability maps to pinpoint the most favorable location for producing green hydrogen to support the Italcementi industry in Matera, Italy (Basilicata).

3 Case Study 3.1 Study Area Analysis The choice of case study concerns the cement plant “Italcementi.” It is an industry belonging to the “Heidelberg Cement Group,” a leader in producing hydraulic cement. The factory is located in Basilicata (Italy), in the municipality of Matera.

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Italcementi has been identified among Italy’s energy-intensive industries with a production process that results in valuable wastewater for producing green hydrogen through electrolysis. The study area shown in Fig. 1 covers 2.328 km2 . It includes the municipality of Matera and its neighboring municipalities, which fall both in the Basilicata region, such as Irsina, Grottole, Miglionico, Montescaglioso, and in the Puglia region, such as Gravina in Puglia, Altamura, Santeramo in Colle, Laterza, and Ginosa.

Fig. 1. Study area.

3.2 Determining Criteria and Sub-criteria Selecting the criteria and sub-criteria is crucial in producing the ultimate outcome. Similarly, determining the primary criteria is derived from a comprehensive examination of existing literature and consultations with field experts. Our selection has focused on three key criteria: technical, economic, and environmental, as illustrated in Table 1.

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Table 1. Identification of criteria and sub-criteria. Main Criteria

Sub-Criteria

Technical

Slope Solar radiation

Economic

Distance of roads Distance of industry Distance of RES Distance of Gas pipelines

Environmental

Land use

3.3 AHP-Based Calculation of Criteria Weights In the 1980s, mathematician Thomas Saaty introduced the AHP [19]. He defined AHP as “a theory of measurement through pairwise comparisons and relies on the judgments of experts to derive priority scales. It is these scales that measure intangibles in relative terms. The comparisons are made using a scale of absolute judgments representing how much more one element dominates another concerning a given attribute” [20]. The semantic scale of judgments in qualitative terms has values between 1 and 9. A value of 1 indicates that the two items are equally important, while a value of 9 attaches extreme importance to one over the other. After the process hierarchy consisting of goals, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives has been identified, it is possible to move on to the next step. The alternatives in this proposed study are represented as square cells of a vector grid. Determining the matrix of sub-criteria comparisons is crucial to obtain the vector of weights. For the developed case study, the matrix and the vector of weights are shown in Table 2. Table 2. Pairwise comparison matrix and weights of sub-criteria C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

Wi (%)

C1

1,00

0,20

0,50

0,14

0,25

0,33

0,20

3

C2

6,00

1,00

5,00

0,50

3,00

4,00

2,00

24

C3

2,00

0,20

1,00

0,17

0,33

0,50

0,25

5

C4

7,00

2,00

6,00

1,00

4,00

5,00

3,00

34

C5

4,00

0,33

3,00

0.25

1,00

2,00

0,50

11

C6

3,00

0,25

2,00

0,20

0,50

1,00

0,33

7

C7

5,00

0,50

4,00

0,33

2,00

3,00

1,00

16

Judgments made by experts may be compromised by a certain degree of inconsistency]. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a verification by calculating the Coherence Ratio (CR). This index is given by the ratio of the Coherence Index (CI) to the Random

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Coherence Index (RCI). For n > 4 (with n number of sub-criteria), the check is satisfied if CR < 10%. In our case, the verification is satisfied, as shown in Table 3. Table 3. Consistency check λmax

n

CI

RCI

CR

CR (%)

7,61

7

0,10

1,32

0,08

7,70

3.4 Processing of Criteria’s Maps A spatial evaluation was conducted to determine the most suitable locations for establishing green hydrogen infrastructure. This involved utilizing GIS software to over-lay normalized project objectives and criteria data. Each sub-criterion was represented as a separate map layer, leading to seven layers for spatial data analysis. These layers encompassed assessments of solar radiation, slope, proximity to roads, adjacency to Industry (Italcementi), presence of renewable energy sources (RES) in the vicinity, distance from gas pipelines, and land usage. The subsequent sections will provide further insights into the processing of each map. Solar radiation plays a vital role as a criterion in assessing the appropriateness of specific regions for implementing green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is generated utilizing renewable energy sources, with solar power being particularly significant. Solar power converts sunlight into electricity through photovoltaic panels. The quantity and intensity of solar radiation in a particular region directly impact the efficiency and viability of solar power generation, thereby significantly influencing the production of green hydrogen. Consequently, conducting an analysis of solar radiation levels in a prospective site can yield valuable insights into the potential amount of renewable energy that can be harnessed and utilized to produce green hydrogen. Moreover, incorporating solar radiation levels into the evaluation alongside factors like topography, land use, and infrastructure can assist in determining the optimal sites for implementing green hydrogen projects. The solar radiation analysis tools provided by the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension enable the cartographic and analytical evaluation of the sun’s influence on a particular geographic area. Evaluating the slope is critical to consider within the technical criteria when determining the feasibility of implementing green hydrogen infrastructure in a specific area. Regarding the solar radiation map of the study area, the significant portion of the region experiencing a high level of solar radiation is a favorable attribute. This is due to the substantial amount of sunlight a considerable part of the area receives. The terrain’s gradient and steepness impact the positioning, alignment, and stability of solar panels used for generating renewable energy to produce green hydrogen. As depicted in the map, steep slopes present challenges in terms of the installation and upkeep of solar panels within the study area; consequently, this can have an impact on the efficiency of solar power systems due to shading and limited sunlight exposure. As a result, areas with gentle slopes are generally considered more favorable for installing solar arrays.

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Gentle slopes provide greater flexibility in terms of the design and placement of solar panels, ensuring maximum exposure to sunlight throughout the day. Furthermore, slope assessment is also pertinent in constructing other infrastructure essential for green hydrogen production, including hydrogen storage facilities and transportation systems. Steep slopes can present challenges for safe and efficient hydrogen transportation, highlighting the importance of considering slope characteristics in planning and developing such infrastructure. To generate proximity maps, we employed two distinct methods. For calculating the distance from roads and industrial sites, we utilized the Isochrone tool, which calculates based on time, enabling us to identify the fastest route for green hydrogen transformation. Conversely, the NEAR tool was employed as the second method for proximity analysis. The proximity to roads holds significance in the context of green hydrogen production, as the transportation of hydrogen from the production site to its intended destination can significantly impact the cost and efficiency of the overall process. Suppose a green hydrogen production facility is situated near a major road or highway. In that case, it can benefit from convenient transportation logistics, reducing costs and logistical challenges associated with hydrogen distribution. In such a scenario, the proximity to a major road or highway can substantially reduce transportation costs and enhance process efficiency. This is primarily due to the ease and cost-effectiveness of transporting hydrogen via trucks to its intended destination or establishing a connection between the production facility and the existing pipeline infrastructure. In this case, we utilized the isochrone distance calculation method, which considers time dependency, to assess the proximity to intersections of main roads within the study area. We employed the ORS (Open Route Service) tool within the GIS platform. The distance was calculated based on a range of 5 min to 25 min of travel time for heavy cars and trucks. The resulting map illustrates that heavy vehicles can reach the vast study area within a timeframe of less than 30 min. Considering Italcementi’s role as an end user of green hydrogen, the need for faster transportation becomes crucial. To address this, we employed the same time-dependent distance calculation method for roads, ranging from 10 to 50 min. This approach is vital for enabling more sustainable hydrogen transportation. However, based on the map, it is evident that not all areas fall within the fast transport zone towards the destination of Italcementi. Moving on to the second set of distance maps, the availability and reliability of renewable energy sources (RES) play a crucial role in the green hydrogen production process. Fluctuations in solar or wind energy production can directly impact the availability of electricity for the electrolysis process. Therefore, selecting a location abundant in renewable energy sources and capable of effectively integrating energy storage solutions is essential to ensure a consistent and reliable energy supply. In order to measure the distance from RES, we utilized the NEAR function in GIS to determine the proportion of nearby sites where intervention is feasible. We applied a similar method for assessing the proximity to gas pipelines as we did for other proximity analyses. Moreover, land utilization is a significant criterion in achieving sustainable green hydrogen production. In addition to excluding the previously designated map area, we classified the land use into five distinct classes. Among these,

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brownfield and industrial sites are considered the most suitable for our purposes, while green areas hold lesser importance and are assigned a value of five. 3.5 Land Suitability Map The final result of the spatial multi-criteria analysis is shown in Fig. 2. The GIS overlay tool was used to identify the best site for realizing a green hydrogen infrastructure serving Italcementi. The map shows a limited presence of high-suitability areas. Most of the land falls below the medium suitability level, with the most favorable location being the vicinity of the Italcementi plant. The highest percentage of accessible areas is considered medium (54%) to medium-low (43%). These results suggest that potential energy production from existing renewable energy sources, infrastructure, transport systems, and population density are significant factors in determining the suitability of a location for GHI.

Fig. 2. Land suitability map.

3.6 Development of Three Alternative Scenarios Following the land suitability map (Fig. 2), further elaborations were developed to propose three alternative scenarios to the previously obtained final result. The three different scenarios derive from respectively emphasizing the three main criteria already identified: technical criteria (scenario 1), economic criteria (scenario 2), and environmental criteria (scenario 3).

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The three scenarios elaborated in the framework of the project indicate possible alternative future contexts in which new structures and related stakeholder discussions on decision-making could take shape. For each scenario, the weights (Table 4) of the sub-criteria were recalculated, giving greater weight once to technical criteria (Table 4a), once to economic criteria (Table 4b), and finally to environmental criteria (Table 4c). The following steps are the same as those previously followed in the GIS environment. Table 4. Weights of the relevant sub-criteria for the 3 scenarios. a

b

c

wi (%)

wi (%)

wi (%)

C1

6

C1

3

C1

3

C2

44

C2

22

C2

22

C3

2

C3

4

C3

2

C4

15

C4

30

C4

15

C5

5

C5

9

C5

5

C6

3

C6

6

C6

3

C7

25

C7

25

C7

50

Fig. 3. Land suitability maps of three scenarios

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For the first scenario (technical criteria), it can be seen, as shown in Fig. 3a, that most soils have a medium-low suitability. The same for scenarios 2 (economic criteria) and 3 (environmental criteria), as shown in Fig. 3b and Fig. 3c, respectively. The most favorable suitability is also located in the vicinity of the Italcementi plant. It, therefore, represents a potentially suitable area for the siting of GHI infrastructure.

4 Conclusion In conclusion, the paper aims to identify the most suitable location for the design and construction of an infrastructure for the production, storage, and distribution of green hydrogen in order to promote sustainability and low-carbon energy consumption. Integrating the AHP method into the GIS environment developed a comprehensive framework for spatial multi-criteria analysis, which considers various geographical, environmental, and economic facts. AHP allows us to break down the complex decision-making process into several sub-problems by considering multiple criteria, both quantitative and qualitative. Thus, this approach can be adapted to various regions and sectors interested in the transition to low-carbon energy systems and can provide valuable information on the feasibility and effectiveness of using green hydrogen as an alternative to traditional hydrocarbon-based energy. The main difficulties in using this method are found in the assignment of weights. The formulation of expert judgments may be marred by inconsistency, as the green hydrogen sector is still an experimental field. Furthermore, implementation in a GIS environment for spatial analysis is not trivial. Indeed, the greatest difficulties arose in converting the individual criteria and sub-criteria into digital maps and in choosing the unit of analysis against which to produce the processing. The methodology developed in this application is an important support tool for planners, evaluators, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who play a key role in decisionmaking processes and can be applied to other sites in Italy [18]. Using this multi-criteria spatial analysis technique, stakeholders, including policy-makers, energy companies, and interested parties, can evaluate and compare different sites and scenarios according to a number of criteria, such as potential renewable energy, existing infrastructure, population density, and transport systems. The result of the study presented in this paper provides interesting information and research perspectives for future scenarios. Ultimately, this research contributes to the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank ENEA. This research is funded by the ongoing Project POR H2 - RICERCA E SVILUPPO DI TECNOLOGIE PER LA FILIERA DELL’IDROGENO. Accordo di Programma MiTE - ENEA, PNRR Investimento 3.5 - Ricerca e Sviluppo sull’Idrogeno.

References 1. Murgante, B., Borruso, G., Lapucci, A.: Sustainable development: concepts and methods for its application in urban and environmental planning. Stud. Comput. Intell. 348, 1–15 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19733-8_1

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2. Hoelzen, J., Silberhorn, D., Zill, T., Bensmann, B., Hanke-Rauschenbach, R.: Hydrogenpowered aviation and its reliance on green hydrogen infrastructure review and research gaps. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 47, 3108–3130 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJHYDENE.2021. 10.239 3. Las Casas, G., Scorza, F., Murgante, B.: Razionalità a-priori: una proposta verso una pianificazione antifragile. Scienze Regionali 18, 329–338 (2019). https://doi.org/10.14650/ 93656 4. Gielen, D., Bank, W.: Hydrogen: A Renewable Energy Perspective Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: A Global Renewable Energy Roadmap: Comparing Energy Systems Models with IRENA’s REmap 2030 Project View project Global Energy Assessment-To- wards a Sustainable Future View project 5. Consigli dei Ministri: Piano nazionale di ripresa e resilienza #nextgenerationitalia, Italy (2021) 6. European Commission, The European Green Deal sets out how to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind, Brussels (2019) 7. Baufumé, S., et al.: GIS-based scenario calculations for a nationwide German hydrogen pipeline infrastructure. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 38, 3813–3829 (2013). https://doi.org/10. 1016/J.IJHYDENE.2012.12.147 8. Caylor, J.P., Hanratty, T.P.: Survey of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods for Complex Environments 9. Vafaei, N., Ribeiro, R.A., Camarinha-Matos, L.M.: Normalization techniques for multicriteria decision making: analytical hierarchy process case study. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Falcão, A.J., Vafaei, N., Najdi, S. (eds.) DoCEIS 2016. IAICT, vol. 470, pp. 261–269. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31165-4_26 10. Triantaphyllou, E.: Multi-criteria decision making methods. In: Multi-criteria Decision Making Methods: A Comparative Study, pp. 5–21. Springer, Boston, MA (2000). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-1-4757-3157-6_2 11. Mosadeghi, R., Warnken, J., Tomlinson, R., Mirfenderesk, H.: Comparison of fuzzy-AHP and AHP in a spatial multi-criteria decision making model for urban land-use planning. Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 49, 54–65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COMPENVUR BSYS.2014.10.001 12. Ghasempour, R., Nazari, M.A., Ebrahimi, M., Ahmadi, M.H., Hadiyanto, H.: Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for selecting solar plants site and technology: a review (2019). https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.8.1.15-25 13. Rapal, B.K.A.L., Sumabat, A.K.R., Lopez, N.S.A.: Analytic hierarchy process for multicriteria site selection of utility-scale solar and wind projects. Chem. Eng. Trans. 61, 1255–1260 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1761207 14. Koc, A., Turk, S., Sahin, ¸ G.: Multi-criteria of wind-solar site selection problem using a GISAHP-based approach with an application in Igdir Province/Turkey. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11356-019-06260-1/Published 15. Alqaderi, M.B., Emar, W., Saraereh, O.A.: Concentrated solar power site suitability using GIS-MCDM technique taken UAE as a case study. Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl. 9, 261–268 (2018). https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2018.090440 16. Ali, F., Bennui, A., Chowdhury, S., Techato, K.: Suitable site selection for solar-based green hydrogen in southern Thailand using GIS-MCDM approach. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14116597 17. Dagdougui, H., Ouammi, A., Sacile, R.: A regional decision support system for onsite renewable hydrogen production from solar and wind energy sources. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 36, 14324–14334 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.08.050

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Energy-Saving and Urban Planning: An Application of Integrated Spatial and Statistical Analyses to Naples Gerardo Carpentieri , Carmela Gargiulo , Carmen Guida(B) and Floriana Zucaro

,

Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The worldwide push to promote sustainability has placed the energy transition as an action priority, especially considering the impacts of climate change and the current energy crisis. Despite the widespread acceptance that local action is essential for achieving low-carbon cities that save non-renewable energy sources, a lack of integration between energy-saving solutions and urban planning continues to hinder the work of local decision-makers, technicians, and practitioners. This study integrates statistics and spatial analysis techniques to investigate the relationships between urban characteristics and residential energy consumption. The study is a first step of wider research which employs a GIS-based methodology on an urban scale to support decision-makers in identifying the most effective urban areas and fields of intervention to reduce urban energy footprint in the face of climate challenges and emerging geopolitical scenarios related to energy supply. The spatial and statistical analysis was based on variables related to key urban characteristics, including socio-economic, physical, functional, and environmental factors. The research was conducted in the city of Naples, Italy, and the results indicate that the GWR methodology differently explains residential energy consumption values according to the urban context. The outcomes support local decision-makers defining a knowledge frame of urban context in order to identify energy saving interventions. Keywords: Urban Planning · Energy Sustainability · Spatial Analysis

1 Introduction Urban scientists, stakeholders, and planners are greatly concerned about energy consumption in urban areas. The activities taking place in urban areas are responsible for approximately 75% of the world’s total energy consumption and 50–60% of its greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Although cities are recognised as major contributors to environmental problems, they also have a critical role to play in addressing global challenges like climate change and the energy crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. With extensive urbanisation worldwide [2], it is worth delving into the energy footprint of the urban environment for sustainable socio-economic development. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 397–408, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_35

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Only recently, urban energy planning has been drawn to the attention of city planning. This delay has led, in the past decades, to a lack of coordinated strategies for balancing urban and energy-related development and efficient implementing policies for energy saving. To enhance energy planning, it is crucial to incorporate it within the iterative urban and territorial transformations cycle, described in the following figure (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The iterative urban and territorial transformation cycle for energy efficiency and savingoriented planning.

The cycle allows the management of the urban system as a whole and its development towards future and compatible states, to face potential challenges. This approach involves four steps organized into two main phases: Knowledge, Decision, for the first, and Action and Monitoring, in the second phase [3]. The first phase plays an essential role in the whole process since it involves the analyses and interpretation of the urban context (Knowledge) to support decision-makers in defining a set of interventions (Decision) to improve the energy saving performance of a city. The second phase aims at gradually implementing the set of chosen interventions, also according to the available resources (Action) and assess the performance of developing scenarios (Monitoring), eventually adjusting the planning path (in that case the iterative cycle may start again). Hence, the starting point to enhance energy planning is deepening the relationships among economic, environmental and urban features and energy consumption. In the last decades, scientific communities have been developing models to investigate, simulate and predict energy consumption at the urban level. Two categories can be identified: top-down and bottom-up models [4–6]. When analysing cities, top-down models take a macroscopic view, and they do not focus on punctual energy usage but rather treat the built environment as a whole and use historical energy data to understand energy consumption. These models account for the evolutionary effects of urban phenomena on energy consumption (e.g. technology, socioeconomics, etc.). On the other hand, bottom-up models examine energy use at the microscale of individual buildings and extrapolate the data to larger regions. This approach relies on extensive data to analyse the energy consumption of each user.

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Despite extensive research on urban energy, most studies have failed to adopt a holistic approach that integrates energy and land use planning. Only recently, a few models have been created to address the limitations of a sectorial approach. Cityish [7], SEMANCO [8], and Urban SEM [9, 10] are representative examples of these tools. Thus, examples like these are still rare in the European context and they hardly ever find an application into urban planning practice. The main objective of the initial research is to support local decision-makers, in the first phase of urban energy planning cycle, to support decision step, identifying key urban areas that require intervention to reduce energy consumption. In particular, this contribution presents a first step of this wider research, presenting the results of an innovative hybrid methodology to understand the significance level of urban features affecting energy consumption to support the decision-making process. The methodology has been designed to be fully managed in GIS (Geographical Information System) environment: GIS tools can effectively combine statistical and mathematical aspects of both bottom-up and top-down models due to their flexibility and interpretation capabilities. The work describes the case study of Naples, Italy, where statistical and spatial statistical analyses techniques were jointly applied to investigate the relationship between residential energy consumption with the physical, functional and socio-economic features. This paper is divided into different sections. After this introduction, the second section discusses the methodology used, while the third section presents the results obtained for the study area, the City of Naples. Finally, the last section contains the main conclusions of the contribution and future developments of the overall research.

2 Materials and Method In this contribution, we opted to test a GIS-based hybrid (top-down and bottom-up) methodology, to be integrated into urban planning decision processes, based on opensource data concerning urban features and residential energy consumption. Figure 2 below summarises the methodology workflow. Different methods have been employed to capture energy-consuming urban areas, as summerised in the previous paragraph. Thus, only a few of them has adopted a holistic approach and has been designed to effectively support decision-making processes. This study employes an array of GIS-based statistical analyses to interpret which urban features significantly affect urban energy usage and where dependencies among variable are more significant. Hence, the results may explain where these relationships are useful for decision-makers in energy planning. Since the methodology has been designed to support effective energy saving-oriented urban planning practice, data were collected using opensource dataset. To begin, we identified the urban characteristics and corresponding variables that have the greatest impact on energy consumption. Our selection was based on previous research by [11–16]. For this application, we chose 23 variables among the most representative of the whole urban system and its interactions. They are grouped according to the urban subsystem they relate to:

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– Residential energy consumption given as kWh consumed annually by urban reidents; – Physical characteristics. Information such as the number of buildings, their age and condition, construction type, number of floors, and surface area, is important to understand the key features of the urban fabric and built environment; – Socio-economic condition. The social and economic circumstances of a city may have an impact on energy usage. Therefore, we have chosen to collect data on variables such as the number of residents, average age, age demographics and employment status. Additionally, variables detecting the intensity and frequency of urban activities have been collected, such as the main land use destinations and the number of employees per each census tract. We will enrich the list of chosen urban components and related variables, in developing further steps of the research, by performing an extensive systematic literature review and through surveys and focus groups with experts and decision-makers. The main sources of data are Municipality [17], ISTAT [18], Urban Atlas [19]. Once all data were collected, they were associated with census tracts, which are the minimum territorial reference area for this study and standardised according to minmax scaling technique. The output of this first phase is a set of arrays, for each territorial unit, collecting standardised data about dependent variable y (energy consumption) and independent variable xi (concerning urban features). The second step concerns statistical and spatial analyses to obtain a model defining the strength (magnitude of closeness) and the kind (positive or negative) relationships between the dependent variable and independent variables. In this phase, an exploratory regression analysis was firstly performed to evaluate all possible combinations of the input candidate independent variables that best explain the dependent variable within the context. The spatial autocorrelation analysis is at the basis of this step. Using the Global Moran’s I Statistics and given a set of features and an associated attribute, this tool calculates a z-score and p-value to indicate whether the null hypotheses can be rejected. In this case, the null hypothesis states that the values of the features are spatially uncorrelated. Secondly, we performed separately two models: the ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and the geographically weighted regression (GWR). The degree of correlation between variables is a crucial factor to consider before conducting the two spatial analyses, to avoid data redundance and multi-collinearity. To choose the best set of variables with a low level of multi-collinearity, it is necessary to execute an exploratory regression analysis. Following the exploratory regression analysis and choosing the best set of variables, spatial statistical analyses were run to determine the relationships between urban characteristics and energy consumption. The best viable set obtained is analysed by applying OLS and GWR regressions. The regression models (GWR and OLS) with selected variables allows for an interpretation of the spatial dynamics of energy consumption by highlighting spatial dependency, nonstationary and correction. It is especially useful for identifying the spatial distribution of relations between the energy consumption and selected variables. The GWR differs from traditional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression in that it estimates a specific regression equation for each territorial unit using a weighted distance matrix. The matrix assigns weights and significance levels to spatial units based on their proximity to an observation point, overcoming the assumption of equal weights in the

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OLS model. The result of the second phase of the proposed methodology is an array of coefficients labeled as βi,k . The subscript i pertains to the selected variable, while k to the territorial unit. Hence, the methodology would allow to produce k models that highlight which variables are more significant to explain energy consumption and how these dependencies differ within a territory. The case-study approach was adopted to capture the complexities of the phenomenon and gain a detailed understanding of the potential applicability of the methodology. Naples, in Southern Italy, has been chosen as test case and its details are described in the following paragraph.

Fig. 2. Methodology workflow.

3 Results Naples, the third largest city in Italy, has a population of 959,188 [20] and a population density of 8,059 inh./km2 (ISTAT, 2020) over an area of 119.02 km2 . The city is divided into twelve neighbourhoods and ten borough authorities, each with different physical and functional characteristics (Fig. 3). Naples can be considered as a representative coastal city in the south-eastern Mediterranean region. The city is a historically significant city known for its rich cultural heritage and diverse urban fabrics. From the city centre to the inner city, Naples showcases a complex blend of architectural styles, urban layouts, and historical layers that have evolved over centuries. The historical centre is characterised by a Hippodomeo orthogonal layout, given the city Greek origins. The urban fabric here consists of narrow streets that follow the contours of the hilly terrain. The buildings typically exhibit a mix of architectural styles and construction types. Moving to the inner cities, the urban fabric gradually transforms itself to a more diverse and contemporary landscape. While historic buildings still exist, modern constructions, including residential complexes, commercial developments, and industrial settlements (both functioning and dismissed) become more prevalent.

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Naples has been chosen as case-study because, due to its heterogeneities, the results may provide insightful elements to test the methodology in a complex and stratified urban environment, and further develop it.

Fig. 3. The city of Naples and districts boundaries.

The first step of the proposed methodology provided a set of significant variables that we collected using opensource data. The list of 23 variables was the starting point for applying the methodology to the selected case study. The result of the first step is an array of standardised variables, both dependent (energy consumption) and independent (physical, functional and socio-economic variables). Secondly, a GIS-based exploratory regression analysis was performed to highlight which independent variables, within the list, were more significant to explain the dependent variable. The performed spatial autocorrelation analysis shortened the initial list to five significant independent variables to perform further statistical analyses. Four of them depict the physical characteristics of Naples, namely the average building period (P01), the average state of conservation of buildings (P03), the number of buildings (P05) and the extension of green urban areas (P06), per census tract. The socio-economic dimension is depicted only by the number of population (S01). Spatial statistical analyses, OLS and GWR, were performed on the most significant set of variables to built up an explaining model of energy consumption. Different criteria were used to compare the performance of GWR and OLS. In this study, Multiple R-Squared (R2) and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) criteria were used for evaluating the efficiency of GWR (Table 1). Globally, the results showed that the values of R2 and AIC for GWR are 0.43 and -8,018.6, respectively. These results show the good accuracy of GWR in preparing the urban energy model, based on the employed variables. Exploratory regression and GWR combined analysis allowed to identify the most

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suitable model to explain the relationships between urban characteristics and energy consumption. Hence, a geographically weighted regression model was built to explain the dependent variable through the independent ones. After generating the model’s β coefficients, we created thematic maps to display the direct and indirect proportional relationship between the independent variables and energy consumption, along with the extent of the correlation. Table 1. Statistical outcomes OLS

GWR

Multiple R-Squared (R2)

0,3516

0,4282

Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)

−8780,270

−8018,581

Figure 4 shows the classification of census tracts according to the β variation ranges for each one of the GWR model variables. P01 and P03 (Fig. 4a and 4b) show similar relationships with energy consumption: negative in the central historical districts like Avvocata, Montecalvario, Vomero and San Lorenzo, that are representative of the building and urban stratification characterising the city of Naples, and in the northern suburb of Chiaiano where its naturalistic-agricultural connotation has been weakened by the development of spontaneous settlements resulting from “aggressive” building speculation. Positive values mark Scampia, Piscinola and Miano districts in the northern peripherical crown where high building densities and the detriment of the provision of public spaces and collective services are the common urban features of these districts. Census tracts between Chiaiano and Arenella have strong negative values for both these variables. Finally, it is worth noting that the variation of P01 is well defined, as the β values are strongly positive, in the eastern area of the city (Barra, Ponticelli, San Giovanni a Teduccio and part of Poggioreale) which has the characteristics of an industrial urban periphery characterised by a notable level of functional promiscuity and degradation. in fact, here production activities are flanked by large technological plants (purification plants, power stations, etc.), railway, motorway and airport infrastructures. P05 is characterised by a relationship that differs completely from the other physical variables, as its relationship with energy consumption is strongly positive in almost the entire urban area. In fact, it is clear from Fig. 4c that the variation of β has a unique positive behaviour from the western part, subject to intense urban transformation and redevelopment processes (e.g. Bagnoli district) to the eastern one to be reconfigured by bringing it closer to the rest of the city. Positive but lower values characterise the northern suburbs of Scampia and Piscinola. Moving from the building variables to the one related to the urban context (P06), it is possible to identify two macro-areas in the municipal territory: the western area with the intense and not always controlled building process in the districts of Pianura and Soccavo and the sparsely built-up, low-density area of Posillipo are characterised by positive relations between the presence of green areas and energy consumption, while the area extending from the hilly district of Arenella to the eastern borders of Barra and Ponticelli where this relationship takes on values close to zero. Exceptions are the Bagnoli and Fuorigrotta districts and part of the Barra

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Fig. 4. Regression coefficients.

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Fig. 4. (continued)

district, respectively, characterised by positive values. Finally, regarding the only socioeconomic variable in the GWR model, there does not seem to be a prevailing bias in the distribution of β values, as seen in Fig. 4e. Values close to zero are prevalent in the urban area, especially in suburbs such as Fuorigrotta, Chiaiano and Miano and the central ones of Stella and Pendino; the hilly area stretching from Arenella to Chiaia seems to be the only ‘homogeneous’ part of the territory with positive values.

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4 Conclusions The current energy crisis is throwing new light on the energy transition issue, which is now a first-order topic on urban planning agendas worldwide. On one hand, the effects of non-renewable energy sources on the global climate (in terms of GHG emissions) and, on the other, the increasing urbanisation help make the energy issue even more urgent. Within this scenario, cities have been affirmed as key actors in the hoped-for transition. In reviewing the literature, very little was found on energy planning at the urban scale, not only in assessment methodologies but also in terms of applicability to real-world urban planning practice. While some urban planning tools have been introduced to mitigate the use of non-renewable energy sources and, generally, improve the energy efficiency of urban areas – e.g. Piano di Azione per l’ Energia Sostenibile e il Clima (PAESC) – effective tools to support decision-makers to define the most suitable interventions and monitor their performance over time are still missing. This contribution shows the first results of wider research aimed at improving the energy urban planning process by designing a GIS-based methodology to identify which urban characteristics impact residential energy consumption most and where these relationships are the strongest by applying an spatial statistical analyses techniques. The methodology design has been applied to a case study for validation and enhancement for further advancements. Naples, Italy, has been selected as a representative case study for the urban areas of the Southern Euro-Mediterranean region. First, the explorative regression analysis was conducted to reduce the set of 23 variables selected by the literature review. This phase revealed that five variables have a low multicollinearity value. Hence, these are the most representative and significant to create the Knowledge frame and depict the intensity and spatial distribution of relationships between urban characteristics and residential energy consumption. For this application, the selected variables are the quality and age of the building stock and the extent of green areas, and the number of residents. The geographically weighted regression further investigates these relationships. The maps presented in the previous paragraph, concerning the distribution of β coefficients highlight where physical and socio-economic features are more related with the energy consumption. This initial exploratory result serves as a valuable tool for understanding the potential of this methodology and its possible applications in energy planning process. By clustering β coefficients, it becomes easier to understand energy consumption in relation to the urban areas where it occurs. However, it is worth noting that this research has a few limits, related to energy and census data. In fact, using census data from 2011 could lead to interpretive doubts due to differences between the current city scenario and the data from 2011. Moreover, this contribution only took into account electric residential energy consumption data, due to the unavailability of more detailed data, such as a breakdown of energy consumption based on the different sources of energy. Further, the list of chosen urban components and related variables may be further enhanced by an extensive systematic literature review and through surveys and focus groups with experts and decision-makers. The highlighted limits will guide the future developments of the research in order to provide and effective and applicable tool to support decision-makers in energy and urban planning practice. In particular, we aim at developing an informative expert system able to suggest a set of effective energy saving interventions and prioritise their implementation in order to optimise the related advantages.

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Acknowledgements. This work is part of the project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3 - Call for tender No. 1561 of 11.10.2022 of Ministero dell’Uni-versità e della Ricerca (MUR). European Union – NextGenerationEU. Award Number: Project code PE0000021, Concession Decree No. 1561 of 11.10.2022 adop-ted by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR), CUP E63C22002160007 - Project title “Network 4 Energy Sustainable Transition – NEST”.

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Urban Energy Resilience and Strategic Urban Planning in Emilia-Romagna: Evidence from Three Cities Giovanni Tedeschi(B) Università degli Studi di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181, 43124 Parma, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Contemporary cities are facing many challenges, from social and economic issues to the new risks related to the impacts of climate change. Focusing on energy consumptions, and the related GHG emissions, cities are considered not only the main global contributors but also the areas most exposed to risks, because of their density of population, functions and economic activities. Implementing urban planning strategies with the purpose of increasing energy efficiency and resilience overall are, for all these reasons, considered a top priority. This paper investigates the innovative contents about energy-efficient and energy-resilient urban planning solutions that have started to be implement in the cities of the Emilia-Romagna region. Two kinds of planning instruments are therefore analyzed: the voluntary Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) and the mandatory local city plans, recently approved in several cities of EmiliaRomagna. A comparative analysis of three cities in the Emilia-Romagna region, Bologna, Modena and Ravenna, is proposed on the strategies of their newly local city plans and SECAPs with focus on the topics of energy management and planning. The aim is to assess whether the new structure of local city plans and the influence of SECAPs could be useful in implementing such urban energy resiliency solutions. Keywords: urban energy resilience · SECAP · Emilia-Romagna · climate change mitigation · urban planning tools

1 Introduction Cities and human settlements have long been recognised as essential hubs in the effort against climate change [1]. Global mitigation and adaptation policies and strategies, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC [2], the Kyoto Protocol [3] and the 2015 Paris Agreement [4], have placed at the centre of debate the need to reduce climate-altering emissions within certain limits and to make societies increasingly ready and resilient to the impacts of climate change. In this context, cities are responsible for the production of more than 70% of the world’s climate-altering emissions [5], mainly due to their more than 50% population concentration [6]. For the same reasons, they are among the territories most exposed to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 409–420, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_36

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the impacts of climate change, in terms of economic damage, loss of life and disruption of essential services [7]. Energy consumption is one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions, so the ways in which cities manage to develop more efficient and robust energy production and consumption systems will be crucial for mitigation, as well as providing benefits in air quality, health and quality of life [8]. On the other hand, successful adaptation policies on an urban scale have the potential to significantly reduce the overall costs of impacts and reduce systemic risks [9]. While mitigation actions often have a top-down structure stemming from major international agreements and are organised by sectors, adaptation actions are more effective when designed and implemented on a local scale, with a recognised increasingly important role of coordination of the regional level, support to resource-poor local governments, and strategic support from the national level [10]. The study of the literature, conducted so far, suggests that the analysis of the relationship between different planning instruments in relation to climate has not yet been adequately explored. This contribution aims to begin to fill this gap, by choosing as a field of study the medium-sized city of Emilia-Romagna, representative of the Italian and regional urban reality and characterised by specific problems and opportunities in dealing with the effects of climate change. In particular this article proposes to: investigate the instruments, including action plans and coordination networks, that cities adopt to respond to climate change, both nationally and internationally (Sects. 2 and 3); understand the relationships between Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) and General Urban Plans (PUGs) in the average Emilia-Romagna city [11] (Sect. 4); propose criteria for the integration of climate issues in municipal urban planning, with particular reference to energy efficiency and resilience [12] (Sect. 5).

2 Policies and Instruments for Tackling Climate Change in the Urban Environment 2.1 International Urban Climate Networks The recognition of the role cities can play in the challenges posed by climate change has led to bottom-up engagement and coordination initiatives between different local institutions around the world [13]. Below are some significant examples of city climate networks. Agenda 21. The first significant example of city networks for the environment was implemented with the adoption by several cities around the world of a Local Agenda 21, a declination at the urban scale of the principles of sustainable development originally defined by the United Nations in the early 1990s following the Rio Janeiro conference [14]. ICLEI. In the following years, several other city networks were formed, one example being the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative, founded in 1990 [15], with the aim of the integration of climate change issues into the broader spectrum of

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local sustainability policies. It consists of more than 2,500 regional and local institutions in over 125 countries. C40 Cities. The C40 Cities initiative, founded in 2005, from an original core of 40 large cities in the world has expanded to bring together 96 large urban centres of international relevance (Milan and Rome are participating for Italy) with the aim of halving the emissions of its member cities within a decade [16], while enhancing adaptation and air quality policies on more than 582 million citizens worldwide, equal to about 36% of the world’s GDP. Covenant of Mayors. The Covenant of Mayors initiative was established by the European Commission in 2008 as a voluntary form of cooperation between signatory local and regional authorities and the European Commission with the aim of going beyond the climate and energy targets set by the European Union [17]. The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) are the fundamental tool of the Covenant of Mayors. Their main objectives are: – the mitigation, as the European Union has committed to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared to the 1990 level and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050; – the adaptation of cities to the negative consequences of climate change through a series of systemic actions, such as a better data-based knowledge of local vulnerabilities and the implementation of best practices, appropriately localised, of climate risk management and prevention; – universal access to safe, clean and affordable energy for everyone. The municipality which chooses to join the Covenant elaborates the SECAP with the support of the Covenant of Mayors office at the European Commission and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for technical issues. In addition to the implementation of the actions and their related monitoring, the subscribing municipalities commit to share with the Covenant of Mayors network the best practices, experiences and knowledge achieved through forms of institutional cooperation. Consequently, the SECAPs are important documents for assessing the policies and actions of municipalities that impact energy and resilience, through the study of the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) which assesses the situation of greenhouse gas emissions, the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) with regard to the analysis of climate risk in terms of adaptation, as well as the plan of actions. 2.2 Examples of Relevant Action Plans In addition to the study of SECAPs, it was deemed necessary to analyse a selection of climate action plans considered significant in order to capture current best practices and gather some insights in energy and resilience climate planning. Barcelona. The 2030 Climate Emergency Plan [18] of the city of Barcelona is the a result of a relevant participation process that has led hundreds of associations, together with local institutions and citizens, to join existing climate networks or create ad hoc aggregations to implement climate change projects in the city.

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Energy poverty, health risks and inequalities are considered important in the plan, as well as influencing the choice of indicators. The plan aims at developing a low-carbon city, which independent of fossil fuels, and distributing the economic benefits of innovations among citizens. The plan also promotes sustainable mobility and the closing of material and energy cycles with numerous actions. Milano. The Air and Climate Plan (CAP) of Milano [19] is interesting for the participatory process that involved the municipality and stakeholders. The integrated approach of air pollution with mitigation and adaptation is an aspect normally neglected or treated separately in sectoral documents. The plan’s consequential actions often affect more than one aspect simultaneously, in order to maximise synergies and overlaps by achieving multiple objectives with. In the long term, by 2050, the objectives are: – to comply with the values set by the WHO Air Quality Guidelines; – to achieve carbon neutrality; – to contain the local temperature increase to within 2 °C, through urban cooling actions and reduction of the heat island phenomenon in cities. Mantova. The SECAP of the city of Mantua [20] envisions a model of distributed energy generation that could improve the relationship between energy, territory, nature and urban layout. In fact, the low-carbon economy is seen not only as important for the environment but also as an opportunity for sustainable economic development and improving the quality of life in the territory. This commitment to energy-saving transformation and greater use of renewable energy sources, however, must necessarily be combined, in the context of a historical centre of great historical-artistic value, with due safeguarding and conservation requirements. Furthermore, Mantua has a significant industrial fabric, which significantly influences the city’s emissions trend with its strategic choices. Similarly, synergies can be found with the production sector, such as the district heating network fuelled by waste heat, which can contribute to overall emission reduction targets. 2.3 Considerations The examples analyzed show how the issues of energy and resilience can be declined into a development framework along with the creation of new opportunities, maximising the benefits of the transformative processes required for the widest range of stakeholders. In order to be correctly perceived by citizens, the participation dimension must be taken care of and pursued at all stages of the process, from plan development to implementation to monitoring. The most comprehensive plans, as in the case of Barcelona and Milan, are those that have paid most attention to the participatory process in determining the needs to be met and the objectives to be achieved. The dimension of social equity and inclusiveness, although at first it might seem secondary in a climate plan, plays an important role because it allows for a more precise

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targeting of measures, a more efficient allocation of resources and helps to safeguard precisely the most vulnerable elements, thus contributing, as if it were an adaptation measure, to increase the overall resilience of the urban system.

3 The Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Approach in the Medium-Sized City of Emilia-Romagna in Italy 3.1 The Specificity of the Medium-Sized City Medium-sized cities constitute a significant reality in the European and Italian context. European countries, compared to the rest of the world, have, for historical and geographical reasons, a higher percentage of their population in medium-sized and small cities, with densities lower than in Asian cities but much higher than in US cities [21]. Europe’s dense network of medium-sized and small cities tends to be less concentrated around the relatively few large urban agglomerations than on other continents. This is one of the main reasons of the focus of this contribution on the medium-sized cities of Emilia-Romagna region in Italy, in particular on three case studies, which are interesting for their similarities in size, demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and with important differences in the challenges they face in terms of combating climate change, as explained in Sect. 4. 3.2 Energy and Resilience References in the Strategies and Urban Planning Laws in the Emilia-Romagna Region Emilia-Romagna is considered among the most committed Italian regions to the integration of issues mitigation and adaptation solutions into urban planning [22], hence the focus of this study on the cities of this region. Regional Strategy for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. This commitment is reflected by documents like the Regional Strategy for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation [23], whose aim is to make the territory zero-emission and resilient to the impacts of climate change. It follows the signing in 2015 of the Under2 coalition, which commits the region to reducing its emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 1990, and by 80% by 2050. New Urban Planning Regionale Law. Another important tool is Regional Law 24/2017, New Urban Planning Law, which indicates the regeneration of urbanised territories as a priority tool for improving urban and building quality, with particular reference to efficiency in the use of energy and physical resources, the environmental performance of building materials, and the comfort of buildings [24]. The law includes bonus rules for regeneration projects that adopt recognised energy-environmental protocols, such as urban incentives in the form of discounts on the construction taxes, or volume premiums and regional contributions. The main instrument introduced by this law is the General Urban Plan (GUP), the new standard mandatory urban plan. The GUP focuses on the requirements of energy efficiency and resilience, i.e. the urban organism’s ability to adapt to environmental

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and social challenges and to react positively even to traumatic emergencies, thanks to the correct reading of the morphological, social, economic, climatic and environmental context, seen as in continuous and rapid evolution. Compared to previous planning, the GUP intends to pursue a greater integration of urban themes with a broader framework of environmental, social and economic issues and with the relevant policies and actions, such as sustainability and climate change, of the various levels of government, from national, to supra-regional, to local. It was therefore considered interesting to explore the relationships between the voluntary action plans, SECAPs, and the mandatory urban plans, GUPs, of three case studies, with the choices and methodologies illustrated below.

4 Three Case Studies 4.1 Case Selection Criteria The cities of Bologna, Modena and Ravenna have been chosen, whose key features are summarised in Table 1. Table 1. Population and extension of three case studies.

Population Extension (ha)

Bologna

Modena

Ravenna

391.686

184.971

157.262

14.100

18.300

65.300

Fig. 1. Location of the three case studies in the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. Elaboration of the author.

The choice of the case studies was determined by the following characteristics: – medium-sized cities in the Emilia-Romagna region, see Fig. 1; – provincial capitals;

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– cities representing different territorial and socio-economic contexts: from the agricultural and industrial fabric of Modena and Bologna to the territory shaped by water, port and industrial activities and archaeological highlights in Ravenna; – cities with both an approved SECAP and a GUP, at least at the adoption stage; – Municipalities that have been engaged for years in initiatives on sustainable development and the fight against climate change. 4.2 A Comparative Analysis Method The parts relating to the formation of knowledge frameworks and those relating to SECAP and GUP strategies and actions, respectively, were compared for the three case studies. SECAPs and GUPs were compared in relation to the planning and implementation of actions that, directly or indirectly, foster mitigation and adaptation to climate change. For mitigation, references were sought in the GUPs for strategies involving a reduction in energy consumption, hence emissions, in the transport, building, production and agricultural sectors. The GUPs, consequently, support the implementation of SECAPs and more generally of the contrast to against climate change when they integrate in their strategies and regulations the development of pedestrian and bicycle mobility; the support of electric vehicles; the strengthening of the public transport system; the energy efficiency of buildings, of public and private equipment, and of the productive systems; the development of green infrastructures and of an agriculture that improves ecosystem services related to carbon sequestration; the production of energy from renewable sources and the improvement of the efficiency of existing energy production systems; the reduction of waste and waste production; and the raising of citizens’ awareness towards more virtuous lifestyles. In order to make coherent comparisons, it was decided to reorganise the data sources and actions according to the following thematic categories: General strategies; Energy efficiency of buildings; Public lighting; Transport; Production of energy from renewable sources; Waste cycle; Green purchasing by public administration; Information, awareness and participation; Agriculture; Industry; Water safety; Water resource quality and availability; Summer urban comfort; Emergency planning and management; Subsidence. This contribution focuses on the categories which deal with energy management and resilience. The results summarised in the following paragraphs are the of an iterative work of reference comparison with the aim of exploring the relationships of inclusion, reference, interference between the different actions of the Action Plan and the articulations of the GUP strategies. 4.3 Analysis of the Results The comparison of the knowledge frameworks and the strategies and actions between the three case studies allows some considerations. Firstly, the differentiated relationships between SECAP and GUP in the three case studies emerged. Secondly, different approaches to the energy resilience theme are found, as summarised below.

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Bologna. Bologna organises the SECAP, approved in 2021, in macro-chapters with explicit references to the planning actions of the GUP, approved in the same year (Municipal Council Resolution No. 342648 of 26 July 2021). About energy-related issues, both instruments emphasise the importance of promoting the use of national incentives for energy renovation, combined with high energy performance requirements for urban and building redevelopment and regeneration interventions. Several actions of the SECAP, such as preliminary energy diagnoses and further mapping of energy consumption, support the expansion of the GUP’s knowledge framework and the identification of priority areas for intervention, also with reference to publicly owned buildings. The SECAP refers repeatedly to Zero-Energy Districts (ZED) or Positive Energy Districts (PED) as a target for energy efficiency and renewable energy production to be achieved in the areas to be redeveloped. The GUP, in addition to explicitly referring to the energy objectives of the SECAP, specifies high energy performance requirements in urban and building interventions. The production of energy from renewable sources (RES) in the actions of the SECAP and the GUP is addressed through, on the one hand, the prescription of minimum levels of RES coverage in accordance with the general objective of making the city emission neutral. Both instruments emphasise the promotion of neighbourhood energy communities, part of a local and decentralised energy production system, with the aim of achieving 100% coverage from renewable energy sources and providing low-cost energy to combat energy poverty. Modena. Modena, with a SECAP (2019) that follows the drafting standards of the Covenant of Mayors, incorporates elements of the GUP knowledge framework within the SECAP, taking advantage of the contextual elaboration of the two instruments. The General Urban Plan has been approved by the Municipal Council Resolution No. 46 of 22 June 2023. The actions in Modena’s SECAP relating to the energy efficiency of buildings can be included in the more general actions of the GUP relating to the promotion of energy efficiency in public buildings and to the regeneration discipline for transformations. In the SECAP there are several specific actions concerning the redevelopment of relevant buildings, such as the former AMCM, which are referred as significant regeneration operations to be completed in the GUP framework. Renewable energy production occupies a considerable section of the SECAP with 4 actions relating to the enhancement of photovoltaic production in municipal buildings and the promotion of incentives and energy communities for the private sector. In the GUP the topic is not dealt with at the strategy level, except in an indirect way when talking about energy efficiency in buildings and in an action relating to agriculture in which the creation of photovoltaic parks is promoted in order to decrease energy consumption. Ravenna. Ravenna presents the most complex and articulated of the three case studies, where the GUP (assumed by Municipal Council Resolution No. 14 of 14 January 2022) deepens in a spatial and strategic way the actions that in the PAESC, which was approved in the end of 2020, are treated on a more general level. The topic of energy efficiency of buildings is present in the SECAP and in the GUP as like the other two case studies. Only the SECAP emphasises the importance of promoting

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the use of national incentives for energy requalification to promote energy improvements, while the PUG imposes higher performance requirements than the national standards for urban and building regeneration interventions, with the aim to enhance buildings energy efficiency and the urban energy metabolism overall. Only the GUP promotes and regulates the energy qualification of industrial and tertiary areas, including tourist facilities on the coast, in an overall design of environmental and energy improvement. The production of energy from renewable sources (RES) is addressed differently in the SECAP and the GUP. In the GUP there is a general reference to innovating the energy cycle, while in the SECAP the state of installation of RES plants in the territory and the development objectives foreseen in the following years are detailed, as well as particular projects such as the experimental wind turbines in the passenger terminal at the port, or the installation of photovoltaic plants in schools and on public residential buildings. Only the GUP refers to energy communities, while the SECAP proposes to develop the use of RES more by exploiting the possibilities of the most recent regulations. Summary of Results. The following Table 1 is a summary assessment of the integration between the two instruments in the three case studies, following the categorisation of the analysis and including both knowledge frameworks and strategies and actions. The assessment ranges from Excellent integration, when there is full correspondence, to poor, when the sources or actions between the two instruments do not coincide or in one of the Table 2. Summary of the integration between SECAPs and GUPs in the 3 case studies. In bold the features considered more connected to the energy-related issues. Categories

SECAP-GUP Integration Bologna

Modena

Ravenna

General strategies

Excellent

Good

Very Good

Energy efficiency of buildings

Excellent

Very Good

Very Good

Street lighting

Very Good

Poor

Good

Transport

Excellent

Very Good

Very Good

Energy production from renewable sources

Very Good

Good

Very Good

Waste cycle

Good

Poor

Good

Information, awareness and participation

Poor

Poor

Good

Agriculture

Good

Very Good

Poor

Industry

Very Good

Very Good

Poor

Hydraulic Safety

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Water quality and availability

Very Good

Excellent

Good

Urban heat comfort

Excellent

Very Good

Excellent

Emergency planning and management

Very Good

Poor

Excellent

Subsidence

Not treated

Poor

Excellent

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two instruments the topic is not addressed. The full categories of the study are reported, with an highlighting of the integration of energy-related issues (Table 2).

5 Discussion and Conclusion This contribution explored how much and how the challenges of climate change, with particular reference to energy-related issues, can be integrated into planning instruments. In order to do this, three cases of average cities in the Emilia-Romagna region were studied, which compared to the international and national review of cases can be considered overall examples of good practices. The combination of the presence of a recent regional law with a strong focus on the issues of interest and the presence of cities that have already drawn up their urban plans on the basis of this new approach has made the Emilia-Romagna region a field of study that can be considered significant for identifying trends in urban planning in relation to climate. Optimal urban planning for climate change, however, requires in any case a plurality of instruments acting in synergy, so as to grasp the multi-scalar and multi-functional implications that climate impacts cause in an already complex organism such as the city. In order to understand the actual effectiveness of the GUPs, it would of course be necessary to wait for their effects on the territory to unfold, but in any case, a number of considerations can already be formulated from the study of the adopted documents, which may be supplemented in the future with the acquisition of new data and experiences. The comparative work suggests that greater integration between SECAP and GUP could positively affect the intended objectives. GUP and SECAP should therefore not be considered as separate and independent instruments. It is possible that neither of them alone can lead to careful planning for energy and resilience issues. For example, some mitigation measures, such as the purchase of certified electricity from renewable sources or the detailed regulation of the types of vehicles that can circulate according to their level of pollution, are addressed in the SECAP and not in the GUP. The GUP should therefore remain, given the vastness of its scope and scale of intervention, the potentially most incisive instrument in the transformation of the urban territory and its functions in order to achieve the transition to carbon neutrality and prepare the city for the impacts of the present and future climate. The SECAP maintains its original function as a stimulus and solicitation for administrations to implement mitigation and adaptation actions. The presence of innovative actions, especially those of urban relevance, can be the lever through which, at a politicaldecision-making level, transformative elements can be introduced within the GUP, thus giving greater value to innovations that, if they remained exclusively in the SECAP, would have a more limited scope. An example of this is the energy renovation of buildings, which is applied to singular buildings in the SECAP, while in the GUP it can be implemented in regeneration interventions on a larger scale.

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The analysis shows how a joint elaboration, in the beginning phase, and a parallel updating of the two instruments to verify their synergies and coherence, in the implementation phase, could be desirable. The greatest integrations have developed in cases where the SECAP and GUP were drafted together. The knowledge framework could benefit from a better integration of the SECAP and the GUP, where each instrument can draw useful information from the other. The participatory process, which is quite relevant in the examples reviewed, should be strengthen and integrated between SECAP and GUP, as the results showed. It might therefore be appropriate to tend towards a single participatory process, albeit declined in different phases and with different stakeholders, in order to make the most of the acquisitions of ideas, needs, suggestions and directions that might emerge and also to communicate to citizens and stakeholders the sense of participating in an coherent and structured process.

References 1. Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W., Hammer, S.A., Mehrotra, S.: Cities lead the way in climate– change action. Nature 467(7318), 909–911 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/467909a 2. United Nations. Agenda 21 (1992). https://sustainabledevelopment.un. org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf 3. United Nations. Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. FCCC/CP/1997/L.7/Add.1 (1997) 4. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changex Conference of the Parties, Twenty-first Session, Paris, 30 November to 11 December 2015: Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. Paris (1997). https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf 5. International Energy Agency. Empowering Cities for a Net Zero Future (2021). https://www. iea.org/reports/empowering-cities-for-a-net-zero-future 6. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030. OECD (2008). https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264040519-en 7. Dodman, D., et al.: Cities, settlements and key infrastructure. In: Pörtner, H., et al. (eds.) Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 907– 1040. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2022) 8. Bollen, J., Guay, B., Jamet, S., Corfee-Morlot, J.: Co-Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation Policies: Literature Review and New Results. OECD, Paris (2009) 9. Hallegatte, S., Corfee-Morlot, J.: Understanding climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation at city scale: an introduction. Clim. Change 104(1), 1–12 (2011) 10. European Environment Agency. Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe: challenges and opportunities for cities together with supportive national and European policies. Publications Office (2012). https://doi.org/10.2800/41895 11. De Pascali, P., Bagaini, A.: The success of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in Italy. Weakness and integrative attempts with urban planning. Archivio Studi Urbani e Regionali 131, 71–96 (2021) 12. De Pascali, P.: Introduzione all’integrazione necessaria energia-urbanistica. Archivio Studi Urbani e Regionali 131, 5–22 (2021) 13. Heidrich, O., et al.: National climate policies across Europe and their impacts on cities strategies. J. Environ. Manag. 168, 36–45 (2016)

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14. United Nations. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3–14 June 1992 (1992) 15. ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability (2022). https://iclei.org/about_iclei_2/. Accessed 11 May 2023 16. C40 Cities (2021) C40 Annual Report 2021. https://www.c40.org/news/c40- releases-2021annual-report/ Last accessed 11/05/2023 17. European Commission. Limiting Global Climate Change to 2 degrees Celsius The way ahead for 2020 and beyond (2007). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM: 2007:0002:FIN:EN:PDF 18. Ajuntament de Barcelona. Climate emergency action plan for 2030 (2021) 19. Comune di Milano. Piano Aria e Clima (PAC) (2022) 20. Comune di Mantova. Piano d’azione per l’energia sostenibile ed il clima (PAESC) (2022) 21. European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON). ESPON 1.4.1 The Role of Small and Medium-Sized Towns (SMESTO), Final Report (2006) 22. Tedeschi G (2023) Piani urbanistici e piani per il clima nella città media emiliana: criteri per l’integrazione. Doctoral thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/1889/5329 23. Regione Emilia-Romagna. La Regione ed il Clima: La strategia di mitigazione e adattamento per i cambiamenti climatici (2018) 24. Alagna, F., Fini, G., Pavignani, R.: Esperienze di pianificazione in Emilia-Romagna: fra transizione energetica, adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici e nuova legge urbanistica orientata alla rigenerazione urbana. Archivio Studi Urbani e Regionali 131, 23–43 (2021)

Renewable Energy Communities in Urban Areas: Determining Key Characteristics from an Analysis of European Case Studies Moreno Di Battista, Claudia De Luca(B) , and Angela Santangelo Department of Architecture- Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The European Green Deal aims to achieve neutrality in Europe by 2050. To do so, according to the European Commission, Renewable Energy Communities (REC) might be an attractive solution to find the right balance between sustainable and inclusive energy transition and security. Moreover, the central position of citizens as prosumers - instead of solely consumers – allows to reduce inequalities and to include the most vulnerable in the energy sector. This work aims at framing the key characteristics of REC in urban areas by analysing selected case studies located in large European cities (MeerEnergie-Amsterdam, EnerCit’IfParis, Viertel Zwei-Vienna, Ecopower-Brussels, Energy and Solidarity Community East-Naples, Energent-Ghent, Hyperion-Athens) and to identify and analyse possible measures to be implemented in urban RES considering social, climate and technical impacts. The analysis is performed through a detailed factsheet built up considering the European Commission’s energy transition recommendations, definitions and literature on REC. The collected information on case studies will then be clustered according to three main drivers (technical, climate and social) to make the key characteristics comparable and to understand the trends of each of them in the urban context. The results of this research allow for the identification of twelve measures, which may be considered to set up an urban renewable energy community. Keywords: Renewable Energy Communities · cities · energy transition · case study analysis · stakeholder analysis · urban regeneration

1 Introduction Today, one of the strongest interests at European level concerns the energy sector and its future composition. The double-knot link between mankind and energy has transformed society, pushing towards the need to cluster where there is easy accessibility and easy availability of energy. In force of that, over half of the world’s population live nowadays in urban areas, with a further billion people expected to reside in cities by 2050 [1]. The demand for goods and services in urban areas is putting pressure on natural resources and the environment, contributing to a multitude of social and environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, energy security and the overexploitation of natural resources. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 421–432, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_37

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Trying to mediate between the need for energy security and meeting climate targets, Europe is currently involved in a complete upgrade of its energy sector. Thanks to adverse political circumstances, such as international tensions over fuel retrievals, the EU is increasingly focused on boosting energy production through renewable energy sources. According to current statistics, the energy sector is responsible for more than 75% of the EU’s GHG emissions [2]. Changing energy production from fossil to renewable solutions is necessary to meet the EU’s energy and climate targets, which aim to reduce GHG emissions by at least 55% (compared to 1990) by 2030 and becoming a climate-neutral continent by 2050. The EU response to this problem has been segmented in different types of intervention. One of the most interesting solutions in the EU is the creation of Renewable Energy Communities (REC), empowering the citizens and transform them from consumers in prosumer. REC create the possibility of auto-producing energy thus decreasing the dependency on fossil fuels to face a green energy transition. The dependency rate shows the extent to which an economy relies upon imports to meet its energy needs. It is measured by the share of net imports (imports - exports) in gross inland energy consumption (meaning the sum of energy produced and net imports). In the EU in 2020, the dependency rate was equal to 58%, which means that more than half of the EU’s energy needs were met by net imports [3]. For this reason, the main pressure is to have most of the self-produced energy, as consequence of the autonomy prerogative that has always been present in the European Community. Of course, even if the main aim is to achieve energy security targets, the social component should be at the core of this technological revolution and deal with the social problems that are currently present in the territory. Energy poverty and energy justice should be as important as energy autonomy, as stated in Sustainable Development Goal number 7 “Affordable and clean energy” and the EU pillar of Social Rights principle 20 “Access to essential services” [4]. RECs are not a new phenomenon and they are receiving increasing attention in the last years. The EU Green Deal and the current energy crisis are spurring calls for greater energy independence and measures to help individual households deal with spiking energy prices. Energy communities are one of the key elements for achieving the EU’s energy transition. Development projections predict that by 2050, half of Europe’s citizens could be producing up to half of the EU’s renewable energy [5]. In 2019, the EU refitted its energy policy framework to help in moving away from fossil fuels towards cleaner energy - and, more specifically, to deliver on the EU’s Paris Agreement commitments for reducing GHG emissions. The development of RECs is influenced by spatial factors and several studies reflect upon the geographical differences that exist between them diffusion within Europe. In [6], they found that in earlier studies 18% of the studied energy communities were in a rural context, while only 2% were in an urban context. Renewables have the potential to play a key role in future urban energy systems. However, the rate of transition to clean energy sources in urban areas continues to be slow. Establishing REC in cities is more challenging than in rural areas because of the limited space available for energy generation and the more complex arrangements for the ownership of surfaces [7]. The various legal possibilities allow citizens, working with other market players, to team up and invest in energy assets. Such participation creates a more decarbonized

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and flexible energy system. Energy communities can act as a single entity and access all energy markets on equal terms with other market players. According to the REDII and the recast of the EMD, there are currently two legal definitions of energy communities at the EU level: CEC (Citizen Energy Community) and REC (Renewable Energy Community). Despite their differences, the two types of energy communities have major commonalities. They: – – – – – – – – –

Require a legal entity. Must be voluntary and open. Primary purpose is environmental, economic or social. Require a specific governance. For renewable energy communities (RECs): Proximity requirement of effective control (to be defined in national law). Limited membership (shareholders or members do not include large companies). Open to all sources of renewable energy (ex. Also heat), but renewable source only. Major purpose of enabling frameworks: to promote the development and growth of RECs to expand the share of renewable energy at national level.

In the design of an REC, the objective to be pursued turns out to be a mixture of more factors. From a technical point of view, this can pursue different ambitions, such as the optimization of production or the use of a form of energy production designed for the project. Certainly, the technical areas must be contextualized in the available social landscape. The assessment of the stakeholders involved is substantial and must be laid at the basis of the design. An EC is based on the empowerment of citizens and the community at large. Therefore, in a similar context the stakeholders involved are different from a generic energy project. Other figures also come into play, which may not be included in the real EC, but which may determine its success or failure, such as external financiers or legal figures for approval or not (Table 1). Table 1. Potential stakeholders involved in energy communities [8] Stakeholder

Description

Initiator

Initiator of the EC who can be a private person, private entity or social enterprise/NGO

External Investor

Private person or entity/NGO who invests in the EC

Insurance Party

Private entity providing insurance services to the EC

Financing Party

Private person, private entity or public body providing financial support schemes

EC participant

EC member who can be a private person or private or public entity and a consumer or prosumer

Asset Owner

Private person or private or public entity owning an energy producing or regulating unit that is part of the EC system

Engineering Office

Private entity ensuring the technical set-up and maintenance of the EC

EC decision-making body Private or public entity responsible for decision-making within the EC Government

Public entity responsible for decision-making at higher levels

Legal Party

Private or public entity that supports the EC with legal support

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The issue of energy production in cities has not developed as much as it was supposed to in the European context. The problems encountered in implementing an energy community project in a city context are varied and sometimes difficult to overcome. The main difference from the rural context is the absence of a large amount of renewable energy sources. Although, the rapid development of renewable technologies has led to the creation of types of mechanisms to use sun, water, wind, soil and waste to produce sustainable energy. The characteristics inherent in defining urban context undermine many of these possibilities. In fact, the urban area is characterized by a large population and buildings’ density and a general lack of open green spaces. The objective of this work is to analyze the main trends, limitations and opportunities that may arise in the creation of an energy community within the city context through a case study analysis and to identify a list of possible measures to be implemented in the development of a Renewable Energy Communities in urban context.

2 Material and Methods- Case Studies Analysis Energy transition is currently one of the main aim cities are looking at and energy communities are a viable way of supplying energy self-produced and sustainable. To further support the implementation of REC in urban areas this paper will follow two subsequent steps: i) selection and analysis of relevant case studies in European cities’ context; ii) based on the case study analysis and on a experts review, identification of social, technical and climate measures relevant to set up REC in urban areas. 2.1 Case Study Identification and Analysis The case studies chosen are projects that have been or are being executed. This is intended to provide a practical understanding of possible interventions. Table 2. Case Studio specifics (Name of the project, City, State) 1

MeerEnergie

Amsterdam

NE

2

EnerCit’If

Paris

FR

3

Viertel Zwei, Wien Energie

Vienna

AT

4

Ecopower

Brussels

BE

5

Energy and Solidarity Community of East Naples

Naples

IT

6

Energent, living lab campus of Ghent University

Ghent

BE

7

Hyperion

Athens

EL

The analysis included the creation of a Fact Sheet, a basic template to find crucial information for the complete description of the activities. Fact Sheet (Table 3) is derived from a study of the possibilities of an energy community by crossing technical sources

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(reported in correspondence), definitions of Renewable Energy Community and indicators for identifying the potential for effectiveness against energy poverty. In addition, the template has gradually adjusted to the information to be reported for specific designs, self-compensating during the analysis or changing accordingly. The information given in the Fact Sheets will be then processed to compare them. The analysis aims to highlight 3 Drivers present in the energy communities implemented in the city context. D1-Technological Driver: The technological aspect is crucial to understand the applications of energy production, consumption and distribution techniques in city energy communities. The driver is divided into several subcategories, which aim to quantify, according to score, the attention of the project on several aspects. The scoring and the description of the subcategories are given in the following table. D2-Climate Driver: The D2 wants to generate a practical assessment of the impact of energy community in the referred climate scenario. The assessment provides a set of additional information to those reported in the factsheet, including the climate and emission reduction targets of the city where the EC is implemented. The use of specific information makes it possible to understand how effective the EC is and useful for the specific municipality and for the specific production of GHG (expressed in CO2 equivalent) per kWh typical of the country of origin. To assess against a common scale, indicators are expressed as a percentage. D3-Social Driver: The D3 aims to assess the contribution that the energy community offers to the improvement of the social condition, the preferences and behavior of those involved and the influence it has in changing habits with a view to energy awareness. The evaluation therefore aims to understand how large the overall impact on the population is, attributing a weighting based on the factsheet information. Through the analysis of case studies and several references related to the creation of the Factsheet (Table 2), the main measures to compare with for an energy community designed in an urban context were studied and identified.

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Case Study Analysis The sample covers 6 European countries (Netherlands, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Greece). In addition, the selected cities (Amsterdam [15], Paris [16], Vienna [17], Brussels [18], Ghent [19], Naples [20] and Athens [21]) have all presented their climate plan, defining the objectives and timing to achieve them. Indeed Paris, Brussels and Athens were like 3 of the winning “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” [22], so it is interesting to understand how they faces the energy transition. The aim is to analyse 3 drivers: D1- Technical Driver, D2- Climate Driver, D3- Social Driver. As shown in Fig. 1 the values differ in the energy communities, highlighting diversities. The energy community Viertel Zwei, located in Vienna, Austria scores the highest (9,5/10) in D1. The community has a strong technical component (Production, Distribution, Sales to third parties, Storage, Smart meters installed, Digital data access) which

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Table 3. Factsheet template, used for the 7 Case Studio. Concussion between the literature review and the case studio characteristics found during the analysis. Indicator GENERAL

ENERGY

Description Location

DEGURBA classification of the territory. [9]

Year of start

Year of creation of the legal entity

Social Objectives

Objectives to be achieved in the social field

Economic Objectives

Summarise the economic availability and issues input of the project

Climate Objectives

Climate target to reach with the creation of the E.C

Technical Objectives

Optimizing the technical solutions

Position

The correspondence, or not, between the community and a specific area. [10]

Spatial distribution

How the area, where is collocated the E.C., is spatially localized

Limits

Boundaries of the expansion of the E.C

Activity

The main activities in which the E.C. is involved [11]

Installed Elements

Number of elements installed in the implant

Year of installation

Year of installation of the implant

REs

Typology of renewable energy technology used

Technical specifics of the Res Specificity of the used renewable energy technology Production

Amount of kW of the plan

Energy Provider

Energy society involved [12]

Energy Storage

Usage of batteries to collect energy

STAKEHOLDERS Legal entity

Typology of entity instituted for the administration of the E.C. [13]

Organization

Centralized: only a small and exclusive set of actors hold positions of power. Decentralized networks where power and control are over several actors. [14]

Governance

Relationship between the internal parts of the legal entity (continued)

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Table 3. (continued) Indicator

SOCIAL

PRODUCTION

Description Initiator

the institution / the person who starts the cooperative

Type of members

The E.C. ‘s involved consumers, stakeholders, and prosumers

Catchment area

Number of inhabitants involved in the E.C

Accessibility

Ease entry into society

Data visualization

Transparency in the diffusion of the E.C. data

Affordability

Average amount of money needed to become a member and general benefits

Inclusion

Stakeholders involved (focus on vulnerable groups) [8]

Dissemination

How information, knowledge and participation are disseminated

Social Impact

How much social impact is assessed during the establishment of the cooperative

Heritage

Inclusion of building that have a historical or cultural value and in which role

Public Buildings

Inclusion of the public buildings in energy production and in which role

Public Spaces

Inclusion of public spaces and in energy production and in which role

Social housing

Inclusion of social housing in energy production and related spaces

Private Buildings/spaces

Inclusion of Multi apartment buildings in energy production and in which role

Main Problems

Description of the problems linked to the creation of the EC

is used to enable the creation of a P2P (peer-to-peer) platform for local energy trading. Although the energy community is the most developed in the technical area, the performance of the other drivers is below average. In the case of Energent, D2 has the highest value (10/10). The result proves that the energy community provides a substantial decrease in the city’s emissions (1390 tCo2, or 19% of the total). The use of wind technology allows a large electricity production (about 85GWh), which contextualised in Belgium (GHG emissions per kWh = 154gCo2e, characterised using natural gas,

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Fig. 1. Radar indicating value of D1, D2, D3 driver for each case studio and reference to average values.

31%, and oil and derivatives, 19% source: Eurostat) is significant for the energy transition. In this case, the D1 (6/10) and D3 (7.69/10) values are discrete but not far from the average values found (average D1 = 6.29/10, average D3 = 7.42/10). Hyperion, Greece obtains the best D3 value (8.85/10). This RES firstly aims at the alleviation of energy poverty, an important issue in Greece and especially in Athens. The inclusion of different stakeholders (physical persons, legal entities and vulnerable households) allows for greater outreach in the city’s energy sector together with its distinguished special focus on vulnerable groups, making their inclusion possible through an increase in other stakeholder shares. Inclusion and governance considerations may influence the scores on the other factors such as D1 (4.5/10) and D2 (3/10). In the case of Viertel Zwei, the possibility of choice and participation falls on P2P energy trading. For Energy and Solidarity Community of East Naples, decision-making power is restricted to entities (Legambiente, Fondazione Famiglia di Maria, Fondazione Con il Sud, 3E-Italia Solare) that manage the energy community, thus making D3 as the best performing driver. 3.2 Identification of the Measures for the Development of REC in Urban Areas A total of twelve measures were identified, which are as follows (Table 4). A more detailed explanation of the reported measures and their relevance to an urban energy community follows: M1 Use of the Most Efficient Renewable Sources: The measure involves a conscious study of the potential of the specific site to place the most efficient technology according to the most favoured renewable energy source. The measure aims to relieve the continued pressure on energy providers (state or private) and provide increasingly strong energy autonomy for community users. M2 Subsidies/Bonuses for Low Input Costs: Entry into the energy community should not entail high costs to citizens. The measure could include use of social bonuses for

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Table 4. List of measures and importance of them for an energy community, indication of the references used and the involved topic

Measures Case studies Use of the most efficient renewable sources 0/7 Subsidies/bonuses for low input costs 5/7 Direct access to self-generated energy 7/7 Awareness campaigns 7/7 Subsidies or incentives for social inclusion 5/7 Reuse of energy waste 1/7 (MeerEnergie) Energy storage 1/7 (Viertel Zwei) Maximization of production 0/7 Smart meters 5/7 P2P exchange 1/7 (Viertel Zwei) Founds for self-sustaining All Autonomous energy network 1/7 (Hyperion) Legenda for determining the main reference scope of the measures. Technical topic Climate topic Social topic Climate+ Social All topics M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12

physical construction of the system both externally (hence production) and internally (hence consumption) to individual households. M3 Direct Access to Self-generated Energy: Measure aimed at raising energy awareness. Using self-produced energy would mean greater awareness and involvement in the energy community. M4 Awareness Campaigns: Providing social campaigns to raise awareness of conscious energy consumption. Provide tools for reading data, understanding voluntary energy waste to implement social change. M5 Subsidies or Incentives for Social Inclusion: Foster the inclusion of the most vulnerable portion of the population through customized tariffs and methodologies. This would be a strong aid toward mitigating the energy poverty problem. M6 Reuse of Energy Waste: To avoid energy waste and decrease GHG emissions into the atmosphere, encourage specific measures for the dual use of energy already produced for other purposes. Mainly focus on the reuse of heating. M7 Energy Storage: Energy storage measure, aimed at ensuring the presence of a minimum amount of energy to soften situations of uncertainty (related to source nonconstancy) or peak (related to the simultaneous use of numerous stakeholders). M8 Maximization of Production: Specifically, this includes the design of a plant larger than the planned consumption of the stakeholders involved to sell/market/supply the surplus energy. M9 Smart Meters: Installation of smart sensors to accurately understand usage, time slots and changing habits related to energy use (e.g. apps that allows real-time visualisation of consumption rate).

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M10 P2P Trading: Creating platforms/agreement to provide stakeholders the opportunity to buy and sell their energy share among peers. It would provide increased sense of belonging to the energy community, possibility of earning or saving money, and awareness in consumption. M11 Founds for Self-sustaining: Using the economic return of the energy community as the main source for the development. M12 Autonomous Energy Network: Creation of a network connecting the stakeholders involved (thus possibly including an energy provider) that are completely autonomous from the common grid.

4 Conclusions The aim of this work was to understand what is currently being developed in the urban sphere, trying to grasp its main characteristics to facilitate the design of REC in cities. Wind, sun and water are common goods, and therefore they can ensure fair access to the benefits of renewable energy generation to all citizens. Generally, we highlight thar the social component plays a key role in urban areas. In fact, the average result of D3 amounts to 7.42/10, thus underlining the characteristic social footprint of energy communities and highlighting the importance of a strong social and governance framework, despite the climate and technological background, assumed in the definitions of the same provided by the European Commission. Indeed, in most cases these are cooperatives, where the main purpose is social, environmental, and economic, and all of them do not list profit as one of their main purposes. For this reason, the identification of potential measures touch upon all the three drivers, nevertheless integrating the social components in most of them. Future research would need to test the developed measured in real urban case studies, with the possibility of framing a multicriteria analysis to support decision over the most suitable measured to be implemented according to the main objectives of the communities considered.

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29. IEA – International Energy Agency, “Rural clean energy initiative & support to rural energy transition”. https://www.iea.org/policies/16609-rural-clean-energy-initiative-supportto-rural-energy-transition. Accessed 24 Mar 2023 30. EuropeanCommission, “European cities team up to expand clean energy, cut fossil fuels”. https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/european-cit ies-team-expand-clean-energy-cut-fossil-fuels. Accessed 24 Mar 2023 31. European Commission, “Renewable energy directive,”https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/ renewable-energy/renewable-energy-directive-targets-and-rules/renewable-energy-direct ive_en. Accessed 24 Mar 2023 32. Santangelo, A., Tondelli, S.: Cool Planning: Changin climate & our urban future (2018)

Promoting Engagement and Inclusion: A Case Study on an Energy Community in Cagliari, Italy Ivan Bleˇci´c, Alessandro Sebastiano Carrus(B) , Giuseppe Desogus, Emanuel Muroni, Valeria Saiu, and Maria Carla Saliu University of Cagliari, Via Corte d’Appello 78, Cagliari, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. In Italy, Energy Communities struggle to spread as they should, very few are active. Such communities can assume a central role in the development of sustainable energy systems because they are able to include and involve many people and have the potential to provide answers to problems of social and economic inequality and the energy crisis. A major problem identified is that traditional governance tools for establishing Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) often prioritize the technical aspect rather than encouraging active stakeholder involvement. The overall goal of this study is to improve the environmental impact of individuals and the community by proposing a method, engagement projects and activities, and operational planning tools to support policy-making processes to build conditions in which participation in the energy system can trigger virtuous behaviour, developing a certain amount of self-sufficiency in terms of management. We will argue that this method of engagement influences the extent to which parties can or cannot engage in the whole framework of collective management of Energy Communities. To exemplify this approach, we present an experience still in progress in establishing the first Solar Energy Community in the city of Cagliari, to demonstrate how the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in renewable energy projects can help produce a spatial, social, cultural and economic context that can adapt to changing circumstances, capacity demands, technological innovations, demographic, economic and social trends. Such actions will be useful for the development of programmatic, participatory and democratic strategic planning in which the lines of development and management of an energy community are gathered. Keywords: Renewable energy community · REC · Local energy community · Energy transition · Social behaviours · Social acceptance · Community engagement

1 Introduction The European Union (EU) introduced the Clean Energy Package for All Europeans (CEP) [1] in 2019 to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, consumer rights, and cross-border cooperation. To achieve these goals, the concept of energy communities, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 433–444, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_38

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known as Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), was included in the legislation. The Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) [2] aims to make renewable energy more accessible to citizens by allowing their participation in joint renewable energy projects. It encourages citizen-driven RECs that can consume, produce, store, sell renewable energy, and provide flexibility services to the grid. In Italy, energy communities adhere to technical rules outlined by the Italian Energy Services Operator (GSE) [3] and the Italian Regulation Agency for Environment, Network, and Energy (ARERA) [4]. This framework enables citizens to become more environmentally and socially conscious regarding energy issues, emphasizing the need for democratic processes that enable citizen participation in energy policies and the energy market [5–7]. The literature on RECs has addressed normative barriers[8, 9], self-sufficiency [10], local energy sharing strategies [11, 12], and the interaction of RECs with the electricity system. However, there is a predominant focus on engineering and economic sciences [13], neglecting or underestimating the social elements and consequences of energy systems, particularly in processes involving local governments [14–16]. This occurs because energy is often viewed as a basic factor in social life, disregarding the direct engagement of citizens [17]. This article highlights the central role of human behaviour and social dynamics in influencing future energy scenarios, emphasizing the sociological relevance of the energy question. The paper is structured as follows: Sect. 2 discusses the emerging theoretical perspectives in the literature on energy communities, focusing on the significance given to sociological aspects; Sect. 3 explains the methodology for applying these perspectives; Sect. 4 presents the results, critical aspects, and suggestions based on community energy initiatives, as well as the challenges faced by them; finally, Sect. 5 provides concluding remarks and outlines potential future perspectives.

2 State of the Art of RECs The topic of RECs has garnered attention from researchers, local stakeholders, and citizens, as energy consumption and production have become central to public and scientific debates. European and Italian policies such as the European Green Deal [18], the PNIEC [19], the “Milleproroghe” decree-law [20], the PNRR [21], and actions to support municipalities in Sardinia to foster the creation of energy communities from renewable energy sources in implementation of Article 9 of Regional Law No. 15/2022 [22], are focused on issues such as climate change, emission reduction, natural disasters, supply security, and sustainable economic development. In Europe, there are different approaches and legal frameworks for the establishment of RECs [23], overlooks the evaluation of social impacts and benefits within the structure of RECs, emphasizing technical aspects of design and operation [24]. The focus has been primarily on hardware rather than the human and social software underlying energy systems. There is a lack of attention to the involvement of inhabitants and social phenomena [15–18] closely functional to the definition of long-term interventions, aspects ignored include social processes that influence the acceptance and use of technological solutions, social factors driving the demand for energy services, perceptions of energy risks, and communication methods regarding energy choices. This issue is beginning to take on increasing relevance, there is a growing recognition of the social relevance of energy within contemporary

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sociological reflection. Studies have explored various aspects of energy communities and community initiatives, investigating citizen participation, motivations, and factors influencing participation [19, 20]. Trust is identified as crucial for the development of RECs, and research highlights the importance of social acceptance of renewable energy sources and technologies [21, 22]. However, there is a need for more project-specific explanations of acceptance mechanisms based on project characteristics, community engagement processes, and regional contexts. To address these gaps, this paper presents their experience with a community engagement program that aims to overcome the traditional top-down methodology for the establishment of RECs, in order to define active participation methods that can trigger bottom-up participatory, engaging, and proactive processes. The next section describes their approach based on participatory actions and the steps involved in community engagement.

3 Materials and Methods The methodology [30] was applied through a specific case study called “CER-CA” (Renewable Energy Community and Cagliari) to test its validity. It is an initiative led by the Municipality and the University of Cagliari to establish the first REC in Cagliari, the capital city of Sardinia. The project focuses on a pilot program that involves installing photovoltaic (PV) systems in a socially disadvantaged residential area. This study is part of the larger project “Energy Efficiency in 40 Schools Support Communities EE(40)Sco” under the NESOI (New Energy Solutions Optimised for Islands) program. The project is spearheaded by the Municipality of Cagliari and it outlines a comprehensive plan to establish RECs in approximately half of the school buildings in the city. The initial focus of the project is on Piazza Medaglia Miracolosa (PMM), a square surrounded by buildings in the San Michele neighbourhood. This residential sector is characterized by a high density of urban common areas and a socio-economic vulnerability among many residents. The kindergarten located in the middle of the sector serves as a gathering place for families, as does the square itself. Despite its current state of disrepair, the square remains significant to the community due to its strategic location and the presence of the kindergarten (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Project location, From left to right, Sardinia, Italy; San Miche district, Cagliari; Piazza Medaglia Miracolosa, analyzed residential sector.

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The innovative project aims to establish a REC by installing a PV system in two locations: the residential block with the best orientation and the kindergarten. The municipality anticipates that with the collaboration of 80 households and the electricity consumption of the kindergarten, the PV-generated electricity will be mostly self-consumed by the REC members. During the analysis conducted on previous projects, several noteworthy aspects were identified in the target neighbourhood, such as the abundance of not-for-profit cultural, social, and recreational activities managed by the community, a strong sense of community ownership, years of operational experience, and an active community organization dedicated to various community development goals. These factors were used as selection criteria to identify a mature project (though still ongoing) that is expected to have a significant and diverse impact on the community. The chosen case study is particularly valuable as it represents a critical and illustrative example due to its distinct characteristics, including being an island community with well-defined boundaries. These factors enhance the visibility of local impacts, making it an ideal case study for testing the methodology presented in this research. In order to obtain more complete, specific, and accurate information from the social actors involved, a qualitative approach was carried out. Multiple engagement activities were utilized, including focus group discussion [31]. This methodology was developed through the following steps, which will be described in the following chapters: Probing, Community survey, Focus group, Other activities, Recreational and convivial moments, Focus group, and Workshop. 3.1 Survey Process To conduct the empirical study, multiple fieldwork visits were made to the residential sector of PMM. Various data collection methods were employed, including an initial exploratory survey aimed at community members, in-depth interviews, focus groups with households, school administrators, representatives of local activities, cultural associations, religious leaders, and other group members. Additionally, a comprehensive workshop program was organized to engage different stakeholders. The study operationalized its actions based on the concept of Social Impact Assessment [32], which examines the analysis, monitoring, and management of both intended and unintended social consequences of planned interventions, as well as any social change processes triggered by those interventions. Before proceeding with the study’s steps, an initial engagement process, referred to as “step zero,” was carried out. This involved contacting potential REC members through letters and emails to gauge their willingness to participate. However, this approach resulted in negative outcomes, described by the Municipality’s technicians as “unsuccessful communication attempts.“ Within a single day of fieldwork, only 10 responses were received out of approximately 240, and a pre-existing atmosphere of hostility between the community and administration was observed. While acknowledging the need for a nuanced and in-depth analysis of the complex issue of social acceptance of the REC project, the methodology has been simplified. The survey steps will be presented in the subsequent sub-sections.

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Step 1. Probing During the initial phase of community engagement, key actors were involved to establish contacts with the community. This step aimed to leverage individuals who were already trusted or established in other contexts or previous project experiences, such as the exploratory study conducted in the San Michele-Is Mirrionis neighbourhoods [33]. The “NeighbourHub” project, which spanned two years (2019–2022), involved over 30 associations and served as a basis for contacting key actors to assist in the presentation and introduction of the REC project to households in the PMM area. The ethnographic fieldwork included two interactions in preparation for meetings with potential participants/REC members: i. Initial contact with key actors via phone or email to inform them about the REC project’s intentions and main issues, and to inquire about their availability to serve as a “social pivot point” during this project phase. ii. Initial contact with households through key actors. In this phase, we approached known representatives of local activities (such as ice cream makers, bartenders, and tobacconists), cultural associations, and religious leaders in the neighborhood. Key actors were responsible for explaining our role, presenting the general outline of the REC project, and determining if the households were interested in hearing more. These small groups of individuals served as our entry points to the residential blocks. The next step will involve directly engaging with the households, which will be discussed in the following section. Step 2. Community Survey In this step, we focus on identifying key actors in the community. We enlisted the help of three representatives from cultural associations in the San Michele neighbourhood, the parish priest of the Church of Medaglia Miracolosa located near the residential sector, and various representatives from local businesses. These individuals played a crucial role during our extensive ethnographic fieldwork. They were selected based on their existing connections and influence within the community. This process can be seen as a “loyalty operation” to increase the number of key actors by recruiting them from households. Initial surveys and meetings were conducted with residents, school administrators, and representatives of local activities and cultural associations within the residential sector. Step 2 of our methodology aims to establish a core group of members by identifying these key actors in the community. Step 3. Focus Group After recruiting participants through the initial exploratory survey with the assistance of key actors, the phase of intensive community engagement and consolidation can commence. In this step, an initial information meeting will be organized with stakeholders, and these meetings will be repeated every 2–3 months. To get an in-depth understanding of existing social practices, people’s opinions and concerns about solar energy consumption, but also for uncovering people’s perspectives and attitudes, identifying critical issues, and eliciting suggestions from selected community members identified in the previous steps, we performed an initial focus group. Focus group participants included households, school administrators, school teachers, representatives of local

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activities, representatives of Non-Governamental Organizations (NGOs) and religious leaders. For selecting focus group participants, we tried to cover the diversity in occupation. Before conducting focus group, we explained the general outline of the focus group discussion and the intended use of the study findings with the participants. We facilitated the discussion with a set of semi-structured FAQ contents prepared ex-ante and integrated during the discussion. Focus group lasted one hour. Focus group consisted of three components. In Sect. 1, respondents provide their basic information (e.g. gender, age and household general information). In Sect. 2, information regarding the challenges of solar energy consumption, including costs, uses, and impacts, was addressed. During these gatherings, the project will be introduced and promoted to the local community. Various tools such as information materials, social media, websites, and educational channels will be presented as means of communication for the upcoming steps. An example illustrating this approach will be further explained in the next section. Step 4. Other Activities The support process continues by establishing new connections and strengthening the involvement of key actors within households, with a focus on potential REC members. To address concerns of acceptability and intrusiveness, a series of activities were organized. A crucial activity involved engaging young children from the kindergarten located in the residential blocks to create new opportunities for community interaction. The main objective was to clean and revitalize the square. This activity went beyond a mere educational endeavour and took on the character of a tactical urban intervention. It served as a “Trojan Horse” strategy, piquing curiosity, expanding the network of contacts, and identifying potential REC members. Additionally, the school activity in the square benefited from the “eyes on the street” concept [34], leveraging the residential sector’s layout to capture the attention of all households. The transformative nature of the space aimed to evoke emotional connections and affection towards the public space [35]. These activities aimed to cultivate attachment to the place through temporary disruptions linked to planned interventions that directly or indirectly impacted people and space. The activities culminated in marking the square, with children signing their work and leaving their handprints. They were also given bright lamps featuring the CER-CA project’s symbol, which they placed in the square. These lamps served as physical reminders of the children’s ownership of the space. The action was designed to be antifragile [36], meaning that if the lamps remained in the square, they would enhance the aesthetic value of the public space. Conversely, if the lamps were stolen (as anticipated), they would spread as an “information virus” in citizens’ homes. Each lamp was marked with a logo and a QR code linking to the CER-CA project’s digital platform. This practice became a tangible urban symbol of rootedness, affection, and attachment. The project phases described above have been implemented, and their effects are discussed in Sect. 4. Moving forward, we will outline the planned future steps of the survey process, providing insights into the reasoning behind our choices and exploring the expected outcomes. Step 5. Recreational and Convivial Moments During this step, convivial launch events will be organized to foster community engagement. The space transformed by the children’s intervention now bears a distinct mark, making it easily recognizable to the families residing in the residential blocks. This

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marked area will serve as a focal point for the REC in the study area. An information gazebo will be set up within this space, providing a safe environment for citizens to discuss project-related issues and concerns. These convivial events can also serve as celebrations for activities like the one described earlier. Furthermore, when combined with informal practices already taking place in the residential blocks, such as barbecues, they can create auspicious opportunities and pivotal moments for engaging with future REC members. The underlying idea is to stimulate the community through tactical or temporary activities that promote the energy community in the city. Step 6. Focus Group In this step, similar to Step 3, the process remains the same, but the actors and topics involved change. Previously, the focus was on key actors within the community, whereas now the emphasis shifts to households and potential members of the Renewable Energy Community (REC). Instead of presenting the project and its benefits as in the initial focus group, the aim now is to provide detailed information regarding the potential savings that each household can achieve on their monthly electricity bills. Additionally, we will explain the incentives that can be obtained through specific targeted behaviours and provide a general overview of how to become a member of the REC. At this stage, thanks to the trust established, we will request residents to share their electricity bills. Using a simple formula, we will assess their current energy consumption and estimate how it would change if they decide to join the REC. Step 7. Workshop In this step, we focus on the learning aspect of the CER-CA project, which aims to establish a solid methodology that can be applied to similar urban contexts. To facilitate open discussions about project-related issues, separate information workshops are organized for both the community and REC members. Participants are recruited through exploratory surveys, focus groups, and various promotional materials such as posters, flyers, brochures, and gadgets. The main objective of this step is to develop theories of behavioural change. However, there will also be ongoing monitoring of the process to encourage and reinforce positive behaviours, promoting a level of self-sufficiency in project management. The central priority was to outline and define a clear methodology that can be applied and adapted to different contexts within the city. In the following section, we will present the parallel project of graphic design. 3.2 Graphic Project In this section, we present the design processes of the communication program, including the development of the logo, graphics, and language code for effectiveness and attractiveness. The communication campaign started with the creation of a logo and naming. The goal was to produce a replicable object that could be adapted to different contexts and social schemes. Visual identities associated with the sun and local traditions were considered important references. The name “CER-CA” was derived from the acronyms Renewable Energy Community and Cagliari, specifically chosen to represent the modular and replicable nature of the project. Additionally, “CERCA” in Italian means “search." The need to simplify language codes and make them as effective as

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possible led to this choice, enabling better integration of information materials within residential areas. The concept was akin to a treasure hunt, where households are guided in their search for not only the physical object (the poster) but also for what it represents (savings, community, etc.). Starting from the early stages of the project, five poster announcements (see Fig. 2) were distributed across the four entrances of the residential sector. Each poster, sized 85x150 cm, featured a headline or slogan (varied based on access points, providing information on savings, fostering a sense of community, and highlighting other REC benefits) and a body section with fixed informational content. These posters aimed to introduce the community to the project, conveying the message that “we are coming." The result was a series of poster announcements covering the residential sector, featuring slogans like “CER-CA il risparmio (Find the Saving)" and more. A modular and progressive information system was employed through a triptych format, ensuring each poster release built upon the previous ones without replacing them. The schedule involved releasing a new poster every two weeks, gradually adding more information alongside the existing ones.

Fig. 2. Overview of poster announcements.

The concept of modularity is crucial [36]. The focus was on simplification and replicability, creating adaptable elements that can accommodate possibilities for future remodeling. This approach is essential due to the intention of including 40 new energy projects in the city of Cagliari. Following this, physical (flyers and brochures) and digital (social media and web) information and communication materials will be produced. Currently, flyers and brochures have been distributed to local shops near the residential blocks, but there are plans to expand the dissemination of materials in the coming months.

4 Results and Discussions This paper focuses on the relationship between energy and community, specifically addressing the social acceptance of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs). Through a qualitative approach, we have presented some outcomes of an ongoing process aimed at identifying operational models and organizational frameworks for REC development. The paper outlines a 7-step process that explores practices to overcome technical and social challenges in establishing a REC in a challenging residential sector in Cagliari. Each step emphasizes the importance of community governance as a fundamental pillar for project success. Key considerations from the initial steps include:

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– In Step 1, some households did not respond or express availability due to unfamiliarity with the study area. However, efforts were made to engage with known families residing in the residential blocks. – In Step 2, the distrust of institutions among citizens was evident. The paper highlights the importance of the community element in easing opposition and creating support. It draws on René Girard’s concept [37] of the scapegoat mechanism to turn distrust into an opportunity for social cohesion. – Step 4 involved addressing initial fears and perplexity within the community, with demands, needs, and desires taking precedence. The project also led to the discovery of new contacts among teachers and families living in the residential blocks. The critical aspects identified for success are teamwork and empowerment. Engaging critical community members and enabling their participation in activities, focus groups, and workshops is important to activate empowerment processes. Effective teamwork and coordination are crucial for the success of the REC. Empowerment provides households with the necessary tools to engage in REC activities, fostering self-sufficiency in REC management and ensuring accountability for decision-making and actions [38]. The paper highlights the adaptability of engagement practices to address problematic aspects such as opportunistic behaviour or individual wishes [39]. It also discusses how engagement activities, such as interim use projects, can offer new scenarios for urban regeneration. Overall, this study aims to contribute methodologically to facilitate the social acceptance of RECs, motivating participation in clean energy projects and fostering a sense of attachment to the place where they occur. This is crucial for creating an effective and future-proof REC.

5 Conclusions This section provides the concluding remarks of the paper, discussing the results of the case study and the potential of the methodology employed. The ongoing CER-CA project, along with its role within a larger program encompassing 40 new energy projects in Cagliari, is presented. The paper highlights the challenges associated with developing new energy projects. One of the key contributions of this research is recognizing the energy transition as an opportunity to not only empower communities but also revalue spaces in terms of emotional attachment rather than solely identity. The methodology developed for this project aims to be applicable in other contexts, considering energy communities as dynamic entities that evolve and change over time. The social impacts observed in the initial stages demonstrate the effectiveness of the engagement method in promoting collective management of energy communities. While the ongoing nature of the project prevents a comprehensive discussion of experiences, the paper presents critical aspects and suggestions for future steps. A remaining research question is whether the CER-CA model can be applied beyond the residential sector of PMM. Exploring its adaptation to different contexts and frameworks could provide valuable research insights. To establish evidence of positive impacts, dedicated surveys, qualitative assessments, and before-and-after measurements are recommended. In conclusion, the paper acknowledges the need for further research and intends to continue tracking progress and outcomes in subsequent steps.

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Funding. This paper was produced while attending the PhD programme in Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Cagliari, Cycle XXXVIII, with the support of a scholarship financed by NRRP, funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU - Mission 4 “Education and Research", Component 2 “From Research to Business” - Investment 1.5 “Creating and strengthening “innovation ecosystems", building “local R&D leaders”; part of the Ecosystem E.ins project - Ecosystem of Innovation for Next Generation Sardinia.

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29. Soeiro, S., Dias, M.F.: Renewable energy community and the European energy market: main motivations. Heliyon 6(7) (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04511 30. Hollweck, T., Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research Design and Methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, p. 282. Sage, CA (2014). Can. J. Program Eval., vol. 30 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe. 30.1.108 31. Nyumba, T., Wilson, K., Derrick, C., Mukherjee, N.: The use of focus group discussion methodology: insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods Ecol. Evol. 9, 20–32 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12860 32. Vanclay, F.: International Principles For Social Impact Assessment. Impact Assess. Proj. Apprais., vol. 21, fasc. 1, pp. 5–12 (2003). https://doi.org/10.3152/147154603781766491 33. Blecic, I., Saiu, V.: NeighbourHub. Un circuito aperto di spazi per usi temporanei ea rotazione, per un distretto culturale diffuso nei quartieri di Is Mirrionis e San Michele a Cagliari. In: IV Congresso Internazionale dell’Abitare Collettivo Sostenibile. Laboratorio de la Vivienda Sostenible del Siglo XXI, pp. 356–360 (2020). https://hdl.handle.net/11584/297744 34. Jacobs, J.: The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Random House, New York (1961). ISBN 9780394421599 35. Kolers, A.: Land, Conflict, and Justice: A Political Theory of Territory. Cambridge University Press (2009). ISBN 9780521184120 36. Blecic, I., Cecchini, A.: Antifragile Planning. Planning Theory (2020). https://doi.org/10. 1177/1473095219873365 37. Girard, R.: The Scapegoat. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (1986). ISBN 0801833159 38. Walker, G., Devine-Wright, P., Hunter, S., High, H., Evans, B.: Trust and community: exploring the meanings, contexts and dynamics of community renewable energy. Energy Policy, vol. 38, fasc. 6, pp. 2655–2663 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.05.055 39. Dóci, G., Vasileiadou, E.: “Let’s do it ourselves” individual motivations for investing in renewables at community level. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 49, 41–50 (2015). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.04.051

Smart Happy Region. Relationship Between Planning and Subjective Well-Being

Identifying the Features of a Walkable-Oriented Redevelopment of Brownfields: A Systematic Review Mina Ramezani1(B) , Arezoo Bangian Tabrizi2 , Esmaeil Kalate Rahmani3 , and Tiziana Campisi4 1 University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

[email protected]

2 Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, Islamic Azad

University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 3 Islamic Azad University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran 4 University of Enna “Kore”, Enna, Italy

Abstract. Over the past two decades, many systems have been developed to support the development process of brownfield sites, but, existing systems often do not fully understand the complexity of brownfield sites from a sustainable development point of view but the solutions for the development of brown lands is to improve pedestrian-friendly cities, and accordingly, the purpose of this research is to identify the characteristics of a pedestrian street in the redevelopment of brownfields. This research utilizes content analysis and qualitative review of articles, systematically examining studies in the field of brown-fields and walkable-oriented. The data collection method is based on selected textual documents, and data analysis employs coding techniques followed by qualitative analysis. The data were categorized into four stages using MAXQDA and collected from articles published between 2018 and 2023 by Scholar. Based on the objective and categorization of the articles, qualitative components were extracted and classified into five main themes: 1. Physical 2. Functional 3. Environmental 4. Economic and 5. Social. Among the main components analyzed the highest frequency was related to environmental factors, followed by physical, functional, social, and finally economic factors. Achieving environmental quality and sustainability is one of the long-term goals in the development of brownfields, aiming to reduce the depletion of natural resources in cities and ensure their long-term availability to humans. Among the solutions, walkable-oriented approaches such as linear parks, green walkways, green transportation, and easy access to essential amenities in cities receive more attention from urban planners. Keywords: Brownfields · walkable orientation · systematic review · MAXQDA

1 Introduction Over the past few decades, cities in various parts of the world have been experiencing significant population growth, and the continuous increase in urbanization has led many industries to relocate from urban areas to the outskirts of cities. This shift has left the inner © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 447–459, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_39

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core with numerous underutilized or vacant industrial sites, resulting in the emergence of brownfield sites. It should be noted that there is still no precise consensus on how to define these sites globally, mainly due to disagreements in their definitions (Nissim et al. 2023). During the past decades, the inherent problems of industrial abandonment have become increasingly evident, and industrial cities worldwide have experienced significant impacts. The motivations behind this phenomenon include lack of investment, global economic restructuring, process automation, and industrial relocation to areas with lower production costs. It is not surprising that this process has caused considerable concerns in affected economies and sparked thoughtful discussions about its causes and consequences (Burley 2013). On the other hand, land use in urban areas is of fundamental importance and determines how different places that urban residents visit or intend to visit are organized and interconnected. Therefore, land use not only affects the vast resources allocated to housing, commercial properties, open spaces, and transportation but also potentially impacts the labor market and the markets for the products we consume. The extensive effects of land use may have serious implications for well-being and equity (Duranton 2015). So we find that brownfield sites are lands that have previously been developed and are now abandoned, vacant, or underutilized due to various factors such as pollution risks, cleanup costs, or abandonment. But walking, as the primary mode of transportation and physical activity, is both environmentally friendly and beneficial for the physical and mental health of residents. Recent studies have also shown that walkable areas or neighborhoods can enhance social and economic prosperity (Zhou et al. 2019). It should be noted that over the past two decades, numerous systems have been created to support decision-makers and facilitate the planning and redevelopment processes of brownfield sites. However, existing systems often overlook the complexities of brownfield sites from a sustainable development perspective, and one of the solutions for brownfield redevelopment is the enhancement of pedestrian infrastructure. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the characteristics of a walkable-oriented brownfield redevelopment through a systematic review, aiming to improve the understanding of brownfield sites and their role in urban design, walkableoriented planning, and reducing ambiguities and contradictions in their definition. Thus, this article employs a qualitative literature review method to define the key features that contribute to the construction of brownfield sites through four stages of literature search, focusing on urban planning and design. The dimensions of the overlaps between brownfield sites and pedestrian infrastructure are examined, and the research methodology, discussion, and conclusion are based on this premise. 1.1 Theoretical Framework of Brownfield The concept of “brownfield” has been widely recognized and used since the 1990s worldwide. Various case studies on brownfield redevelopment in Britain have shown that revitalizing brownfield sites contributes to economic growth by creating opportunities for infrastructure development. When pollution is remediated, the land can be suitable for specific purposes and reused for new advancements. A typical and popular example is the redevelopment and transformation of a 350-hectare land (Okeyinkaet et al. 2023). Brownfields can be defined as “underutilized, abandoned, commercial, or industrial areas that are known or perceived to be contaminated, turning their environmental

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pollution into a challenge. “In one of the recent and accepted definitions of brownfield, it is described as follows: “Affected by previous site uses and surrounding lands. They are abandoned or underutilized and have real or perceived pollution problems. They are mostly located in developed urban areas. Intervention is needed to restore them to useful utilization” (Rizzo et al. 2015). The term “brownfield” is commonly used to describe a wide range of spaces, from polluted industrial landscapes to former factory buildings, such as vacant or abandoned properties typically found in older and deteriorating urban areas. This reality is increasingly considered a significant failure in understanding the inherent variability of different landscapes, often referred to as brownfield sites, which somewhat hinder their redevelopment and prolong the period of their vacancy or underutilization, although these conditions have been poorly assessed, they indicate one of the main issues (Loures and Vaz 2018). A study conducted by Lang and McNeal (2004) in the United States reported that the proximity of brownfield sites to infrastructure such as airports, city centers, and railroads facilitates their revitalization. In Strava, Czech Republic, the decision for brownfield redevelopment is mainly influenced by two main criteria: site contamination and previous land uses. The identified factors from the above literature indicate the most common criteria that developers are seeking. When considering the redevelopment of brownfield lands, factors such as remediation costs, budget, pollution levels, site size, future land use, land ownership, etc., are taken into account (Novosák et al. 2013). Additionally, De Sousa emphasized the redevelopment of brownfield sites into green spaces in Toronto, which has been supported by political initiatives. As a result, soil quality improved, habitats were created, recreational opportunities increased, and neighborhoods were revitalized economically (Toronto Planning 2000). 1.2 Walkability On the other hand, in past centuries, cities were built with a focus on prioritizing vehicles, and nowadays, almost all cities are struggling with problems such as traffic congestion, traffic accidents, air pollution, climate change, etc. These issues indicate the need for a change in the dominant approach to street design, where well-designed streets provide numerous benefits for citizens and the urban ecosystem. (Garcu and Melis 2019) (Campisi et al. 2020) (Russo et al. 2022). Therefore, adopting a multimodal street design approach is essential for the livability of our cities (Kim and Altun 2023). With the increase in transportation usage and the decline in environmental quality, especially in city centers, efforts to improve people’s quality of life and reclaim urban spaces for them are of significant importance. Implementation of pedestrian-friendly policies has been a focus of attention in many cities around the world for the past half-century (Habibi et al. 2021). Internationally, longitudinal studies and quasi-experiments have shown that residents living in walkable neighborhoods, namely bicycle-friendly and pedestrianfriendly neighborhoods, engage in higher levels of physical activity, primarily through increased walking. In fact, recent European evidence also supports positive correlations between the length of the cycling network and cycling levels. (Yamu and Garau 2022) (Papas et al. 2023) Environments that promote active lifestyles have the potential to delay the onset of chronic diseases, which are currently largely caused by physical inactivity (Zapata-Diomedi et al. 2019).

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Walkability is a cornerstone of urban sustainability, with key implications for the environment, public health, social cohesion, and local economy. Therefore, urban planners, city designers, and decision-makers need tools to predict pedestrian movement and assess the walkability of existing or planned urban environments. To this end, various approaches have been used to analyze different inputs such as street network configuration, density, land use mix, and the location of certain amenities (López et al. 2021). Thus, we find that a vital element for achieving urban sustainability is reducing society’s dependence on cars. Residents of suburban areas often rely heavily on their cars for traveling to destinations within their neighborhoods due to street design, lack of sidewalks, and long distances (Randall and Baetz 2001). Proposing an effective approach to approximate visual pedestrianization, considering the increasing needs of urban residents for leisure time, is of great importance both in theory and in practice. Recent advances in sensing technologies and computational methods provide new opportunities in this regard (Zhou et al. 2019). Ultimately, it can be stated that in Brownfield sites, conditions are segregated and evaluated, and new design strategies aim to transform an isolated area into an innovative park design that incorporates sustainable and mixed-use functions to create a pedestrian-friendly environment. Fundamental concepts and space transformation methods have been adapted to develop a new strategy for the Brownfield site by analyzing the relationship between urban form, movement patterns, and space utilization (Kubat and Torun 2012).

2 Materials and Methods In this research, content analysis and qualitative review of articles were conducted through a systematic examination of studies in the context of brownfields and walkableoriented. The aim was to investigate, combine, and report the results using a replicable method. The data collection method was appropriate for the research approach, utilizing textual sources and selected document methods. The data was analyzed using coding techniques and further qualitative analysis was conducted. The data was classified into four stages using the MAXQDA software. Data collection was done by utilizing published articles from the Google Scholar database in the fields of architecture-urbanism, environment, geography, economy, green space engineering, and energy management, covering the period from 2018 to 2023 (Fig. 1). It should be kept in mind that scientific research articles of the last 5 years are important for us in this research.

Fig. 1. Reviewed Studies Based on Subject Area (Source: Author 2023)

In this research, scientific articles were studied within the timeframe of 2018 to 2023, focusing on the combination of keywords such as “brownfields” and “walkable.“ In the

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initial search, a total of 18,000 articles were found using the mentioned keywords. After narrowing down the search to the timeframe of 2018 to 2023, the number of articles reduced to 6,520, and eventually, it further decreased to 298 articles. At the end of the search, after reviewing the abstracts of the articles, 96 articles were excluded due to unavailability of full text, 98 articles were removed due to duplication, and 89 articles were eliminated due to their irrelevance to the topic (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Systematic Review Process (Source: Author 2023)

In the final stage, 15 articles were selected for in-depth study, where they were thoroughly analyzed and examined. The relevant information was extracted from these articles and entered into the MAXQDA software. Content analysis and open coding techniques were utilized for the content analysis of the articles. Suitable qualitative research models were employed to find an appropriate tool for coding.

Fig. 3. Percentage of Studies on Brownfields and Walkability in the years 2018 to 2023 (Source: Author 2023)

Continuing with the examination of conducted research in the studied areas, according to Fig. 3, it was determined that the publication trend of studies was declining from 2020 to 2021. However, this trend has been increasing from 2021 to 2023. It should be noted that the highest number of studies took place in 2023 (Table 1).

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M. Ramezani et al. Table 1. Components used in the background of the research.

Main Dimensions

Author or Authors of the year/year

Secondary Components

Environmental

Paul (2008)

• Redevelopment of brownfields • Development of green fields • Consolidation of brownfields • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions • Improve water quality

Mehdipour et al. (2013)

• Sustainable urban regeneration • Improvement of air pollution • Reducing urban sprawl • Standard urban development

Hammond et al. (2021)

• Technology modification • Suitability of land use • Sustainability of land use

Environmental Protection Agency Office of Brownfields and Land RevitalizationPrepared IcF (2021)

• • • • •

Howland (2007)

• Land clearing and redevelopment • Creating jobs • Economic investment

BenDor et al(2011)

• Funding availability • Liability concerns • Complex and standardized network of regulations • Cleaning standards • Risk assessment

Ruelle et al. (2013)

• Expectations of the local community • Participation and quality in regeneration • Sense of belonging and increasing attractiveness •Livability

Economic

Social and cultural

Land density Earth permeability Soil pollution Access Residential density

(continued)

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Table 1. (continued) Main Dimensions

Functional

Physical

Author or Authors of the year/year

Secondary Components

Ghabouli et al (2023)

• The role of heritage in land development • Being attractive and memorable • Satisfaction with space • Historical and cultural richness • Conceptual connection with the site’s history

Mert (2019)

•renewable energy •flexibility • Reuse of lands

Rebernik, et al. (2023)

• Reconstruction • Revitalization and resilience of brown lands • Variety of uses

Preston, et al (2023)

• Alternative important uses such as parks • Green lands and footpaths • Permeability

Hou, et al. (2023)

• Urban ecosystem • Nature and sustainable energy systems • Long-term accessibility and flexibility

3 Research Findings As mentioned at the beginning of the research methodology, this study focused on the examination of international scientific research articles within the time frame of 2018 to 2023, specifically investigating the combination of keywords such as “brownfields” and “walkable”. It should be noted that based on the objective and categorization of the titles of the reviewed articles, qualitative components were extracted. The main components were classified into five categories: 1. Physical, 2. Functional, 3. Environmental, 4. Economic, and 5. Social. Among these main components analyzed in this research, the highest frequency was related to environmental factors, followed by physical, functional, social, and finally economic factors in respective order (Fig. 4). Based on the analysis of the conducted studies and the research findings in the MAXQDA software, as indicated in Fig. 4, it can be concluded that the most important qualitative codes in this research are assigned to the components of environmental quality, sustainability, and brownfield development. In fact, one of the fundamental

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Fig. 4. Examined Components in the Articles (Source: Author 2023)

solutions for achieving long-term urban development is paying attention to underutilized spaces or brownfields. Neglecting these spaces and lack of planning in this regard and the development of such lands will lead to numerous problems for cities, including environmental pollution, social and economic issues, and more. On the other hand, environmental quality is a general term that can refer to various aspects such as air and water purity or pollution, noise pollution, access to open spaces, and the visual impact of buildings, which can potentially have positive effects on physical and mental health. Furthermore, in the broadest sense, sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process over time. Therefore, the long-term objectives for brownfield development aim to achieve environmental quality and sustainability by reducing the use of natural resources, ensuring their long-term availability to humans. Among these, walkabilitybased solutions such as linear parks, green pedestrian paths, green transportation, easy access to essential facilities in cities have received more attention from planners than others (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Relationships between the Examined Codes in MAXQDA Software (Source: Author 2023)

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Therefore, it can be stated that planning and developing brownfields have significant impacts on enhancing the level of sustainability and environmental quality of cities. On the one hand, improving environmental quality has effects on components such as land value, access to facilities, reducing social problems, and spatial flexibility. By creating flexible and walkable spaces, such as parks, green pedestrian paths, green transportation, and sports fields, and creating quality multi-functional spaces, cities can move towards sustainability, which has a significant impact on improving the quality of the environment and the economy of cities.

4 Discussion and Conclusion In the present study, a systematic review was conducted on brownfield and walkability, and the results indicate the existence of a reciprocal relationship between brownfield areas and pedestrian circuits. Comparing the results of this research with similar studies that have focused on the approaches of these two areas, it shows that the development of brownfield areas requires an integrated approach to monitoring aspects, natural resources, and surrounding community conditions. However, it should be noted that in previous studies, more attention has been given to the concept and components of brownfield areas in urban environments, while the components of walkability have been completely separated, and the mutual impacts of these two areas have received much less attention. For example, in the results of the study conducted by Newton et al. (2023), in order to develop brownfield areas, missions and ideas need to be formulated, taking into account the strategic environmental factors, both external and internal, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges present in them. The aim of this research is to develop brownfield areas. Another study conducted by Mirzaei et al. (2018) emphasizes that the development of brownfield and walkability have a mutual relationship with each other. While extensive studies are needed to prove the reciprocal relationship, this study attempts to obtain evidence of the relationship between brownfield and walkability, and of course, this study emphasizes a transdisciplinary approach that includes both empirical and theoretical research. By examining the conducted studies and considering the research findings in the MaxQDA software, it can be concluded that significant progress has been made in the field of sustainability in these two areas during recent years, and in all of them, urban environments are important determinants of human health and quality of life improvement. On the other hand, those who intend to carry out operations in the transformation of brownfield fields should focus on understanding the characteristics and various types of brownfields (abandoned land, contaminated land, underutilized land, and vacant land) as tools for achieving sustainable adaptability, which enables the creation of new frameworks for revitalizing the redevelopment of these spaces. It should be noted that the characteristics of walkability in the development of urban brownfield areas have received less analysis. For this reason, the aim of this research is to present unbiased conclusions that can be used for future studies. Furthermore, to achieve the objective of this research, and using qualitative analysis, articles discussing theoretical research in the field of brownfield and walkability studies were examined. The analysis was based on a systematic review of published articles

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between 2018 and the present. By examining the conducted studies and the research outputs in the MaxQDA software, it can be concluded that the most important qualitative codes in this research are allocated to the components of environmental quality, sustainability, and the development of brownfield spaces, in that order. In fact, one of the fundamental solutions for long-term urban development is paying attention to underutilized spaces or brownfield areas. Neglecting these spaces and lacking planning in this regard, as well as the development of such areas, will lead to numerous problems for cities, including environmental pollution, social and economic issues, and more. Therefore, the long-term goals for the development of brownfield areas aim to achieve environmental quality and sustainability, which involve reducing the use of finite natural resources in cities, ensuring their availability for humans in the long run. Among these goals, pedestrian-oriented solutions such as linear parks, green walkways, green transportation, and easy access to essential amenities in cities, have received more attention from planners than others (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Qualitative research method process Software (Source: Author 2023)

Articles Reviewed in this Research

Number

Author/year

The title of the research

1

Mirzai et al.. (2018)

Greenway Pedestrian Design in order to Rejoin the divided Urban Zones through the Brownfield Regeneration

2

Beames et al.. (2018)

Amenity proximity analysis for sustainable brownfield redevelopment planning (continued)

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(continued) Number

Author/year

The title of the research

3

Loures and Vaz (2018)

Exploring expert perception towards brownfield redevelopment benefits according to their typology

4

Bueno-Suárez and Coq-Huelva (2020)

Sustaining What Is Unsustainable: A Review of Urban Sprawl and Urban Socio-Environmental Policies in North America and Western Europe

5

Ameller et al. (2020)

The Contribution of Economic Science to Brownfield Redevelopment: A Review

6

Wang et al.. (2020)

The Microclimatic Effects of Ecological Restoration in Brownfield based on Remote Sensing Monitoring: The Case Studies of Landfills in China

7

Xuili and Maliene (2021)

A Review of Studies on Sustainable Urban Regeneration

8

Tomovska et al. (2022

Revitalisation of Public Spaces: Sustainable and Bioclimatic Strategies that Improve the Qualities of Skopje’s Urban Matrix

9

Jacek et al. (2022)

Brownfields over the years: from definition to sustainable reuse

10

Stanford et al. (2022)

A social-ecological framework for identifying and governing informal greenspaces in cities

11

Luo and Patuano (2023)

Multiple ecosystem services of informal green spaces: A literature review

12

Okeyinka et al. (2023)

A Critical Review of Developers’ Decision Criteria for Brownfield Regeneration:

13

Newton et al. (2023)

State of Brownfields in the Northern Bohemia, Saxony and Lower Silesian Regions and Prospects for Regeneration by Utilization of the Phytotechnology with the Second Generation Crops

14

Ghabouli et al. (2023)

Heritage and the Regeneration of Urban Brownfields: Insights on Public Perception in Tehran, Iran

15

Guidi Nissim et al. (2023)

Beyond Cleansing: Ecosystem Services Related to Phytoremediation. Plants

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Well-Being Cities and Territorial Government Tools: Relationships and Interdependencies Laura Ricci, Carmela Mariano, and Marsia Marino(B) PDTA Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. At the end of the 1970s, Manuel Castells theorized the concept of a “city of well-being” within what was defined as the “new urban question”. What differentiates the condition of contemporary cities and territories from the second half of the last century is the emergence of environmental issues, related to the climate crisis, which add to those of social revitalization, cultural and economic valorisation of the city, and which call for the need to identify new indicators to build the public city and achieve a new urban welfare. In this context of reference, this contribution aims to investigate the relationship between quality of life and quality of the urban environment, through a critical examination of the Urban Development Plan (STEP 2025) of Vienna, named for the tenth time “most liveable city in the world”. This is to define theoretical-methodological and operational references for the actualization of new indicators/requirements/standards of urban welfare, exportable and applicable to different territorial contexts, which provide both quantitative and performance criteria, useful to integrate/innovate strategies, plans, programs, and normative/regulatory apparatuses from the perspective of sustainable development and ecological-environmental regeneration of the contemporary city. The article introduces an initial set of urban welfare indicators, adopting a systemic approach with the aim to emphasize the close relationship between urban well-being, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion while charting new trajectories for urban planning development. Keywords: Urban welfare · Well-being cities · Just transition · Urban regeneration · Urban planning tools · Urban standards

1 The “New Urban Question” Between Socioeconomic and Environmental Issues The link between the quality of the urban environment and the quality of citizens’ lives was already explored by Manuel Castells in the early 1970s in his book The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach [1]. This work introduced the concept of a “city of well-being” and defined the theme as the “new urban question” of that time. More recently, in the book Quand les villes se défait: Quelle politique face à la crise des banlieues? Jacques Donzelot associates the new urban question with what he calls the “logic of separation in the city” [2]. According to Donzelot, over time the city has © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 460–471, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_40

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progressively lost its ability to “create society”, and the internal tensions it experiences have led to three dynamics of urban transformation that reflect the logic of separation: “relegation”, “suburbanization” and “gentrification”. Donzelot argues that to ensure real social diversity, urban policies should structurally intervene in mobility between neighbourhoods and municipalities to overcome the infrastructural barriers that separate marginalized, peri-urban, and gentrified areas. This concept has been recently revisited in the article Connecting intercity mobility with urban welfare [3], which, in turn, refers to the “genetic anomalies” described by Giuseppe Campos Venuti regarding the development of Italian cities since the 20th century, which have developed subordinately to road infrastructure, thereby facilitating the “sprawl” of cities. In this regard, over the years, many scholars of urban dynamics have tried to define this condition [4–8], and all interpretations imply a generalized crisis of the “urban system” now characterized by high levels of pollution, energy waste, lack of infrastructure, land consumption, poor-quality public spaces, and a general sense of insecurity [9]. In this reference context, it is appropriate to underline how the crisis of the contemporary city differs from that originated in the second half of the last century, due to the emergence of environmental issues related to the climate crisis, which add to the socioeconomic issues mentioned earlier, thus giving rise to a single and complex socioenvironmental crisis that requires an integrated approach combining the fight against poverty and social marginalization with environmental care [10]. Therefore, the new urban question, with its plurality of issues, requires broad reflection on a new model of urban welfare [9]. This topic is also dear to the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen, which has emphasized the importance of integrating environmental and social dimensions, adapting, consolidating, and strengthening European welfare systems to new sustainable development strategies. In this direction, alongside the European Green Deal [11], the Commission launched another ambitious pact in 2020, “A Strong Social Europe for Just Transitions” which aims to ensure that the ecological transition is also a just transition for all citizens [12]. 1.1 Cities and Subjective Well-Being: A Matter of Rights for the Human-Citizen Considering the socioeconomic issues that shape the new “urban question”, it is necessary to consider the role of the human-citizen in its dual dimension: • the social dimension, as an integral part of a community, contributes to its development and identifies with it; • the individual dimension, which relates to personal needs and expectations. Within this framework and considering the need to rethink a new model of urban welfare, it is essential taking into account two spheres of human-citizen rights. The first can be summarized by the general concept of the “right to the city” as previously discussed by Henri Lefebvre in 1968 [13]. This encompasses rights to education, health, the environment, public mobility, housing [9], as well as participation in decision-making processes concerning public affairs and the responsible and conscious access to services and territorial and urban amenities, which entail an active involvement of individuals in society.

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The second sphere refers to the “right to health”, enshrined in the Italian national context by Article 32 of the Constitution, here understood in its broader sense of “wellbeing”. Michalos (2008) [14] has highlighted the existence of two macro-dimensions of well-being: quality of life (which can be determined by objective factors), and subjective well-being or SWB (mainly determined by subjective aspects). Furthermore, the BES Report 1 [15] includes the latter among the 12 macro-indicators to assess societal progress not only from an economic perspective but also from social and environmental standpoints. Indeed, the World Happiness Report (WHR) [16] emphasizes that the success of countries should be determined by the happiness of their citizens and suggests that this component should even become a parameter to measure the effectiveness of urban and socioeconomic development policies. This dual thread of social and individual rights of the human-citizen serves as the interpretive key used by the authors in their critical analysis of the Urban Development Plan (STEP 2025) of the city of Vienna, recognized for the tenth time as the “most livable city in the world” by the Global Liveability Index [17]. The aim is to understand the relational link between territorial governance tools, quality of life, and subjective well-being. In this regard, the contribution presents some research findings from the project Urban Welfare, Public City, and Rights: Strategies, Tools, Mechanisms for Innovation of the Local Plan in a Climate-Proof Perspective funded by Sapienza University of Rome (scientific supervisor Laura Ricci). The project aims to outline theoretical, methodological, and operational references for the actualization of new indicators/requirements/standards of urban welfare. These can be exported and applied to different territorial contexts, providing quantitative and qualitative criteria and performance indicators useful for integrating and innovating strategies, plans, programs, and regulatory frameworks in the perspective of sustainable development and the ecological regeneration of contemporary cities.

2 Vienna: The Future is a Matter of Planning The reason for the success of Vienna can be attributed to its long-standing tradition in urban welfare and cross-border cooperation. Indeed, since the late 1990s, the city administration has recognized the regional dimension as the most suitable approach to manage contemporary complexity. In this climate of transnational cooperation, the Centrope initiative was launched in 2003 (derived from the combination of the words “Centre” and “Europe”), funded by the European Union through structural funds, as well as by local and regional authorities from the four involved regions: Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Hungary [18]. The current local urban plan of Vienna [19, 20], continues to be inspired by these principles. It represents a long-term polycentric urban development program with a strong strategic character, aiming to maintain high standards of citizens’ quality of life through quantitative and qualitative parameters for the definition of public components of the city and monitoring indicators. As stated in the description of the plan: «The 1 Benessere Equo e Sostenibile (Fair and Sustainable Well-being).

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task for the future which Vienna is facing now is, to put it in simple terms, to create adequate living space, jobs as well as infrastructure to ensure local supplies, education, and recreation. ‘Adequate’ does not only mean appropriate in quantitative terms but also adjusted to the needs of a city which has emerged as the most liveable city – or, in the ‘worst case’, as one of the most liveable cities – in the world in all international rankings for many years. Hence, Vienna is also challenged in qualitative terms» [21]. The plan is structured into four thematic areas: 1. Vienna: setting the stage, which defines the vision of the plan; 2. Vienna: building the future, which provides general guidelines for the quality of the urban structure; 3. Vienna: reaching beyond its borders, which outlines the terms of urban development from the perspective of a regional metropolis. 4. Vienna: networking the city, which defines principles related to green areas and mobility. From paragraph 1, three key points can be summarized regarding the perception of well-being, understood in its multidimensionality, within the urban dimension: 1. Social mix and high-quality public space; 2. Ecological conversion oriented towards a “just transition”, including social inclusion and accessibility; 3. Inter-neighbourhood and inter-municipal mobility to mend marginalized, peri-urban, and gentrified areas and to rehabilitate the “spirit of the city”. Therefore, the following paragraphs aim to highlight how STEP 2025 addresses these themes, emphasizing both the quantitative and qualitative criteria and indicators adopted to ensure the quality of the city’s public components (as explained in thematic areas 2 and 4 of the plan) and the centrality of users in the dual social and individual dimension (previously mentioned) in development choices and urban transformation. 2.1 Quali-quantitative Parameters to Guarantee Social Mix and a Quality Public Space Regarding the three key points for the perception of well-being within the urban dimension, the themes of social mix and quality of public space are addressed in the thematic area Vienna: building the future. This area encompasses three axes of development, depending on the different areas that compose the urban structure: 1. Vienna renews – the built city (for the historic city and the consolidated city). 2. Vienna mobilizes land – space for urban growth (for areas of urban expansion). 3. Vienna transforms – centres and underused areas (for areas of transformation or underutilized spaces). For each of these development axes, a detailed prescriptive document is provided, which sets quantitative and qualitative criteria for urban development and regeneration. For synthesis, here are some interesting parameters outlined in the Gründerzeit Action Plan [22] for the historic and consolidated city, which can be summarized under two main concepts: the “parterre” street, and the public space as a “common room”. These

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two concepts delineate several quantitative and qualitative parameters, further articulated into specific measures (Table 1). Table 1. Quali-quantitative parameters to guarantee the quality of the urban structure. Concept

Quali-Quantitative Parameters

Specific Measures

“Parterre” Street

Building elevation

Possible according to road width Should consider social mix, with some housing units having controlled rental prices

Public Space as “Common Room”

Mobility

Hierarchical flow organization

Social and shared use of sidewalks

Private management of public space in front of buildings, ensuring social and shared use

Semi-public space as a social aggregator

Inner courtyards of buildings should provide shared facilities such as laundry, workshops, and playgrounds for residents

2.2 Quali-quantitative Parameters to Guarantee the Quality of Green Areas Regarding the three key aspects for the perception of well-being within the urban dimension, the themes related to ecological conversion oriented towards a “just transition”, considering social inclusion and accessibility, are addressed in the Vienna: networking the city thematic area. The specific document that deals with planning green areas in Vienna, with a vision for 2025, is STEP 2025 - Thematic Concept: Green and Open Spaces [23], attached to STEP 2025. This document consists of four main sections: 1. the first section defines the objectives of the plan, focusing on infrastructure of everyday life and green space equity; 2. the second section provides a detailed description of the starting points (main green areas based on their historical era and/or landscape-environmental value) and the challenges (population growth, demographic changes, climate change, and energy transition). The areas are differentiated based on their location and function; 3. the third section emphasizes the ecological, economic, and social roles of green areas. It highlights specific topics such as urban climate, ecology and nature conservation, water cycle and rainwater management, farming, real estate industry, tourism, leisure and recreational purposes, communication, encounter and mobility, health, urban structure, and identification. 4. the fourth section defines and describes twelve different types of green areas, aiming to integrate qualitative parameters with the quantitative ones used to determine the minimum amount of green and open spaces per inhabitant (Fig. 1).

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It should be noted that the planning of green and open spaces in Vienna is entrusted to additional detailed regulatory instruments known as Local Green Plans. These plans outline the layout of the respective areas, indicating the qualitative and quantitative parameters for each. To the analysis presented in this study, it is interesting to highlight the twelve types of green areas outlined in the fourth section of the document, accompanied by a brief description (Table 2).

Fig. 1. Previous plans already used quantitative parameters that fix the minimum quantities of green spaces per inhabitant in relation to four macro-areas: Neighbourhood, Residential Area, Urban quarter, and Region. Source: STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept. Green and Open Spaces.

Table 2. Quali-quantitative Parameters to guarantee the quality of green areas. Typologies of green areas and public spaces Description Lively streets and pedestrian zones

Areas with limited traffic/prevalence of soft mobility

Greened streets

Characterized by the presence of green elements: tree-lined avenues, hedges, pocket gardens

Streets with adjacent green spaces

Roads characterized by heavy vehicle traffic flows. The green spaces adjacent to these areas aim to promote service quality and reactivate ecological functions

Green axes

Linear elements consisting of roads up to 30 m wide, for which the planting of tree-lined avenues, hedges, meadows, etc., is planned

Green ways

Connecting linear elements consisting of roads with a minimum width of 30 m, playing a primary role in urban climate control, landscape balance, and the biotope network

Green corridors

Connecting linear elements consisting of green spaces with a width of over 50 m, serving a fundamental function for the green and open space network (continued)

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Typologies of green areas and public spaces Description Open spaces with restricted access

Green and open spaces with paid access

Semi-public green spaces

Green and open spaces with limited public access that are part of private or public buildings

Parks

Urban parks open to the public; some may have opening hours, but none have restrictions on user types

Multi-purpose land

Areas of low relevance for the ecological network function, green spaces, and open spaces. These areas also include those used for agricultural production

Module green space

Zones protected for agricultural purposes

Protected areas

Areas protected by Vienna’s Nature Conservation Act and Building Code for Vienna. These areas may allow agricultural and forestry use, but protected areas predominate

2.3 Quali-quantitative Parameters for Mobility Planning to 2025 With reference to the three key points for the perception of well-being within the urban dimension, the themes related to inter-district and inter-municipal mobility are also addressed in a general manner in the thematic area “Vienna: networking the city”. The prescriptive document that specifically deals with mobility planning, with a vision for 2025, is STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept: Urban Mobility Plan Vienna [24], attached to STEP 2025. This document consists of three main sections: 1. the first section defines the “Mission statement”, “Strategic framework”, “Objectives and Indicators”, and “City structure and mobility”; 2. the second section indicates the “Fields of actions”; 3. the third section provides methods and processes, and a list of measures. Before delving into the analysis of the qualitative and quantitative parameters related to mobility planning, it is important to clarify that since the 19th century, the street has always represented the structural element of Vienna’s metropolitan space. It continues to be considered the backbone of the urban and regional dimensions, interconnecting with all other systemic components (as evident from its role in terms of urban quality or the hierarchy of traffic flows as shown in Table 1). Unlike the aspects previously analysed, whose qualitative and quantitative parameters are well identified in detailed documents, the approach to mobility in STEP 2025 in general, and the document STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept: Urban Mobility Plan Vienna [24] in particular, has a more integrated connotation within urban complexity. In this regard, this contribution aims to present this integrated approach by relating elements from the three sections of the detailed document, to provide an overall vision and highlight certain qualitative and

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quantitative parameters for mobility planning. Firstly, Fig. 1 illustrates the relationship between the general objectives stated in the first section (Fair, Eco-friendly, Robust, Efficient, Compact, Healthy) and the transversal Fields of action covered at the local and regional scale, as outlined in the second section (Governance: Responsibilities and resources, Public space: Sharing streets in a fair way, Efficient mobility through mobility management, Sharing instead of owning, Transport organisation: A smarter way of managing mobility, Business in motion, Transport infrastructure: The backbone of the city, Mobility needs innovation, Transnational initiatives in the interest of the region, Regional mobility and transport strategy). Each Field of action corresponds to specific actions detailed in the third section.

Fig. 2. Quali-quantitative parameters deduced from the relationship between Objectives and Fields of action. Source: STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept. Urban Mobility Plan Vienna.

In addition to this, unlike the previously analysed detailed documents, the one related to mobility planning also defines a set of indicators (Table 3) for monitoring four thematic areas that the Plan considers for urban mobility planning. These areas demonstrate the centrality of users in defining the objectives and actions outlined in Fig. 2: • User behaviour and preferences (mobility behaviour); • Mobility services, reachability, and vehicle availability (mobility services, reachability and availability of vehicles); • Transport demand, efficiency, and traffic (transport demand, speeds and traffic safety); • Energy and environmental aspects related to mobility (energy and environment).

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Each indicator listed in Table 3 is further broken down into specific sub-indicators. For each sub-indicator, historical reference values, the most recent available values, and the corresponding objectives for 2025 are indicated. To the analysis presented in this contribution and for the sake of conciseness, it was deemed sufficient to highlight the relationship between thematic areas and indicators. The aim is to extract theoretical, methodological, and operational references for the updating of new indicators/requirements/standards of urban welfare to apply to different territorial contexts in subsequent research phases. Table 3. Indicators for monitoring and planning mobility up to 2025. Thematic areas

Indicators

Mobility behaviour

Active mobility Trips to get supplies, accompany someone or spend leisure time Car use Average distances covered [km] Average distances covered by car Modal split in passenger transport Modal split in passenger transport at city limits Share of walking and cycling in modal split Multimodality Modes of transport on way to school

Mobility services, reachability and availability Satisfaction with transport in Vienna of vehicles Public transport passes Public transport services Public transport reliability Access to public transport stops Bicycle availability Bike sharing station availability Car sharing location availability Degree of motorisation Reachability of primary schools Transport demand, speeds and traffic safety

Average speed of public transport Transport at city limits Motorised traffic density; census profiles Bicycle census profiles (continued)

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Table 3. (continued) Thematic areas

Indicators

Energy and environment

Energy consumption

Accidents Renewable energy Alternative propulsion systems CO2 emissions Traffic noise PM10 concentration NO2 concentration

Table 4. Indicators for a new urban welfare System

Macro-indicators

Sub-indicators

Description

Purpose

Settlement-morphological

Social Mix

Index of social mix in private residential buildings

Presence of different social groups in private residential buildings

Improve urban quality and increase social inclusion

Presence of shared activities/functions in the common areas of residential buildings

Presence of shared activities in the condominium areas of residential buildings

Promote social interaction and subjective well-being of residents

Percentage of “parterre” streets compared to total streets

Presence of “parterre” streets compared to total streets

Foster a pedestrian-friendly public space

Hierarchy of mobility flows

Presence of woonerf in secondary streets and car mobility in main streets

Enhance neighborhood safety and livability, contributing to the quality of urban life

Quality public space

Environmental

Ecological conversion oriented towards a “just transition”

Percentage of privately Percentage of managed public spaces private entities managing the public space in front of their properties

Involve private entities in urban regeneration processes

Percentage of restricted traffic areas or areas with predominant soft mobility

Promote a healthy and sustainable lifestyle

Measure the proportion of urban areas where vehicular traffic is limited or where soft mobility (cycling and pedestrian paths) is predominant

(continued)

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System

Mobility

Macro-indicators

Inter-neighborhood and inter-municipal mobility to connect marginalized, peri-urban, and gentrified areas

Sub-indicators

Description

Purpose

Percentage of streets Presence of with tree-lined avenues tree-lined avenues compared to total streets

Improve the aesthetic appearance of the city and provide ecological benefits

Active mobility

Possibility to choose active modes of mobility such as walking and cycling

Encourage physical activity

Car usage

Use of cars as the main mode of transportation

Reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and mobility costs

Public transport satisfaction

Citizens’ satisfaction with public transport services

Discourage car usage

Accessibility of public transport stops

Easy accessibility of public transport stops

Discourage car usage

Noise pollution

Traffic noise levels Contribute to in urban areas environmental sustainability and individuals’ subjective well-being

CO2 emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions caused by urban traffic

Contribute to environmental sustainability and individuals’ subjective well-being

3 Conclusions From the three insights proposed in the second section of this paper, it is possible to extract some useful references for an initial definition of new urban welfare indicators that can be applied to other territorial contexts (Table 4). These considerations highlight, on one hand, the systemic nature that the set of indicators for a new model of urban welfare should have (settlement-morphological, environmental, and mobility systems), and on the other hand, the centrality of users as the key focus, both in their social and individual dimension. A future development of the research is to conduct comparative studies across different territorial contexts, applying the proposed indicators to each context, and comparing the results to assess their adaptability and universality. Understanding how different urban environments influence the indicators can help refine and customize them for specific needs. Author Contributions. The contribution is the result of a shared reflection by the authors, however, paragraphs 1 and 1.1 should be attributed to Laura Ricci, 2 and 2.1 should be attributed

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to Carmela Mariano, 2.2, 2.3 should be attributed to Marsia Marino, conclusions and abstract should be attributed to all authors.

References 1. Castells, M.: The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach. MIT Press (1979) 2. Danzelot, D.: Quand la ville se défait. Quelle politique face à la crise des banlieues? Éditions du Seuil (2008) 3. Mimar, S., et al.: Connecting intercity mobility with urban welfare. PNAS Nexus 1(4) (2022). https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/4/pgac178/6693724. Accessed 12 Mar 2023 4. Indovina, F.: Città diffusa. Laterza (1990) 5. Indovina, F.: Arcipelago metropolitano. Laterza (2009) 6. Indovina, F.: Metropoli territoriale. Il Mulino (2010) 7. Castells, M.: La città delle reti. Guerini e associate (2004) 8. Augé, M.: Non luoghi. Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité. Seuil (1992) 9. Ricci, L.: “Nuova questione urbana e nuovo welfare. Una rete di reti per la costruzione della città pubblica” in Urbanistica Dossier 022, Città pubblica e nuovo welfare. Una rete di reti per la rigenerazione urbana a cura di L. Ricci, F. Crupi, A. Iacomoni, C. Mariano (2021) 10. Papa Francesco: Laudato Si’: Sulla cura della casa comune [Enciclica]. Tipografia Vaticana (2015) 11. COM: Green Deal Europeo (2019) 12. COM: A strong Social Europe for Just Transitions (2020) 13. Lefebvre, H.: Il diritto alla città [The right to the city] (M. C. Magnano San Lio, Trans.). Manifestolibri. (Opera originale pubblicata nel 1968) (2014) 14. Michalos, A.C.: Education, happiness and wellbeing. Soc. Indic. Res. 87, 347–366 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9144-0 15. Istat: Rapporto BES 2021: Il Benessere equo e sostenibile in Italia. Istat (2022). https://www. istat.it/it/files//2022/04/BES_2021.pdf. Accessed 3 Mar 2023 16. Helliwell, G.F., et al.: World Happiness Report. United Nations (2023). https://happiness-rep ort.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/WHR+23_Ch0.pdf. Accessed 13 Feb 2023 17. EIU: The Global Liveability Index 2022. Recovery and hardship. The Economist Group (2022) 18. Stadt Wien: Centrope (2023). https://www.wien.gv.at/wirtschaft/eu-strategie/centrope.html 19. Step: STEP 2025. Urban Development Plan Vienna. City of Vienna (2025). https://www. wien.gv.at/stadtentwicklung/studien/pdf/b008379b.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb 2023 20. City of Vienna: Smart (Climate) City Strategy Vienna. Our way to becoming a model climate city (2022). https://smartcity.wien.gv.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/05/scwr_k lima_2022_web-EN.pdf. Accessed 04 Apr 2023 21. City of Vienna: One STEP, many steps is Vienna fit for the challenges of the future? STEP 2025 is a clear “yes” to this important answer (2023). https://www.wien.gv.at/english/transp ortation-urbanplanning/step-2025.html. Accessed 03 Apr 2023 22. Magistrat der Stadt Wien, MA 21: Masterplan GRÜNDERZEIT Entwurf Handlungsempfehlungen zur qualitätsorientierten Weiterentwicklung der gründerzeitlichen Bestandsstadt (2018) 23. City of Vienna: STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept. Green and Open Spaces. Municipal Department 18 (MA 18) – Urban Development and Planning (2015) 24. City of Vienna: STEP 2025 – Thematic Concept. Urban Mobility Plan Vienna. Municipal Department 18 (MA 18) – Urban Development and Planning (2015)

A Preliminary Survey on Happy-Based Urban and Mobility Strategies: Evaluation of European Best Practices Chiara Garau1

, Giulia Desogus1(B)

, and Tiziana Campisi2

1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari,

09123 Cagliari, Italy [email protected] 2 Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy

Abstract. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly made the initial move towards regulating the concept of happiness as the primary factor for promoting sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In fact, the UN General Assembly recognised the need to establish a new approach based on an inclusive, equitable, and balanced urban planning paradigm that promotes the happiness and well-being of people. Only in 2012, the report “Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” remembers this aspect and the relationship between happiness and well-being as good practices in the design of urban spaces as well as in human mobility. Even though the regional planning/smart mobility dualism has demonstrated great potential in socio-economic and spatial development, there are no studies or research that connect this dualism to the broader concept of happy region in terms of well-being, population satisfaction, and quality of life. With these premises, the purpose of this paper is to propose recommendations for mobility interventions that may alter the regional structure and urban growth by enhancing regional well-being and happiness. In this regard, an analytical approach is proposed, based on a systematic and cross-reading of the best European practices in mobility solutions and urban projects, highlighting the originality and value of this research to strengthen the happy region model based on integrated mobility and regional planning choices. Keywords: Happy-Based Urban Strategies · Transport Planning · Urban Planning · Human Well-Being · Smart Region · Urban Happiness

1 Introduction In accordance with the ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’ of the European Commission [1] and with the objectives of the European Green Deal [2], the concept of smart mobility has emerged as an innovative solution not only to address the growing problems of traffic, pollution and quality of life in modern cities [3–6], but also to implement the transition of the European Union towards an ecological and digital future, as suggested by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [7, 8]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 472–483, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_41

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At the same time, in 2011, the United Nations General Assembly made its first step towards regulating the concept of happiness as a key element for promoting sustainable development [7] and achieving the Millennium Development Goals [9]. Thus, the need to adopt a method to foster economic growth in an equitable, fair, and balanced manner, taking into consideration sustainability, poverty reduction, contentment, and the wellbeing of all individuals, was recognised [10]. In addition, with the ‘Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development’ resolution, the European Member States received the invitation to develop new indicators to incorporate the concept of happiness into the planning of public policies for the pursuit of happiness and well-being in territorial development [11]. Thus, the development of happy region has become a primary objective for urban planners, as the well-being and satisfaction of citizens are regarded as crucial factors for the growth of cities [12–17]. Although Smart Mobility and happy region are frequently analysed separately, it is difficult to find studies that discuss the challenges and considerations involved in establishing a successful link between the two. In particular, an analysis of the factors that contribute to the successful integration of smart mobility and the happiness paradigms is still lacking in the literature. In addition, there is an inadequate number of research on the challenges and considerations that must be addressed in order to establish an effective link between smart mobility and happy region, such as data privacy, accessibility for all citizens, and socio-economic impact. It is also necessary to consider that studying the effects that Smart Mobility policies may have on the city’s happiness means analysing both success and risk factors. The evaluation of “happiness” in urban planning and policies involves a range of factors that go beyond traditional economic indicators and focus on the well-being and quality of life of citizens. Some examples include: ease of mobility within the city, well-designed public spaces, fostering strong social cohesion, providing a safe environment, access to job and educational opportunities, promoting equality and inclusion, environmental awareness, preserving cultural identity, access to healthcare and assistance, and encouraging civic participation. On a theoretical level, the first can be linked to the development of solutions that significantly improve the quality of life of citizens, such as (i) improvements in traffic management and greater road safety; (ii) the use of smart and less polluting means of transport; (iii) understanding the real needs of citizens; (iv) improvement of urban services, such as public transport, pedestrian areas, cycle paths, and parks and (v) monitoring the impact of urban policies [18–22]. The second ones face challenges such as (i) data privacy issues that intensive use of monitoring technologies could cause, (ii) limited access to technologies by citizens who cannot use intelligent transport systems or do not have access to the necessary infrastructures, and (iii) difficulties in adapting existing infrastructures to new technologies, particularly in densely populated urban contexts [23–26]. Starting from this point of view, this paper wants to offer an overview of how the spatial planning/smart mobility dualism can have great potential on the new concept of Happy Region, providing theoretical conceptualizations and their linking with case studies. For these reasons, the authors will focus on the great potential in the socioeconomic and spatial development of some major European projects on smart mobility analysed in terms of well-being, population satisfaction and quality of life. To accomplish this, the paper focuses on European best practices in mobility solutions and urban projects

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through a systematic and cross-reading of these projects based on Happy paradigm (Sect. 2). In Sect. 3 the recommendations for mobility interventions that may alter the regional structure and urban growth by enhancing regional well-being and happiness are shown as a result. Finally, the results and the research’s future directions are discussed (Sect. 4).

2 Methodological Approach and Application to Case Studies This section investigates some European good practises of smart mobility solutions and projects in the context of a happy region, by (i) identifying cities that have implemented effective smart mobility projects that have also had a significant influence on society, and (ii) analysing these cities’ smart mobility solutions and projects. Which solutions can become high-priority within the paradigm of the happy region? To accomplish this, the authors analyse the countries and municipalities that have implemented smart mobility initiatives that have been demonstrated to be more effective in enhancing the well-being and quality of life of the population. These countries and municipalities are Netherlands and Amsterdam; Denmark and Copenhagen; Sweden and Stockholm; and Finland and Helsinki. Iceland and Reykjavik are included in the Nordic + Mobility Ecosystem project, which involves the aforementioned countries (with the exception of Denmark) in a single initiative titled Nordic Smart Mobility and Connectivity (Fig. 1). These nations have been established to have the highest Happiness Index [27] in 2022, placing them at the top of the global ranking (Table 1).

Fig. 1. Map of the countries and cities analysed (Source: authors elaboration)

The aforementioned data was also compared to mobility-related indices, including Quality of roads, Quality of railway infrastructure, Quality of port infrastructure, and Quality of air transport infrastructure. These numbers were obtained from The Global Economy [28, 29].

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Table 1. Comparison between Happiness Index and Indices of Mobility Quality Source: TheGlobalEconomy.com Happy Region Paradigm

Quality of Mobility

Countries

Global Happiness rank index, 2022 0 (unhappy)–10 (happy)

Quality of roads, 2019 (Global rank) 1 (low)–7 (high)

Finland

1

7.8

Denmark

2

Iceland

3

Quality of port infrastructure, 2019 (Global rank) 1 (low)–7 (high)

Quality of air transport infrastructure, 2019 (Global rank) 1 (low)–7 (high)

5.3 (19) 5.5 (7)

6.4 (2)

6.3 (4)

7.59

5.6 (13) 4.5 (24)

5.8 (5)

5.8 (11)

7.53

4.1 (63) No data

5.4 (13)

5.6 (17)

The 5 Netherlands

7.4

6.4 (2)

6.4 (3)

6.4 (3)

Sweden

7.4

5.3 (23) 4 (39)

5.3 (17)

5.7 (15)

6

Quality of railroad infrastructure, 2019 (Global rank) 1 (low)–7 (high)

5.7 (6)

Government of the Netherlands (The Netherlands). To address transportation, environmental, and security issues, the Dutch government is investigating new technologies. By collaborating with the private sector, the government is emphasising the development of self-driving vehicles and the improvement of drivers’ in-car traffic information systems. These initiatives seek to reduce traffic congestion, CO2 emissions, and road dangers. As data is key to the implementation of these solutions, there is a strong emphasis on enhancing data transmission and accuracy to support these efforts. In addition, the Netherlands provide a unique testing platform for smart mobility solutions, and the government actively supports their development through a variety of means, such as the provision of test facilities and the modification of regulations. The goal is to promote Smart Mobility on a broader scope. Collaboration between businesses, knowledge institutions, and the government is essential to the success of these endeavours [30]. By fostering favourable conditions and initiating a number of Smart Mobility initiatives, the Dutch government plays an important role in advancing smart mobility. Particularly, Amsterdam is developing solutions for a connected city, by minimising its environmental impact and preserving inclusivity, liveability, and attractiveness. The municipality collaborates with businesses and research institutions to address these issues. For instance, the municipality evaluates, in conjunction with TomTom, the measures required to maintain the city’s accessibility. Google, TNO, and the City of Amsterdam are investigating how traffic data can help enhance traffic flow as part of the ‘Better Cities’ programme. The recently founded Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) provides technological expertise. AMS collaborates directly with the municipality to provide metro solutions that can be implemented immediately in Amsterdam. The real-time mapping of

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pedestrian flows is an example of a collaborative initiative that allows for improved management during peak hours. Amsterdam intends to have the Crowd Monitoring System Amsterdam (CMSA) entirely operational in the recent future [31, 32]. Denmark - Smart Cities (Denmark). Denmark distinguishes itself as one of the first and foremost European nations in terms of Smart City initiatives. Particularly Copenhagen and Aarhus have made substantial progress in implementing these initiatives. Copenhagen has prioritised the reduction of CO2 emissions and has set a target of carbon neutrality by 2025. Copenhagen’s efforts to use data to establish a sustainable city and enhance the quality of life for its citizens have been recognised internationally [33]. Examples of smart mobility initiatives in Copenhagen include: (i) ‘Bycyklen’ is a well-developed bike-sharing infrastructure in Copenhagen. These smart bikes are equipped with GPS and a device that provides navigation, city information, and realtime data on bike availability and routes; (ii) intelligent traffic management systems are utilised to monitor and control traffic flow in Copenhagen. The system utilises realtime data from sensors, cameras, and other sources to optimise traffic signal timing, reduce congestion, and enhance overall traffic efficiency; (iii) the city has implemented smart parking solutions that use sensors and real-time data to direct vehicles to available parking spaces. Copenhagen is actively constructing a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform that incorporates various modes of transport, such as public transport, cycling, car-sharing, and others. The platform enables users to plan, book, and pay for their entire trip through a single app, providing seamless and convenient transport options. (iv) The city has promoted the use of electric vehicles and created an extensive network of charging stations for electric vehicles, and (v) Copenhagen collects and analyses transport data to inform decision-making and improve transport planning. This data contains information on travel patterns, congestion hotspots, and the utilisation of various modes of transportation [34–36]. Smart City Sweden (Sweden). Sweden has numerous years of experience in promoting sustainable transport, and Swedish businesses have invested extensively in developing innovative solutions for various modes of mobility. Sweden has allocated resources for the development and incorporation of technologies for electric and autonomous vehicles, batteries, charging infrastructure, and fuel cells, in addition to biofuels. Specifically, Stockholm obtained the ‘World Smart City’ award in November 2019 for the ‘GrowSmarter’ initiative [37]. The objective of the initiative was to enhance the quality of life of European citizens by enhancing mobility, accommodation, and urban infrastructure. The project implemented a variety of sustainable urban mobility solutions by prioritising the creative use of public space, such as the creation of regulated areas where sustainable mobility is prioritised, thereby facilitating the emergence and expansion of a vast array of new mobility and transport services. These spaces could be focused on particular issues, such as established delivery services utilising sustainable last-mile providers, or they may incorporate broader travel concepts, such as mobility stations and other offerings [37]. Smart Mobility in Finland (Finland). The Act on Transport Services, recently enacted by the Finnish government, mandates the public release of essential transport data. This includes schedules, routes, ticket prices, and real-time location information. Transport

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providers are mandated to make these data accessible through open APIs. This regulatory initiative by the Finnish government is intended to promote the adoption of new technologies and business conceptions. The law is a component of the Transport Code initiative and is in line with Finland’s vision to provide ‘Mobility as a Service’ and establish a digital future for transport based on data interoperability and open interfaces [38]. Particularly, the Helsinki region is a global leader in providing services and generating new business opportunities through intelligent and sustainable mobility solutions. The vision of Helsinki is to be the first city to offer as a service a completely integrated personal mobility system. The region invites Finnish and international businesses to participate in pilot programmes and provide their solutions for the Helsinki market. In addition, Helsinki provides a number of testbeds for testing intelligent mobility solutions, including the Jatkasaari Mobility Lab. This lab provides a real-world setting for testing solutions with real customers [39]. Helsinki was ranked among the top three cities most prepared for new mobility trends in 2019: the use of autonomous vehicles on public roadways is already permitted, and Finland is the only country that does not require a driver for autonomous vehicles. In addition, initiatives such as FABULOS [40] aim to bring robot buses to the streets and integrate them into the public transport system. Furthermore, Helsinki hosts the world’s first open Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) ecosystem. In 2015, this model was established by 23 prominent Finnish organisations and has since received global recognition. In the metropolitan territory of Helsinki and throughout Finland, all public information is publicly accessible. Major transport companies and operators in the Helsinki metropolitan area have made their data public. Among these is Helsinki Region Transport (HSL), which provides free access to route information, maps, vehicle locations, schedules, and ticketing data [41]. Nordic Smart Mobility and Connectivity (Nordic + Mobility Ecosystem). The goal of Nordic Smart Mobility and Connectivity is to link the Nordic region (Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden) and revolutionise how people and goods are transported. Their objective is to facilitate the transition to a sustainable future in which Nordic citizens will benefit from innovative mobility and connectivity solutions. The mobility and connectivity activity were initiated by the Nordic Smart Mobility and Connectivity programme, which continued from 2018 to 2021. From 2021 to 2024, this initiative was succeeded by the Nordic Green Mobility and Smart Connectivity programme. These initiatives seek to consolidate all mobility and connectivity-related activities under a single command room. The Nordic Green Mobility Programme intends to establish the Nordic region as a leader in green mobility and accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility. Since the beginning, the programme has prioritised the enhancement of quality of life, cooperation between clusters, future cities, and emergent solutions for ports, people and freight transport. They seek to enhance the quality of life of Nordic citizens and reduce the environmental impact of transport systems through cross-sectoral collaboration and the development of innovative solutions [42, 43].

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3 Results Incorporating multiple modes of transport into urban mobility solutions can effectively resolve the happiness of cities in terms of population well-being and quality of life, as well as climate and environmental issues. The examined European initiatives prioritise a global and inter-disciplinary approach to the investigation of intelligent mobility solutions. They realise the need to collect data and insights from diverse fields, including transportation, urban planning, social sciences, and environmental studies. This interdisciplinary approach enables a comprehensive comprehension of the complex interactions between smart mobility solutions and happiness factors. In addition, best practises in Europe emphasise the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Using open data and ICT, qualitative methods enable administrators to capture the subjective experiences, perceptions, and emotional reactions of individuals to smart mobility solutions. Quantitative methods, on the other hand, offer an established framework for assessing and quantifying the impact of smart mobility solutions on satisfaction indicators. Furthermore, each of the evaluated initiatives takes a user-centric approach. They actively involve stakeholders in the research process, including citizens, local communities, policymakers, and industry representatives. By integrating the perspectives and requirements of diverse stakeholders, the methodology ensures that the analysis of smart mobility solutions remains pertinent, inclusive, and aligned with the region’s well-being goals. With these conditions, the relationship between smart mobility and the happy region is advantageous in multiple ways. Intelligent mobility refers to the incorporation of advanced technologies and intelligent transport systems in an effort to enhance efficiency, accessibility, and sustainability. As noted from the analysis of the case study, implemented effectively, smart mobility solutions contribute to a happier urban environment by addressing many aspects of urban life and acting in multiple ways: 1) smart mobility improves the quality of transport within a city, resulting in more mobility options and less congestion. Efficient public transport systems, such as smart buses, railways, and bike-sharing programmes, make it simpler for city residents to move around, reducing commute times and minimising the tension associated with commuting. This increased mobility facilitates people’s access to employment, educational opportunities, and recreational activities, which has a positive effect on their happiness and general well-being. 2) smart mobility solutions prioritise sustainability. Cities can considerably reduce air pollution and carbon emissions by encouraging the use of electric vehicles [44, 45], shared transportation services [46], and intelligent traffic management systems [47]. Cleaner air contributes to improved public health by decreasing the risk of respiratory disease and enhancing the overall liveability of a city. The availability of sustainable transportation options encourages individuals to employ environmentally favourable modes of transportation, thereby fostering environmental consciousness and resident satisfaction. 3) In order to increase city safety, smart mobility solutions frequently combine technology and data-driven approaches. Intelligent traffic monitoring systems, real-time

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information updates, and intelligent infrastructure contribute to the improvement of road safety and the reduction of accidents [48]. When people feel safe and secure as they navigate the city, their overall happiness and confidence in the urban environment are significantly enhanced. 4) The promotion of social inclusion and equity within a city is greatly aided by smart mobility [49]. By providing accessible transportation options for individuals with disabilities, optimising public transportation routes, and ensuring the accessibility of smart mobility services, cities can ensure that all residents have equal access to mobility [50, 51]. This inclusiveness promotes a sense of belonging, equality, and social cohesion, which contributes positively to the happiness and well-being of city residents. 5) The integration of intelligent mobility solutions often leads to an improvement in the efficiency and use of resources. Using data analytics and predictive modelling, cities can optimise their transport systems, thereby reducing time, energy, and material waste [52]. This increased efficacy contributes to a more sustainable and economically prosperous city, enhancing the happiness and prosperity of city residents. In conclusion, there are numerous benefits associated with the relationship between intelligent mobility and the happy region. Intelligent mobility solutions help create a happier and more liveable urban environment by improving transport options, promoting sustainability, enhancing safety, promoting inclusiveness, and optimising the use of resources. These smart mobility practices can pave the way for a future in which cities prioritise the health and happiness of their residents.

4 Discussion and Conclusions In recent years, population growth and accelerated urbanisation have increased the need for livable, happy region with a high level of social welfare and high quality of life. The implementation of smart mobility, i.e. the use of advanced technologies to improve urban mobility, can significantly contribute to achieving this goal. In Europe, best practise initiatives are at the forefront of investigating this relationship, employing best practices in research methodology to analyse comprehensively the impact of smart mobility solutions within the context of a happy region. Cities that employ the concept of smart mobility improve the quality of life and environmental sustainability, thereby enhancing the happiness of their citizens. By implementing more efficient modes of transport, the city can provide its residents with quicker and more reliable mobility. This reduces travel time to work and daily activities, thereby boosting the productivity of the residents. Moreover, the adoption of sustainable urban planning techniques and the use of environmentally friendly modes of transportation, such as bicycles and public transportation with minimal environmental impact, contribute to the development of healthier and happier communities. In conclusion, the implementation of intelligent mobility is a crucial factor in the development of sustainable communities, whose mobility promotes the happiness of its inhabitants, environmental sustainability, and quality of life. Cities that adopt this concept advance in a more sustainable manner and enhance the lives of their citizens. The role of smart mobility in fostering social connections and community involvement is a further factor to consider. In the examined cities, intelligent transport

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systems facilitate simpler access to social activities and public spaces, thus encouraging social interactions and a sense of community belonging. The connection between transportation systems and a sense of community belonging is a crucial aspect in the urban and social development of cities. This connection is based on various factors, ranging from physical accessibility to opportunities for social interaction and active participation, such as accessibility to public spaces and social activities, social cohesion and equity, development of shared public spaces, reduction of social isolation, active engagement in city life, and environmental impact reduction. Understanding the effects of smart mobility on social capital and community well-being has provided policymakers with invaluable insights for designing inclusive, connected cities that prioritise happiness. Moreover, the link between smart mobility and environmental sustainability in the context of a happy region is strengthened by the impact of electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as active transport modes such as cycling and walking, on reducing pollution and enhancing the quality of the urban environment as a whole. Examining residents’ attitudes and behaviours towards these sustainable transport options, as well as their relationship to contentment and well-being, has been crucial to the development of future urban mobility policies. Future research could investigate the role of data-driven choices in enhancing urban planning and the development of infrastructure. By analysing the data generated by intelligent transport systems with the intention of integrating intelligent mobility and the concept of a happy region, it is possible to obtain information on travel patterns, demand, and behaviour. All of this data can be used to inform the design of transport network efficacy and resource allocation in order to investigate how smart mobility solutions can help create happier and more liveable cities by prioritising the needs and satisfaction of residents before anything else. Acknowledgments. This study was supported by the following projects 1) “ISL - Forming interdisciplinary Island Communities of Practice operating for sustainable cultural tourism models”, small scale Erasmus+ project (KA210-ADU-6B12071A), DE02 - Nationale Agentur Bildung für Europa beim Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung. 2) “ISL+, People-oriented, place-based and locally driven planning approach supporting island cultural tourism development”, Erasmus+ project (KA220-ADU - Cooperation partnerships in adult education), DE02 - Nationale Agentur Bildung für Europa beim Bundesinstitut für Berufsbild-ung (Project under evaluation). 3) “WEAKI TRANSIT: WEAK-demand areas Innovative TRANsport Shared services for Italian Towns (Project protocol: 20174ARRHT_004; CUP Code: F74I19001290001), financed with the PRIN 2017 (Research Projects of National Relevance) programme.

Author Contributions. This paper is the result of the joint work of the authors. In particular, the “Abstract” and “Methodological approach and application to case studies” were jointly written by the authors. G.D wrote “Discussion and conclusions”, C.G. wrote “Results” and T.C wrote “Introduction”.

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39. Mobility Lab (2023). https://mobilitylab.hel.fi/. Accessed 31 May 2023 40. FABULOS (3023). https://fabulos.eu/. Accessed 31 May 2023 41. Smart mobility in Helsinki (2023). https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/business-and-invest/invest/ smart-mobility-in-helsinki. Accessed 31 May 2023 42. Nordic Urban Mobility 2050. Future Cities (2023). https://www.nordicinnovation.org/pro grams/nordic-urban-mobility-2050-future-cities. Accessed 31 May 2023 43. Nordic Smart Mobility and Connectivity (2023). https://www.nordicinnovation.org/mobility. Accessed 31 May 2023 44. Campisi, T., Ticali, D., Ignaccolo, M., Tesoriere, G., Inturri, G., Torrisi, V.: Factors influencing the implementation and deployment of e-vehicles in small cities: a preliminary two-dimensional statistical study on user acceptance. Transp. Res. Procedia 62, 333–340 (2022) 45. Patel, A.R., Tesoriere, G., Campisi, T.: Users’ socio-economic factors to choose electromobility for future smart cities. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Ana, M.A., Rocha, C., Garau, C. (eds.) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2022 Workshops: Malaga, Spain, July 4–7, 2022, Proceedings, Part IV, pp. 331–344. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10542-5_23 46. Torrisi, V., Campisi, T., Inturri, G., Ignaccolo, M., Tesoriere, G.: Continue to share? An overview on Italian travel behavior before and after the COVID-19 lock-down. AIP Conf. Proc. 2343(1), 090010 (2021) 47. Annunziata, A., et al.: Health and mobility in the post-pandemic scenario. An analysis of the adaptation of sustainable urban mobility plans in key contexts of Italy. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Rocha, A.M.A.C., Garau, C. (eds.) Proceedings of the Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2022 Workshops, Part VI, Malaga, Spain, 4–7 July 2022, pp. 439–456. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10592-0_32 48. Coni, M., Garau, C., Pinna, F.: How has Cagliari changed its citizens in smart citizens? Exploring the influence of ITS technology on urban social interactions. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2018. LNCS, vol. 10962, pp. 573–588. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-319-95168-3_39 49. Pinna, F., Garau, C., Annunziata, A.: A literature review on urban usability and accessibility to investigate the related criteria for equality in the city. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2021. LNCS, vol. 12958, pp. 525–541. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/9783-030-87016-4_38 50. Maltinti, F., et al.: Vulnerable users and public transport service: analysis on expected and perceived quality data. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2020. LNCS, vol. 12255, pp. 673– 689. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58820-5_49 51. Pinna, F., Garau, C., Maltinti, F., Coni, M.: Beyond architectural barriers: building a bridge between disability and universal design. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2020. LNCS, vol. 12255, pp. 706–721. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-588205_51 52. Rashid, A., et al.: RES-Q an ongoing project on municipal solid waste management program for the protection of the Saniq River basin in Southern Lebanon. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2021. LNCS, vol. 12956, pp. 536–550. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-87010-2_40

Spatial Smartness and (In)Justice in Urban Contexts? The Case Studies of Cagliari and Parma, Italy Chiara Garau1 , Alfonso Annunziata1(B) , Giulia Desogus1 , and Silvia Rossetti2 1 DICAAR – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture,

University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy [email protected] 2 DIA – Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Abstract. In response to urbanisation pressures and climate change, urban regeneration policies aiming at developing dynamic solutions for happy, inclusive, smart, and sustainable cities should include equitable access to basic services. This paper proposes a metric for measuring the level of spatial (in)justice in urban settings, beyond the city centre. The suggested indicator combines spatial, statistical and configurational analysis to calculate the number of people living in areas with limited access to basic services. The research focuses specifically on three categories of services: educational facilities, public transportation, and green areas, by exploring and evaluating Cagliari and Parma, two Italian cities. The purpose is to promote the transparency and effectiveness of public policies by facilitating well-informed decisions in the field of urban regeneration. Indeed, the development of a relevant, reproducible, comparable, and understandable metric of spatial injustice can help public agencies with: i) identification of critical areas; ii) definition of objectives for regeneration strategies; iii) measurement of the results of policies; and iv) comparison of alternative scenarios. The results underline the disparities in access to basic services between the compact core and the edges of urbanised areas. The findings underline the importance of prioritising regeneration policies in marginal areas to reduce spatial injustice. Finally, the study proposes a valuable tool for public agencies to identify areas of spatial injustice and develop targeted strategies for urban regeneration. By reducing inequalities in access to basic services, cities can become happier, more inclusive, smart, and sustainable. Keywords: Proximity · Spatial Justice · Place Syntax · Urban regeneration

1 Introduction Ensuring optimal conditions of spatial justice emerges as a central aspect of the transformation of the contemporary city in the context of the environmental crisis and the post-pandemic scenario [1]. Spatial justice can be defined as an optimal spatial distribution of resources preventing inequalities not based on need or rational distinction [2]. A rational distinction is one based on informed consensus. Inversely, spatial injustice © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 484–495, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_42

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is related to forms of segregation and marginalisation as well as the unfair distribution of resources; it is a result of social injustice, and it fosters it. Consequently, the unfair distribution of resources in the urban environment, including job, services, public space, public transit and natural and semi natural areas, can negatively impact quality of life of residents of deprived areas, limit the independence of vulnerable users, limit participation to political, social, cultural and economic activities [3–9]. Moreover, the concentration of functions in specific areas can determine a monocentric configuration of the urban region resulting in an increasing transport demand and car dependency. This study focuses on four specific categories of urban services, namely public transit, urban green areas, primary education and secondary education, and combines spatial, configurational and statistical analysis to measure the distribution of the urban population relative to the distribution of basic amenities. The areas of study are the cities of Cagliari and Parma, in Italy. The proposed procedure is instrumental to the definition of the cognitive base for the elaboration of policies of urban regeneration based on criteria of proximity, density, diversity and digitalisation [10, 11]. These criteria result in fact from academic studies on urbanity and are central to urban concepts including the Smart and Sustainable City paradigm [12–14], the 15 min city [10, 11, 15], Transit oriented development [16, 17], New Urbanism [18, 19] and the fractal city [20, 21], aimed at developing inclusive, resilient, sustainable and just cities. Precisely, proximity refers to an optimal distribution of urban functions that increases participation to political, social, cultural and economic practises, while promoting active mobility and reducing car dependency. Diversity refers to the coexistence of distinct practices, functions, and identities. Density implies the optimisation of population distribution to sustain the plurality and diversity of functions at the district level. Digitalisation refers to the integration of traditional and digital infrastructure to optimise the provision of services, increase governance transparency and participation, promote sustainable forms of mobility, meet the needs of vulnerable users, and improve the safety, comfort, and usability of public spaces. Considering these concepts, the study proposes a set of indicators for measuring levels of access to basic amenities and develops a meso-scale Indicator of spatial injustice, to measure the proportion of individuals residing in areas presenting inadequate provision of basic services. The article is articulated on four sections: following the introduction, Sect. 2 describes the method. Section 3 illustrates the results. Section 4 concludes with the findings of the analysis and outlines the future development of the study.

2 Methodology The study is articulated on four stages: i) selection and representation of the study areas; ii) computation of sub-indicators of access to individual classes of services from the i-th census tract categorised as urbanised land; iii) computation of an indicator of access to basic amenities and subdivision of census tracts into 5 categories defined by five intervals of indicator values; iv) computation of the relative distribution of population among the 5 classes of access to basic urban amenities (Fig. 1). More precisely, the layers containing information related to natural and semi natural areas are retrieved from the land cover land use data set available from the copernicus

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service. Areas comprised in categories Artificial, non-agricultural vegetated areas are selected and grouped in a specific layer representing urban green areas. The information relative to the position of public transit stops is retrieved from the territorial information system of the Sardinia Region and from the territorial Information system of the Emilia Romagna Region.

Fig. 1. Organization of the methodological framework

Information relative to educational facilities, including primary, secondary of first grade and secondary of second grade educational facilities, are retrieved from the Italian National Territorial Information System. Lastly, the segment map is derived from the road centre lines of the road system retrieved from the Transportation dataset of the Open Street Map database. Geometries are simplified and verified for topological errors via the Road Network Cleaner function of the Space Syntax Toolkit (SST). The resulting line

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string layer is then converted into a segment map via the Network Segmenter function of the SST and verified for the presence of isolated set of segments. The census tracts categorised as urbanised areas, retrieved from the Urban Atlas dataset of the Copernicus service, are selected as the unit of analysis. The sub-indicators of access to destinations of the j-th category, from the i-th census tract are computed via the Attraction reach Function (AR) of the Place Syntax Tool (PST) [22]. The function returns the number of destinations located within a predetermined distance from the points of origin, weighted by the distance via an attenuation function. The limit distance is set at 800 m, corresponding to a 15-min travel time by foot, and to 2000 m for secondary education facilities. The limit of 2000 m for secondary education facilities is derived from the Fractalopolis model [20], and reflects the specific rate of frequentation and the target user. For urban green areas the destination points are represented by points situated at equal distances along the perimeter of the relative polygons. The sub-indicators are normalised via a range-standardize function. The values of the normalised indicators range from 0, representative of a negative condition, to 1 indicating an optimal condition. Deprived areas, in relation to access to amenities of the j-th class are defined as census tracts presenting a value of the related k-th sub-indicator comprised in the 0–0.2 interval. The synthetic index of access to urban amenities IUA is calculated as the average of the sub-indicators of access to destinations of each individual category. The n census tracts are then grouped in five categories, defined by five equal intervals of the values of the IUA indicator. More precisely, Class 1 comprises census tracts presenting optimal conditions of access to basic amenities and Class 5 identifies deprived areas. Lastly, the relative frequency of the classes of the IUA indicator is determined by computing the sum of the population estimated for the n census tracts comprised in each class. The proportion of individual resident in census tracts comprised in class 5, on the total population, thus defines a meso-scale indicator of spatial injustice. This procedure is utilised to measure the levels of spatial justice in the cities of Cagliari and Parma, in Italy. The study areas are described in the following sub-sections. 2.1 Cagliari Cagliari, situated in the insular region of Sardinia, in Italy, serves as the administrative centre for both the Sardinia Region and the Metropolitan City of Cagliari. Its surface area is equal to 83.79 km2 , its population to 149,474 individuals and population density to 1783.85 inhabitants per square kilometre. The current layout of Cagliari’s urban area emerged swiftly between 1943 and 1980, driven by the urgent need to address the housing crisis caused by urbanization and the destruction resulting from the 1943 air bombing campaign. This transformation led to the expansion of the urban system beyond the historical core and the adjacent districts established in the previous century. Three primary trends characterised this period of change. Firstly, the development of social housing districts, distinct from the historic center, presenting unique spatial configurations, building types, and land use organisation. Notable examples of these districts include San Michele, Is Mirrionis, Mulinu Becciu, and Sant’Elia. They represent significant outcomes of public initiatives aimed at constructing the contemporary city. A Second trend regards the gradual depopulation and decline of the compact historic districts, such as Marina and Castello. Lastly, Via Roma, Largo Carlo Felice, Viale Diaz,

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and Via Dante emerged as the economic, political, administrative, and civic nucleus of the urban area and the Metropolitan system. Between 1994 and 2021, numerous initiatives focused on urban revitalisation and the pedestrianisation of the historic districts and seafront, resulting in the transformation of these areas into vibrant centers of social, cultural, and civic life for both the urban and metropolitan regions, thus enhancing their vitality, inclusivity, and diversity. 2.2 Parma Parma is a medium-sized city located in the western part of the Emilia-Romagna region in the northern Italy, about 100 km from Bologna, the regional capital. It has a population of 196,981 inhabitants and a surface area of 260 km2 , with a population density of 755.87 inhabitants per square kilometre. The Parma river’s presence, which flows throughout the city from North to South, and the Via Emilia axis, which crosses the city from East to West connecting almost all the Region’s cities, are the main features that structure the city. Parma has experienced a significant urban development over the years, particularly during the period of economic and demographic growth following World War II: like many other Italian cities, Parma’s urban expansion was very slow until 1960, then increased to double in the early ‘90s and further developed afterwards. Nowadays, the city is divided into 13 districts, each with its own distinct characteristics. The City Centre is the central and administrative district, as well as location of significant historical and cultural buildings and commercial roads. Oltretorrente neighbourhood has a multicultural character and houses the majority of secondary school buildings. San Leonardo is distinguished by a heavy industrial presence, now much densified and renewed. The city’s southern outskirts, particularly Montanara, were developed as areas for social housing, while the most industrial areas of the city are located in the North. Over the last 10 years, Parma has experienced significant transformations and urban regeneration projects in degraded areas. The city has also financed projects related to sustainable mobility, promoting cycling, and enhancing public transport, e.g., through the regeneration of the riverfront, by creating new public spaces and cycle paths along the riverbanks. Furthermore, the city is now in the process of drafting its new General Urban Plan (PUG), emphasising on the attractiveness and liveability of the city and on urban regeneration policies. The results and the implications of the findings of the study are presented in the sub-sequent sections.

3 Results The sub-indicators of access to destinations of individual categories of amenities and the indicator of access to urban amenities, reveal a gradient of provision of services, from central compact districts to sparse peri-urban and sub-urban areas (Fig. 2). More precisely, the values of the IUA indicator ranges from 0 to 0.57 in the urban area of Parma, thus indicating scarce to adequate levels of access to urban amenities. The gradient of values is influenced by the concentration of fundamental services, including public transit nodes, and educational facilities in central compact areas, and the presence of large natural and semi-natural areas in sparse suburban districts.

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Fig. 2. Condition of access to urban amenities in Parma, Italy

As a result, 63,5% of the urban population, equal to 135072 individuals, resides in census tracts comprised in category 5, hence presenting limited levels of provision of basic amenities (see Table 1). Considering distinct categories of services, 76,335 in areas presenting limited access to the urban public transit system (equal to a percentage of 35.9%), 164,993 (77.4%) individuals in areas presenting a limited number of alternative facilities for primary and first grade secondary education and 139,453 (65.6%) individuals in areas presenting a limited availability of facilities for secondary education. In particular, 106,329 individuals (equal to 50% of the population) resides in census tracts located at a distance from the nearest primary educational facility superior to 800 m. A distinct condition emerges in the urban core of Cagliari (Table 1 and Fig. 3). The distribution of values of the indicator of access to basic amenities underlines a polycentric configuration, organised around the clusters represented by the compact ancient core of Cagliari, the compact center of the Municipality of Pirri, and an emerging center, represented by the social housing district of Is Mirrionis and San Michele. As a consequence, the proportion of population residing in deprived areas in Cagliari is equal to 18.8%. As observed in the urban area of Parma, the concentration of large urban green areas in peri-urban areas, determines more limited conditions of access to natural and semi-natural areas in compact central districts. Consequently, 89,575 individuals reside in areas presenting a modest provision of urban green areas (equal to

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60.9% of the total population). The level of access to public transit is optimal in central and semi-central compact areas, but limited in eastern districts. Thus, 20,517 people, or 14% of the population, reside in areas presenting limited access to public transit. Access to primary education facilities is limited for 82022 individuals (55.8% of the population) and access to secondary education is inadequate for 25156 residents, equal to 17.1% of the population. More precisely, a modest part of the population, equal to a percentage of 15.2%, or to 22279 individuals resides in areas located at a distance from the nearest primary education facility superior to 800 m. As a consequence, the polycentric configuration of the urban area of Cagliari, results in minor inequalities in terms of provision of amenities and, consequently, in improved conditions of spatial justice. The results presented in this section are discussed in the sub-sequent paragraph.

Fig. 3. Gradient of the conditions of access to urban amenities in Cagliari.

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Table 1. Distribution of populations among the classes of sub indicators Access to primary education (AR_EDP), Access to secondary education (AR_EDS), Access to green areas (AR_UGA), Access to Public transit (AR_UPT) and of the indicator Access to amenities (IUA ). CAGLIARI

PARMA

AR_EDP CLASS

R

CLASS

2165

0.015

1

552

0.003

2

5339

0.036

2

3965

0.019

3

19632

0.134

3

9441

0.044

4

37812

0.257

4

33645

0.158

5

82022

0.558

5

164993

0.776

POP

1

POP

POP

R

AR_EDS CLASS

POP

R

CLASS

1

20415

0.139

1

16646

0.078

R

2

41185

0.280

2

12760

0.060

3

42061

0.286

3

17058

0.080

4

18153

0.124

4

26679

0.125

5

25156

0.171

5

139453

0.656

POP

POP

AR_UGA R

PARMA

1

1093

0.007

1

127

0.001

R

2

2589

0.018

2

1569

0.007

3

9580

0.065

3

7117

0.033

4

44133

0.300

4

20212

0.095

5

89575

0.609

5

183571

0.863

POP

AR_UPT CLASS

R

CLASS

1

POP 9149

0.062

1

2547

0.012

R

2

24344

0.166

2

22801

0.107

3

42572

0.290

3

51247

0.241

4

50388

0.343

4

59666

0.281

5

20517

0.140

5

76335

0.359

POP

IUA CLASS

R

CLASS

0

0.000

1

2

8095

0.055

3

39350

0.268

4

71841

5

27684

1

POP

R 0

0.000

2

461

0.002

3

27202

0.128

0.489

4

49861

0.235

0.188

5

135072

0.635

4 Discussion and Conclusions In term of access to basic amenities, the research shows significant and site-specific geographical disparities. Particularly, the analysis identifies a more relevant condition of spatial injustice in the urban area of Parma. This condition results from the fragmentation of the urbanised landscape, the centripetal configuration of the system of basic services, including public transit and education, and the concentration of large urban green areas in sparse suburban districts. Within the main urban core, the areas with higher values of access to amenities are the central Parma Centro and Oltretorrente districts, followed by S. Leonardo, Pablo and Cittadella, while Montanara and the peripheral areas of the other districts are less served by basic amenities. The urban structure consists of a system

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of scattered, isolated urbanised cluster that are integrated into the rural landscape and separated from the principal urban core. Moreover, education services and urban public transit stops are concentrated in the compact urban core, determining optimal levels of provision of services and of availability of alternative destinations in central areas, and limited availability of alternative destinations in outer districts and in suburban and periurban areas. Inversely, the urban ecological infrastructure presents a radial structure, determined by the configuration of the system of rivers. A similar configuration of the system of urban green areas can be recognised in Cagliari’s urban area. The compact and dense structure of central districts determines the fragmentation of the ecological infrastructure: as a result, central compact areas incorporate modest size and isolated green areas, while large natural and semi-natural areas are located along the edges of the compact urban core and in peri-urban areas. Moreover, the configuration of the ecological infrastructure in Cagliari is determined by the scale, relations, and reciprocal positions of environmental dominants, including the system of hills and the wetlands. In contrast, the gradient of levels of access to services underlines the emergence, in the urban area of Cagliari, of a polycentric structure, organised around three clusters: a principal core comprising the central compact districts of Marina, Villanova and San Benedetto; a secondary cluster comprising the ancient core of the Municipality of Pirri and, lastly, an eccentric core comprising the social housing districts of Is Mirrionis and San Michele. The latter is an emerging centrality that presents adequate levels of access to public transit and education services and is contiguous to large urban green areas. The analysis thus underlines distinct configurations of spatial inequality related to conditions of access to specific urban amenities and enables the identification of criteria for policies of urban regeneration. By underlining the fragmentation of the ecological infrastructure in central areas, the results of the study underline the need for strategies of re-functionalisation of edge areas and border vacuums, of de-sealing of urban soils and of transformation of urban spaces in multi-functional green corridors in order to integrate larger isolated natural and semi-natural areas and construct a continuous urban ecological infrastructure. The objectives include optimising access to natural and seminatural areas, increasing biodiversity, increasing the levels of provision of ecosystem services and improving flood-risk mitigation and management. Moreover, by underlining the inferior conditions of access to public transit in peri-urban and suburban areas, the analysis underlines the need for actions aimed at reinforcing tangential transport lines, for improving the integration among peri-urban clusters, and radial lines for connecting peri-urban districts to the compact urban core. Particularly for areas of dispersed urbanisation, the development of a multi-modal transport system that integrates public transit [23], active mobility and flexible and semi-flexible demand responsive shared transport services [24, 25], emerges as a fundamental aspect of mobility policies [26, 27]. Lastly, the decentralisation of education services, in particular of services of primary and secondary first-grade education, is a central action for ensuring inclusion and equal access to education, while promoting active mobility and children’s independence. Moreover, decentralisation can be combined with the requalification of educational facilities as multi-functional public spaces, open to local residents. The aim is to increase the amount of available public spaces and green areas, optimise the use of public resources and promote sociality. The analysis of the selected case study thus demonstrates that

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the proposed metrics are relevant to the evaluation of conditions of spatial injustice in terms of access to specific categories of urban services. The future development of the study will focus on four aspects: i) defining indicators of quality of individual points of interest, in order to measure conditions of access in terms of density, distance and quality of services; for instance, the number of bus stops located in a pre-defined range from an origin point, could be weighted by distance and by an indicator measuring the number of bus lines converging at each bus stop and the frequency of rides; ii) developing an indicator of access to sustainable mobility options, by considering density, distance and quality of the infrastructures related to all the available sustainable mobility solutions; iii) expanding the set of basic services considered, including healthcare services, financial services, sport facilities and leisure amenities; and iv) Considering street greenery as a relevant component of the potential for human-nature interactions in the urban environment and defining an indicator of availability of street greenery based on street imagery segmentation functions. The proposed metrics can aid public agencies in five aspects: i) evaluation of the incidence, in terms of residents affected, of conditions of spatial injustice; ii) identification of deprived areas; iii) definition of targeted strategies of urban regeneration; iv) evaluation of alternative strategies; v) monitoring of impacts of interventions of urban regeneration. As a consequence, the objective is to develop a set of metrics instrumental to the development of site-specific and information-based strategies of urban regeneration aimed at increasing the conditions of inclusion, equality, and sustainability, in the context of the ecological transition and of the adoption of policies of adaptation and mitigation for the post-pandemic scenario and the environmental crisis. Acknowledgments. This study was supported by the MUR through the project “WEAKI TRANSIT: WEAK-demand areas Innovative TRANsport Shared services for Italian Towns (Project protocol: 20174ARRHT_004; CUP Code: F74I19001290001), financed with the PRIN 2017 (Research Projects of National Relevance) programme. This study was developed within the Interdepartmental Center of the University of Cagliari “Cagliari Accessibility Lab”. (Rector’s Decree of 4 March 2020. https://www.unica.it/unica/it/cagliari_accessibility_lab.page). This study was also supported by the project “The implementation of a multi-fractal development plan for urban adaptation for the ecological transition. Comparisons between the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, Italy and Besançon, France”, founded by the program “Bando 2023 Mobilità Giovani Ricercatori (MGR),” financed by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (under the Regional Law of 7 August 2007, n. 7 “Promotion of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Sardinia”).

Author Contributions. This paper is the result of the joint work of the authors. In particular, the “Abstract” and “Methodology” were jointly written by the authors. C.G. wrote “Discussion and conclusions”, A.A. wrote “Results”. G.D. wrote “Introduction” and S.R wrote “Cagliari” and “Parma”. C.G. and S.R coordinated and supervised the paper.

References 1. Chan, J.K.H.: Urban Ethics in the Anthropocene: The Moral Dimensions of Six Emerging Conditions in Contemporary Urbanism. Springe, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978981-13-0308-1

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Obesity and Its Relationship with Urban Pattern in Italian Regions Lucia Romano1(B)

, Camilla Sette2 , Bernardino Romano2 and Antonio Giuliani1

,

1 Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila,

L’Aquila, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

Abstract. Overweight and obesity are currently major health issues in Italy, where their prevalence has been increasing over the last few decades. The built environment plays an important role in this sense. In this study, we aimed to investigate this association within Italian regions. Urban sprawl/sprinkling can be defined as urban patterns where large percentages of the population live in low density residential areas. It is quantified for each Italian region using the CI (Compactness Index). In the 20 Italian regions, the average obesity rate (defined as BMI ≥ 30) in 2021 was 9.75%. Our analysis showed a significant association of the CI with the obesity rate. People living in sprinkling areas seem to be more likely to gain weight than those living in more compact places. This could be related to the possibility of walking for daily activities. Combined with other research from public health, there is moderate support for the assertion that urban layout can have significant influences on health and health-related behaviors. Some possible developments of this project could be to define a demarcation threshold between pedestrian/cycle and motorized mobility in terms of distance and to suggest a clinical strategy to address obesity promoting active commuting, calibrated to the urban characteristics of the area. The research is fully in line with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular with regard to the goals “Good health and well-being, Gender quality and Sustainable cities and communities”. Keywords: Obesity · Overweight · Urban pattern · Urban sprinkling · SDGs 2030

1 Introduction Urban sprawl and sprinkling can be defined as large settled areas with low building and population density [1]. It is generally characterized by inadequate public transportation, pedestrian-unfriendly streets, and distributional fragmentation of businesses, stores, and housing. This settlement structure has been extremely pervasive in Italy much more than © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 496–502, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_43

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in other European countries [2, 3]. It can have consequences of serious deterioration in the quality of life, with drastic emphasis on the performance negativities that are known to characterize very diffuse settlements, including the difficulty of service provision, a generalized dependence on private mobility, and a substantial impossibility of daily reaching places of work/study/service by pedestrian or bicycle [4]. Previous research showed that the built environment, and in particular urban sprinkling, has been positively associated with physical inactivity, overweight and obesity rates [5–8]. Someone talked about “obesogenic environment,” referring to urban characteristics considered to incentivize sedentary populations [9, 10]. Overweight and obesity are currently major health issues in Italy, where the prevalence of these conditions has been increasing over the last few decades. More than 25 million people in Italy are obese (10% of adults) or overweight (45% of adults) [11]. Inadequate physical activity is a major risk factors for obesity and for many related diseases, including type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancers, and ischemic heart disease [12]. “Active commuting” has been identified as an effective strategy to increase the population’s physical activity and to decrease BMI, without excessive financial or time expenditure [13, 14], but the possibility to walk or bike to work is often related to the built environment. In this preliminary study, we aimed to determine whether urban sprawl in Italian regions is associated with adult overweight and obesity rates.

2 Methods Italian data on urbanization density were collected by region (ISPRA database 2022) [15]. Urban dispersion was measured for each Italian region using the CI (Compactness Index), which is obtained from the ratio of the average urban core area (km2 ) to the number of urban cores per 100 km2 [16]. Data on rates of overweight and obesity in the Italian adult population by region refer to the 2020–2021 PASSI system [11]. BMI values (Body mass index: weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) are used to define overweight (25 ≤ BMI ≤ 30) or obesity (BMI ≥ 30) [17]. 2.1 Statistical Analysis The characteristics of the study sample were analysed using descriptive statistics. Quantitative variables were summarized as mean and standard deviation (SD) or median and range (minimum-maximum). A regression analysis was used to study the relationship between the considered variables, the statistical significance of which is expressed as p-value; values ≤ 0.05 are considered significant. The relationships are approximated by linear trend lines; the fit to the predictive model is expressed in terms of R2 . Analyses were conducted in Jamovi version 2.3.12.

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3 Results Data for the 20 Italian regions were analyzed. Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the considered variables. Overall, 30.6% of adults in Italy resulted to be overweight (DS 6.64, median 31.1, range 6.80–39.3), and 9.9% resulted to be obese (DS 2.89, median 10.5, range 2–13.9). There was a significant positive association between urban sprawl (CI) and obesity rate (p = 0.008, R2 = 0.328) (Fig. 1) and we reported the same association with overweight rate (p = 0.001, R2 = 0.460) (Fig. 2). Table 1. Descriptive analysis of the included variables OVERWEIGHT (%)

OBESITY (%)

CI

MEAN DS

30.6 6.64

9.9 2.89

0.054 0.059

MEDIAN RANGE

31.3 6.8–39.3

10.5 2.0–13.9

0.030 0.008–0.221

Fig. 1. Association between urban sprawl (CI) and obesity rate (%) in the Italian regions

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Fig. 2. Association between urban sprawl (CI) and overweight rate (%) in the Italian regions

4 Discussion The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been rising over the last decades and it is currently at unprecedented levels. This increase has occurred in many areas across every age, sex, and race; Italy is among the most affected countries, with an obesity rate of 1 in 10 adults. Given its worldwide prevalence, obesity continues to be a major health issue for the scientists around the world [18]. Although this condition is commonly caused by excess energy consumption relative to energy expenditure, the etiology of obesity is highly complex and still unclear. It includes genetic, physiologic, environmental, psychological, social, economic, and even political factors that could influence health-related behaviors, which in turn influence weight [19]. Urban planning and transportation researchers are also expanding their horizons, giving attention to how their fields affect in general human health. In particular, the built environment has been hypothesized to be a potential driver of obesogenic behaviors [20]. In our study, we focused about the Italian regions, and the analysis revealed a significant association of the CI with the obesity and overweight rate. Other studies also showed significant associations of the body weight with urban sprawl, mixed land use, intersection density, and street accessibility; this association seems to be mainly related to what is called “walkability” [19, 21–26]. Frank et al. [27] and Leal and Chaix [28] demonstrated that mean BMI for adult people in developed countries decreased significantly as residential density and street connectivity increased; other authors [29, 30] found consistent evidence for associations between neighborhoods with high walkability scores and lower BMI. In the opposite direction to what has been reported for adults, Seliske et al. [31] reported that urban sprawl may encourage physical activity in Canadian young people.

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The mechanisms of how urban sprawl might ultimately result in increased obesity need to be studied. Some hypotheses have a more consistent link, such as the possibility of walking for daily activities, the reduction of physical activity because fitness facilities are more distant, or the encouragement in the use of automobile. High urban sprawl also may affect diet by increasing distance to supermarkets [24]. Combined with other research from public health, there is moderate support for the assertion that urban layout can have significant influences on health and health-related behaviors. However, our findings should be interpreted with caution; they simply indicate that sprawl is associated with certain outcomes, but it is premature to imply that urban sprawl causes obesity. It would be more correct to claim that urban sprawl may be considered as an additional risk factor for overweight; it interacts with other environmental variables in influencing physical activity and obesogenic behaviors. Future research using experimental designs is needed.

5 Conclusion Few studies explored the association between urban sprinkling and health-related behaviors. Our results have important implications for future research and practice: they suggest that people living in sprinkling regions in Italy seem to be more likely to gain weight than those living in more compact areas. However, our research needs to be supplemented with research at a finer geographic scale (provinces, municipalities), although at these levels obesity and overweight data are not always easily available. This research could make use of geographic information system (GIS) data to home in on the specific living and working environments of individuals. Other development of this project could be to define thresholds or critical levels of sprinkling that may influence physical activity, and to suggest a clinical strategy to address obesity promoting active commuting. Active commuting has in fact been identified by the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence as a feasible way to increase population physical activity; it was independently associated with various health benefits, with reduced BMI and percentage body fat [13, 14], but the possibility to walk or bike to work is often related to the built environment. Urban dispersion is a complex public health issue; it is important that town planners, developers, and governments take note of the importance of the urban environment as a risk factor for some diseases, such as obesity and obesity-related conditions. This research is fully in line with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular with regard to the goals “Good health and well-being, and Sustainable cities and communities”. The first one takes into account rapid urbanization, threats to the climate and the environment. The second goal deals with the problem of the rapid growth of cities, especially in the developing world; making cities sustainable involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management. In accordance with these aims, our analysis could help to substantiate the importance of develop methodologies and tools to promote a “Happy City”.

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Acknowledgments. We would like to acknowledgment Prof. Monica Mazza for the constant contribution of ideas on the discussed topics, and Dr Aldo Pio Luciano and Dr Nasimi Abdullah for their contribution in the data collection.

References 1. Romano, B., Zullo, F., Fiorini, L., Ciabò, S., Marucci, A.: Sprinkling: an approach to describe urbanization dynamics in Italy. Sustainability 9(1), 97 (2017) 2. Romano, B., Zullo, F., Fiorini, L., Marucci, A., Ciabo, S.: Land transformation of Italy due to half a century of urbanisation. Land Use Policy 67, 387–400 (2017) 3. Romano, B., Fiorini, L., Marucci, A., Zullo, F.: Urban growth control DSS techniques for de-sprinkling process in Italy. Sustainability 9, 1852 (2017) 4. Kramer, D., Lakerveld, J., Stronks, K., Kunst, A.E.: Uncovering how urban regeneration programs may stimulate leisure-time walking among adults in deprived areas: a realist review. Int. J. Health Serv. Plan. Adm. Eval. 47(4), 703–724 (2017) 5. Zhao, Z., Kaestner, R.: Effects of urban sprawl on obesity. J. Health Econ. 29(6), 779–787 (2010) 6. Garden, F.L., Jalaludin, B.B.: Impact of urban sprawl on overweight, obesity, and physical activity in Sydney, Australia. J. Urban Health Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med. 86(1), 19–30 (2009) 7. Lemamsha, H., Papadopoulos, C., Randhawa, G.: Perceived environmental factors associated with obesity in Libyan men and women. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 15(2), 301 (2018) 8. Baldini, I., Casagrande, B.P., Estadella, D.: Depression and obesity among females, are sex specificities considered? Arch. Women’s Ment. Health 24(6), 851–866 (2021) 9. Townshend, T., Lake, A.: Obesogenic urban form: theory, policy and practice. Health Place 15, 909–916 (2009) 10. Swinburn, B., Egger, G., Raza, F.: Dissecting obesogenic environments: the development and application of a framework for identifying and prioritizing environmental interventions for obesity. Prev. Med. 29(6), 563–570 (1999) 11. Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Accessed 21 May 2023 12. Booth, F.W., Roberts, C.K., Laye, M.J.: Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases. Compr. Physiol. 2(2), 1143–1211 (2012) 13. Martin, A., Panter, J., Suhrcke, M., Ogilvie, D.: Impact of changes in mode of travel to work on changes in body mass index: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey. J. Epidemiol. Commun. Health 69(8), 753–761 (2015) 14. Flint, E., Cummins, S.: Active commuting and obesity in mid-life: cross-sectional, observational evidence from UK Biobank. Lancet Diab. Endocrinol. 4(5), 420–435 (2016) 15. Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale. https://www.isprambiente.gov. it/it/banche-dati. Accessed 03 May 2023 16. Romano, B., Sette, C., Zullo, F., Montaldi, C.: Landscape profiles, urbanization and environmental protection in Europe: is western the future scenario for eastern? Curr. Urban Stud. 11(02), 301–318 (2023) 17. World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. https://www.who.int/news-room/ fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight#:~:text=%2Fm2).-,Adults,than%20or%20equal% 20to%2030. Accessed 13 May 2023 18. Ewing, R., Brownson, R.C., Berrigan, D.: Relationship between urban sprawl and weight of United States youth. Am. J. Prev. Med. 31(6), 464–474 (2006) 19. Aronne, L.J., Nelinson, D.S., Lillo, J.L.: Obesity as a disease state: a new paradigm for diagnosis and treatment. Clin. Cornerstone 9(4), 9–25 (2009)

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20. Lam, T.M., Vaartjes, I., Grobbee, D.E., Karssenberg, D., Lakerveld, J.: Associations between the built environment and obesity: an umbrella review. Int. J. Health Geogr. 20(1), 7 (2021) 21. Mackenbach, J.D., et al.: Obesogenic environments: a systematic review of the association between the physical environment and adult weight status, the SPOTLIGHT project. BMC Public Health 14, 233 (2014) 22. Feng, J., Glass, T.A., Curriero, F.C., Stewart, W.F., Schwartz, B.S.: The built environment and obesity: a systematic review of the epidemiologic evidence. Health Place 16(2), 175–190 (2010) 23. Renalds, A., Smith, T.H., Hale, P.J.: A systematic review of built environment and health. Fam. Commun. Health 33(1), 68–78 (2010) 24. Ross, N.A., Tremblay, S., Khan, S., Crouse, D., Tremblay, M., Berthelot, J.M.: Body mass index in urban Canada: neighborhood and metropolitan area effects. Am. J. Public Health 97(3), 500–508 (2007) 25. Lee, I.M., Ewing, R., Sesso, H.D.: The built environment and physical activity levels: the Harvard Alumni Health Study. Am. J. Prev. Med. 37(4), 293–298 (2009) 26. Lopez, R.: Urban sprawl and risk for being overweight or obese. Am. J. Public Health 94(9), 1574–1579 (2004) 27. Frank, L.D., Andresen, M.A., Schmid, T.L.: Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars. Am. J. Prev. Med. 27, 87–96 (2004) 28. Leal, C., Chaix, B.: The influence of geographic life environments on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review, a methodological assessment and a research agenda. Obes. Rev. Off. J. Int. Assoc. Stud. Obes. 12(3), 217–230 (2011) 29. Chandrabose, M., et al.: Built environment and cardio-metabolic health: systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Obes. Rev. Off. J. Int. Assoc. Stud. Obes. 20(1), 41–54 (2019) 30. McCormack, G.R., et al.: A scoping review on the relations between urban form and health: a focus on Canadian quantitative evidence. Health Promot. Chronic Dis. Prev. Canada 39(5), 187–200 (2019) 31. Seliske, L., Pickett, W., Janssen, I.: Urban sprawl and its relationship with active transportation, physical activity and obesity in Canadian youth. Health Rep. 23(2), 17–25 (2012)

Factors Affecting the Evolution of Sustainable Mobility in Smarter, Happier Cities Tiziana Campisi1(B)

, Matteo Ignaccolo2 , Giovanni Tesoriere1 and Elena Cocuzza2

,

1 Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Cittadella Universitaria,

94100 Enna, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy

Abstract. The growing connections between people and the outside world through the evolution of infrastructure and transport services are among the factors that can make places happier. In particular, the concept of happiness could be directly related to the number of possible choices and therefore to the degree of freedom perceived during the daily travel. It must be emphasised that the models on which our cities are based, created on people and/or cars, have a direct influence on daily travel. Similarly, the increasing spread of mobility services such as shared mobility can stimulate the supply of transport and make travel more sustainable, generating a lower economic and social environmental impact. The development of such services has broadened the scope of traditional on-demand services (both shared mobility and DRT). Alongside these, recently introduced services such as ride hailing, carpooling and all vehicle sharing services that allow people to share cars, scooters and bicycles are consolidated and continue to grow. This article focuses on a literature analysis of European case studies highlighting the main factors that have contributed to the choice of these forms of mobility. The comparison of the different case studies shows that environmental factors (such as climate change) together with economic and social factors have influenced and continue to influence mobility choices, especially in the post-pandemic phase and the current energy crisis. The study therefore provides the basis for improving the planning and management of services in the European context and ensuring higher sustainability standards for transport systems. Keywords: Sustainable Mobility · Smart and Happy Cities · Urban and Mobility Planning · New Mobility Paradigm · Shared Mobility · DRT

1 Introduction The scientific literature has been characterised in recent years by an evolution in research on sustainable cities that are also smart and happy. These three aspects and their indicators have been analysed from different points of view and have implications for the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 503–514, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_44

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evolution of urban planning and also mobility. To ensure that smart city policies are in line with the transition path towards sustainability, citizen well-being and social values should be carefully considered in urban planning. Indeed, it is emphasised that urban happiness, associated with well-being, health and quality of life, is the gateway to transforming smart cities into sustainable places to live [1]. Another study conducted by [2] proposes a definition of Smart Happy Sustainable Cities starting from the idea that there are numerous definitions that include the two concepts of smartness and sustainability and that few studies have been focused on the combination of these concepts. Furthermore, given the variety of definitions of smart cities and sustainable cities, it is pointed out that it is not easy to define this but also strongly needed to provide a shared understanding of the concept and to serve as a basis for future discussions on what and what Smart Happy Sustainable Cities aspire to achieve. A city is defined as “sustainable” when its citizens are guaranteed the right to mobility, integration between the various technologies, personal connectivity and spaces dedicated to urban greenery. A sustainable city includes sharing or shared mobility systems, in particular cars, bicycles, scooters and motorcycles available to citizens, a substantial number of electric or hybrid cars, which can help reduce CO2 levels in cities [3, 4, 5] and public transport that works and is integrated with other means of transport, with a view to Mobility-as-Service (Maas) [6, 7, 8]. The pandemic and post-pandemic phase has highlighted how cities must be the protagonists of a new restart capable of rethinking the organization, form and functions of neighbourhoods, the way people move around urban centres, guaranteeing multifunctional settlements and inclusive. In fact, the pandemic has posed enormous challenges to cities, questioning the linear growth model with which they have developed since the urban revolution and making the concept of proximity city increasingly considered [9, 10, 11]. Domestic confinement, curfews, remote working, closures of numerous sectors, the questioning of major collective transport systems, and the return of students and out-of-town workers to their hometowns have significantly altered the appearance of cities. The increase of users in the e-commerce sector has also played a key role in modal choices. This radical change requires a specific city-related declination of urban planning, of economic and social support policies, of the development system of city services, and in particular of transport systems [12, 13]. Among the urban models, the proximity model is gaining ground of ‘everything in 15 min’ (work, services, commerce, leisure, nature). The rethinking of the relationship between the city centre and the periphery is in fact one of the objectives of urban policies for the future, capable of imagining innovative solutions as regards the relationship between the parts of the city, the allocation of functions, the management of services and flows, the government of the territory and of the community [14, 15]. In the current post-pandemic phase, urban social inclusion policies are needed above all to counter the economic and cultural decline of the subjects most affected by the crisis and policies to accompany the environmental transition, in particular water, energy and waste cycles. In addition to the evolution of strategies for a sustainable city, actions to make cities smarter and happier are becoming increasingly popular. Happiness is a term with a broad spectrum of thought that is often the subject of questioning and debate. Humanity’s interest in happiness is not a recent phenomenon. Even today, happiness is

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one of the main goals of humanity, communities and organizations are looking for ways to achieve and measure happiness in various areas of life. Various organisations and many countries around the world have worked to measure happiness and market the happiest cities to the global community. A number of studies have shown that there are a group of cities like those that outperform others in levels of happiness, advertising their inhabitants as among the happiest in the world [16]. In line with this trend, happiness standards are becoming a top priority. This paper analyses a number of European case studies comparing different strategies for making cities more sustainable, smarter and happier to determine the main determinants. Urban mobility refers to the ease with which people can reach destinations in urban areas thanks to available transport networks and services. Many factors influence urban mobility patterns, such as demographics, land use, governance, availability of public transport, car use and the local economy. Urban mobility faces many challenges and among them traffic congestion is one of the most difficult. Unfortunately, it is increasingly observed that the increasing capacity of roads in urban areas leads to an increase in traffic and therefore congestion, so different solutions have to be sought [17, 18]. Many European cities suffer from poor air quality and regularly exceed the limit values for the protection of human health set by the ambient air quality directive. Pollution also has a negative impact on biodiversity. Recent studies also consider low physical activity to be a serious negative effect of car use [19, 20]. In recent decades, various mobility services have been developed that reduce the use of private vehicles and therefore encourage sustainable and fairer mobility for all, such as Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). The main purpose of DRT is to meet the travel needs of users by creating an integrated platform for travel options and modal choices. While the system can operate independently, replacing traditional modes, there is also the potential to integrate DRT with the city’s traditional modes of public transport. Making services customer-friendly with flexible hours is a determining factor for a successful DRT service. However, the service operation cost recovery ratio is the single most important indicator for determining the commercial viability of a DRT system [21]. It allows you to reach areas with low transport demand such as the urban suburbs. These services have proved to be of great use for areas with high percentages of young and old with specific movements (for example going to entertainment venues at night or to the hospital) [22–25]. The present research focuses on a preliminary evaluation of the scientific literature of the last decade related to the concept of sustainable, resilient and happy cities by defining some of the main indicators and related factors. A summary table has been created to compare the main European cities taking into account the aforementioned indices. Finally, some strategies and actions have been proposed as an example for the urban and mobility planning of local administrations and service managers, paying particular attention to some of the services that can be provided in areas with low transport demand.

2 The Main Factors Related to Sustainable, Smart and Happy Cities and Mobility In recent years, interest in defining metrics related to the spread of happiness has also increased. Numerous initiatives measure and market happiness interpreted through metrics such as housing affordability, unemployment rate and security. However, very few

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research works consider sustainable mobility as a possible indicator of community happiness levels. A study by [26] shows that regions with higher shares of non-car travel generally have higher well-being scores, even when controlling for important economic predictors of happiness. Furthermore, sustainable transport policies may have implications for happiness and sustainability, as they influence the happiness and well-being of the population as a whole. Furthermore, the cities investigated whether they scored high or low demonstrate a dedicated commitment to improving sustainable transport infrastructure. The sustainable city is an increasingly commonly used definition; it is the organisational model that makes spaces more efficient, digital, liveable and integrated. In this context, a fundamental reference is constituted by the Sustainable Development Goals, defined by the 193 UN member states in 2015. Among the common goals that countries commit to achieve by 2030 is to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, durable and sustainable. The smart city is called upon to govern the transition that will lead almost 60% of the world’s population to live in urban areas by 2030. This is possible by taking into account the actions defined in the Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The main actions that describe the evolution of the smart city concept (source: Author elaboration)

According to the Smart City Index (SCI) of the International Institute for Management Development [27] the top five European cities are: Zurich, Oslo, Lausanne, Helsinki, Copenhagen. This index is created on the analysis of the following topics: health; safety; mobility; activities; opportunities (work and school) and governance. Data indicate that environmental concerns are relatively higher in wealthier cities. In particular, air quality and health services are perceived as basic in most cities around the world, especially since the outbreak of the pandemic, as is the availability of affordable housing. Globally, there is no shortage of examples of smart cities around the world, cities that are investing in innovation and technology to make metropolises greener and improve the quality of life of their inhabitants. From one side of the globe to the

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other, there are several advanced smart cities with major development strategies oriented towards environmental sustainability and efficiency. The smart city par excellence according to the Smart City Index is Singapore, a technologically advanced and sustainable city. Smart cities Ranking of European medium [26] considers the following eight parameters: online availability of public services, availability of public utility apps; integration of digital platforms; use of social media; release of open data; transparency; implementation of public Wi-Fi networks and deployment of network technologies. It therefore explains the six dimensions of a smart city as defined in the Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Complementary smart concept related to smart cities development (source: Authors elaboration)

In the European context it is therefore possible to summarise the main actions taken to make cities more sustainable, smarter and happier as shown in the Table 1. Among the actions taken in several European cities, in order to promote sustainable mobility, there is the implementation of DRT. In fact, the DRT concept is particularly relevant to the concepts of sustainable, happy and smart cities because it is a flexible public transport system that adapts to the needs of users, offering transport services on demand according to actual demand, rather than fixed timetables and predefined routes like traditional public transport. In accordance with the study conducted by [29], Fig. 3 shows the distribution to 2021 of ongoing projects relating to the DRT. Thus, DRT can contribute to urban sustainability by reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. As a flexible system, it can optimise the routing and use of vehicles, reducing the number of vehicles on the road and promoting energy efficiency. Furthermore, by encouraging the use of public transport instead of private vehicles, DRT can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels. It can improve citizens’ quality of life by offering a more convenient, accessible and personalised transport service.

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Table 1. Definition of some strategies implemented in some European capitals by comparing three different indicators of sustainability, happiness and smartness. SUSTAINABILITY The Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index 2022 [27]

HAPPINESS Happy City Index 2023 [23]

SMARTNESS Digital Cities Index 2022–2023 (DCI) [28]

Zurich

It is a green city due to green factors such as energy consumption, use of renewables, composting rate, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution

Ninety-nine per cent of residents say they are satisfied with the city, both for its natural beauty and its cultural centres such as the theatre and the two universities

According to the Smart City Index 2023, Zurich is the smartest city in the world. It has been planned in such a way that its energy supply is fair and sustainable

Oslo

Actions to reduce emissions by 95% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2050 Actions on urban mobility, introducing zero-emission buses and taxis Increasing energy efficient buildings thanks to smart technologies

In sixth place in the ranking, 85% of the population is fully satisfied with public transport, while 98% of citizens declare that they live in a very safe city

Diffusion of open data in sectors such as the environment, health, agriculture, traffic and demography

Losanna

Improvement actions in school education, culture and the health sector The negative points remain air pollution and the high cost of housing

Its residents are also delighted with the opportunities to find work online

Traffic information, via the app, is considered unsatisfactory

Helsinki

Increase in widespread digitization also for the health system and schools Increased use of the bicycle has had a major impact on transport

Copenaghen Promoting the use of bicycles and public transport Increasing the production of clean energy (biomass and cogeneration) with which 98% of buildings are heated and the use of ‘smart bins’

It is a reference model in Smart Governance for the use of open-source systems

95% of the population say they are happy to reside in the Danish capital (fifth city for positive working environment) and perfectly integrated foreigners

It ranks first as a smart city with a fully automated metro system

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Fig. 3. The status of 36 studied DRT cases in 13 different countries [26] (source: author elaboration)

Citizens can request transport when they need it, avoiding long waits and improving flexibility in their travel. This can reduce transport-related stress, enable more effective planning of daily activities and improve accessibility for people without private transport. Finally, DRT integrates perfectly with the technological approach of smart cities as, thanks to digital platforms and management algorithms, it can be efficiently managed and optimised to meet users’ needs. The use of mobile apps or online booking systems allows citizens to request transport quickly and easily. In addition, DRT can be integrated with other smart solutions such as traffic monitoring, data analysis and real-time route planning to ensure an effective and timely service (Table 2). Table 2. Definition of principal details of DRT service in the compared cities Cities

Details

Ref.

Zurich

Analysis of travel time and improvement through reduction by [30] comparison between DRT and public transport system Efficiency analysis of fleet operational choices in terms of vehicle positioning and fleet size

Oslo

Qualitative studies on the contribution of these services to social inclusion are lacking

[31]

Different local public transport solutions in three rural municipalities in Norway were compared by analyzing the different characteristics of the services (continued)

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Cities

Details

Ref.

Losanna

n.d

n.d

Helsinki

The service was implemented by the city of Helsinki together with the regional transport authority and the company AJELO

[32]

The Kutsuplus service operated between 2013 and 2015 Despite its positive feedback, the Kutsuplus service was discontinued in December 2015 due to unacceptable costs Copenaghen Initially, demand responsive transport began as a service for passengers with special needs, performed in small and medium-sized vehicles

[33]

Passengers can order DRPT travel by phone or online (booking website/app) The initial goal with the DRPT solution was to provide public transit service in areas with low passenger demand Currently, Movia is working with the other transport authorities in Denmark to combine DRPT with traditional public transport that runs on fixed routes (bus and train) in the nationwide digital multimodal journey planner, one of the most popular apps in Denmark

3 The Evolution of Mobility and Critical Issues in the Post-pandemic Phase The current development framework of sustainable local mobility is punctuated by several critical points, both conjunctural and structural. It is important to consider that: – public transport is struggling to recover passengers and revenues after the collapse caused by the health emergency, but pre-COVID market shares still seem far off; – on the supply side, the recovery prospects of public transport companies are currently being held back by the exponential increase in both energy and general costs (inflationary effect); – active mobility, particularly pedestrian mobility, has experienced a period of great expansion due to the effect of travel restrictions during the health emergency, but the figures for 2021 mark a retreat of the trend, partly physiological, partly due to a return of the modal balance towards the pre-COVID set-up. Basically, what is emerging is a scenario of a return to pre-COVID modal balance, but with some signs of worsening. On a structural level, there are persistent weaknesses in sustainable transport as a whole, and in particular in the public transport component, which constrain its competitive capacity with respect to private modal alternatives: – the quantity and quality of public transport services is inadequate, as demonstrated by satisfaction indexes far behind those of private transport; in particular, the capillarity

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–

–

–

–

511

of the service, together with the “time” factor (regularity and speed of the journey) are perceived by citizens (potential users) to be far removed from the performance offered by the use of the car; the infrastructure for rapid mass transport, especially in medium-sized and large cities, is still inadequate, as can be seen from European comparisons, as is the average age and emission profile of rolling stock (buses and trains), which are far removed from European benchmarks, factors that significantly affect the quality of the customer experience; the rigidity of local public transport tariff systems, with administered prices that do not follow economic principles of updating, deprives companies of a vital room for manoeuvre for a diversified offer of services and for recovering resources for investments (and in fact LPT tariffs in Italy are decidedly lower than in the main European countries); at the same time, integrated ticketing systems that broaden the range of facilities for potential customers and thus strengthen the attractiveness of demand are still not widespread; the opportunities connected to the use of info-mobility devices have not yet been exploited extensively, despite the rapid spread of increasingly advanced, flexible and integrated techno-logical services; the policies activated by the administrations to orientate demand in favour of lowimpact modes - one thinks of measures to restrict private traffic (ZTL, Zone 30, road and park pricing) and to promote active mobility (public areas, cycle lanes, bus lanes) - are still insufficient, characterised by excesses of timidity, gradualness, experimentation and backtracking.

Despite the criticalities described the prospects for sustainable mobility are positively fuelled by various opportunities that must, however, be appropriately exploited. First of all, the framework of the resources that have been earmarked in recent years for the modernisation and development of the entire transport sector should be considered, starting with the significant contribution of the PNRR and the complementary National Plan, in addition to which there are many other allocations from national and European sources. In addition, alongside the resources for investments, the framework of guidelines and policies has also been strengthened in this last part of the year, on the one hand by incentivising planning, mobility management and the overcoming of cultural barriers in individual mobility behaviour, and on the other hand by revising and rationalising the regulatory and governance system for the efficiency and ordinary operation of local mobility and public transport in particular. From the analysis conducted it emerges that despite the dynamic strengthening of the medium- and long-distance component of demand, the local proximity scale remains dominant in the mobility model of Italians: overall, 77.6% of journeys are completed within the 10 km perimeter, a figure substantially in line with that of the beginning of the millennium. In this context, it is necessary to govern the change in the model of mobility as a service (MaaS) and encourage increasingly shared and sustainable mobility, starting with electric mobility and micro-mobility. In view of the growth in cycling and micro-mobility solutions (electric scooters, etc.) in the last two years, the new General Plan for Cycling Mobility 2022–2024 should be fully implemented. As far as local public transport is concerned, a critical point is the structural delay in the rejuvenation process of the fleet. The average age of LPT buses

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in Italy is about three years higher than the European average and it is recommended to reduce this gap as a matter of urgency. With respect to the National Road Safety Plan 2030, specific interventions and resources are recommended in the Implementation Plans, taking into account the major risk factors on the basis of accident analyses, also ‘educating’ on safety with training projects in schools in particular.

4 Discussion and Conclusion From the above, several considerations regarding the situation of sustainable local mobility can be deduced: The health emergency has had a significant impact on local mobility, with a decrease in passengers and revenues in public transport. Although the sector is trying to recover, pre-COVID market shares have not yet been fully achieved. However, there are structural challenges in the field of sustainable mobility, particularly with regard to public transport. The quality and quantity of services offered are not considered satisfactory compared to private transport alternatives. Furthermore, the infrastructure for rapid mass transport is often insufficient, as is the average age and emission profile of public transport vehicles. In addition, there are tariff and ticketing problems: local public transport tariff systems are often rigid and not updated according to economic principles, which limits the ability of companies to offer diversified services and to invest. Furthermore, the lack of integrated ticketing systems limits the options for potential customers and reduces the attractiveness of demand. Despite the challenges, there are different opportunities for the development of sustainable mobility. There are resources available for investment and development, and there are also policy and planning directions that incentivise sustainable mobility. It is important to use these opportunities to promote a mobility as a service (MaaS) model, to foster shared and sustainable mobility, and to encourage the adoption of electric mobility and micro-mobility solutions. In addition, other opportunity is the Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) because is an innovative approach that promotes sustainability, citizen well-being and resource efficiency, thus contributing to sustainable, happy and smart cities. To address critical issues and exploit opportunities, concrete actions are needed. This includes improving the quality of public transport services, upgrading infrastructure, reviewing fare systems, using info-mobility technologies and implementing effective policies to foster sustainable mobility. Ultimately, what emerges is that sustainable local mobility presents both challenges and opportunities, and addressing critical issues will require coordinated actions and appropriate investments to improve public transport provision, promote sustainable solutions and create a favourable environment for shared mobility. All these actions will play a crucial role not only for sustainability but also for a smarter and happier vision of cities. Funding. This research work was funded partially by the MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, Italy) through a project entitled WEAKI TRANSIT: WEAK-demand areas Innovative TRANsport Shared services for Italian Towns (Project code: 20174ARRHT/CUP: E44I17000050001 ), PRIN 2017 (Research Projects of National/Relevance) program Italy and also by the Civil Engineering and Architecture Department (DICAR) of University of Catania, through a Departmental Research Projectt entitled MOPIMOS - MOdelli di- PIanificazione di MObilità Sostenibile.

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Participation for Everyone: Young People’s Involvement in the Shift Towards Happier and More Resilient Cities Ilaria De Noia(B)

and Silvia Rossetti

Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze, 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Citizens’ engagement and empowerment in urban climate adaptation scenarios have been increasingly gaining attention: the shift towards communities’ involvement in the traditional top-down planning processes reveals a spreading acknowledgment of the necessity to focus on people’s needs and wellbeing for more resilient and happier cities, in accordance with goal 3 and goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, the Climate Transition Strategy (STC) of Brescia focuses a whole set of actions on the participation of citizens of all ages; among the “Citizens’ involvement and communication” actions, Action 7.2.5 envisions the setup of climate adaptation-related experiences by the Science Centre AmbienteParco. A package of laboratories for middle schoolers is currently being developed in collaboration with the University of Parma and has been an opportunity to test their sensitiveness and responsiveness about climate change and its related countermeasures in urban planning (both with ad hoc surveys and direct observations), thus recognizing young people’s role as holders of knowledge and as the adults of tomorrow. This contribution presents the outcomes of the first test-stage of the project, which can be intended as an applied research experience, carried out within the Afterschool Program of AmbienteParco. Laboratories appear to have been effective in raising awareness about both the STC and climate adaptation, and students have shown to be sensitive and responsive to these topics. This experience has demonstrated that young people can represent not only indicators, but also stakeholders in the shift towards a Happy and Resilient City. Keywords: Participation · Laboratories · Urban Questionnaires · Urban Climate Adaptation · Young People’s Involvement · Urban Planning

1 Introduction The spreading awareness about climate change and its effects on all the spheres of the society led to an increasing effort on cities’ climate transition processes. These processes mainly aim at safeguarding citizens’ wellbeing and security, as well as the bioclimatic equilibrium through the conservation or restoration of the ecosystem functions and services [1]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 515–525, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_45

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Citizens’ engagement and empowerment in urban climate adaptation scenarios have been progressively gaining attention: the shift towards communities’ involvement in the traditional top-down planning processes and their integration with bottom-up approaches [2, 3] reveals a spreading acknowledgment of the necessity to focus on people’s needs and wellbeing for more resilient and happier cities, in accordance with goal 3 “Good Health and Well-being” and goal 11 “Sustainable Cities and Societies” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [4]. The relationship between the built environment and the quality of life has been documented and can be measured in terms of Subjective Well-Being (SWB). Urban areas acquire an important role in citizens’ and communities’ wellbeing, which has been also recognized to improve with their involvement in public participation processes [i.a., 5, 6]. Researchers have investigated the role of coplanning and co-design in fostering active citizenship and communities’ involvement in the transformation of urban spaces [7–9]. In this framework, young people’s involvement is still in its initial phases and most participatory processes are currently oriented towards the adult population [10, 11], even though in addition to the elderly, children and young people are considered the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change [12]. Therefore, the shift towards the involvement of young people (and their needs and vulnerabilities) appears relevant in the urban planning strategical and legislative framework, as emphasised by Winge and Lamm (2019) [13]. The Climate Transition Strategy (STC) of Brescia1 and the project “Un Filo Naturale” [14] are an interesting case study, as they focus a whole set of actions on the participation of citizens of all ages; among the “Coinvolgimento della cittadinanza e comunicazione” (Citizens’ involvement and communication) actions, Action 7.2.5 – “Attività esperienziali di AmbienteParco nei luoghi culturali” (Experiential activities of AmbienteParco in cultural areas) envisions the setup of climate adaptation-related experiences by the Science Centre AmbienteParco, aimed mainly at the communication of the STC to the citizens. The University of Parma is collaborating with the Science Centre in the setting up of the climate adaptation-related experiences envisioned by Action 7.2.5 in the form of workshops. This contribution presents the outcomes of the first stage of the project carried out within the Afterschool Program for middle-schoolers of AmbienteParco, which aimed at testing if the workshops were suitable for the systematic implementation in the experience packages of the Science Centre. The laboratories can be intended as an applied research experience and constitute an interesting opportunity to study participatory processes oriented at young people. Moreover, laboratories represent an occasion to test the students’ sensitiveness and responsiveness about climate change and its related countermeasures, both with ad hoc surveys and direct observations.

1 In the context of responding to the causes and effects of climate change (mitigation and adap-

tation, reduction of vulnerability to extreme weather phenomena, and public awareness) and as a part of the “F2C - Fondazione Cariplo for Climate” project, Fondazione Cariplo launched in 2020 the Call for ideas “Climate Strategy” aimed at medium and large municipalities. The Call for ideas had the intention of defining Climate Transition Strategies for selected cities.

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Finally, the documentation of the outcomes of the first test-stage of the project contributes to the discussion about the role of young people’s involvement in climate adaptation processes and in orientating urban planning and land use management future scenarios based on the outcomes of these practices, thus recognizing their role as knowledge holders and as the adults of tomorrow, as well as the impacts of meaningful participation on their mental health and wellbeing [15].

2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Involving Young People Through Climate Adaptation Laboratories Within the framework of the STC Action 7.2.5, the laboratories were set up between November 2022 and January 2023 in collaboration with the Research Group in Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Parma2 . The laboratories had the aim to disseminate the themes of the STC of Brescia and of the project “Un Filo Naturale” and to involve young people in urban climate adaptation processes. As emphasized by Oliver et al. (2006), youth participation in practice can span from “non-participation” forms (e.g., manipulation) to full participation, where young people share the decisions with the adults. Laboratories were intended as a “meaningful” participatory process, entailing meaning, control and connectedness, which deeply contribute to developing resilience [15]. Thus, the laboratories were intended as an occasion for communication, awareness raising and education, but also for a mutual exchange of knowledge. The value of participants’ experience and background was considered, setting up the workshops not as moments of “one-sided” teaching or communication, but as an opportunity to gather insight and feedback by the participants about climate change-related strategies, as well as an occasion for them to share ideas and connect with the participants through the activities. For these reasons, short pre- and post-workshop questionnaires were set up as well. 2.2 Set up of the Laboratories The design process of the laboratories started in summer 2022 with the definition of the main practical features of the workshops and with the analysis of the STC and its actions, to identify the themes more suitable for the laboratories. The approach chosen was “informative and operative” and the workshops, aimed at middle-schoolers and families, were meant to be a narration supported by hands on experiments, to promote not only knowledge development, but also the increase of practical and social skills, such as problem-solving and developing interpersonal connections. 2 The University of Parma was involved within the National Operational Programme on Research

and Innovation 2014–2020, which promotes an integration between universities and enterprises. In the case of PhD programmes, this concretizes in a six-month long stage for PhD students. A PhD student in Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma joined the AmbienteParco employees to provide scientifical and technical support for the setup of climate change adaptation-related workshops.

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Furthermore, the following climate change adaptation-related themes were selected for their representativeness of climate change issues and their connected urban planning (adaptation) practices and countermeasures, such as green roofs and resilient plants implementation: • climate change and greenhouse gases, to introduce the overall framework of the STC; • soil and water, to introduce the STC Action 2.1 – “Interventi di riqualificazione urbana in chiave resiliente (de-pavimentazione e zone oasi)” (Resilient urban regeneration interventions (desealing and oasis areas)); • green roofs and Nature-based solutions, to explain the STC Action 2.2 – “Realizzazione di tetti verdi pilota con produzione di strumenti conoscitivi per la loro diffusione” (Implementation of pilot green roofs with production of knowledge tools for their implementation); • trees and ecosystem functions and services, to introduce the STC Action 2.3 – “Rinnovo di alberature stradali cittadine con piante resilienti” (Renovation of the urban trees located on road infrastructure with resilient plants) of the STC; • biodiversity, as an additional transversal theme encompassing the overall framework of the STC. A web research was conducted in order to identify climate change-related experiments suitable for young people, focused on the identified themes. Five experiments were designed on the basis of the first exploratory research and are summarized in Table 1. The experiments were tested in three different days during the Afterschool Program held in AmbienteParco (Fig. 1), between November 2022 and January 2023. During the first test day (TD1), the “Climate change and greenhouse gases” experiment (E1) was proposed to the students, as well as the “Green roofs and Nature-based solutions” experiment (E3). During the second test day (TD2), the students experimented on soil permeability and density (E2), and they took part in different activities concerning trees and their CO2 absorption capability (E4). In January 2023 a third test day (TD3) took place, which included the “Soil and water” experiment (E2) and an additional experiment about biodiversity (E5). 2.3 Questionnaires To gauge the students’ perception of the first two test days, three questionnaires were proposed to the students: one initial questionnaire at the beginning of both days (TD1_pre and TD2_pre), and a third final questionnaire to gain insight about the results on TD2 (TD12_post). During TD3, students filled in a questionnaire both before (TD3_pre) and after (TD3_post) the laboratory. All the questionnaires were distributed printed on paper and were anonymous, very short and easy to understand, as they needed to be filled in a short amount of time.

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Table 1. Characteristics of the experiments. Code

Experiment theme

Description

Mode

E1

Climate change and greenhouse gases

A first introductory part Fully interactive, individual about climate change and the STC is followed by an experiment aimed at visualizing the CO2 . By placing a balloon at the top of a glass jar, it is possible to visualize the CO2 generated by the reaction between acetic acid (contained in vinegar) and baking soda

E2

Soil and water

In this experiment the Frontal interactive students learn about the rate at which water percolates through different soils. This can be observed with the aid of funnels made of recycled bottles and filled with different types of soils The students are then divided into groups to physically simulate the interaction between water, sand, silt, and clay [16]

E3

Green roofs and Nature-based solutions

The experiment involves the Fully interactive, individual creation of a green roof model. Using a shoe box as a base [17], the students build a small extensive green roof (by sowing seeds) or a small intensive green roof (by planting seedlings) (continued)

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Code

Experiment theme

Description

Mode

E4

Trees and ecosystem functions and services

Students learn about the Fully interactive, group CO2 absorption capability of trees and the capillarity phenomena through memory games and simple physical experiments

E5

Biodiversity

Students survey (through Fully interactive, individual dedicated survey cards) the different plant and/or animal species in a natural area [18]. They are challenged to find as many as they can

Fig. 1. Picture taken during the Climate change and greenhouse gases experiment (E1) on the left and outcomes of the Green roofs and Nature-based solutions experiment (E3) on the right. Source: AmbienteParco S.r.l. and own pictures.

The preliminary structure of the questionnaires was set up with a first question about the age of the participant and, in the case of TD1_pre and TD2_pre, with a question about the participants knowledge about climate change. The central part of the questionnaires focused on the students’ knowledge about the topics of the workshop. The final questions asked the students if they knew about the STC and the “Un Filo Naturale” project, and which were their expectations about the workshop.

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TD12_post and TD3_post asked the students to answer again the same questions proposed in TD1_pre, TD2_pre and TD3_pre, in order to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshops. Moreover, in TD12_post and TD3_post, the students were asked if during the laboratories they had learned something new, what they had liked the most and what they would have improved.

3 Results The outcomes of the workshops were tested both with the ad hoc questionnaires and with direct observations. Among the direct observations, some practical difficulties emerged during the tests. Some experiments appeared to be very time consuming, and tools and materials management required some improvements as well. It was also observed that the participants’ attention tended to decrease if the experiments were long and articulated, and that they preferred clear and straightforward experiments. This was especially true for the frontal ones. On the other hand, the interactive laboratories (e.g., E3) appeared to be more effective in involving the students, which showed a higher sensitivity and responsiveness compared to the frontal ones, stimulating questions and positive competitivity among the students. Furthermore, students appeared to be aware of the main issues entailed by climate change and seemed to be eager to share their experiences and learn more about climate change adaptation. In particular, they seemed to appreciate the practical explanations of processes and phenomena that they observed in the city or that they were though at school, such as the demonstration of the production of greenhouse gases and of green roofs. The questionnaires were filled in by students between 10 and 17 years old. Table 2 and Table 3 encompass some of their most relevant outcomes. TD1_pre and TD12_post were filled in by ten students, TD2_pre by eleven, while TD3_pre and TD2_post by six respondents. It is important to note that the Afterschool Program students were not the same in the three test days, due to the non-compulsory nature of the of the Afterschool Program and to the high variation of the attending students. Another interesting remark is the multicultural pool of users of the Program, which attracts students with different backgrounds. This contribution will provide a simple descriptive analysis of the results, mainly due to the low number of respondents. TD1_pre and TD2_pre showed that the participants had a good knowledge about climate change, as only 11.1% and 20% of the students answered that they did not know about it. In TD12_post, the percentages were almost the same, as 10% of the participants answered that they had no knowledge in this regard. However, the questions about the STC and the specific topics encompassed by the workshops showed an overall increase of the participants’ knowledge. For instance, the percentage of students who did not know about greenhouse gases decreased from 33.3% (TD1_pre) and 37.5% (TD2_pre) to 10%. Before TD2 77.8% of the students did not know about green roofs, while after the workshop, this percentage decreased by 37.8%. Moreover, after TD2, the percentage of respondents who had at least some knowledge about soil permeability and filtration rate increased from 54.6% to 90%. The final questions of TD12_post showed that nine out of the ten respondents appeared to have learned something from the workshops held during TD1 and TD2,

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and the same amount answered to the question “What did you like the most?” either by declaring their favourite experiment or by expressing their appreciation for the workshop. TD3_pre and TD3_post showed similar results to the previous questionnaires. Students who knew about biodiversity increased from 33.3% to 66.7% (with an additional 33.3% that answered “more or less”). In the final questionnaire (TD3_post), more than half of respondents appeared to know about “Un Filo Naturale” and five out of the six participants answered the question “What did you like the most?” either by, again, declaring their favourite experiment or by expressing their appreciation for the workshop. Table 2. Highlights of the results of TD1_pre, TD2_pre, and TD12_post. TD1_pre TD2_pre TD12_post Number of respondents

10

11

10

Respondents that have at least some knowledge about climate change

88.9%

80%

90%

Respondents that have at least some knowledge about greenhouse gases

66.7%

62.5%

90%

Respondents that have at least some knowledge about green roofs

22.2%

N/A

60%

Respondents that have knowledge about soil permeability N/A and filtration rate

54.6%

90%

Respondents that feel like they have learnt something from the workshops

N/A

90%

N/A

50%

N/A

Respondents that have some knowledge about the project 0% “Un Filo Naturale”

Table 3. Highlights of the results of TD3_pre and TD3_post. TD3_pre

TD3_post

Number of respondents

6

6

Respondents that have knowledge about soil permeability and filtration rate

33.3%

80%

Respondents that have knowledge about biodiversity

33.3%

66.7%

Respondents that feel like they have learnt something from the workshops

N/A

60%

Respondents that have some knowledge about the project “Un Filo Naturale”

N/A

60%

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4 Discussion and Conclusions The questionnaires, even if involving a limited number of participants, showed similar results to the direct observations made during the laboratories. Both in the pre- and post-workshop questionnaires similar results concerning the students’ knowledge about climate change were observed, underlining that explaining very general topics without practical experiments might result in less effective communication. No negative feedback was shared by the students, probably due to the perception of the questionnaires as tests and of the workshops’ teachers as schoolteachers. Future questionnaires and laboratories might therefore need to encompass a more amicable and informal environment and to reduce the perceived hierarchical gap between the students and the organisers, which cannot be completely avoided due to the young age of the participants. On the other hand, the indirect feedback received, i.e., the interest and attention which were showed by the students during the workshops, was useful to understand the improvements needed for the experiments and workshops. For instance, portioning the materials for E3 could lead to better time management. Furthermore, the observation made about the students’ preferences (e.g., length and mode of the laboratories), lead to the choice of dividing the experiments into three modules, which are then meant to be implemented in the AmbienteParco experience packages. The proposal encompassed by Table 4 is meant to entail better balance of the duration and mode of the various activities, as well as the grouping of similar topics. Table 4. The three modules proposed after the first test-stage of the laboratories. Module

Experiment theme

Experiments

1

Climate change and the STC of Brescia

E1

2

Nature-based solutions and ecosystem services

E3, E4

3

Soil and biodiversity

E2, E5

In general, the first test-stage of the laboratories appears to have been effective in raising awareness about both the STC and climate adaptation measures, and the students have shown to be sensitive and responsive to these topics. The questions asked and the experiences shared during the workshops showed that awareness about climate changerelated issues is spreading also in the younger population, which is sensitive and active in this regard. The encouraging first results of this experimental experience showed that participatory approaches involving young people could be beneficial in the shift towards Happy and Resilient Cities. The responsiveness of the participants about these topics underlined, along with their role played in sustainable development and their vulnerability to climate-related issues, the relevance of involving them in urban planning legislative and strategical scenarios - not only in participatory practices but also in the traditional top-down processes and bottom-up initiatives. For instance, setting up participatory and

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co-design workshops where young people can identify and propose priority intervention areas could be a successful way to enrich the urban planning scenario with the young citizens’ needs. The experimental nature of this experience was limited by the number of students involved and by the sophistication of the tools used. The implementation of the workshops in AmbienteParco experience packages will allow to gain further insight on a wider sample of participants, both on the workshops themselves and on climate-adaptation practices. Future research and applicative scenarios could include the up-leveling of the questionnaires. In this test experience the forms were proposed to the students printed on paper, but their distribution through digital means would facilitate data collection on larger scales and would allow them to be integrated with other instruments. For instance, recent branches of participation focused on the role played by Geographical Information Systems [19], integrating therefore the virtual collection of geospatial data in co-design processes. Combining this kind of technology with the traditional survey processes could give significant contribution to the effectiveness of participatory urban planning processes. In conclusion, the outcomes of the first test-stage of the project emphasise the need to involve young people in meaningful participation processes towards Happy and Resilient Cities for their health and wellbeing. It appears essential for young people to be considered part of the climate change adaptation processes, both as indicators of awareness and actual stakeholders. Setting up frameworks such as workshops and participatory or codesign processes where young people can express their needs and expectations acquires significance in urban planning practice. The first definition of sustainable development states that “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [20]. Therefore, where to start, if not from the future generations themselves? Acknowledgements. This work was carried out in the framework of the six-month stage in AmbienteParco S.r.l. of the PhD Student Ing. Arch. Ilaria De Noia (I.D.N.). We would like to thank dott.ssa Alessandra Angelini, dott.ssa Carla Ceresa and ing. Elisa Cazzago for their constant and kind support in setting up and carrying out the laboratories. I.D.N.’s PhD programme is funded by the National Operational Programme on Research and Innovation 2014–2020 (CCI 2014IT16M2OP005), FSE REACT-EU funds, Action IV.4 “PhD programmes and research contracts on innovation” and Action IV.5 “PhD programmes on green related topics”. CUP: D91B21004730007; scholarship code and number: DOT1321814 n. 6.

Attributions. The authors jointly designed and contributed to the paper. Conceptualization: I.D.N., S.R.; methodology: I.D.N.; investigation: I.D.N.; data curation: I.D.N.; validation: S.R.; writing-original draft: I.D.N; writing - review and editing: I.D.N, S.R.; supervision: S.R.; corresponding author: I.D.N.

References 1. Biesbroek, R., Swart, R., Van der Knaap, W.: The mitigation-adaptation dichotomy and the role of spatial planning. Habitat Int. 33(3), 230–237 (2009)

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2. Pissourios, I.: Top-down and bottom-up urban and regional planning: towards a framework for the use of planning standards. Eur. Spat. Res. Policy 21(1), 83–99 (2014) 3. Girard, C., Pulido-Velazquez, M., Rinaudo, J.-D., Pagé, C., Caballero, Y.: Integrating top– down and bottom–up approaches to design global change adaptation at the river basin scale. Glob. Environ. Chang. 34, 132–146 (2015) 4. United Nations. https://unric.org/it/agenda-2030/. Accessed 19 Jun 2023 5. Garau, C., Pavan, V.: Evaluating urban quality: indicators and assessment tools for smart sustainable cities. Sustainability 10(3), 575 (2018) 6. Mouratidis, K.: Urban planning and quality of life: a review of pathways linking the built environment to subjective well-being. Cities 115, 103229 (2021) 7. Carra, M., Levi, N., Sgarbi, G., Testoni, C.: From community participation to co-design: “Quartiere bene comune” case study”. J. Place Manag. Dev. 11(2), 242–258 (2018) 8. Ceci, M., De Noia, I., Tedeschi, G., Caselli, B., Zazzi, M.: Soil de-sealing and participatory urban resilience actions: the “Green in Parma” case study. UPLanD J. Urban Plan. Landsc. Environ. Des. 7(2), 5–18 (2023) 9. Breve prontuario di co-pogettazione. www.pv.camcom.it/files/Paviasviluppo/PaviainRete2 017/prontuario%20co-progettazione.pdf. Accessed 30 Jul 2023 10. Berrang-Ford, L., Ford, J.D., Paterson, J.: Are we adapting to climate change? Glob. Environ. Change 21(1), 25–33 (2011) 11. Haynes, K., Tanner, T.M.: Empowering young people and strengthening resilience: youthcentred participatory video as a tool for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Child. Geogr. 13(3), 357–371 (2015) 12. Xu, Z., et al.: Climate change and children’s health—a call for research on what works to protect children. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 9(9), 3298–3316 (2012) 13. Winge, L., Lamm, B.: Making the red dot on the map - bringing children’s perspectives to the city planning agenda through visible co-design actions in public spaces. Cities Health 3(1–2), 99–110 (2019) 14. Comune di Brescia: Una comunità che partecipa per trasformare la sfida del cambiamento climatico in opportunità. Strategia di Transizione Climatica. Delibera di Consiglio Comunale n. 52 del 25.06.2021 (2021) 15. Oliver, K.G., Collin, P., Burns, J., Nicholas, J.: Building resilience in young people through meaningful participation. Aust. e-J. Adv. Ment. Health 5(1), 1–7 (2014) 16. Agriculture in the Classroom - Utah State University Cooperative Extension. https://www.soi ls4kids.org/files/s4k/perkin.pdf. Accessed 19 Jun 2023 17. National Building Museum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUh6R1hs2Tw. Accessed 19 Jun 2023 18. Science Buddies. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Env Sci_p044/environmental-science/making-species-maps?from=Blog. Accessed 19 Jun 2023 19. Schröter, B., Gottwald, S., Castro-Arce, K., Hartkopf, E., Aguilar-González, B., Albert, C.: Virtual participatory mapping of nature-based solutions in the Grande de Tárcoles River basin, Costa Rica: connecting diverse knowledge systems in a context of physical immobility. Sci. Total. Environ. 872, 162195 (2023) 20. United Nations: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future (1987)

Territorial Imbalances in the Post-pandemic Context: A Focus on Digital Divide in Italy’s Inner Areas Priscilla Sofia Dastoli(B)

and Francesco Scorza

School of Engineering, Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering, University of Basilicata, 10, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano, 85100 Potenza, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. At EU level, geographical differences in terms of economic and social development can influence the quality of life (QoL). It is overly simplified to classify countries according to average scores in the dimensions of QoL, as large differences exist between different population groups (Eurofound 2014). However, in order to reduce inequalities (SDG 10) and improve the territories’ socio-economic conditions, a well-defined spatial connotation is necessary. In Italy, the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) has classified the national territory by first identifying the service ‘poles’ and then defining the “inner areas” in terms of spatial remoteness (update 2020). This study initially provides an in-depth look at how ‘inner’ the NUTS 3 regions are (Bertolini and Pagliacci 2017), and then focuses on digital divide in the post-pandemic context. For each ‘SNAI pilot area’ there are four indicators that monitor the digital divide, in terms of population percentage reached by fixed and mobile broadband (ISTAT). How much is really being done in disadvantaged areas to provide reliable, high-quality Internet access? On this issue, SNAI has programmed about 70 million euros (OpenCoesione), will this be enough to invest in Internet infrastructure and support local training opportunities? Remote working can become a tool for enhancing inner areas if it is included in an integrated strategy to improve the QoL. The main spin-offs for the environment concern the reduction of travel (lower emission of pollutants, especially PM10, 5, 2.5) and urbanisation (SDG 11). Keywords: Digital divide · Inner Areas · Territorial imbalances

1 Introduction Exploring the regional contexts’ vulnerability in terms of territorial and digital differences provides a clearer picture of how to work and invest in reducing disparities [1]. Obvious situations of gaps and disparities have important social and political as well as economic significance [2]. European cohesion policy was created precisely with the aim of reducing the gaps between territories and the backwardness of less advantaged regions [3, 4]. It has slowly become clear that investing in those territories with imbalances of various kinds helps to stabilise the economic development trajectory, be it national or European. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 526–540, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_46

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A further element to be considered from a national perspective is the limited accessibility of basic services - health, education, mobility, to which virtual connectivity (internet access) must now be added - for the population. The low accessibility of basic services, nowadays considered in Europe as services that identify the right of citizenship, greatly reduces the well-being of the population and limits the range of choices and opportunities of individuals - also of potential new residents [5–7]. Given the growing importance of data in digital format, efficient Internet connections are now essential not only for businesses to stay competitive in the global economy but also more generally to promote social inclusion [8]. The European Commission has monitored Member States’ progress on digital and published annual Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) reports since 2014 [9]. Each year, the reports include country profiles helping Member States identify areas for priority action and thematic chapters providing an EU-level analysis in the key digital policy areas. The DESI is a composite Index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the progress of EU Member States in digital competitiveness; the 2022 DESI includes four dimensions: human capital, connectivity, integration of digital technology, digital public services. For the 2022 edition, the DESI index ranks Italy 18th among the 27 EU member states, an improvement sign considering that in 2017 Italy was ranked 26th out of 29 member states. The position improvement in the DESI Index has certainly been affected by the implementation of ultra-broadband in white areas [10]. From a regulatory point of view, coordination between the Economic Development Ministry (MISE), the Prime Minister’s Office and the Regions is ensured by an agreement signed on February 11, 2016. The resources financing the program are national funds FSC (Fund for Development and Cohesion), Community funds ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and EAFRD (European Fund for Rural Development). The Strategic Plan ultra-broadband aims to ensure connectivity of at least 100 Mbps, which is the only one that can be defined as ultra-fast broadband in the European Digital Agenda’s meaning. This paper’s focus is on the digital divide in Italy’s inner areas [11]. These areas represent a large part of the Italian territory (60 per cent) and are characterized by a spatial organization based on minor centres, often small, which in many cases are only able to guarantee residents limited access to essential services. Beginning in 2013, the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) was launched, which represents an innovative national policy of territorial development and cohesion that aims to counter the marginalization and demographic decline phenomena characteristic of Italy’s inner areas. In order to equip SNAI with a useful tool for its implementation, a Map of Inner Areas was defined in 2014 in which territories are classified according to their relative peripherally to urbanized centres of integrated supply of essential services. In the end, 72 pilot areas, i.e., clusters of municipalities in inner areas (a total of 1.064 municipalities), were selected to begin investing in through the implementation of their own Area Strategy. For the 2021–2027 programming cycle, an update of the Map (2020) was made, keeping the basic methodological aspects of the first mapping firm, but considering basic data on the presence of services updated at the end of 2019 and more advanced and precise distance calculation techniques [12]. With the new classification, the municipalities in the inner

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areas (intermediate, suburban, and ultra-peripheral) decreased from 4,055 to 3,834; on the other hand, the population in these areas increased from 12,723,106 to 13,432,861 inhabitants. The paper includes a first methodological part, which goes over the tools and methodology used to address the digital divide discourse, from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. A second part is spent on the results obtained, such as the inner areas’ indicator distribution in the NUTS 3 level and the representation of ultra-broadband progress in the 72 pilot areas. Finally, the discussion and conclusions on the entire process summarize considerations on the current state, in a post-pandemic period in which it is perceived that there is still much to be done in Italy.

2 Methodology In the first place, it was intended to provide an overview of the Italian inner areas (IA) following the changes in classification (2020). The spatial level of the first analysis is NUTS 3 Level (i.e., 107 observations) in order to establish reliable and comparable indicators for measuring Quality of Life (QoL). Therefore, disaggregated municipal data were converted to NUTS 3 Level data. In order to obtain robust results, the inner area relevance of each NUTS 3 region is calculated based on three alternative indicators, which were adopted by Bertolini and Pagliacci in 2017 [13], based on the previous classification of Italian inner areas. First, the number of municipalities is considered. Given the i-th NUTS 3 region and its n municipalities, the indicator of internal municipality (I i ) (Eq. 1) is defined as follows: n j=i mj (1) Ii = n where j is one of the n municipalities in the i NUTS 3 region, and the generic element mj can take two different values: mj = 1, when j is classified as intermediate or peripheral or ultraperipheral, i.e., as the territory of inner areas; mj = 0, otherwise. In addition, both population and area are considered. As in Eq. 1, given the i-th Italian NUTS 3 region and its n municipalities, the inner population indicator (IPi ) (Eq. 2) and the inner area indicator (IAi ) (Eq. 3) are defined as follows: n j=1 (mj Pj ) (2) IP i = n j=1 Pj n j=1 (mj Aj ) (3) IAi = n j=1 Aj where j is one of the n municipalities in the i NUTS 3 region, Pj is its population, and Aj is its area. As in Eq. 1, the generic element mj can take two values (0 or 1). Each indicator can range from 0 to 1: 0 indicates the absence of inner areas; 1 indicates the absence of non-inner areas. Table 1 shows a spreadsheet extract as an example, in which individual values for the indicators I i and IPi calculation are collected.

ITF21

ITF52

ITG2E

Molise

Basilicata

Sardegna

Nuoro

Matera

Isernia

Enna

Potenza

Gorizia

ITG16

ITH43

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Trieste

ITF51

ITH44

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Monza e della Brianza

Sicilia

ITC4D

Lombardia

Milano

Lodi

Basilicata

ITC4C

Lombardia

…

ITC49

Lombardia

NUTS 3 level name

omissis

NUTS 3 level

NUTS 2 level

74

31

52

20

100

…

25

6

55

133

60

n municipalities 2022

74

31

52

19

88

…

1

0

0

0

0

m municipalities 2022

100,00%

100,00%

100,00%

95,00%

88,00%

…

4,00%

0,00%

0,00%

0,00%

0,00%

Inner-municipality indicator (Ii )

201.517,00

192.640,00

81.415,00

157.690,00

352.490,00

…

139.070,00

230.689,00

870.113,00

3.241.813,00

227.343,00

Population 2020 (ISTAT)

Table 1. Extract from the indicator spreadsheet.

201517

192640

81415

151231

240635

…

325

0

0

0

0

Inner-population

100,00%

100,00%

100,00%

95,90%

68,27%

…

0,23%

0,00%

0,00%

0,00%

0,00%

Inner population (IPi )

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After data collection and indicators calculation for individual spatial units were completed, the workspace was switched to the GIS tool. In this work area, it was possible to extrapolate cartograms on the inner area distribution in the Italian territory from the previously described indicators. The classes (7) are defined using Jenks’ method of optimizing natural breaks in intervals (Natural breaks). The first class (< 0.15) indicates the absence or low presence of internal areas; the last class (> 0.90) indicates the marked presence or totality of internal areas. The second phase involved a survey of the National Ultra-Broadband Project’s [10] progress with regard to the municipalities belonging to the 72 pilot areas. The operational activity was launched in 2016, and updated data are available on the Strategic Plan Ultra Broadband portal of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. Specifically, the data at the municipal scale for all of Italy covers: 1. Progress on wireless works; 2. Progress on fibre works”. After obtaining data on wireless and fibre at the municipal scale (updated May 2023), only those municipalities belonging to the pilot areas were selected in the GIS workspace. Then, municipalities were classified according to the work status: no activities, on schedule, definitive design, executive design, works in progress, closed works, testing phase, completed (Table 2). Finally, two cartograms have been prepared that give a clear picture of the work progress for both wireless and fibre. In this way, pilot areas that are at an early stage in network construction and operation activities can be identified. The third activity involved a survey of SNAI’s 72 pilot areas (2014–2020). In particular, it aimed to investigate the investment that the pilot areas made in the “digitization and digital services” sector (6.4 per cent-about 73 million euros). The allocation of SNAI funds is divided into 12 sectors: education, health and socio-educational services, transport, enhancement of typical local productions, enterprises, promotion of cultural and environmental heritage, digital services, technical assistance, social inclusionemployment, territorial production systems, energy efficiency, and territorial security [14]. The following data were collected for the 72 pilot areas: 1. Total fund amount: the total amount of the fund allocated to the individual pilot area from numerous funds including POR, FSC and Stability Law is shown. 2. Amount allocated to the “Digitalization and digital services” sector: the amount the pilot area has decided to invest on the sector is indicated. From the above data, it can be determined whether the pilot areas decided to invest in the area of “digitization and digital services” and the percentage of the total, so as to understand whether it was a priority for some pilot areas. Finally, a more detailed and purely qualitative exercise was carried out. Specifically, starting with the most reliable and up-to-date data on the OpenCoesione portal [15], the projects actually launched in the 72 pilot areas under the heading “digital networks and services” were researched; the following data and information were collected for each pilot area:

Territorial Imbalances in the Post-pandemic Context

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Table 2. A synoptic overview of Ultra-Broadband work progress in the SNAI’s 72 Pilot Areas 2014–2020. 72 Pilot Areas 2014–20

Fibre work status

Wireless work status

Municipalities

Population

Municipalities

Population

103

150.832

72

119.458

9,68%

7,68%

6,77%

6,09%

On schedule

54

246.955

79

98.344

Definitive desgin

2

9.961

389

615.430

Executive design

60

149.623

199

423.160

TOTAL (Project phases)

116

406.539

667

1.136.934

10,90%

20,71%

62,69%

57,92%

Works in progress

131

228.104

20

51.567

Closed works

59

129.390

57

134.607

Testing phase

89

191.963

95

198.993

Completed

566

856.001

153

321.270

TOTAL (Works’ status)

845

1.405.458

325

706.437

79,42%

71,60%

30,55%

35,99%

1.064

1.962.829

1.064

1.962.829

NO ACTIVITIES PROJECT PHASES

WORKS’ STATUS

TOTAL

1. Total number of projects by pilot area 2. Total number of “completed” projects per pilot area: the status of the projects is indicated (not started, ongoing, closed); 3. Total amount mobilised and monitored by pilot area: the sum of all projects’ amounts under the heading “digital networks and services” is indicated, regardless of the project’s status; 4. Project link: direct link to the OpenCoesione portal site; 5. Relevant projects: the title of the project, if any, that is considered relevant in addressing in an innovative way the main issues affecting inner areas, using digital innovations, has been indicated; 6. Nature of the project: the general field to which the project refers (education, health, tourism, digital services) has been indicated. Relevant projects (15) were also researched within the pilot areas’ Strategies in order to deepen the nature of the project and understand the link with the rest of the strategy, especially in achieving specific objectives.

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3 Results The research’s main results on digitalisation in Italy’s inner areas reveal a dynamic and heterogeneous framework. Below are the results of the territorial imbalance analysis focused on inner areas and the progress of projects on digitalisation, digital networks and services. 3.1 Indicators on Inner Areas The inner areas’ presence in Italy is well represented in the following multiple figure (Fig. 1) showing the values of each of three indicators at the NUTS 3 Level: the inner municipality indicator (I i ) (Fig. 1b), the inner population indicator (IPi ) (Fig. 1c) and the inner area indicator (IAi ) (Fig. 1d). While I i and IAi show a similar pattern, when focusing on population, the inner area share at the NUTS 3 Level is generally lower. Only in some NUTS 3 regions (17), the population share living in inner municipalities is above 50 per cent. In particular, this share reaches 100% in Isernia, Matera and Nuoro and over 95% in Enna. A clear North-South gap also emerges when looking at average values at the regional level (Table 3). Among the NUTS 2 level regions1 , Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia have the lowest shares of the population living in inner municipalities (less than 15%). In the opposite direction, in two southern regions (Basilicata and Molise) more than 65% of the population lives in inner areas. Sicily (belonging to the Islands) and the Calabria region record an IPi of around 45%. Therefore, this North-South divide will always be taken into account in this analysis. 3.2 The Work Status on Ultra-Broadband The results regarding the work progress on Ultra-Broadband in the 72 pilot area municipalities of the SNAI 2014-2020 programming period have been summarised in two cartograms (Fig. 2). There are more than one thousand municipalities with a total population of 1,962,829 (ISTAT 2020). The first consideration when looking at the maps in the figure is that the works on ‘fibre’ are in a more advanced state (blue) than the works on ‘wireless’. In fact, works on wireless have been completed in only 30% of the municipalities in the pilot areas. In contrast, in almost 80% of the municipalities, work on fibre has been completed. It can be clearly observed that the planning phases related to wireless are in a more backward state than for fibre, with 62% of the municipalities still in this phase. The negative aspect concerns 64 municipalities where neither fibre nor wireless activities have been started, with about 110,000 inhabitants. 1 The Italian Government plans a territorial division into 20 regions, endowed with political and

administrative autonomy, which coincide with the current NUTS 2 level (21), with the exception of the Trentino Alto Adige region. This region is considered on the basis of the two autonomous provinces: the Provincia Autonoma of Trento and the Provincia Autonoma of Bolzano.

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Fig. 1. Summary diagram on inner area indicator distribution in the NUTS 3 Level, with data from the 2020 classification. Figure 1a. NUTS 3 level classification; Fig. 1b. Inner municipalities (I i ); Fig. 1c. Inner population (IPi ); Fig. 1d. Inner land area.

Focus has been placed on the most critical situations. In the case of the fibre works, this concerns the pilot areas: Appennino Emiliano, Sila-Presila-Crotonese- Cosentina and Reventino-Savuto (Calabria), Gennargentu-Mandrolisai and Alta Marmilla (Sardinia). In the case of the wireless works the status is more homogeneous, however, the pilot areas with a more critical situation are located along the central and southern Apennines (Fig. 2d–f.).

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P. S. Dastoli and F. Scorza Table 3. Inner areas, share out of the total by region

North-West

North-East

Centre

South

NUTS 3 level

Regions

Inner municipalities (Ii )

Inner population (IPi )

Inner land Area (IAi )

ITC11 ITC 18

Piemonte

31,50%

10,63%

39,04%

ITC20

Valle d’Aosta

55,41%

26,63%

69,65%

ITC4A ITC4D ITC41 ITC44 ITC46 ITC49

Lombardia

31,85%

10,93%

43,29%

ITC31 ITC34

Liguria

50,43%

13,39%

56,31%

ITH10 / ITH20

Trentino-Alto Adige

77,30%

52,26%

82,95%

ITH31 ITH37

Veneto

20,07%

7,84%

29,48%

ITH41 ITH44

Friuli Venezia Giulia

38,14%

12,02%

51,29%

ITH51 ITH59

Emilia-Romagna

48,79%

22,36%

54,06%

ITI1A / ITI11 ITI19

Toscana

60,07%

24,06%

66,47%

ITI21 ITI22

Umbria

52,17%

27,86%

51,64%

ITI31 ITI35

Marche

45,78%

17,32%

53,52%

ITI41 ITI45

Lazio

56,88%

16,60%

46,10%

ITF11 ITF14

Abruzzo

66,23%

35,93%

63,12%

ITF21 ITF22

Molise

76,47%

68,45%

80,61%

ITF31 ITF35

Campania

52,73%

17,27%

66,41%

ITF43 ITF48

Puglia

57,59%

36,60%

56,85% (continued)

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Table 3. (continued)

The Islands

Italy

NUTS 3 level

Regions

Inner municipalities (Ii )

Inner population (IPi )

Inner land Area (IAi )

ITF51 ITF52

Basilicata

90,84%

79,48%

91,27%

ITF61 ITF65

Calabria

69,31%

44,45%

68,42%

ITG11 ITG19

Sicilia

79,28%

47,83%

75,64%

ITG2D ITG2H

Sardegna

70,29%

36,61%

69,02%

48,49%

22,67%

58,76%

Fig. 2. Ultra-broadband works’ status: fibre cartogram on the left and wireless cartogram on the right.

The total funds made available for the realisation of the ultra-broadband amount to around EUR 3.5 billion (e 3,653,596,032.00) and, upon completion, around 7 million homes will be reached.

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Fig. 3. Funds allocated for the ultra-broadband implementation in Italy. On the left, is the division of funds according to lots; on the right, is the number of properties that will be reached by Ultra-broadband at the work’s end.

In the figure above (Fig. 3), the division into lots and the relative share of funds can be seen; by comparing the data in Figs. 2 and 3, it can be stated that the lot that is experiencing the most delays comprises the regions of Abruzzo, Molise, Marche and Umbria. 3.3 Projects in the 72 Pilot Areas The ‘Digitisation and Digital Services’ sector revealed interesting results from the survey of projects in the 72 pilot areas. As mentioned above, the allocation of SNAI funds is divided into 12 areas, and only a small proportion of the total, i.e. 6.4 per cent (approximately EUR 73 million), was invested in this sector. Only 39 pilot areas allocated a share of the funds to this sector. In particular, the pilot areas of Emilia Romagna, with about 23 million euro (e22,791,139, 00), Liguria, with about 13 million euro (e13,431,793, 00), and Sicily, with almost 9 million euro (e8,805,005, 00), stand out. The individual pilot areas have invested 30–50% of the available funds in this sector, indicating it as one of the priorities for the implementation of the area’s development strategy. Based on this preliminary survey, an in-depth study was carried out on the data updated to 2023 on the OpenCoesione portal, where projects are listed with the relevant information, including project amount and status. Only 19 pilot areas managed to utilise the funds, with a total of 41 ongoing projects. The amount actually mobilised is about 20 million euro (e19,606,160.28), with some inner areas of Campania and Basilicata (Table 4) having mobilised the largest amounts. In order to understand the type of projects launched in the 19 pilot areas, the nature of the project was investigated, i.e. the general sector to which the project refers. In this case, projects were set up in the fields of health (6), education (10), tourism (10) and digital services in general (15). Some pilot areas have developed innovative projects, for example, in the field of education. The Montagna Materana inner area has launched the ‘One Class open network for Education’ project to contrast the educational impoverishment due to the multiple classrooms in inner areas. The aim is to create a delocalised virtual class, made up of

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Table 4. Some of the projects launched in the ‘digital networks and services’ sector mobilised the largest amounts. Region

Pilot area

Project number

Total (e)

Nature of the project

Campania

Area Interna Alta Irpinia

Advanced digital services of Alta Irpinia

e 2.878.977,00

Goods and Services Purchase/Digital Services

Campania

Area Interna Vallo di Diano Vallo di Diano Digital Services

e 1.952.000,00

Goods and Services Purchase/Digital Services

Basilicata

Area Interna Mercure-Alto Sinni-Val Sarmento

Outpatient clinic renovation

e 1.060.000,00

Infrastructure/Health

Basilicata

Area Interna Marmo Platano

Caravans and multifunctional areas to serve the ripe park

e 985.000,00

Infrastructure/Tourism

Sicilia

Area Interna Sicani

Digital inclusion digital skills

e 883.155,57

Goods and Services Purchase/Digital Services

Piemonte

Area Interna Valli dell’Ossola

Valleys Open School

e 850.000,00

Infrastructure/Education

Lazio

Area Interna Monti Simbruini

Strengthening integrated home care

e 830.000,00

Goods and services purchase/Health

Sicilia

Area Interna Nebrodi

Implementation and management of web portals and services - digital skills portal

e 700.000,00

Goods and Services Purchase/Digital Services

Piemonte

Area Interna Valli dell’Ossola

Ossola Digital Museum

e 687.500,00

Infrastructure/Tourism

Piemonte

Area Interna Valli dell’Ossola

Open school in the e 650.000,00 Anzasca Valley

Sicilia

Area Interna Madonie

Madonie application suite Digital PA platform

e 607.200,00

Infrastructure/Education

Goods and Services Purchase/Digital Services

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P. S. Dastoli and F. Scorza

pupils attending the same class in different plexuses with common programmes and timetables and students conversing with the teacher in person or through telematic tools. Periodically, classes will meet at one of the locations to personally share playful-creative moments and hold authentic communication. In the offer of digital services (e-government), the project proposed by the internal Vallo di Diano area stands out. Its objective is to strengthen the information and data network that underlies the provision of services. The lead agency has already launched a real community by creating a platform where web GIS, open data, the district tourism portal, software for managing building practices, the municipalities’ street directory, social services and much more are available. An enormous wealth of information is being strengthened and is going in the right direction of improving the efficiency of services and aggregation between municipalities. On the subject of healthcare, which is increasingly important because the over-65 population is tending to grow, reference is made to the Monti Simbruini inner area project. In particular, tele-assistance and telemedicine are becoming a key element in improving the continuity of territorial care of chronic patients through remote monitoring solutions. The project aims at the activation of the connection service, by means of special accessories, with patients suffering from multiple pathologies resident in the area’s municipalities.

4 Discussion and Conclusions The results arising from the analysis of the inner areas’ digital divide bring to light a very significant project heritage to look at in order to plan other sectorial interventions and to adapt solutions in other contexts [17]. Moreover, this study also provides a paradigm of local authorities’ capabilities and awareness of the opportunities offered by new technologies to be supported and followed over time. At the centre are still the municipalities, SNAI’s privileged interlocutors, which can meet the digitalisation challenge by joining forces to overcome chronic shortages of personnel, skills and resources [18]. On the other side of the coin, the territories with the highest Inner Population Index (IPi ), more distant from the centres and with greater shortages of essential services, also suffer from the slowdowns in ultra-broadband, as well as expressing an operational inability to really use the funds mobilised for this sector. Digital innovation assumes the ability to undertake a path of organisational, cultural, social and economic transformation. It is a transition that requires a major investment by the inner areas in the ability to integrate, build and reconfigure existing skills. This implies that the areas must be supported in the project implementation by all the institutional levels involved. Especially today, when municipalities are called upon to play an active and decisive role in the implementation of the digitisation envisaged in National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Mission 1. The pandemic experience has highlighted even more the need for a technological garrison within our administrations. It is clear, therefore, that ICT associated management must be interpreted as strategic and qualifying to strengthen communities. The points of attention to consolidating and spreading a mature and lasting approach to digitalisation concern: sharing objectives, taking stock of instrumental resources and available human

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capital, and integrating projects, so as to make systems interoperable. SNAI, with its push towards supra-municipal management of IT services, therefore offers concrete and possible paths: digitalisation as an opportunity to unite and enhance tools and skills. Access to a good internet connection, as an essential service, has untapped potential for inner areas. Consider smart working, which would reduce depopulation in urbanised areas of the country (SDG 11) or the reduction of daily movements [19, 20]. Since a significant share of emissions are due to transport, it is necessary not only to encourage the spread of sustainable means of transport and the use of public transport, but also to reduce avoidable travel. The proposed update of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (NIPEC), which updates the strategies to achieve the environmental protection goals for 2030, is current. Incentives to reduce travel with smart-working policies are among the proposals. The digital divide in inner areas still exists, but efforts are really being made to bridge the imbalance and give these areas an opportunity.

References 1. Kühn, M.: Peripheralization: theoretical concepts explaining socio-spatial inequalities. Eur. Plan. Stud. 23(2), 367–378 (2015) 2. Copus, A., Melo, P.C., Kaup, S., Tagai, G.,Artelaris, P.: Regional poverty mapping in europe – challenges, advances, benefits and limitations. Local Econ. https://doi.org/10.1177/026909 4215601958 3. Bachtrögler, J., Fratesi, U., Perucca, G.: The Influence of the Local Context on the Implementation and Impact of EU Cohesion Policy. Region. Stud. 2017(54), 21–34 (2017) 4. European Commission EU Budget for the future Cohesion Policy 2021–27. Torino, Italy, 28 June 2018; pp. 2–4. http://www.cittametropolitana.torino.it/cms/risorse/europa/CP_202127_Torino_28.6.18.pdf. Accessed on 17 May 2023 5. Eurofound. Quality of Life in Urban and Rural Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union (2014) 6. Sørensen, J.F.: Rural-urban differences in life satisfaction: evidence from the European union. Reg. Stud. 48(9), 1451–1466 (2014) 7. Eurostat. A Revised Urban-Rural Typology. In Eurostat, Eurostat regional yearbook 2010, pp. 240–253. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (2010) 8. Scorza, F., Las Casas, G., Murgante, B.: Overcoming interoperability weaknesses in e-government processes, pp. 23–27. CCIS, São José dos Campos, Brazil (2010) 9. Euroepean Commission. Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2022 Methodological Note (2022) 10. Ultra-broadband web site. https://bandaultralarga.italia.it/ 11. De Rossi, A.: Riabitare l’Italia: Le aree interne tra abbandoni e riconquiste (curated by). Donzelli editore, Roma (2018) 12. Fusco, C. (a cura di): La strategia Nazionale per le aree interne e i nuovi assetti istituzionali. Rapporto Formez PA. ISBN: 978-88-947067-0-3 (2022) 13. Bertolini, P., Pagliacci, F.: Quality of life and territorial imbalances. A focus on italian inner and rural areas. Bio-based Appl. Econ. 6(2), 183–208 (2017). https://doi.org/10.13128/BAE18518 14. Agenzia per la coesione territoriale web site. www.agenziacoesione.gov.it 15. OpenCoesione web site. https://opencoesione.gov.it/it/strategie/AI/ 16. Picucci, A., Rigoni, L., Xilo, G.: I processi di digitalizzazione nelle aree interne. Formez PA (2020). http://territori.formez.it/sites/all/files/i_processi_di_digitalizzazione_nelle_ai_0.pdf

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17. Noguera, J., Coups, A.: Inner peripheries: what are they? what policies do they need? Agriregionieuropa 45, 10–14 (2016) 18. Dastoli, P.S., Pontrandolfi, P.: Strategic guidelines to increase the resilience of inland areas: the case of the alta Val d’Agri (Basilicata-Italy). In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021: 21st International Conference, Cagliari, Italy, September 13–16, 2021, Proceedings, Part X, pp. 119–130. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87016-4_9 19. Saganeiti, L., Pilogallo, A., Scorza, F., Mussuto, G., Murgante, B.: Spatial indicators to evaluate urban fragmentation in basilicata region. In: LNCS pp. 100–112 (2018). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-319-95174-4_8 20. Pontrandolfi, P., Dastoli, P.S.: Comparing impact evaluation evidence of EU and local development policies with new Urban Agenda themes: The agri valley case in basilicata (Italy). Sustainability 13, 9376 (2021). https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169376

Climate Sensitive Planning: Re-defining Urban Environments for Sustainable Cities

BIM as a Tool for Urban Ecosystems Control Monica Buonocore(B) and Angela Martone Università degli Studi del Sannio, 82100 Benevento, BN, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Increasing urbanization in our cities and disastrous weather phenomena produce changes in hydrological regimes that put a strain on traditional city drainage infrastructure, causing significant impacts on urban areas, citizens, the environment and the economy. In addition to proper climatic factors, the characteristics of urban morphology and their distribution within the fabric significantly affect the urban microclimate. Therefore, it becomes essential to regulate water flows through the control of spatial topography, housing density, uses of spaces and prevailing age of construction of buildings, orientation of streets, amount of undeveloped and vegetated spaces. BIM technology enables the control of all these aspects through the simulation of design choices that aim to restore and reactivate the potential of urban ecosystems to adapt and mitigate the consequences of climate change. We will look at some proposals for using BIM for climate - sensitive urban planning, foregrounding actions to increase the quality and safety of cities. Keywords: Urban planning · Environment · Climatic change · Water · BIM · Urban ecosystems

1 Introduction More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, with a prospect of increasing to 6 billion people by 2041. Livability experts argue that nature, culture and human well-being are all necessary elements to make cities livable. Livability, the watchword of sustainability, describes the conditions for a decent life for all inhabitants of cities, regions and communities, including their physical, social and mental well-being. The concept is about optimizing the performance and integrity of human life. A livable city is based on the balance between society, environment, economy and culture. It is the effective implementation of sustainability at the urban level. Livability is measured by quality-of-life factors such as access to clean water, food, housing, transportation, health care, education, and a safe and stable built and natural environment. But the livability of a place is also based on social and psychological factors, such as emotions and perception.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 543–553, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_47

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Livable cities prioritize natural capital, provide organic and well-maintained green areas to help mitigate or negate the risks and impacts of climate change, and promote the mental and physical well-being of citizens. Integrating nature into long-term development strategies and designing urban spaces through architecture inspired by natural ecosystems helps cities achieve social, environmental and economic goals. The discipline of architecture, in view of the profound change in the functional, physical and socio-anthropic sub-systems of cities, in relation to the extreme and sudden spread of ICT, must necessarily innovate approaches, update methods and procedures, and renew the tools of knowledge and governance of urban transformations. In such a socio-historical context, the relationship between man and city becomes increasingly mediated by technological innovation, which can assume a fundamental role in the processes of redefinition, regeneration, and redevelopment of the city only if new technologies are properly adopted and not passively added to physical-spatial systems. The paper aims to identify a new architectural design approach that allows, through new technologies, to control the environmental impact of buildings with respect to climatic factors. The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM), on which the paper focuses attention, intends to demonstrate how new technologies can and must be directed towards collaborative design processes by defining an innovative and concrete control tool capable of simultaneously involving all the engineering figures to the architectural design. Specifically, BIM, through information modeling technologies on an urban scale integrated with the study of climatic effects, aims to be an architectural prefiguration tool that can provide the opportunity to visualize the design hypotheses defined by designers and guide the outcomes of sustainable architectural design. The research began with the development of key concepts based on a narrative analysis of current literature. Articles, conference publications, research reports, and excerpts from scholarly encyclopedias that included topics on “BIM,” “BIM and sustainable architectural planning,” and “architectural design and climate change” were searched and selected. Research papers were selected that define the concept, review related technologies, and highlight applications and trends in different areas. This article is structured in two main parts: the first describes the potential and critical issues of BIM and the current environmental and digital landscape in which engineers and experts work with this technology, while the second part shows some examples of the use of BIM technology available in the current scientific literature that pursue the objectives described.

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2 Building a Sustainable Future: The Intersection of BIM, Architectural Design and Climate Change 2.1 BIM: Revolutionizing Architectural Design Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital tool that has revolutionized the way we approach architectural design. BIM allows planners and architects to create 3D models of buildings and infrastructure, which can be used to visualize and analyze different design options. This technology allows planners to see how different design decisions will impact the environment, the community and the economy. BIM, as a potential game-changer for most AEC (Architectural Engineering and Construction) actors [1], shows large capacity regarding process-automation and data management. By international standards, a BIM-model is defined as “shared digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of any built object” [2]. A BIMmodel is created with object-oriented software and contains parametric objects, which represent building components [3]. Moreover, BIM is a shared knowledge resource consisting of information about a facility, representing a basis for decisions throughout the whole life-cycle from the conceptual phase to the demolition of a facility [4]. Since a BIM-model consists of information about the geometry, spatial relationships, quantities and properties of building elements as well as cost estimates and material inventories, it contains relevant data, which is required for design, fabrication and construction activities [5]. BIM allows better collaboration between different stakeholders, such as architects, engineers and contractors. By using BIM, all the stakeholders can make more in-formed decisions that lead to better outcomes for all involved, helping to reduce errors and conflicts during the design process. BIM can be a useful tool for architectural design in several ways: Visualization: BIM can help to visualize proposed development in 3D, providing a more realistic view of the project. This can help identify potential problems and opportunities that may not be evident with traditional 2D drawings. Collaboration: BIM enables collaboration among different stakeholders, such as architects, engineers and designers. This can help ensure that all parties are on the same page and can work together to create a cohesive plan. Data management: BIM can help manage and organize development-related data, such as zoning regulations, environmental impact assessments, and infrastructure requirements. This can help streamline the planning process and ensure that all necessary information is easily accessible. Simulation: BIM can be used to simulate different scenarios, such as traffic flow or energy consumption, to help planners make informed development decisions. Overall, BIM can be a valuable tool for architectural design, helping to improve collaboration, visualization, data management and decision-making. However, there are also some negative aspects that should be considered [6]: Costs: Implementing BIM strategies can require a significant upfront investment in software, hardware, and training. BIM modeling software and high-end computers capable of processing the large amount of data required for BIM can be expensive, which may be a barrier for small firms.

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Compatibility Issues: Not all stakeholders in the construction industry may be equipped to use BIM software, which can create issues when exchanging models between those that use BIM and those that do not. Compatibility issues may arise, even if all stakeholders are using BIM, due to variations in different software versions or different modeling techniques [7]. Legal Concerns: With the increasing use of BIM and the ever-changing legal landscape, potential legal issues and implications regarding liability, intellectual property, and licensing have not yet been extensively explored [7]. Data Management: While the centralization of data in a single BIM model can be a benefit, it can also present some difficulties in managing and updating the information. BIM models require considerable data input, which can be time-consuming and lead to data entry errors [6]. Additional Time Investments: BIM’s utilization may increase initial project timelines as inputting all data into the model can be time-consuming [7]. These limitations underscore the need for careful consideration of using this technology on a small scale as the investment to face all of these issues noted is not always compensated. 2.2 Architectural Design and Climate Change Sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in architectural design. BIM can play a crucial role in promoting sustainable development by incorporating environmental and climate considerations into the pro- planning process for both new and existing construction. Thanks to BIM technology, designers create digital models of buildings and infrastructures that allow you to analyze the energy needs of a building or an infrastructure project and determine the best mix of renewable energy sources to meet these needs. In this way, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and the conception of a more sustainable future is promoted [8]. Even for existing buildings, BIM can be useful to analyze their performance and identify opportunities for retrofits and energy efficiency improvements [9]. Rising temperatures, sea levels, and extreme weather events are all having a significant impact on our cities. As a result, urban planners need to take climate considerations into account when designing infrastructure and buildings. Water management is a critical component of architectural design. In urban ecosystems, water management involves designing infrastructure to capture, store, and distribute water in a sustainable manner. This may include the use of green infrastructure, such as rain gardens and permeable pavements, to reduce stormwater runoff. It may also involve designing buildings to capture and reuse rainwater for non-potable uses. Regulating water flows is a crucial aspect and requires a holistic approach that takes into account various factors, including land topography, housing density, land use and age of buildings. The following are some methods for regulating water flows: Green infrastructure: Integrating natural systems into the built environment, such as green roofs, rain gardens and permeable pavements, can help reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and increase infiltration into the ground [10] while mitigating the effects of change climate, improving public health and increasing biodiversity.

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Land use planning: Careful land use planning can help ensure that water flows are directed away from vulnerable areas, such as flood-prone areas and areas with steep slopes. This can be achieved through the use of canals, retention basins and other water management features [11]. Building design: Building design can also play a role in regulating water flows. For example, buildings can be projected to capture rainwater and reuse it or to direct runoff away from vulnerable areas. Land use: The type of land use can also impact water flows. For example, green spaces such as parks and wetlands can help absorb water and reduce runoff. BIM can help urban planners to design infrastructure and buildings that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. For example, BIM can be used to model the potential impacts of sea level rise on a coastal city, allowing planners to identify areas that are at risk of flooding or, for example, modeling the effectiveness of green infrastructure in mitigating the effects of climate change in urban areas. By taking a comprehensive approach to regulating water flows, architectural designers can help create more sustainable and resilient cities that are better equipped to meet the challenges of climate change.

3 BIM Application Case Studies This section presents some examples of the application of BIM technology in relation to environmental aspects. In the following examples, in fact, BIM-assisted design has been used to improve the climate performance of buildings. Of each example below, the intentions and objectives that led to the creation of these architectures will be described and the solutions adopted to resolve any critical issues will be evaluated. 3.1 BIM for Energy Project in England The BIM for Energy project in England is a research project that aims to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) to improve energy efficiency in buildings [12]. By using BIM for energy analysis, the project aims to identify opportunities for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in buildings. The BIM for Energy project is part of a larger initiative in the UK to promote the use of BIM in the construction industry. The UK BIM Framework is an overarching approach to implementing BIM in the UK, using the framework for managing information provided by the ISO 19650 series [13]. The Digital Energy Estimation Tool (DEET) is one of the tools developed as part of the BIM for Energy project, which allows for the simulation of energy consumption and carbon emissions in buildings [14]. Thus, the BIM for Energy project in England also solves the previously analyzed problem of data management. More effort, on the part of English institutions, could concern the provision of some ad hoc funds to help small businesses also cope with the problem of training and software procurement costs (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1. The exponential growth of BIM in the UK: inspiring infrastructure projects.

3.2 The Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington A case study of BIM implementation for environmental sustainability is the use of BIM in the design and construction of the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington. The Bullitt Center is a six-story, 50,000 square foot office building that is designed to be one of the most sustainable commercial buildings in the world. BIM was used extensively in the design and construction process to optimize energy efficiency, reduce waste, and minimize the building’s environmental impact [15]. The Bullitt Center’s BIM model incorporated a range of environmental data, including solar radiation, wind patterns, and temperature. This data was used to optimize the building’s orientation, shape, and shading to maximize natural light and minimize energy consumption. The BIM model was also used to simulate the building’s energy performance and identify opportunities for further energy savings [15]. In addition, BIM was used to optimize the Bullitt Center’s construction process, reducing waste and minimizing the use of toxic materials. The BIM model was used to plan the building’s prefabrication and assembly, reducing waste and ensuring that materials were used efficiently [16]. Overall, the Bullitt Center is an excellent example of how BIM can be used to promote environmental sustainability in the built environment. By incorporating environmental data into the BIM model and using BIM to optimize the building’s design and construction process, the Bullitt Center has achieved exceptional energy efficiency and sustainability (Fig. 2).

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Fig. 2. Study of the impact of environmental components on the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington.

3.3 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) Headquarters The SFPUC headquarters is a 13-story, 277,500 square foot office building that is designed to be one of the greenest office buildings in the world. BIM was used extensively in the design and construction process to optimize energy efficiency, reduce waste, and minimize the building’s environmental impact [17]. The SFPUC headquarters’ BIM model incorporated a range of environmental data, including solar radiation, wind patterns, and temperature. This data was used to optimize the building’s orientation, shape, and shading to maximize natural light and minimize energy consumption. The BIM model was also used to simulate the building’s energy performance and identify opportunities for further energy savings. In addition, BIM was used to optimize the building’s water efficiency, reducing water consumption by 60% [17] (Fig. 3). 3.4 Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in Rome, Italy One Italian case study of BIM implementation for environmental sustainability is the use of BIM in the design and construction of the new headquarters of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in Rome, Italy [18]. The new ISTAT headquarters is a 20-story, 50,000 square meter building that is designed to be one of the most sustainable buildings in Italy. BIM was used extensively in the design and construction process to

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Fig. 3. Study of the green solutions on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) headquarters.

optimize energy efficiency, reduce waste, and minimize the building’s environmental impact. The BIM model incorporated a range of environmental data, including solar radiation, wind patterns, and temperature, which was used to optimize the building’s orientation, shape, and shading to maximize natural light and minimize energy consumption. The BIM model was also used to simulate the building’s energy performance and identify opportunities for further energy savings. In addition, BIM was used to optimize the building’s use of sustainable materials, reduce waste, and ensure that materials were used efficiently. The new ISTAT headquarters is expected to achieve LEED Platinum certification, and it is designed to reduce energy consumption by 40% compared to a conventional building. The building features a range of sustainable technologies, including a geothermal system, a photovoltaic system, and a rainwater harvesting system. The building also has a green roof, which helps to reduce the urban heat island effect and improve air quality in the surrounding area. Overall, the new ISTAT headquarters is an excellent example of how BIM can be used to promote environmental sustainability in the built habitat, by incorporating environmental data, new renewable energy technologies (biofuels, biomass, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar) into the BIM model, and using BIM to optimize the building design and construction process (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4. Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in Rome, Italy.

4 Conclusion Examples illustrated, such as The Bullitt Center in Seattle and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) headquarters, cover, among others, another use of Building Information Modeling (BIM): to manage weather phenomena. One approach is to incorporate weather data into BIM models to enable real-time analysis of weather conditions and their impact on buildings and infrastructure. This can help to improve the resilience of buildings and infrastructure to extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves [19]. Another approach is to use BIM to model the impact of climate change on buildings and infrastructure. By simulating different scenarios and analyzing the impact of climate change on buildings and infrastructure, planners and designers can identify vulnerabilities and develop strategies to adapt to changing weather patterns [8]. BIM can also be used to manage the maintenance of buildings and infrastructure in response to weather events. For example, BIM can be used to develop maintenance schedules that take into account weather patterns and the potential impact of weather events on buildings and infrastructure [20]. In conclusion, the way of using this technology, proposed in this contribution, while not yet fully deployed, can be the answer to the challenges (environmental, social and economic) that our communities face. Some countries, as in the examples given, have gone beyond simply using BIM and are now using smart modeling for sustainable city development. The systematic use of BIM allows stakeholders in the architectural process to have access not just to a 3D model, but to an information model that contains a dataset that in current practice exists separately, in different formats, deposited in different databases, and is not available to all team members.

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If all policy makers understood the obvious benefit of disseminating and promoting this technology, architectural design would involve truly strategic and efficient management of the resources we have at our disposal. The use of BIM and green infrastructure will play a crucial role in realizing this vision.

References 1. Sebastian, R.: Changing roles of the clients, architects and contractors through BIM. Eng. Construct. Architect. Manag. 18, 176–187 (2011) 2. International Organization for Standardization. ISO 29481–1:2016 - building information models—information delivery manual—Part 1: methodology and format [WWW Document]. URL, 3.28.22 (2016). https://www.iso.org/standard/60553.html. Accessed 8 Aug 2023 3. Volk, R., Stengel, J., Schultmann, F.: Building Information Modeling (BIM) for existing buildings - literature review and future needs. Autom. ConStruct. 38, 109–127 (2014) 4. BuildingSMART. buildingSMART international [WWW Document]. URL, 4.8.22 (2022). https://www.buildingsmart.org. Accessed 8 Aug 2023 5. Wang, X.: BIM handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers and contractors, construction economics and building (2012) 6. McKenna Group. The Advantages & Disadvantages of Using BIM (2021). https://mckenna. group/2021/02/08/advantages-disadvantages-bim/. Accessed 8 Aug 2023 7. Construction Monitor. Pros & Cons of Using a BIM Model for your Next Project (2015). https://blog.constructionmonitor.com/2015/12/03/pros-cons-of-using-a-bim-modelfor-your-next-project/. Accessed 8 Aug 2023 8. BIM Academy. BIM for Sustainable Buildings (2019). https://www.bimacademy.global/bimfor-sustainable-buildings. Accessed 1 June 2023 9. Building and Construction Authority. Green BIM Handbook (2014). https://www.bca.gov.sg/ GreenMark/others/GreenBIMHandbook.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2023 10. NRDC. Green Infrastructure: How to Manage Water in a Sustainable Way. https://www.nrdc. org/stories/green-infrastructure-how-manage-water-sustainable-way. Accessed 1 June 2023 11. Ahmed, M.F., Rahman, M.M., Islam, M.R., Islam, M.A., Alam, M.S.: Urban water management: issues and challenges. J. Environ. Sci. Natl. Resourc. 10(2), 15–22 (2017) 12. SpringerLink. Deployment of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Energy Efficiency in the UK (2020). https://link.springer.com/chapter/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-484651_92. Accessed 2 June 2023 13. Centre for Digital Built Britain. The UK BIM Framework. (n.d.). https://www.cdbb.cam.ac. uk/BIM/uk-bim-framework. Accessed 1 June 2023 14. BIM for Energy. (n.d.). About. https://www.bim4energy.co.uk/about. Accessed 2 June 2023 15. Bullitt Center. The Bullitt Center: A Living Building Challenge Project (n.d.). https://www. bullittcenter.org. Accessed 2 June 2023 16. Autodesk. The Bullitt Center: A New Era for Sustainable Building Design (2015). https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/bullitt-center-sustainable-building-design/. Accessed 2 June 2023 17. Autodesk. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters: A Model for Sustainable Building Design (2015). https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/san-francisco-publicutilities-commission-headquarters/. Accessed 2 June 2023 18. Building Green. ISTAT Headquarters (2018). https://www.buildinggreen.com/project-casestudy/istat-headquarters. Accessed 2 June 2023

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19. Autodesk. BIM for Sustainable Design. https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/sustainable-des ign/bim-for-sustainable-design. Accessed a June 2023 20. CIOB. BIM and Weather: Planning for the Future (2019). https://policy.ciob.org/resources/ bim-and-weather-planning-future/. Accessed 1 June 2023

Adapting to Change: Understanding Mediterranean Archetypes as Resistance Strategies Martina Scozzari(B) Department of Architecture, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, PA, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The current contribution proposes a contemporary exploration and redefinition of resistance archetypes, within the Mediterranean geo-climatic context, aimed at aiding the identification of new shaded spaces adept at tackling climatic shifts in Mediterranean cities. In this perspective, architecture plays a pivotal role in the implementation of design strategies that can be succinctly termed design actions of resistance. These actions constitute a pivotal element in counteracting climate change, presenting a critical array of tools for mitigating negative impacts and promoting an amelioration of climatic conditions in Mediterranean regions. This contribution, rigorously framed within the sphere of architectural composition, ushers in novel vistas in the discourse between architecture and the environment, underscoring, with emphasis, the imperative of a design commitment consciously oriented towards sustainability, adaptation, and resistance to climatic phenomena. Keywords: Mediterranean · Resistance · Archetypes · Action of resistance · Climate Change

1 Introduction This text explores a contemporary interpretation and updated reevaluation of resistance archetypes in the Mediterranean’s geo-climatic context. Its main objective is to facilitate the discovery of new shaded spaces through design strategies characterized as acts of resistance. The first part of the discussion undertakes a semantic and geographical exploration of the fundamental nature of the archetype and the prevalent stereotomic approach in the Mediterranean climate. Through the analysis of case studies, a strong link between natural forces and technical concepts emerges; historically, stereotomy has addressed gravitational forces and natural disasters. In contrast, the tectonic approach enhances and celebrates construction materials, revealing their intrinsic qualities. This approach focuses on using mass and material surfaces to shape the form and function of the structure. Building upon the hypotheses from the previous section, the second part outlines design strategies as forms of resistance against climate change, aligning with the current climatic context of the study. The third section validates and explicates © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 554–565, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_48

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the theoretical premises outlined earlier through an analytical examination of various examples, thus confirming the central assertion in the title. Essentially, it establishes that beyond the purely stereotomic approach, it is possible to identify tectonic-based resistance archetypes in Mediterranean contexts through design interventions, enabling the creation of new shaded spaces. The concluding phase, viewed syncretic ally, compares architectures from the same Mediterranean geo-climatic framework over the past century. These architectures paradigmatically incorporate and reinterpret design actions into archetypal forms of resistance. Rooted exclusively in the realm of architectural composition, this contribution opens new horizons in the discourse between architecture and the environment. It strongly emphasizes the necessity of a design commitment consciously oriented towards sustainability, adaptability, and resistance in the face of climatic phenomena. 1.1 Mediterranean Climate Change: An Architectural Perspective In this context characterized by a high degree of fragmentation and conflict arising from limited financial resources, cities in the northern and southern Mediterranean region are managing and will continue to manage climatic effects that are often contradictory. With the progressive increase in temperatures and changes in atmospheric, water, and soil conditions, climate change makes the Mediterranean city and the architecture that comprises it a privileged ground for experimenting with new themes and approaches in distribution, space, and physiology, in constant interaction with the climate and its parameters. A pivotal element in defining this research domain is the climate, which acts as a unifying factor in the Mediterranean, exhibiting similar characteristics on both sides of the sea. Examining the contemporary relationship between climate and architecture within the Mediterranean climatic realm is of paramount importance, given that the Mediterranean area has been identified as one of the main hotspots of ongoing climate change [1]. The anomalous warming of the Mediterranean Sea in 2022, as recorded by the Earth monitoring program of the European Union, Copernicus, represents a concerning datum not only for marine ecology and coastal ecosystems but also for the direct and indirect implications on architecture. During 2022, surface temperatures of the Mediterranean exhibited a significant increase, with thermal anomalies surpassing historical averages (see Fig. 1). This trend of increasing temperatures has significant implications for architectural design. Initially, climatic shifts can directly impact the materials utilized in architecture. The rising temperatures of the Mediterranean Sea can result in heightened air salinity in coastal regions, accelerating the deterioration of materials like steel. Consequently, this affects design choices concerning material selection. Amid the risks posed by climate change in the Mediterranean region, prominence is given to escalating water scarcity, rising temperatures, and sea level elevation. Elevated temperatures trigger substantial evaporation, coupled with decreased rainfall, leading to diminished inland water resources and prolonged periods of intensified drought. In response to these challenges, architecture should align itself with heat mitigation strategies. These encompass the utilization of shading methods, augmented thermal insulation, and the promotion of natural ventilation. Against this backdrop, the research scope is outlined, delving into the Mediterranean’s role in shaping modern architecture. This involves exploring how the landscape, climate, and interrelationships influence

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Fig. 1. 2022 Surface air Temperature anomaly (°C). European Union, Copernicus Change Service Data- Visualised by ©DEFIS_EU

the quality of spaces and cities. In this context, the identification of design actions as a research tool for recognizing resistance archetypes assumes paramount significance. These actions assume a pivotal role in the design conceptualization process, exhibiting a profound interplay with the four fundamental architectural elements. Centered around the elemental core of the domestic environment—the hearth—three additional elements converge, which can be seen as forms of defense, acting as guardians against the adverse natural forces that challenge the sanctity of the domestic fire: the roof, the enclosure, and the embankment. Notably intriguing is the fact that Semper’s theory delves into the intricate realm of ethnography, highlighting how distinct architectural techniques underwent evolution in response to human needs intertwined with the climate and unique environmental attributes of specific locales. In this regard, the categories identified and proposed by Semper - the foundation (stereotomic), the hearth, the structure (tectonic), and the enclosure - effectively represent different and indispensable moments of architectural ideation [2]. Semper identifies a close correlation between employed materials, the evolution of construction techniques, and the associated fundamental elements, a synergy aptly synthesized by Kruft (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. 1994 The depicted scheme is taken from Kruft H.W, Nineteenth Century Germany in A History of Architectural Theory. p. 314

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For Gottfried Semper, the relationship between material nature and form gives rise to a series of specific techniques that, in turn, inform and determine symbolic elements (such as the hearth), architectural elements (like the roof and enclosure), or construction-related actions (like substruction). Understanding that a part of the building belongs to the earth (stereotomic) and another part is detached from it (tectonic) or considering whether the entire building operates in continuity with the earth or, conversely, establishes minimal contact with it, can effectively contribute to the production of the new architectural organism [3]. In this regard, it is appropriate to initiate further reflection on the role of architectural elements, starting from the distinctions outlined by Semper’s theory and the fundamental elements proposed by Kruft [4] in identifying design actions, which serve as a research tool for defining resistance archetypes. In particular, the foundation, which encompasses the primal act of architectural foundation and aligns with the logic of stereotomy, will be associated with the actions of founding and excavation. Similarly, the enclosure - which can fulfill a structural function or shape definition - will be linked to the action of enclosing. The supports that, through the arrangement of beams, hold up the roof and create intermediate spaces with microclimates, will be associated with the actions of crossing the threshold, covering, and cooling. Hearth, roof, embankment, and enclosure are considered the primary invariant elements in architectural design constituting the fundamental principles that guide design, irrespective of historical period or geographical and cultural context. The analysis of these elements through design actions enables the comprehension of the complexity of resistance archetypes and the definition of the invariant characteristics that constitute their essence. 1.2 In Search of archetypes: How Design actions define the Mediterranean Urban Future The quest for fundamental principles of architecture capable of transcending excess detail and contingency, and instead rooted in what is essential and absolute, has led, starting from the late 18th century to an increasingly passionate investigation of the essential elements of architectural composition [5]. These elements formed the starting point for defining authentic architecture, in harmony with Nature, not to be imitated literally, but regarded as an archetype, a logical model from which to draw inspiration for a rational approach to architecture. Among the protagonists of architecture from that period, the contribution of Abbot Laugier emerges clearly, offering a fundamental interpretive key to understanding the relationship between these elements and the significance of the archetype concept. According to Laugier, [6] architecture is oriented towards an archetype (logos), identified in the primitive hut, which doesn’t correspond to an imitable model, but rather represents a paradigm, a synthesis of all aspects that architecture must consider fulfilling its role as poetic art. The primitive hut constitutes both the original element and the essence itself, where architectural order defines and coincides with expression, materiality, and structure. This archetype allows a return to the roots of the design process, where it’s possible to identify the conceptual core capable of countering arbitrary individualism and the tendency towards superficial changes that characterize much of contemporary architecture. This renewed approach is based on the awareness that, even though architecture is constructed using natural or man-made

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materials, it requires a specific conceptual dimension and a space where skills and intelligence converge. Consequently, architecture must constantly redefine and adapt to new natural, climatic, technological, and social challenges. Currently, the urgent need to save resources and preserve the environment has significantly influenced scientific research, driving conceptual innovation in design logic and directing material innovation in products, systems, and building elements. These demands have become new parameters not only for new design but also for physical alterations to existing buildings. The principles of environmental conservation and rational use of resources confer relevance to the Mediterranean geo-climatic context, which is thus configured as a priority research theme. The necessity to intervene in the extensive and widespread architectural heritage of the Mediterranean is conditioned not only by the demand for thermal, functional, and energetic performance but also by a third factor: the awareness of the limited potential for further urban space expansion and the increasingly urgent challenges of climate change. Considering these considerations, it becomes indispensable to define design actions as a central tool in this research, aiming to identify potential resistance archetypes for creating climate-resilient urban spaces in Mediterranean cities. Confronting the current fragmentation of viewpoints, which renders them unreliable, the redefinition of design actions and primary elements, capable of expressing their existential nature through a cause-and-effect relationship, can contribute to developing operational methodologies that bring architecture back to its constitutive foundations, generating new climate resistance archetypes in Mediterranean cities. The balance between design actions and the identification of specific architectural elements fulfills these fundamental needs. Subsequently, these elements harmoniously combine to delineate specific ideal types or architectural models. By looking at these ideal types through the concept of resistance, as a mere intellectual operation, we can distance ourselves from the authorship of contemporary architecture and the individual invention of forms, as well as from a deterministic and imitative conception of models, to generate new urban microclimates. By the archetypes hitherto discussed and based on the scheme presented by Kruft, characterized by a close correlation between employed materials, the evolution of construction techniques, and related fundamental elements, as seen in Sect. 1.1, it’s possible to define an update to this scheme with corresponding design actions (see Fig. 3). Hence, the current segment embarks upon the intricate endeavor of formulating a conceptual framework poised to illuminate the comprehension of design maneuvers within the Mediterranean geo-climatic setting. Bearing this perspective in mind, the subsequent portion will delve into the scrutiny of these design actions, regarded as pivotal investigative instruments employed to identify inherent archetypes of resilience within this milieu. The employment of thermographic surveys emerges as a pivotal methodology in showcasing the efficacy of lightweight and localized systems in engendering novel microclimates and urban spaces imbued with resistance. This technique enables precise documentation of thermal fluctuations within devised areas, distinctly unveiling the interaction dynamics of these solutions with their ambient surroundings. It’s noteworthy that the tectonic approach stands as an additional criterion for discernment within the domain of case study selection. This approach, directed at unraveling

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Fig. 3. 2023 “Definition of design actions as a research tool”, diagram of M. Scozzari.

the interplay between geological forces and architectural formations, proves indispensable in assessing design remedies equipped to confront the challenges presented by the Mediterranean geo-climatic milieu.

2 Exploring the Mediterranean: Design Actions as a Key to Research These changes, if it is considered truthful that a project in the field of architecture represents the fusion of requirements related to constructive, functional, and aesthetic aspects, and in this perspective maintains its indivisibility, it is equally true that an analysis of the same project in terms of process allows for successive subdivisions that proceed from the conclusive entity to the distinct, increasingly simpler and essential parts. Design and analysis reflect, in an inverse sense, the identical phases of logical reasoning: the former operates empirically and subjectively, the latter rationally and objectively [7]. Therefore, if we examine the design actions that lead to the project or, more precisely, to the architectural work in its constituents, with an analytical approach, we might access an understanding of those logical connections, sometimes explicit and sometimes hidden, outlining potential archetypes of resistance. These design actions, derived following the logic outlined in paragraph 1.2, are described below. Covering: The concept of shelter goes beyond physical protection; it signifies safety and comfort, creating a controlled environment shielded from climatic uncertainties. Like how the base establishes a connection with the ground, the crown introduces the act of covering as a visual and spatial interaction with the sky. It helps define the surroundings, whether natural or artificial, shaping the view. The act of covering reveals the essence of construction and the fundamental sense of refuge, distinguishing a specific space from the open natural environment. Throughout architectural history, elements associated with covering have evolved alongside features like cornices and roofs. These include architectural elements like architraves, tympanums, loggias, pergolas, and notably, domes and expansive glass

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surfaces in various shapes. Three interpretations of crowning emerge: as a line, a surface, or a volume. Once intricate cornices have been simplified with modern flat roofs, they become linear protective features that conclude a building’s front facade. These elements enhance a building’s volume while defining its horizontal progression. Crowning can also manifest as autonomous volumetric elements, as seen in religious domes or civic buildings. This approach challenges gravity, extending into free space and expanding upward. External crowning, along with other architectural elements, shapes the character of the shelter, reaffirming and revealing internal divisions while showcasing structural regularity. This interplay between covering and shelter in Mediterranean architecture is a response to the region’s climatic demands, going beyond mere protection to embody comfort, symbolism, and design coherence. Foundation/Excavation: In ancient times, the need to protect and separate from the ground became evident, leading to the creation of elevated platforms to guard against discomforts and threats. This act, more than any other, symbolized transcending natural conditions and asserting authority. As buildings grew heavier, the base took on a structural role, distributing loads and bridging the private and public realms. This element embodies identity aspects like protection, support, decoration, and connection. Throughout history, variations of this element have remained consistent in architectural composition, as seen in features like staircases, entrances, and porticos. The portico and elevated structures on pilotis exemplify these archetypes of a building’s interaction with the ground. Porticos, often integrated into initial building levels, create sheltered pathways, and engage with the urban context, shaping new urban spaces. Incorporating such elements can counter climate change challenges and foster novel urban microclimates. This foundational aspect corresponds to the architectural method of excavation and accumulation, representing a dual building and compositional technique. This foundational aspect corresponds to the architectural technique of excavation (foundation) and subsequent accumulation, representing a dual building and compositional method. Excavating, from the Latin excavare (ex-cavare), etymologically means “making hollow” through the action of subtrah˘ere (subtract). It is a proceeding by subtracting volumes, operating in the negative through material removal, eroding, digging, and extracting. Accumulating, excavating, and aggregating, therefore, are techniques of shaping the architectural figure, of which their aesthetic and theoretical significance must be emphasized, above all, because they should be considered as concepts that confer the fullness of their sense and theoretical value to architectures, which remain deeply characterized by them [8]. Enclosing and crossing the threshold: The multifaceted meanings of “enclosure” stem from its underlying verb “to enclose,” encompassing more than a mere physical structure—it embodies the action of defining a space. Enclosure is foundational in architecture, establishing a unique relationship with a specific environment. Creating enclosures has been a longstanding architectural technique, giving rise to places of worship and entire cities that shield from external forces. In contemporary urban contexts, “enclosure” transcends the sacred sense of a physical boundary around a plot of land; it focuses on the element outlining a space and its connection to the outside. Architectural configurations give rise to enclosures, illustrating the interplay between internal and external domains, representing both boundaries and thresholds. The threshold symbolizes the transition between realms, often facilitated by elements like porticos. In the Mediterranean climate, this is especially significant due

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to the blending of interior and exterior spaces. The concept of “limes” holds importance. Originally denoting paths that marked Roman territory, it has expanded to signify physical and symbolic boundaries that define a space. “Limes” can represent barricades, transitions, or points of convergence. Crossing the threshold becomes an encounter with surpassing the “limes,” whether physically or conceptually. 2.1 Shadowed Spaces as a Response to Climatic Variability in the Mediterranean Examining archetypes as forms of resistance in Mediterranean cities entails cultivating a necessary awareness of various realities, investigating the formal figures of the urban organism, settlement morphologies, typologies, and, notably, the relationship between public space and binding climatic regimes. While this concept can take on various interpretations, in this study, resistance can be defined as a stoic immobility of intrinsic strength employed against adversities that destabilize a system, causing it to regress. Resistance is an action bound by time, both adhering to and distancing itself from it. More precisely, it represents a relationship with time through a phase shift and an anachronism [9]. By dividing and interpolating time, resistance can transform the architectural design and interrelate it with other temporal dimensions, offering new perspectives on history and citing it out of necessity rather than arbitrariness. These considerations are based on the assertion that resistance allows complex adaptive tools to evolve and relate to climatic variations. In response to this reality, the use of design actions has proven essential in identifying within the chosen geo-climatic scope, case studies capable of addressing these specific questions: What design actions underpin this project? Do these design actions define and link the project to archetypal patterns? Can these contemporary devices withstand the impact of climate change, and engender new urban microclimates? The core concept revolves around the simultaneous operation of structural elements within the Mediterranean’s geo-climatic conditions. These devices, through their decomposition into essential archetypal patterns via design interventions, can offer a form of resistance to climate change, thus generating new microclimates within urban areas. To address these inquiries, the methodological approach used to select study cases can be divided into three stages. Initially, the research scope was defined, focusing on the specific geo-climatic conditions of northern Mediterranean regions, known for their susceptibility to climate fluctuations. With this scope set, an analysis of literature, monographs, articles, and projects facilitated the creation of a geographic map that located and referenced projects within the area of interest, primarily concentrated in Spain. In light of these considerations, the ongoing second stage involves the reconfiguration and fragmentation of projects into elementary archetypes through design actions. This process includes evaluating the thermal aspects of designated urban spaces to quantify temperature differences between the surrounding environment and the chosen elements. The third phase involves thermal recording using a professional thermographic camera, capturing images of the studied phenomenon. The adaptability of these archetypes, especially exemplified by the portico and its various interpretations, allows for a reevaluation of their function in modern architecture, particularly in climatic crisis scenarios like those experienced in the Mediterranean. Resistant archetypes can generate spaces that serve as transitions, passages, and resting places. Therefore, it is hypothesized that such archetypes can be identified through subsequent architectural elements:

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Freestanding: A design component situated at the core of public spaces, integral to the intricate array of elements enabling space utilization. Widespread and consistent, this form of resilient design element incorporates features like pergolas and shading structures, which establish a virtual demarcation, creating an enclosed space within the urban void it occupies. Its level of physical and visual permeability determines the spatial cohesion of the area it encompasses or conversely, its fragmentation. Example of investigated case study: Plaza del Virrei Amat, Arriola, and Fiol arquitectes, Barcellona, 1999 This project responds to the actions of covering, threshold crossing, founding, and cooling (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. On the left Plaza del Virrei Amat, Arriola and Fiol arquitectes, Barcellona. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023. On the right the temperature measurement carried out in August 2023 at Plaza Virrei Amat, Barcellona. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023

In Adherence: Placed at the edge of a public space, this device touches or grazes one of its sides against a physical boundary of the enclosure. While engaging directly with built structures, it sometimes functions as a filtering space, akin to porticos and peristyles. It inherently maintains its independent structural, formal, and functional autonomy while engaging in concrete dialogue with existing buildings. Therefore, it persists, and it is crucial to underline its autonomous capacity to create space. Example of investigated case study: Sant Antoni- Joan Oliver Library, RCR Architects, Barcellona, 2007 project responds to the actions of covering, threshold crossing, founding, and cooling (Fig. 5). Tangential: Positioned within an interface space, a transitional area between two distinct urban voids, each with autonomous and distinguishable characteristics. Unlike the previous category, the boundary between these two voids is not necessarily delineated by a physical barrier but manifests through a physical or virtual line separating the two urban voids. This tangential condition can occur between similar types of public spaces, such as two plazas, or between different urban areas, like a street and a square. Example of investigated case study: Metropol Parasol, J.Mayer H.und Partner, Seville, 2011. This project responds to the actions of covering, threshold crossing, founding, and cooling (Fig. 6). Roof-Mounted: Contemporary architectural design places significant importance on rooftop additions that offer shade and intermediary spaces. Positioned strategically atop

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Fig. 5. On the right Sant Antoni- Joan Oliver Library, RCR Architects, Barcellona, 2007. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023. On the left the temperature measurement carried out in August 2023 at Sant Antoni- Joan Oliver Library, Barcellona. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023

Fig. 6. On the left the Metropol Parasol, J.Mayer H.und Partner, Seville, 2011. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023. On the right the temperature measurement carried out in August 2023 Metropol Parasol, J.Mayer H.und Partner, Seville, 2011.Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023

buildings, these elements play a crucial role in managing solar exposure, resulting in shaded zones and defining transitional spaces below. The primary advantage lies in their ability to provide shade, mitigating excessive sun exposure for indoor thermal comfort and reducing reliance on air conditioning systems. These spaces can serve as transition areas, socialization spots, or designated activity zones. Example of investigated case study: Mercado de Santa Caterina, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcellona, 2004. This project responds to the actions of covering, threshold crossing, and cooling (Fig. 7).

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Fig. 7. On the left the Mercado de Santa Caterina, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcellona, 2004. Photos by © Roland Halbe. Source: mirrallestagliabue.com. On the right the temperature measurement carried out in July 2023. Mercado de Santa Caterina, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Barcellona, 2004. Photos by © Martina Scozzari, 2023

3 Conclusion In conclusion, the analysis of design actions within the context of Mediterranean architecture reveals their potential to generate archetypal forms of resistance to climate change, outlining new urban microclimates. These archetypes represent targeted architectural responses to the environmental and climatic challenges of the Mediterranean region, characterized by hot and dry summers and mild and humid winters. The investigation of design actions such as covering, founding, enclosing, cooling, heating, and thresholdcrossing has allowed the recognition that these actions not only define the constructive, functional, and aesthetic aspects of an architectural project but also embody deeper meanings related to protection, territorial relationships, and the transition between indoor and outdoor spaces. Through the analytical approach to design actions, it has become evident that archetypes of resistance can be identified in architectural devices such as pergolas, porticos, shaded spaces, and covering solutions. These devices not only address climatic impacts but also contribute to the formation of new microclimates within urban areas. The goal of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between design actions, archetypes of resistance, and urban microclimates, with a particular emphasis on the Mediterranean context. The results achieved so far indicate that archetypes of resistance can contribute to defining new modes of urban design that can mitigate the effects of climate change and promote occupant well-being. The atlas that will be created after this research will provide practical guidelines for the design of resilient architectural spaces that can adapt to changing climatic conditions while ensuring comfort and sustainability. The identified archetypes of resistance not only offer functional solutions but also represent a synthesis of cultural, aesthetic, and social values, contributing to the creation of more sustainable, resilient, and enjoyable urban environments.

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References 1. IPCC: Climate Change 2022: Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA (2022) 2. Semper, G.: I quattro elementi dell’architettura, 1851, cit. in Collotti F. Appunti per una teoria dell’architettura, Quart edizioni, Lucerna 2002, 19–20 (1851) 3. Baeza, A.C.: Trece Trucos De Arquitectura, pp. 35–44. Maria Pérez de Camino Diez, Madrid (2020) 4. Kruft, H.W.: A History of Architectural Theory. From Vitruvius to the present, Princeton Architectural Press, New York (1994) 5. Palazzotto, E.: Elementi di Teoria nel progetto di architettura, Graffil, Palermo (1991) 6. Laugier, M.A.: Essai sur l’Architecture (1753) 7. Cao, U.: Elementi di progettazione architettonica, Laterza, Bari (1995) 8. Di Benedetto, G.: Per via di levare: Scavare e sottrarre in architettura. Proyecto y ciudad. 5, 17–32 (2014) 9. Agamben, G.: Che cos’è il contemporaneo?, Roma, Nottetempo (2008)

Climate Driven Hydrological Performance of Nature-Based Solutions: An Empirical Assessment of a Blue-Green Roof Raffaele Pelorosso1(B) , Andrea Petroselli2 , Ciro Apollonio1 , and Salvatore Grimaldi3 1 Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo,

VT, Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business (DEIM), Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, VT, Italy 3 Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, VT, Italy

Abstract. Nowadays, we must cope with the continuous modifications of stormwater runoff regimes induced by urbanization and climate change. Therefore, it is time to abandon the static approach that relies on single evaluations of events with specific return periods and to adopt a dynamic approach based on continuous data simulation and a resilience paradigm. This concept has been particularly discussed in the context of green roofs (GR). This work aims to define the hydrological performance of a specific Nature-Based Solution (NBS), namely a particular type of GR called a blue-green roof (BGR). This system couples a water storage layer beneath the soil layer to collect infiltrated rainfall and release it gradually. The pilot BGR, named Polder Roof, has been installed in Viterbo, central Italy. A proxy index of water content known as the Antecedent Wet Weather Period (AWWP) is proposed and tested over two years and two months of monitoring to verify its ability to explain BGR performance. The results demonstrate the potential usefulness of AWWP and other easily collected climatic indices for assessing NBS, especially when there is limited data availability for climatic variables. This work aims to assist designers and planners in 1) gaining a better understanding of the hydrological performance of BGR and 2) planning more efficient NBS in the Mediterranean climate. Keywords: Performance-based planning · water cycle · stormwater management · ecosystem services

1 Introduction The city of the future will need to adapt its forms, complexity, and management methods as soon as possible to continue playing its role as the engine of cultural development in our society. Climate change calls for the adoption of innovative solutions to adapt cities to increasingly dangerous weather events, such as heatwaves or periods of drought followed by intense rainfall. The response to these phenomena must be as effective as possible because delays are no longer tolerable when public health risks are involved. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 566–576, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_49

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Different interventions have been proposed at various levels in urban infrastructures and communities, such as regeneration projects, climate adaptation plans, and smart solutions, with the overall goal of increasing the resilience and livability of the urban systems, bringing them as close as possible to the functioning of natural systems [1]. Natural systems, in fact, serve as examples of best practices, where the closure of energy and material cycles and flows is optimized in a long-term sustainability vision. Only by establishing a connected network of dissipative elements in the urban metabolism, capable of regenerating and recycling the waste (both material and non-material, such as anxieties) of our society, we can reduce the entropy of our cities, which are perhaps overheated more by the altered metabolism of modern society (and the lack of application/implementation of good urban planning) than by adverse climate. In particular, to counteract urban flooding phenomena caused by impermeable surfaces and improper sizing of traditional drainage systems, green solutions have been proposed, known as Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). NBS (e.g., green roofs, rainwater collection parks, permeable pavements, wetlands) are nature-inspired and naturesupported solutions that can provide multiple environmental, social, and economic benefits (such as ecosystem services), especially when adapted to the local context in a systematic and widespread manner [2, 3]. NBS are therefore an integral part of urban green infrastructure [1]. This article presents a particular NBS that appears particularly promising in the context of climate adaptation strategies: the blue-green roof. 1.1 The Blue-Green-Roof The blue-green roof (BGR), also known as a multi-layer green roof, is shown in Fig. 1. It differs from a traditional green roof (GR) due to the presence of a reservoir beneath the soil layer, that is capable of collecting rainfall infiltrated from the ground [4, 5]. In line with the concept of closing natural cycles, a portion of this stored precipitation can be reused by the vegetation on the BGR, facilitated, for example, by special rock wool cylinders that enable capillary rise of water towards the roots. The plants in the BGR can thus overcome periods of drought, increasing evapotranspiration and the cooling effect of the BGR itself. Additionally, the storage system helps to reduce urban runoff and to mitigate peak flows [6], in doing so diminishing the risk of flooding [7]. The water level can be adjusted through a valve and an adjustable overflow to limit peak runoff and to reduce the load on the urban drainage system during critical rainfall events. BGRs also serve as thermal insulation for the underlying building and can be constructed with different thicknesses to create different types of rooftop gardens. A research project on BGRs, funded by the Veneto Region through Measure POR FESR 1.1.4. and developed by Daku in collaboration with the University IUAV of Venice, the University of Padua, and a network of companies (see Fig. 2), has demonstrated that when the water storage tank is full, the thermal insulation performance of the roof, especially during the summer months, significantly improves. Data show a thermal lag of 10–12 h and a decrease in temperatures of 3–4 °C at the roof surface. The assessment of the efficiency of these BGR roofs is usually carried out at the experimental (field) or scenario level (e.g., hypothetical large-scale implementation). Currently, there are no sufficiently large installations to empirically evaluate the benefits

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Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of the BGR.

Fig. 2. Pilot projects of BGR developed by DAKU (source: https://www.daku.it/pagina/bluegreen-goof-tetto-verde-servizio-ambiente).

of this technology, especially in Mediterranean climates and Italian cities. An interesting project for Italy, funded by the European program Climate-KIC, involves four BGR prototypes installed in four Italian cities (Cagliari, Palermo, Perugia, and Viterbo) during the spring of 2019. The project, whose data is currently being published, aims to explore the potential benefits of this BGR in Mediterranean climate regions. The following

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paragraph will present some of the results related to the BGR installed in Viterbo (Central Italy), specifically regarding the efficiency of the BGR in retaining rainwater. 1.2 Efficiency of BGR in Regulating the Water Cycle The efficiency of a GR depends on various factors related to its structural characteristics and climatic conditions. It is known that the water retention capacity of a GR is influenced by the depth of the substrate, soil moisture, and vegetation coverage [8]. When assessing the efficiency of these solutions, it is necessary to contextualize it with the local climate. The same NBS may not have the same efficiency in an arid climate compared to a humid climate, since the water component is essential for vegetation maintenance. In fact, water sustains vegetation, and vegetated roofs can have a significant local cooling effect during hot and dry periods [9]. The phenomenon of evaporation is linked to latent heat flux and sensible heat flux: increased evaporation leads to a mitigation of urban heat island effects. Focusing on the efficiency of retaining rainwater, a crucial factor is the soil moisture level before the critical rainfall event. The amount of rainfall in the preceding days or irrigation, if carried out, influences the soil response, vegetation vigour, and ultimately, the volume of water that can be stored within the GR. If soil moisture is not monitored using appropriate sensors, other related variables (e.g., the duration of preceding drought period or evapotranspiration) are typically used to explain or predict the performance of GRs for rainwater control [6]. These variables depend on the distribution, concentration, and intensity of meteorological events in different periods of the year. This is often an overlooked aspect, as many evaluations or simulations are often focused on critical events with specific return periods, without considering the pre-event conditions. A recently published study reports the results of an evaluation of an extensive type of BGR in the Netherlands [10]. The simulations focused on a specific BGR technology called Polder Roof (Fig. 3) by the company Metropolder (https://metropolder.com/en/# polderroof). This BGR model allows for the adjustment of the drainage of the underlying reservoir using a smart valve controlled remotely. The study, based on simulations from a hydrological model and seven years of meteorological observations from 27 stations scattered across the Netherlands, highlights that it is possible to capture over 50% of total and extreme precipitation (>20 mm/h) without any controlled drainage from the BGR reservoir (fixed overflow). However, the capacity of BGRs is not always sufficiently high throughout the year, and significant overflow can occur during certain rainfall events, leading to overload of the urban drainage system and subsequent flooding. Therefore, weather forecast data were used to simulate the activation of controlled drainage before rainfall events. In this case, the efficiency of the BGR significantly increased, achieving a capture ratio, also known as retention coefficient, of over 90% for general precipitation and over 80% for extreme precipitation. The simulation of a large-scale BGR installation in a real-world scenario was then hypothesized for the city of Amsterdam (Fig. 4). The scenario involved installing BGRs on all potentially suitable roofs. By utilizing weather forecasts for pre-emptive drainage, an average capture of 11% of extreme precipitation (with rainfall intensity exceeding 20 mm/h) that causes flooding in different urban sub-basins was estimated. The BGR strategy, therefore, demonstrates a potential and significant impact on flood mitigation for Amsterdam and similar cities in the northern European climate.

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Fig. 3. The BGR technology proposed by Metropolder. Schematic representation of the Polder Roof structure with the smart valve open (a) and closed (b).

Clearly, not all cities have the same amount of flat roofs, and not all roofs are strong enough to support the installation of BGRs. In the future, the authors of the study propose considering extreme weather conditions using regional climate projections to design roofs with sufficient structural strength to accommodate BGRs. It is conceivable that future extreme weather conditions will increase the economic feasibility of BGRs, including a greater capacity for rainwater storage than simulated in the study. On the contrary, cities with arid or semiarid Mediterranean climates (e.g., Madrid, Las Vegas, Cairo, Rome, Palermo) would seemingly benefit from conservative drainage and require additional water sources. In these cases, future evaporation forecasts could be integrated with precipitation forecasts to limit or avoid drainage when evaporation is high, in order to sustain vegetation and consequently cool the microclimate.

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Fig. 4. Potential efficiency of BGR in Amsterdam in mitigating flood risk in urban sub-basins that regularly experience rainfall flooding (drainage bottlenecks). The blue numbers represent the percentage of rainfall that can potentially be captured by BGR in the basin when weather forecasts are used to regulate the tank emptying (Source: [10]).

Drawing a parallel between Italy and Amsterdam is not straightforward, but the Climate-KIC project, as mentioned earlier, comes to the rescue. Since the project is still in its final stages, only some results related to the BGR installed in the experimental hydrology laboratory (www.mechydrolab.org) at the University of Tuscia, Viterbo (Central Italy) can be presented in this context.

2 The Pilot BGR, the New Index of Antecedent Condition and the Regression Model The BGR is based on the Polder Roof technology, similar to the one simulated in the study by Busker et al. (2022). The BGR is located in the hydrological experimental site (www.mechydrolab.org) of Tuscia University farm. The pilot BGR (Fig. 5) is placed on a wooden structure 90 cm above the ground, with a total surface area of 16 square meters (4 m x 4 m). The 10 cm soil layer rests on an 8 cm tall storage tank for infiltrated water. The estimated load over the rooftop ranges between 131 kg/m3 (BGR without water) and 259 kg/m3 (saturated soil and storage layer full) [11]. Throughout the experimentation, the valve for emptying the tank was set at a height of 7 cm, which corresponds to the maximum water storage capacity for the installed BGR type. The vegetation consists of Sedum, perennial succulent plants adapted to survive in arid climates. This contribution shows the relationship between the retention capacity of the BGR and several proxy

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indicators of soil moisture calculated from over two years of data (total of 790 days from October 30th , 2020, to December 31st , 2022) at the time resolution of 5 min.

Fig. 5. Pilot BGR installed at the University of Tuscia, Viterbo. Notice the two 1000-L tanks used for measuring the outflow from the BGR.

When a sensor (such as a lysimeter or moisture sensor) is not available to assess the amount of water in a GR, one or more climatic indicators are used to explain the behaviour of the BGR in terms of outflow, which refers to the failure to retain precipitation. A characteristic index found in the literature is the so-called Antecedent Dry Weather Period (ADWP) or antecedent dry days, which describes the duration of the dry period before a precipitation event. The ADWP can predict the retention capacity of the GR due to its dry condition and voids, i.e., reduced soil moisture. However, the use of ADWP fails to fully explain the retention efficiency of an NBS because it does not consider the variability of evapotranspiration throughout the year. In fact, a BGR can restore the preprecipitation water content within a variable number of days depending on the weather conditions. For example, during the summer period (high evapotranspiration), 5 sunny days can dry out the entire green roof, while during winter (lower evapotranspiration), the same 5 sunny days may have minimal effect on the water content of the green roof. In other words, under the same initial moisture level and ADWP duration, the final moisture levels of the green roof, and consequently the retention capacity, can differ significantly under different weather conditions [12]. Therefore, in order to consider the variability of actual evapotranspiration throughout the year, a new climatic index called the Antecedent Wet Weather Period index (AWWPx) is presented here. The AWWP measures the number of days before a weather event

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required to reach a predefined rainfall depth (x). The preceding rainfall depth (hereafter x) required to fill the empty volume in a BGR depends mainly on the soil and storage layer characteristics (thickness and voids). Based on the available data, the BGR system in question has an estimated overall water retention capacity of 100 mm. Therefore, for each rainfall event an AWWP-100 was calculated, representing the number of days required before the event to accumulate rainfall equal to 100 mm (x = 100 mm). In this paper, we investigate the relation between the cumulative BGR runoff depth (Q) due to the selected rainfall event (mm) and some climatic variables. Besides AWWP, other easy to monitor climatic variables, without the employment of advanced sensors, were considered for the regression model. The cumulative depth (P) as cumulative rainfall amount within the selected rainfall event (mm). The well-known Antecedent Precipitation Index (API5 ), i.e., the cumulative precipitation in the five days preceding the selected rainfall event (mm). The antecedent max air temperature (ATmaxAIR ), i.e., the shaded area max air temperature in the five days preceding the selected rainfall event (°C).

3 Results and Discussion The correlation between the climatic variables and the hydrological response of BGR’s runoff has been studied at the event scale considering only events with a minimum rainfall cumulative depth of 4 mm and interevent time of 1 h. Consequently, 104 significant rainfall events (76 rainfall events in the autumn-winter period, 28 rainfall events in the spring-summer period) were selected. For the linear regression we further removed events without runoff, reducing the sample to 56 events. Therefore, the runoff amount (Q) can be explained by the following multiple regression model (p value < 0.01, R2 = 0.860; Adjusted R2 = 0.849): Q = 1.061 + 0.542 PD + 0.072 API5 −− 0.213 ATmaxAIR −− 0.029 AWWPADR100 (1) Table 1 shows the results of the regression model. To understand the relationship between the four climatic variables and the dependent one (Q), Fig. 6 shows the corresponding scatterplots considering all 104 events. The four chosen keystone variables explain well the BGR runoff, namely in order of importance, P, API5 , ATmaxAIR , and AWWP-100. The regression model has a Multiple R-squared value of 0.86 and an Adjusted Rsquared value of 0.85. For the two keystone indexes, ATmaxAIR and AWWP-100, it is possible to identify a threshold value for Q = 0 (Fig. 6). Indeed, when AWWP-100 is higher than 60 days Q is always null or very near to 0. Similarly, when ATmaxAIR ≥ 25 C° the Q is always equal to 0. Interestingly, the mean of maximum air temperature observed in the five antecedent days of a rainfall event is a good Stormwater Retention Rate (SRR; i.e. the percentage of rainfall captured by the system during a storm event) proxy, probably due to the capability of such parameter to discriminate the seasonal BGR behaviour variability (see [13]). The AWWP-x index provides a valid estimate of the potential water content in a BGR before a rainfall event, indirectly considering the effect of actual evapotranspiration. The

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Variable

B

Std Error

Constant

1.061

1.385

Precipitation Depth (PD)

0.542

0.035

API5

0.072

0.15

Std B 0.850

t

Sig 0.766

0.447

15.628

0.000

0.284

4.981

0.000

ATmax_AIR

−0.213

0.082

−0.151

−2.604

0.012

AWWPADR100

−0.029

0.013

−0.123

−2.154

0.036

R2 = 0.86; Adjusted R2 = 0.85

Fig. 6. Scatterplots between the most important variables and Stormwater Retention Rate. Dashed lines identify possible threshold values for Q = 0.

higher the AWWP, the more days are required to reach a precipitation volume equal to the maximum water content of the BGR, increasing the likelihood that the roof will be dry and ready to retain the rainfall. Therefore, the proposed AWWP-x index linked with the other ones appears a promising proxy of BGR hydrological performance, in particular in the local contexts when limited data on water content and actual evapotranspiration is available.

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4 Conclusions Blue-Green Roofs (BGRs) are an innovative solution for adapting urban environments to climate change, but like all Nature-based Solutions (NBSs), they must be carefully designed and sized considering the local urban and climatic context. Previous studies, although specific to a pilot project and climate, demonstrate the importance of the local climate in assessing the efficiency of a BGR. Climate change, such as the prolonged periods of drought followed by intense precipitation that we are experiencing, will increasingly require considering climate variability and rainfall distribution to assess the real efficiency of an NBS throughout the year. While in northern Europe, advanced tank drainage control systems can support improving BGR efficiency even in summer, Mediterranean climates may require remote control based on weather forecasts only during the rainiest periods. Given the difficulties of providing emergency irrigation during drought periods, storing water locally near homes, directly below the vegetated soil layer of the green roof, offers an opportunity to increase vegetation survival, building energy performance, and the provision of ecosystem services. In this work, we have sought to highlight the impact of rainfall distribution on the hydrological performance of a particular BGR. In particular, a new AWWP-x indicator has been proposed as an additional low-cost criterion to estimate the runoff, and consequently the water retention capacity, of a BGR by considering the preceding rainfall before the weather event. The 5 days antecedent conditions of a rainfall event also provide a contribution in predicting runoff from BGR, in particular considering the easy to collect and to calculate API5 and ATmaxAIR indexes. Linking the performance of NBS solely to the simulation of highly intense critical events appears to be an outdated approach. Further research efforts must be made in our climates to test and improve models and indicators useful for evaluating BGR performance, as well as all NBS that have water storage capabilities that can affect rainwater retention and detention capacities. The regulation of (micro-)climates in urban environments can benefit from the installation of BGR systems. However, the efficiency of this intervention depends on water availability, particularly during wet periods [5]. In addition to analyzing local climate variables using proposed indices, managing the weir system and considering the possibility of irrigation are fundamental tasks to be included in any planning and design actions related to Nature-Based Solutions. Future applied research should also aim to implement and test modeling tools to identify the best solution and location for BGRs in order to mitigate hydraulic risk and reduce runoff in performance-based planning and design contexts [14–16] Assessments at the scale of urban sub-basins will allow testing the flood mitigation capacity of NBS-based scenarios considering different costs and intervention levels. Further analysis should focus on identifying potential buildings for BGR retrofitting and criteria for creating smart and resilient Mediterranean cities based on closed cycles and flow optimization. Following this approach, it will also be possible to evaluate other ecosystem services, such as heat island attenuation or reduction of air pollution, for a more holistic assessment of BGR technology.

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References 1. Pelorosso, R., Gobattoni, F., Leone, A.: The Low-Entropy City: A thermodynamic approach to reconnect urban systems with nature. Landsc. Urban Plan. 168, 22–30 (2017). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.10.002 2. Nesshöver, C., et al.: The science, policy and practice of nature-based solutions: An interdisciplinary perspective. Sci. Total Environ. 579, 1215–1227 (2017) 3. Oral, H.V., et al.: A review of nature-based solutions for urban water management in European circular cities: a critical assessment based on case studies and literature. Blue-Green Syst. 2(1), 112–136 (2020). https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2020.932citotenv.2016.11.10618 4. Cristiano, E., et al.: Multilayer blue-green roofs as nature-based solutions for water and thermal insulation management. Hidrol. Res. 53(9), 1129–1149 (2022) 5. Pelorosso, R., Petroselli, A., Apollonio, C., Grimaldi, S.: Blue-Green roofs: hydrological evaluation of a case study in Viterbo, Central Italy. In: La Rosa, D., Privitera, R. (eds.) Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning. INPUT 2021. LNCE, vol. 146. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68824-0_1 6. Li, S., Qin, H., Peng, Y., Khu, S.T.: Modelling the combined effects of run-off reduction and increase in evapotranspiration for green roofs with a storage layer. Ecol. Eng. 127, 302–311 (2019) 7. Apollonio, C., Ferrante, R., Piccinni, A.F.: Preventive approach to reduce risk caused by failure of a rainwater drainage system: the case study of Corato (Southern Italy). In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2017. LNCS, vol. 10405, pp. 246–260. Springer, Cham (2017). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62395-5_18 8. Ascione, F., Bianco, N., de’ Rossi, F., Turni, G., Vanoli, G.P.: Green roofs in European climates. Are effective solutions for the energy savings in air-conditioning? Appl. Energy 104, 845–859 (2013) 9. Cirkel, D.G., Voortman, B.R., van Veen, T., Bartholomeus, R.P.: Evaporation from (Blue-) Green Roofs: Assessing the benefits of a storage and capillary irrigation system based on measurements and modeling. Water (Switzerland) 10(9), 1–21 (2018) 10. Busker, T., et al.: Blue-green roofs with forecast-based operation to reduce the impact of weather extremes. J. Environ. Manage. 301, 113750 (2022) 11. Elena, C., Lai, F., Deidda, R., Viola, F.: Management strategies for maximizing the ecohydrological benefits of multilayer blue-green roofs in mediterranean urban areas. J. Environ. Manage. 343(May), 118248 (2023) 12. Wong, G.K.L., Jim, C.Y.: Identifying keystone meteorological factors of green-roof stormwater retention to inform design and planning. Landsc. Urban Plan. 143, 173–182 (2015). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.07.001 13. Pelorosso, R., et al.: Blue-green roofs as nature-based solutions for urban areas: hydrological performance and climatic indexes analyses. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 31, 5976–5988 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31638-7 14. La Rosa, D., Pappalardo, V.: Planning for spatial equity - A performance based approach for sustainable urban drainage systems. Sustain. Cities Soc. 53, 101885 (2020) 15. Pelorosso, R.: Modeling and urban planning: A systematic review of performance-based approaches. Sustain. Cities Soc. 52, 101867 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019. 101867 16. Pelorosso, R. Gobattoni, F.: Verso una performance-based planning. Nuovi strumenti e approcci per una pianificazione per processi. Urban Design Magaz. 10, 14–25. ISSN 2531-6443 (2018)

The Engagement of Small European Municipalities in Achieving the Climate Neutrality Luigi Santopietro1(B) , Valentina Palermo2 and Francesco Scorza1

, Giulia Melica2

,

1 Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), University of Basilicata,

School of Engineering, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy [email protected] 2 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, VA, Italy

Abstract. Over the past two decades, European municipalities have been including in their local strategies energy and climate consideration, thereby developing actions plans with a growing focus on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. This paradigmatic change has been supported by the EU policy framework on energy, climate and environment, currently enshrined in the European Green Deal, and by the new Leipzig Charter on sustainable cities, which have set the “green” transition as a reference for implementing interventions aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In the challenge of climate change adaptation and mitigation, major European cities have behaved as frontrunner to meet ambitious climate targets by designing and implementing a well-developed set of experiences and good practices. However, also small municipalities with a population of less than 10000 inhabitants have been playing a key role in the climate transition. This is evident from the high participation of small municipalities in the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Europe (CoM), covering the 63% of the whole CoM signatories. The CoM initiative is supporting local authorities in taking local action against climate change through a bottom-up voluntary approach. CoM signatories commit to develop a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) to meet their energy and climate targets. By analyzing the SECAPs of a sample of small municipalities with most ambitious 2030 targets in the EU, this paper aims to explore how these signatories intend to achieve their objectives thereby building upon their actions to identify urban planning trends and options. Keywords: Covenant of Mayors · small municipalities · voluntary urban planning · green transition · climate change

1 Introduction The EU policy framework on energy, climate, and environment, currently enshrined in the European Green Deal [1] and supported by the new Leipzig Charter on sustainable cities [2], sets a comprehensive reference for implementing interventions aimed at reducing © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 577–586, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_50

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carbon emissions and driving the “green” transition. Since 2008, the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Europe (CoM) has been supporting local authorities willing to take local action against climate change through a bottom-up voluntary approach. CoM signatories commit to developing and implementing a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) to meet their energy and climate targets, and to report key information and figures from SECAPs. The CoM played a pioneering role in dealing with energy and climate considerations at local level, which were neglected for long by urban planning. Previous works [3–11] explored the recent and emerging inclusion of the climate change and energy in urban planning. More specifically, Pietrapertosa et al. [3] highlight that climate action planning is one of the top priorities for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen climate resilience, and at the same time, improving mitigation and adaptation strategies in urban areas is crucial for sustainable development. Reckien et al. [4], by reviewing the local climate plans of 885 cities in the EU-28, find that the engagement of European cities in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts has been partially assessed and that how and why cities engage in climate policy is a matter of current debate. Laukkonen et al. [5] note that the integration of both mitigation and adaptation is crucial, as service infrastructure and planning structures are defined by functionality and spatial planning, while Palermo et al. [6] examine the distribution of policies planned and implemented by CoM signatories to assess the presence of certain common factors influencing policies to achieve energy goals. Zanon et al. [5] suggest the activation of appropriate urban policies in pursuit of a less energy consuming, polluting and vulnerable built environment. The last four researches [8–11] address the need for renovated spatial planning practices for ‘low carbon’ policies and pathways in the challenge of decarbonisation, although there is no single indicator (e.g. energy use, citizen engagement or carbon emissions) that best captures the outcomes of effective urban climate governance. Looking at cities, the first to address environmental and climate issues in their urban plans were from Northern Europe: e.g. are Malmo, Stockholm, Antwerp, Amsterdam or Rotterdam [12– 15]. These cities behaved as frontrunner to meet ambitious climate targets by designing and implementing a well-developed set of experiences and good practices. However, there is no one-single common solution that suits all size cities. While larger cities have been taking the lead and had the resources to start designing and implementing local innovative solutions, smaller cities have been facing several barriers. The CoM has contributed to bridge this gap, supporting and empowering small municipalities in taking action and highlighting the key role they play in climate transition. In this respect, the role of regional or provincial authorities acting as Covenant Territorial Coordinators [16] as well as the possibility granted to smaller signatories to develop joint action plans have been instrumental [17]. In this scenario, European municipalities have experienced in their local governance, the inclusion of energy and climate consideration. This is evident from the high participation of small municipalities (population below 10000 inhabitants) in the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Europe (CoM), covering the 63% of the whole CoM signatories. This research aims to explore how small municipalities are responding to the climate challenge through an urban planning lens. To this aim, the actions related to urban planning of a sub-sample of small cities CoM signatories has been analysed. This way,

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the trends and options being pursued by the signatories can be highlighted. Methods and results are reported in the next sections.

2 Materials and Research Methodology The sample of this research is sourced from the official dataset extracted from the MyCovenant reporting platform and cleaned by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) [18, 19]. This dataset comprises various heterogeneous types of data directly retrieved from signatories’ SECAPs, including i.e. data on Baseline Emission Inventories, risk and vulnerability assessments, targets, and actions. The SECAPs of these municipalities have been evaluated and accepted by JRC according to a set of criteria based on the Covenant of Mayors commitments and principles, considering also data completeness and coherence. This ensures that data in the Climate Action Plan is consistent and comprehensive and that the climate mitigation and adaptation actions are appropriate to achieve the targets Out of the 7068 SECAPs that were submitted, the sample for this study consists of 488 SECAPs from XS municipalities with a population below 10000 inhabitants (hereafter referred to as XS municipalities), within the EU-27. In order to select the SECAPs explicitly including dedicated urban planning actions and assess these urban planning policies and practices that XS signatories are adopting towards the targets a two-step methodology has been developed. Step 1) To select the SECAPs, the following criteria have been applied: • For mitigation actions, the actions whose “policy instrument” was flagged in the dataset as “land use planning”, “land use regulation” or “mobility planning regulation” were selected. • For adaptation, actions classified under “land use planning” category to the “adaptation sector were selected” Each SECAP including the actions selected as mentioned above (mitigation and/or adaptation) planning actions were tagged with the Urban and Territorial Planning (UTP) indicator as described in “Eq. (1)”.  1, if SECAP includes planning actions (1) UTP index = 0, if SECAP does not include planning actions The UTP index was designed with the purpose of evaluating SECAPs adopting planning processes and the potential role in supporting the development of specific planning actions. The UTP index allows for an assessment of whether the implementation of the SECAP brings about changes and improvements in the planning processes and facilitates the integration of these sustainable actions. From this procedure, a total of 262 SECAPs, that included encompassing urban and territorial planning actions with mitigation or adaptation impacts were selected. Step 2) classification of urban and territorial planning actions. The identified actions were further refined by focusing on actions with direct impacts, i.e. excluding awareness raising actions and considering urban development and design practices.

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In order to assess approaches and analyse the trends, the actions included in the selected SECAPs were grouped into three clusters: renewables, transport, and planning tools. These are heterogeneous, as the first two mainly refer to sectors, while the last one includes tools that may transversally include multiple sectors. The three clusters are described below: 1. Renewables: actions included in this class mainly encompass mainly as the selection of best areas where to plan a local energy generation plant. Signatories may implement actions in this field to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources and subsequently decrease the community’s carbon footprint. By adopting renewable energy systems, the sector provides a reduction in consumption costs for the community, enhanced energy independence, and a consequent reduction in carbon emissions. The installation of such systems fosters a sustainable approach to energy production, promoting renewable energy utilization at the local level; 2. Transport: The actions pertaining to this sector mainly aim at reducing CO2 emissions associated with the urban mobility. Among others, measures, seek to implementing structural changes to promote pedestrian and bicycle mobility, as well as encouraging the use of public transport. 3. Planning tools: this cluster includes actions mainly referring to to the development of planning tools that may complement institutional traditional planning. These can refer to planning, regulation or market –based policies, urban design, specific tools to support and improve the green transition.

3 Results and Discussions Figure 1 portrays the sample of 262 SECAPs per country, after applying the 2-steps methodology. The criteria to identify the subset and the applied procedure to focus on urban planning actions have limited the SECAPs to the seven countries shown in the figure. The mitigation/adaptation actions by country, detailing the number of mitigation and adaptation actions belonging to urban planning sector for each country, are also portrayed. In Croatia, only one SECAP from XS municipalities included urban planning actions, and these are mainly dedicated to increase resilience to climate change. Following the methodology reported in the previous paragraph, climate mitigation and adaptation planning actions have been classified according to the three identified clusters identified. The refined actions in cluster 2 encompass sustainable urban mobility plans, integration of energy annexes in urban master plans with a focus on enhancing energy efficiency, promotion of modal shift towards walking and cycling, and the development of plans to mitigate specific climate risks like droughts, floods, or fires. Examples of cluster 3 include designing pedestrian paths and cycle paths lanes, establishing interconnections between them, installing bicycle parking spaces at strategic locations, and introducing vehicle-free zones. Additionally, within this category, the authors have included specific planning tools related to transportation, known as Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). Moreover, within the examples are included plans and interventions with specific measures to address climate change risks (such as floods, droughts, landslides and forest fire prevention).

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Fig. 1. SECAPs including planning actions classified per countries.

The distribution of the actions per country is shown in Fig. 2 to highlight potential different approaches tackling climate mitigation and/ adaptation through urban planning actions. Through the 2-step approach, 587 mitigation planning actions and 636 adaptation planning actions were selected and clustered as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively. On average, each SECAP contains two urban planning mitigation actions. The distribution of climate change mitigation actions reflects the general trend of SECAPs per country, with Belgium, Hungary and Italy having the highest share. Spain and Italy are “ranking” first in developing planning tools, including measures on air quality and energy efficiency annexes to building regulations. In the “planning tools” cluster, looking at urban regeneration and greening actions, only Belgian and Italian small signatories reported them. In the “Renewables” cluster, cities in Belgium, i.e. Houffalize, designed the installation of hydroelectric plants, while in Spain attention was given to the design of urban interventions for the installation of renewable energy plants in urban areas. In the “Transport” cluster, cities in Spain registered a relevant contribution, mainly due to the numerous SUMPs developed, representing over the 70% of the actions for this cluster. Figure 3 shows the planning actions focusing on climate adaptation. As per climate mitigation, each SECAP includes on average two adaptation measures flagged as urban planning, and there are no particular differences between the two trends among countries when comparing mitigation and adaptation. Given the identification of clusters, actions may suit only the “planning tool” cluster as per the CoM methodology. They are measures to address specific climate risks such as floods and droughts, which are among the most reported hazards by CoM signatories in Europe [18]. Specifically,

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Fig. 2. Climate Change Mitigation planning actions classified according to the clusters

Fig. 3. Adaptation Climate Change planning actions: on the right pie is detailed the share per country of the cluster’s actions.

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signatories in Spain and Italy are mainly involved in developing plans and measures related to droughts and forest fires, with a particular focus on fire prevention. Moreover, numerous measures aim at de-sealing processes and restoring soil permeability. Several cases of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) were also reported, mainly focusing on improving storm-water runoff management, implementing water collection strategies to cope with droughts, and reducing the risk of flooding or excessive runoff in urban areas.

4 Conclusions The research investigated a sample of 262 SECAPs of XS CoM municipalities that included urban planning actions to tackle climate change in their territories. Particularly, these plans included a total of 587 mitigation actions and 636 adaptation actions. These figures were gained having applied a sensitivity research filter, which excluded the 36% of the mitigation actions and the 58% of the adaptation actions, mainly focusing on awareness raising techniques. This result highlights a prevailing interest from small municipalities in engaging citizens and stakeholders in increasing their environmental and climate awareness [21, 22, 25]. Although this aspect has not been addressed in this study, it reveals a relevant demand from small municipalities to promote participatory processes towards climate neutrality and resilience, involving all levels of actors (citizens, local administrations, private companies, etc.). As acknowledged by numerous other studies [6, Lucchitta et al. 2023 in press] this might be linked to the limited resource burden this kind of actions require. From the analysis conducted in this study, it emerges that the SECAPs may be capable to complement, integrate and stimulate the implementation and design of climate change measures at the local level [32]. Looking at the clusters, the development of planning tools such as Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), the design of specific planning tools for adapting to climate change risks and the implementation of Nature Based Solutions NBS solutions, represent a fruitful integration of traditionally separated disciplinary measures into an integrated institutional planning framework [27–29]. From this perspective, the SECAP could be seen as an opportunity for small municipalities to actively contribute to climate neutrality transition and to set the basis for developing more technical planning tools. The measures implemented are an expression of a new direction of planning choices towards carbon neutral and resilient urban environments [20, 23, 24, 30, 31]. However, despite the clustering attempt, the outcomes are fragmented. This highlights that while the CoM provides a framework steering small municipalities towards local climate policies, further efforts are needed to make the municipal choices more systematic [26]. This is also supported by the limited number of actions that were assessed. In addition, the limited size of the sample due to the fact that the study focuses on more advanced signatories, only including those committed to the 2030 targets, requires further analysis once the dataset is more complete. A second limitation is linked to the lack of information submitted by signatories, i.e. often only mandatory information is reported, leaving a gap in the detailed description of the action. Finally, often the attribution of the action to the appropriate category is incorrect, and actions that signatories do not consider as pertaining to the “land use planning”

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instrument (for mitigation) or sector (for adaptation), might have been reported under other sectors or instruments. Therefore, some urban planning measures might have been potentially neglected due to a wrong association made at the moment of reporting. Future research perspectives are oriented towards addressing the limitations highlighted above and enlarge the scope to understand the potential impact and achievement of those actions in the long term as well as including capacity buildings and awareness aspects. Disclaimer The views expressed are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.

References 1. European Commission: The European Green Deal. Brussels (2020) 2. European Commission: The New Leipzig Charter. Leipzig (2020) 3. Pietrapertosa, F., et al.: Urban climate change mitigation and adaptation planning: Are Italian cities ready? Cities 91, 93–105 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.11.009 4. Reckien, D., et al.: How are cities planning to respond to climate change? Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28. J. Clean. Prod. 191, 207–219 (2018). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.220 5. Laukkonen, J., Blanco, P.K., Lenhart, J., Keiner, M., Cavric, B., Kinuthia-Njenga, C.: Combining climate change adaptation and mitigation measures at the local level. Habitat Int. 33, 287–292 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2008.10.003 6. Palermo, V., Bertoldi, P., Apostoulu, M., Kona, A., Rivas, S.: Assessment of climate change mitigation policies in 315 cities in the Covenant of Mayors initiative. Sustain. Cities Soc. 60, 102258 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SCS.2020.102258 7. Zanon, B., Verones, S.: Climate change, urban energy and planning practices: Italian experiences of innovation in land management tools. Land Use Policy 32, 343–355 (2013). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.11.009 8. Biesbroek, G.R., Swart, R.J., van der Knaap, W.G.M.: The mitigation–adaptation dichotomy and the role of spatial planning. Habitat Int. 33, 230–237 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2008.10.001 9. Bernstein, S., Hoffmann, M.: The politics of decarbonization and the catalytic impact of subnational climate experiments. Policy. Sci. 51, 189–211 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11077-018-9314-8 10. van der Heijden, J.: Studying urban climate governance: Where to begin, what to look for, and how to make a meaningful contribution to scholarship and practice. Earth Syst. Govern. 1, 100005 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2019.100005 11. Madlener, R., Sunak, Y.: Impacts of urbanization on urban structures and energy demand: What can we learn for urban energy planning and urbanization management? Sustain. Cities Soc. 1, 45–53 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2010.08.006 12. Malmö Stad: Dagvattenpolicy för Malmö (in Swedish). Malmö (2000) 13. Stahre, P.: Blue-green fingerprints inthe city of Malmö, Sweden. Va Syd. 100 (2008) 14. (PDF) Storm-water management in Malmö and Copenhagen with regard to climate change scenarios. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267631302_Storm-water_manage ment_in_Malmo_and_Copenhagen_with_regard_to_climate_change_scenarios. Accessed 19 Nov 2020 15. City of Rotterdam: Rotterdam Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (2013)

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Climate Changes and Protected Areas. Towards an Integrated Management Laura Ricci and Alessandra Addessi(B) Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. In the current phase of growing uncertainty and vulnerability of contemporary territories, in the presence of serious degradation and depletion of environmental resources, the impacts of climate change represent one of the main issues that planning and territorial governance must address with absolute urgency. In this framework, the World Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognizes Protected Natural Areas as significant “reservoirs” of ecosystem services, which are defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as “the benefits people derive from ecosystems”, essential for the health and well-being of local settled communities, to cope with biodiversity loss, and reduces the risks and impacts related to climate change. The essay proposes, therefore, starting from the illustration of a French case study, to contribute to the identification of theoretical-methodological and operational references that reach an integration of environmental issues, with specific reference to climate adaptation actions, in ecological-environmental regeneration strategies and in planning tools of protected areas, and, more generally, in urban planning tools for territorial governance. This is, in particular, the Climate Adaptation Plan of the Hautes Vosges in the Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges within the “Life Natur’Adapt Project”, developed from 2018 to 2023 by the Nature Reserves of France with a series of European partners, including Europarc. Keywords: Climate change · Protected areas · Urban regeneration · Integrated management

1 Climate Change and Environmental Vulnerabilities In the current phase of growing uncertainty and vulnerability of contemporary territories, in the presence of serious degradation and depletion of environmental resources, the impacts of climate change represent one of the main issues that planning and territorial governance must address with absolute urgency. The sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [1] records an increase, in frequency and intensity, of extreme weather events (heat waves, extreme rainfall, droughts and floods) that trigger a global climate crisis. This framework also has significant consequences on biodiversity loss [2–4], on the degradation of © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 587–596, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_51

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natural, cultural and landscape heritage, on the resilience of territories, and on human well-being and health, thus causing an increase in the vulnerability of ecosystems. All this calls for the implementation of integrated climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, for the good of species and ecosystems, but also to ensure the survival of human societies. The need for an integrated approach in the governance of the climate crisis is punctually contextualized at the international level in agreements and institutional commitments such as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [5], the Paris Agreement following COP21 [6], the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 [7]. These call on urban planning to assume an explicit responsibility in helping to create alternative territorial models to the energy-consuming and resource-wasting models that have characterized the last century but especially the last years. This need is shared in the same way by the numerous directives put in place by the European Union on the integration of climate issues in the government of the territory, also under the further pressure of the pandemic that has required the implementation of ambitious measures to combat the current crises, not only the health one, but economic, environmental and precisely climatic. The central reference is the European Green Deal [8] which set the important objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, together with the promotion of inclusive economic growth that does not use additional natural resources. This framework policy includes further documents and strategies, of important reference in the field of territorial governance, including the New European Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change of 2021 [9]. This, renewing the 2013 Strategy, underlines the importance of defining concrete solutions and actions and moving from planning to implementation, starting with integrated and nature-based strategies, with the aim of building a “more resilient tomorrow”. The Italian context sees the elaboration of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC), already adopted and currently in the “strategic environmental assessment” phase, which recalls the need, reiterated previously, to activate adaptation strategies and actions by integrating them into the activities of territorial government at every level. Therefore, alongside the indispensable elaboration of ad hoc plans for climate adaptation, the PNACC indicates the importance of timely action to integrate the climate issue into the ordinary urban-territorial planning tools: in urban plans and in planning with environmental content, such as territorial coordination plans, metropolitan plans, protected area plans and basin district plans. [10].

2 Protected Areas in Territorial Resilience Strategies In the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, regeneration strategies based on ecosystem approaches are becoming increasingly important. The innovative and integrated nature of these approaches is expressed in the use of the ecological processes and functions of the natural environment to increase resilience to environmental risks, exacerbated by climate change. Currently, in the national and international agendas, referred to in the previous paragraph, and in recent planning experimentations, there is a rapid innovation and diffusion

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of these approaches, which include: Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), Nature-based Solutions (NbS), Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI), Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) and Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction [11]. Among these approaches, the Ecosystem-based Adaptation is of particular relevance to the topic addressed: it harnesses biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce vulnerability and build resilience to climate change [12]. As the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognizes, ecosystems can be managed to limit climate change impacts on biodiversity and to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change [13]. The concept of EbA was first introduced internationally by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the UNFCCC held in Copenhagen in 2009, and officially defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity as “the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of a global adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the negative effects of climate change” [14]. EbA may provide multiple benefits in addition to adaptation, it can be beneficial for mitigation by conserving carbon stocks, reducing emissions from ecosystem degradation and loss, and enhancing carbon sequestration [14]. Although it complements common approaches to natural resource and biodiversity management, EbA is distinctive because it focuses on adaptation needs and benefits and places these in the context of an overall adaptation strategy. It also positions people at the centre because it involves communitybased and fully participatory approaches [15]. According to the scientific literature [14, 16], EbA embraces indeed conservation measures, sustainable management and restoration of ecosystems, actions which are particularly significant within Protected areas. Based on this, Protected Areas (PAs) are considered part of the Ecosystem-based Adaptation strategies [14, 15], in which they play a fundamental, and often underestimated, role in addressing the challenge of climate change, from the local to the global scale [5, 8, 17]. A protected area is defined by IUCN as a “clearly defined, recognised, dedicated and managed geographical area for the long-term conservation of nature and ecosystem services and associated cultural values” [18]. Such recognition requires forms of governmental laws, or community decisions as in the case of Natura 2000 in Europe. Their management is aimed at pursuing the objectives and missions that over the decades have evolved into new paradigms to include not only the conservation of ecosystems, but also the sustainable development of settled communities, the provision of ecosystem and cultural services. Moreover, protected areas represent long-term commitments and, also for this reason, recent advances in the debate require their integrated management and the systematization with all the policies that pertain to the government of the territory so that the multiple benefits are spread to the territories and communities [17, 19, 20]. Therefore, the regulation of protected areas tends to guarantee healthier and more resilient territories. However, even these are now affected by global urbanization phenomena [21] and by models of unsustainable development, characterized by excessive consumption of natural resources, which compromise the functioning of ecosystems, making them vulnerable to environmental risks. The IPCC, in its sixth report, states that “[…] within protected areas, unsustainable use of natural resources, fragmentation of habitats and damage to ecosystems caused by pollutants increase the vulnerability of

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ecosystems to climate change” [1]. At the same time, recent scientific papers point out that climate change and its effects are already recorded within protected territories [22, 23]. 2.1 The Response of Protected Areas The climate issue, therefore, stimulates reflection on the innovation of the planning system for the construction of sustainable and resilient territories, in which protected areas can be part of a unitary strategy to combat environmental fragility, particularly related to climate change. In this perspective, it is important to understand specifically the role and response that protected areas can give, both for mitigation and adaptation, as reported in Table 1. Table 1. The response of protected areas to climate change. Elaboration of the authors, based on Dudley N et al. (2010). [19] MITIGATION Accumulation Prevent the loss of carbon already present in vegetation and soil • 312 Gt of carbon is stored in global protected areas (15% global carbon stock) Capture

Sequester additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in natural ecosystems • The protection regime to which protected areas are subject guarantees a better state of health than ecosystems outside them. This leads to greater catch potential than degraded habitats

ADAPTATION Protection

Maintain ecosystem integrity, mitigate local climate, reduce risks and impacts of extreme events such as storms, droughts and sea level rise • Floods: provide space for floodwater dispersion and absorb water flow; • Landslides: stabilize soil and snow to stop slipping and slow down movement once the slide is in progress; • Storm surges: block storm surges with coral reefs, reef islands, mangroves, dunes and swamps; • Drought and desertification: reduce grazing pressure and maintain watersheds and water retention in the soil; • Fires: limit invasion in areas at risk of fire, maintain traditional management systems

Supply

Maintain essential ecosystem services that help people cope with changes in water supply, fisheries, disease and agricultural productivity caused by climate change • Water: purer and more flowing water; • Food: protecting crop wild relatives to facilitate crop breeding and pollination services; providing sustainable food for communities; • Health: protecting ecosystems also slows the spread of pathogens

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3 Integrate Climate Planning into the Management of Protected Areas. The Case of the Hautes Vosges in the LIFE Natur’Adapt Project 3.1 Materials and Methods The contextualization of the research field has highlighted on the one hand the conspicuous literature related to the growing awareness of the central role of protected areas in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies: on the other hand, the present study has pointed out the scarcity of experiments on the subject, in particular in the context of European study, with consequent research demand for the definition of common lines of action to be pursued in protected areas and beyond their borders. In Italy, for example, the only attempt was made with the ministerial programme “Parchi per il clima” [23], developed by the “Ministero della Transizione Ecologica” from 2019 to 2021 and aimed to financing interventions and actions for climate adaptation and mitigation, only for National Park. However, the planning system of protected areas, and of territory in general, was not taken into account, focusing on spot interventions not included in a comprehensive strategy. In order to contribute, through a planning framework of protected areas, to the definition of integrated and multiscalar references for the resilience of territories, the research activity focused on the French experience of the Life Natur’Adapt project, led by the Regional Reserves of France with several European partners including the Europarc Foundation. In particular, the test site of the Hautes Vosges, in the Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges, one of the test areas of the project, which has experimented with the elaboration of a Vulnerability Diagnosis and a Climate Adaptation Plan, is analyzed. 3.2 The Life Natur’Adapt Project: for Adaptive Parks The Life Natur’Adapt project [24] is part of the European Union’s “Life” funding programme for environmental and climate actions, and is co-financed by the French Ministère de la transition écologique and the Office Français de la biodiversité. It is a five-year experimental project (2018–2023) involving ten French and European partners under the guidance of the Réserves Naturelles de France and twenty-one pilot sites. The main objective is to trigger a transition towards the adaptive management of protected areas against climate change, laying the foundations for dynamic collective learning. Specifically, it aims to test new approaches, methods, and tools to be shared with protected area managers to support them and collaborate in integrating climate change into their practice (Fig. 1). Phases and methodology. The project is divided into four phases: the first aims to create a shared knowledge framework that analyzes and integrates climate aspects, climate vulnerability, and the current management of protected areas and ecosystems; the second consists of the development and preliminary testing of a management method on six pilot sites; the third sees the actual experimentation on fifteen protected natural areas; the last phase involves the dissemination of the results in France and throughout Europe.

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Fig. 1. The phases of the Life Natur’Adapt project. Source: LIFE Natur’Adapt Homepage, https:// naturadapt.com/ [23].

The methodology [25] developed within the project aims to facilitate the adaptation of management to climate change, with the aim of changing the way in which the management of protected areas is conceived and achieving a paradigm shift. Therefore, it is a process that is primarily carried out iteratively, step by step. With this in mind, the Life Natur’Adapt programme adopts an iterative, integrated, inter-scalar and site-specific approach. It also prepares a methodological guide for protected areas throughout Europe, so that they can experiment with the method and “wear the glasses of climate change”, one slogan of the project [13]. In the test areas and pilot sites, on the other hand, the project included an experiment whose results were: – a Diagnosis of vulnerabilities and potential, Based on a synthetic, integrated and iterative forecast analysis of four representative components: climate, natural heritage, human activities and management; – an Adaptation Plan, Which provides for the construction of an adaptation strategy and specific measures and actions. Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges. One of the test sites, where the Natur’Adapt methodology was tested is the PNR des Ballons des Vosges, in particular the massif of the Hautes Vosges. The PNR des Ballons des Vosges [26] is a French regional park, created in June 1989 on the initiative of the former regions: Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté (today in the regions Grand Est and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté). The park is organized around the Hautes Vosges, the highest part of the homonymous massif with peaks that exceed 1,300 m above sea level. It is one of the largest and most densely populated regional parks in France: it includes 201 municipalities and a total population of 251,707 inhabitants (2021), it also borders and includes, in part, several urban areas such as Colmar, Mulhouse and Belfort. The Park approved its third Charte du Parc 2012–2027 by Ministerial Decree of 2 May 2012 [27]. This is a strategic policy document that defines the aspects of heritage (natural, cultural and landscape) and sustainable development to be taken into account in spatial planning and management. The Charte does not have a regulatory value but a

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guideline, and urban-territorial plans, such as Schéme de Cohérence Territorial (SCoT) and Plan Local d’Urbanism (PLU), must be consistent with it. The document identifies three territorial areas related to challenges and objectives to be achieved: in the Hautes Vosges, the natural “heart” of the park, under strong tourist pressures the aim is to reconcile the reception of visitors with the conservation of heritage; in the Vallées et Piémonts threatened by urban expansion the challenge is to maintain the vitality of local communities and preserve their identity, while controlling urban development; finally, in the Plateau Des 1000 étangs, a wetland of Community interest affected by industrial decline, the objective is that of sustainable development involving the local population. The strategy of the Charte is based on some lines of intervention: – Creation, at several levels, of the Trame verte et bleue; – Sustainable and integrated urban planning, aimed at the reuse of the existing, which does not set uniform quantitative limits but principles to be applied in an integrated way in the Charte du Parc, in the Schéme de cohérence territorial and in the Plan local d’urbanisme; – Development of renewable energy; – Enhancement of “soft” mobility. The Charte integrates, albeit weakly, the climate issue by providing for climate mitigation and adaptation measures, such as: strengthening public and “soft” mobility, development of renewable energy, resource economy, and regenerating existing buildings. Experimentation in the Hautes Vosges. The objectives of the trial were [28]: – Formulate a past vision (a retrospective of at least 30 years), current and future of the territory from the point of view of climate change, according to the time horizons 2030, 2050 and/or 2100; – Define the actions to be implemented for adaptation to climate change and draw up an Adaptation Plan; – Build a technical path to propose to policy makers during the review of the next Charte of the PNR Ballons des Vosges (2027) for the area in question. The documents that have been produced are: – Diagnosis of vulnerabilities and potential with respect to climate change; – Climate change Adaptation Plan. Vulnerability diagnosis. Past, present and future climate analyses reveal homogeneous trends in both plains and mountains on the three sides of the region. The forecasts see a progressive increase in temperatures, an increase in heat waves, a decrease in water reserves and snowfall in the mountains, an increase in intense rainfall but also an increase in periods of drought. Starting from these forecasts, the document analyzes the vulnerability of the territory to climate change, highlighting a particular gravity with respect to the water component, human activities (agriculture and forestry) and the invasion of alien species [29]. Adaptation plan. In the adaptation plan [30], a strategy has been defined which is based on four thematic lines (Fig. 2) :

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Fig. 2. Summary diagram of the adaptation strategy of the PNR des Ballons des Vosges. Elaboration of the authors, based on Greuzat Badré A (2022 [30].

– – – –

Conservation, restoration and management of ecosystems; Monitoring and knowledge; Awareness and communication; Territorial animation.

Adaptation measures were then identified in order to reduce negative impacts, in particular by limiting human pressures and increasing ecosystem resilience. They concern the Hautes Vosges area, but also the zone of interdependence (the entire territory of the park) or more specifically some components of the natural heritage. Some of the proposed measures consist of [31]: – Preserve and restore natural environments; – Promote species movement and ecological connections; – Strengthen the green and blue network inside and outside the reference scope and boundaries of the park; – Provide areas of “free evolution” for natural components; – Control urbanization and enhance existing settlements; – Increase soil permeability; – Enter riparian wooded areas; – Insert trees also in cultivated areas, to move from agriculture to agroforestry.

4 Conclusions The illustration of the case study recalls the need for more experimentation on the theme of territorial planning resilient to climate change, with particular reference to protected areas, such as reservoirs of ecosystem services and nodes of ecological networks. The case of the Hautes Vosges is useful to observe the results of the experimentation of the Life Natur’Adapt method. An adaptive and integrated method, which succeeds in the attempt to approach the protected territory by reading it in a unitary and systemic way, looking at the mutual relationships between natural and cultural heritage, settlements, infrastructures and settled communities. In addition, the experimentation also fits

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perfectly into the ordinary planning system French, which will resume in the updating of the Charter of the park and therefore in the urban plans, the strategies and measures contained in the Adaptation Plan.

References 1. IPCC. Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. IPCC, Geneva (2022) 2. CBD Global Biodiversity Outlook 5. CBD, Montreal (2020) 3. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Petersen, T. (eds.): WWF. Living Planet Report 2020 - Bending the curve of biodiversity loss. WWF, Gland (2020) 4. Brondizio, E.S., Settele, J., Díaz, S., Ngo, H.T., (eds.): IPBES Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES Secretariat, Bonn (2019) 5. UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 6. UNFCCC: Paris Agreement. France, Paris (2015) 7. UNDRR. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Sendai (2015) 8. EU. A European Green Deal Homepage. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/ priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 9. EU. A new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change Homepage. https://ec.europa.eu/ commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_663. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 10. Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica. Piano Nazionale di Adattamento ai Cambiamenti Climatici Homepage. https://va.mite.gov.it/it-IT/Oggetti/Documentazione/ 7726/11206?pagina=2. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 11. Uras, S., Poli, I.: Strategie di rigenerazione urbana ecosystem-based per l’adattamento al climate change. In: Talia, M., (ed.) Le nuove comunità urbane e il valore strategico della conoscenza. Atti della Conferenza internazionale UrbanPromo XVII Edizione, pp. 252–259. Planum Publisher, Rome-Milan (2020) 12. IUCN. Issues Brief. Ecosystem-based Adaptation. Gland (2017) 13. UNEP, CBD. Decision adopted by the conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its tenth meeting x/33. Biodiversity and climate change. Nagoya (2010). https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-10/cop-10-dec-33-en.pdf 14. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Report of the Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change. Technical Series No. 41. Montreal (2009) 15. Seddon, N., et al.: Ecosystem-based adaptation: a win–win formula for sustainability in a warming world?. IIED, London (2020). https://www.iied.org/17364iied 16. United Nations Environment Programme. Ecosystem-based Adaption and Forestry. Nairobi (2022). https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/40406 17. Dudley, N., Ali, N., MacKinnon, K.: Natural Solutions. Protected Areas Helping to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Briefing. IUCN, WCPA, Gland, Switzerland (2017) 18. Dudley, N. (ed.): Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. IUCN, Gland (2008) 19. Dudley, N., Stolton, S., Belukurov, A., Krueger, L., Lopukhine, N., et al.: Natural Solutions: Protected Areas Helping People Cope with Climate Change. IUCN/WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS, World Bank, WWF, Gland, Washington DC, New York (2010) 20. UNEP-WCMC, IUCN. Protected Planet Report 2020. Cambridge, Gland (2021) 21. UN-Habitat. World Cities Report 2020. The value of Sustainable urbanization (2020)

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22. Gross, J.E., Woodley, S., Welling, L.A., Watson, J.E.M., (eds.): Adapting to Climate Change. Guidance for protected area managers and planners. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 24, IUCN, Gland (2016) 23. Parchi per il clima Homepage. https://www.mase.gov.it/notizie/parchi-il-clima-al-il-nuovoprogramma-l-efficientamento-energetico. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 24. LIFE Natur’Adapt Homepage. https://naturadapt.com/. Accessed 16 Aug 2023 25. Coudurier, C., et al.: Guide méthodologique d’élaboration d’un diagnostic de vulnérabilité et d’opportunité et d’un plan d’adaptation à l’échelle d’une aire protégée. LIFE Natur’Adapt – Réserves Naturelles de France (2023) 26. Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges Homepage. https://www.parc-ballons-vosges.fr/. Accessed 16 May 2023 27. Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges. Charte 2012–2027 (2012) 28. Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges. Adapting to climate change in the ‘Ballons des Vosges’ Regional Nature Park vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan summary. LIFE Natur’Adapt – Réserves Naturelles de France (2022) 29. Greuzat Badré, A.: Diagnostic de vulnérabilité au changement climatique des Hautes Vosges du PNBRBV. LIFE Natur’Adapt – Rapport Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges (2022) 30. Greuzat Badré, A.: Plan d’adaptation des Hautes Vosges au changement climatique. LIFE Natur’Adapt – Rapport Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges (2022) 31. Greuzat Badré, A.: Plan d’adaptation des Hautes Vosges au changement climatique. LIFE Natur’Adapt – Rapport PNR naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges (2022)

Urban Coastal Landscape. The Fragile Buffer Areas of Bacoli, Palermo and Termoli to Switch the Decay into Development Agostino Catalano1 , Paola De Joanna2(B) , Silvia Fabbrocino2 , Dora Francese2 , Vincenzo Ilardi3 , Giulia Maisto2 , and Rosa Maria Vitrano3 1 University of Molise, Molise, Italy 2 Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy

[email protected] 3 University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Abstract. The urban coastal landscape is now at the center of new attention, as a result of cultural, social, economic, and real estate evolution. A new approach is actually clearly expressed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) missions, which identify as priorities those actions for mitigating hydrogeological risks, safeguarding green areas and biodiversity, ensuring the health of citizens, and attracting investments. Starting from the interference between anthropic pressure and the need to preserve the biotic and abiotic environment, this work is aimed at highlighting the impact of the built environment on natural ecosystems in the urban coastal landscape. This study will be conducted on three sample areas in southern Italy, representative of Mediterranean biodiversity. Referring to these cases, a study will be carried out, considering both factors of anthropic pressure and those relating to ecosystems and their degree of naturality. Keywords: Waterfront · ecosystem · regeneration

1 Introduction - Objectives for the Moderation of Human Pressure on Fragile Peri-Urban Areas The themes of fragile landscapes and climate change require a review of the contents and meanings of urban public space as a frontier terrain between users and the environment. The impact of human presence and activities on the components of the natural system has modified 75% of terrestrial ecosystems and 66% of oceanic ones, causing the transformation of numerous ecosystems and the extinction of many living species [1]. The urban coastal landscape is now at the center of new attention as a result of the cultural, social, but also economic, and real estate evolution of the first urban redevelopments of port areas. The Waterfront cannot be considered a simple demarcation between water and land but is a portion of territory—the mainland—that has a strong connection with the sea, and that man, over the centuries, has shaped with urban settlements and infrastructure [2]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 597–609, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_52

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Starting from the interference between anthropic pressure and the need to preserve the biotic and abiotic environment, we aim to highlight the impact of the built environment on natural ecosystems, choosing the fragile landscape of the waterfronts as a study sample. In this ecosystem, the ecological landscape and the environmental substrate merge into the material and social components, giving life to complex processes that are often the cause of degradation, degeneration, abandonment, and neglect. The study proposes a methodology to identify the indicators useful for the evaluation of sustainability processes in transformation; it is calibrated in reference to the specificities of three study areas, representative of different environmental conditions on Mediterranean coasts and meaningful for the region to which they belong. Termoli is a settlement on a very short coastal segment on the Adriatic Sea, the only outlet to the sea in Molise, for this reason it has undergone a strong pression from the industrial and inhabiting growth; the area “Bandita-Acqua dei Corsari” on the east side of the Palermo’s waterfront was, up to ‘70s, characterised by high interest because here biodiversity is merged with man’s settlement from the Neolithic, while, in last 50 years, the urban growth has turned this area in a landfill of building materials; the Bacoli’s waterfront is part of the “Parco dei Campi Flegrei” area where highest natural, archaeological, and cultural values are recognized but they are seriously at risk because of the touristic exploitation and illegal building. All these areas are covered by Integrated Management policies for Coastal Zones.

2 Elements for an Intervention Methodology The role of Cities is considered crucial in developing and testing effective strategies capable of increasing the resilience of territories meant as Antropic Resilience, Climatic Resilience, and Biodiversity Resilience. With reference to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the 2030 Agenda, the following priority aspects are considered: protection of natural capital and biodiversity, restoring ecosystems with nature-based solutions, defense and restoration of degraded soil, protection of water resources, oceans, and seas, efficient use of resources and circular economy. Starting from the specifics of the studied areas, a methodology is defined for determining the relationship between sustainability indicators and resilience impact zones. The study presents the methodological apparatus defined to structure a monitoring and control tool for urban waterfronts to direct regeneration actions towards compatible and effective solutions, selecting those most able to mitigate impacts. The following criteria for the discretization of the study areas have been obtained, referring to: – – – – – –

degree of urbanization (with different densities: natural rural, natural anthropized); evolution of anthropization; climatic and microclimatic bands; destabilizing tendencies and behaviours; state of degradation and degeneration, man-made and natural; identification of risks.

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The sample areas have the following common characteristics: being located in a border area between water and land, integrating both natural and anthropic processes, both urbanization and rurality; at the same time, they present characteristics of diversity in terms of bioregion (climate, flora and fauna, urban layout). The analysis methodology, elaborated starting from the characteristics of the sample areas, considers distinctly two categories of elements: – agents of anthropic pressure (built environment, mobility, accessibility, infrastructure, etc.) – areas of impact of the natural ecosystem (flora, fauna, CC, abiotic systems, waters, etc.). The analyses on anthropic and natural factors are oriented towards identifying those human actions that trigger degradation processes and are independent of other natural factors such as climate change, the migrations of fauna and vegetative species, the natural hydrogeological regime, in order to thus be able to isolate the direct and indirect drivers of degradation, i.e., those factors responsible for the effects of decay and impoverishment of the ecosystem. Based on the degradation drivers, a system of indicators is identified that allows the measurement, evaluation and monitoring of pathological or risk conditions that can arise in these borderline contexts between different ecosystems, both in terms of pollution and changes in the characteristics of the habitats. From the susceptibility of the indicators, we could deduce the range of stable and unstable areas on which to base the evaluation matrices in relation to the single contexts. Monitoring soil properties and interactions between surface and groundwater allows for the selection of indicators that are informative of the effects of environmental impact and land use on the natural setting and soil quality. Soil and water quality indicators are useful tools for management programs aimed at the conservation and recovery of terrestrial ecosystems and environmental quality. Based on the measurement of the indicators, n evaluation matrices can be developed in relation to the individual contexts based on an innovative range procedure oriented towards the Ecological Footprint. In order to guarantee the overall health level of a coastal site both in terms of anthropic and natural life and habitat it requires the definition of criteria that guide the survey on the overall level of impact on the natural and man-made environment, so as to predict future risks, and instruct in the definition of guidelines for future urban regeneration works [3]. Referring to the studied areas, the indicators are considered in the following groups: Urbanized Systems Indicators (USI), Soil Indicators (SI), Biotic System Indicators (BSI), Cultural Indicators (CI). In Table 1, the assumed indicators are listed, for each of them, in the application for this study, the value 1 is assumed if relevant to the impact on the considered Resilience Areas, and the value 0, if not. For implementing results, a detailed evaluation could be developed to define threshold levels of the indicators in order to detail risk conditions in anthropic pressure on waterfront areas; based on the results returned by the matrices, the corrective actions necessary to contain the indicators within the tolerance ranges can be identified.

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Urbanized Systems Indicators

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usi1 settlement dynamics

si1 resistance to erosion of outcropping lithologies

bsi1 genetic diversity of tree species

ci1 distance from the original pre-anthropic landscape

usi2 industrial settlements

si2 soil stability

bsi2 agricultural crops

ci2 historical archaeological pre-existence

usi3 illegal building

si3 presence of streams/lakes

bsi3 biodiversity

ci3 practicability of non-urbanized areas (paths and farm roads)

bsi4 riparian vegetation and low scrub

ci4 recognition of pre-existing settlements

usi4 road connections si4 clinometry

usi5 railway connections

si5 surface runoff

usi6 presence of landfills

si6 soil pollution

usi7 demographic trend

si7 water pollution si8 sewerage collection

3 Termoli Case Study The challenge dictated by the transformation process of the built environment of such a particular area, to identify issues that link environment, society and economy, makes it necessary to field new strategies of interpretation and governance, able to combine the cognitive and decision-making tools deriving from different disciplines and to promote a more conscious territorial planning. The implementation of such strategies can be fostered by the creative and targeted use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as emphasized by the EuropIA Conferences, with particular reference to the CrossPlatform of EuropIA 13: Connecting brain - Shaping the World - Collaborative Design Space applications of ICT to architecture, building engineering, civil engineering, urban design, and policy analysis interaction of different disciplines. 3.1 Environmental Characteristics The regeneration of Termoli’s waterfront cannot disregard an analysis of the settlement dynamics typical of Molise’s areas and correlated with its status as a ‘diffuse city’, which developed by incorporating the surrounding minor centers. For a long time, the city of

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Termoli consisted only of the Borgo Vecchio, the so-called ‘old town’; the urban area, however, extended as far as the railway, which constituted the first major obstacle to the expansion of the coastal centre. Starting in the 1970s, various events contributed to changing this layout. The completion of the A14 motorway and the consequent opening of the Termoli motorway tollgate led to a demographic boom in the Molise coastal area. On the other hand, the establishment in 1972 of the industrial development nucleus in the Rivolta del Re area and the arrival of the FIAT group governed the process of industrialisation of lower Molise, tying its fate to the extraordinary intervention in southern Italy. In this period, the spread of illegal building profoundly transformed the Termoli coastline. The Molise coast was, in fact, completely invested by residential building with the birth of a continuous urban fabric from north to south, extending uninterruptedly from Petacciato (in the north) to Campomarino (in the south). 3.2 Geological and Landscape Features The heterogeneity of the Molise territory, which is represented in its entirety by soils of a sedimentary nature, amply describes the geological characteristics of the entire Apennine chain [4]. In particular, the eastern and periadriatic sectors of the regional territory, in which the Termoli waterfront falls, are characterised by sandy deposits of Plio-Pleistocene transgressive-regressive cycles [5]. The great variability in the erosion resistance of the outcropping lithologies gives the region an articulated morphology. With reference to the central-eastern sectors, closest to the Adriatic Sea, where the less conservative successions prevail, such as the flyschoid clayey and sandy-clayey terms and the marine and continental Plio-Pleistocene clayey and arenaceous-conglomeratic successions, the territory is characterised by an often-undulating morphological profile. These soils are generally characterised by dense vegetation and are often the site of agricultural crops. The morphological evolution, especially of the flyschoid terms, is in places due to gravitational movements of considerable extension and, in some cases, modeled by runoff water that has determined gully-type forms of erosion. The coastal strip is characterised by deposition processes, even though there are areas where coastal erosion, due to sea currents and their interaction with river currents, is prevalent. For example, the high erosion of the coastal strip north of Termoli, at the height of the municipality of Montenero di Bisaccia, and the erosion of the stretch of coastline between Termoli and Campomarino [6] are noted. This sector of the regional territory, although heavily impacted, still has patches of naturalness such as the fossil dune systems in the municipalities of Petacciato and Campomarino, colonised by Juniperus oxycedrus subsp. Macrocarpa and Juniperus phoenica and by sclerophyll species typical of the Mediterranean maquis [7]. In the Termoli Municipality, on the other hand, the peculiarities of these areas have made it possible to identify two Sites of Community Importance (SCI) within the Natura 2000 Network Project: the Foce del Trigno - Marina di Petacciato SCI (IT7228221) and the Foce del Biferno - Litorale di Campomarino SCI (IT7222216). The recent ISPRA report, however, notes precisely in these areas the presence of biotopes that are still lacking forms of protection or management of a conservationist type, making evident the

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great vulnerability of an area characterised by a high ecological value and a great environmental fragility, deriving mainly from the structures and articulations of urban settlements that interfere with erosion and sedimentation processes and favour phenomena of contamination of surface and underground waters. Cultural Indicators CI us us us us us us us si si si si si si si si bs bs bs bs ci ci ci ci i1 i2 i3 i4 i5 i6 i7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 i1 i2 i3 i4 1 2 3 4 Urbanized Systems Indicators USI

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4 The Case Study of Palermo 4.1 Environmental Factor and Eco-Sustainable Use The landscape of the urban waterfront in the municipality of Palermo, between Monte Gallo and Monte Aspra, appears to have been profoundly modified and remodelled over time by man, since the Neolithic period (Fig. 2). In this coastal stretch, there is a succession of beaches and cliffs, the latter usually with outcrops of compact limestone typical of the Panormide platform, in some places with banks of calcarenite of recent Quaternary deposition. The area falls within a stretch of sandy shoreline to the east of the Oreto River, which feeds it, and which, until the 1970s, was used for bathing activities. The loads of pollutants transported by the river and the use of the area as a dump for ‘waste materials’, resulting from the demolition of old houses, led to the abandonment of all forms of use and the establishment of bathing bans,

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which are still in force. The applicative potential of the research for the Palermo area concerns the regeneration of the urban coastal landscape aimed at environmental/social wellbeing with a view to a substantial change in intervention scenarios based on the possible re-balancing of natural and artificial systems. In terms of socio-economic impact, recognising economic development as a factor that sometimes exerts strong environmental pressures (on human health and ecosystems), the research intends to propose new status and incidence indicators (amount of pollution, over-exploitation of resources - soil water and genetic diversity of tree species) that will make it possible to identify undesirable changes to be combated (concentrations of nitrates, pesticides in the water environment, etc.), but also contexts to be preserved (habitats valuable for biodiversity, diversified agricultural landscapes, etc.), i.e. the elements that have a negative and positive impact on the environment [8]. Once the status and incidence of pressures have been established, they must be linked to the determining driving forces, since it is these driving forces that are the means of responding to environmental pressures that can generate a new and more balanced development of the coastal area. In terms of scientific/strategic impact, the research is elaborating and testing the use of new ‘specific’ sustainability and response indicators, elaborated as possible models that contain to varying degrees all the peculiarities of the Mediterranean coastal landscape and its regeneration potential. From the integrated representation of several indicators, we will derive the ecological index, which is capable of assessing multiple and combined impact agents and effects, including the chemical-physical characteristics of the environment and, in particular, both the biological components living in it and the ecological processes taking place, and the pressures and impacts acting in the system, in order to assess the intensity of the degradation of all these components [9]. Such a multimetric index, i.e., based on different indicators and parameters, will make it possible to assess different and competing elements: territory, natural resources, landscape, also in its aesthetic and cultural value, healthiness as a living condition. In terms of project technology impact, the various elements of the development matrix will form the nodes of a pathway that includes monitoring of the environment and assessment of the effectiveness of the measures to be planned with regard to - climate resilience: degree of adaptation to future climate change uncertainties, including sea level rise, warming and drought; – anthropogenic resilience: degree of adaptation and/or counteracting the negative impacts of human processes, including pressure from tourism and urban development on the coast; – productive capacity: assessment of the economic aspirations of the coastal community to provide a competitive asset for the local economy with a high content of natural and economic values; – attractiveness capacity: creation of a distinctive marketing image on which to attract investment, to promote a cycle of self-support and sustainable growth; – healthy capacity: development of design solutions that provide a healthy environment for people, natural resources, and wildlife.

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Fig. 2. The waterfront landscape of Palermo,from Monte Gallo to Monte Aspra. (Author archive).

4.2 Naturalistic Factor and Local Biological Heritage From the point of view of the degree of naturalness, the area of intervention is the furthest removed from the original pre-anthropic landscape. In the absolute lack of elements that can be recognised as belonging to an original landscape, it is considered that compromise solutions must be found, as the only constraint or limitation in the area is the wind and the presence of the sea. In order to give functionality to the environmental recomposition project, it is deemed necessary to proceed in stages: initially, all the species that make up the “real vegetation” must be surveyed, the only ones that will be able to provide useful indications relative to the “potential vegetation”, after checking for “invasive” species, considered today one of the major causes of biodiversity loss. Once the contingent of species to be used for the redevelopment of the area has been identified, it will be necessary to plan a planting scheme that is functional with the planning and use requirements (paths, rest areas, recreation areas, services, etc.) and that at the same time can harmoniously and with continuity, with the existing ornamental species in the green spaces already created or with the tree species of the street trees in the neighbourhoods involved in the coastal redevelopment plan. On the basis of these segments of analysis, a line of research of a technological and ecological nature aimed at the defence of the built environment has therefore taken shape, which has its epistemological foundations in the analysis of heritage and its distinctive features in a bio-constructive relationship with nature.

Urban Coastal Landscape. The Fragile Buffer Areas Urbanized Systems Ind. USI

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Fig. 3. Resilience Indicators/Areas Report for the Palermo study area.

Fig. 4. The Flegrean Area

5 The Case Study of Bacoli 5.1 Environmental Factor and Eco-Sustainable Use The area of interest is included in the territory of the Municipality of Bacoli, of the metropolitan city of Naples, the territory, of volcanic origin, belongs to the Campi Flegrei system and, the area where the town stands, is characterized by an alignment of seven volcanoes, which determines a particular orographic configuration (Fig. 4). The geology

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of Campi Flegrei and Bacoli is extremely complex and fascinating, with volcanic and sedimentary features that reflect the geological evolution of the region over the millennia. The Campi Flegrei are the result of a prolonged volcanic activity that began more than 39,000 years ago which led to the formation of a vast volcanic field characterized by calderas, craters, scoria cones and pyroclastic deposits. One of the main geological elements of Campi Flegrei is the Pozzuoli caldera, a vast crater depression that extends over an area of about 13 square kilometers. Along the very articulated coasts, and on the slopes of eroded volcanic cones, dating back to the Greco-Roman era, over the centuries settlements have superimposed themselves which form a fabric rich in historical, archaeological, and naturalistic interests. A particular richness and concentration of sites of great interest in an area of only 13 km2 which are in conditions of abandonment and exposure to indiscriminate and unaware uses of the impoverishment they cause to the ecosystem and cultural heritage. Since 2016, the Municipality of Bacoli has been involved in the Program for the Archaeological Park of the Municipalities of the Phlegrean Area (Development and Cohesion Fund 2014–2020). Among the significant aspects that motivated the choice of the case study, the following are underlined: - close link between urban space and archaeological heritage; - close link between urban space and natural heritage; - presence of paths, albeit fragmented, linking archaeological and naturalistic resources. Archaeological and naturalistic aspects intersect in a network which constitutes the greatest wealth of the territory. The risk factors that affect this patrimony are linked both to the consistency of the assets and to the use of the assets. Among the development activities, one of the most reckless and self-injurious is the tourism exploitation of the waterfront that, with the integration of infrastructure and services aimed at satisfying the demand for tourism, it compromises the very source of attraction and the territorial value [10]. The evolution of urbanization in the Phlegrean area in the last part of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century was strongly influenced by the strengthening of the capitalist enterprise. This process has led to important changes in the organization of the territory, with the appearance of large industrial plants and specialized infrastructure. Industrial development has not been without negative consequences for the environment in the Phlegraean area. The urban growth that occurred in that period took place without adequate territorial control and planning, leading to a distortion of the landscape and the morpho-structural characteristics of the Phlegrean cities. Cities such as Bacoli, Monte di Procida, Quarto and Pozzuoli have gone beyond their natural borders, ignoring the characteristics of the surrounding area. Furthermore, the increase in building construction has led to the progressive disappearance of the Mediterranean scrub vegetation and terraced cultivations, which were once typical of the local landscape. An important factor that contributed to this transformation was the establishment of the Baia shipyards, which led to a discontinuity in the development of the coastal area, once the site of Roman imperial villas and grand thermal baths that exploited the proximity to the sea. Another consequence of uncontrolled urbanization has been the increase in population; in the course of sixty years, from 1951 to 2011, the total permanent population of Campi Flegrei more than doubled; in the municipality of Bacoli the number of inhabitants increased from 1500 to 26648 [11].

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5.2 Naturalistic Factor and Local Biological Heritage

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The transition environments that extend from the coastline, delimiting the marine ecosystem, towards the more internal terrestrial ecosystems are very peculiar. In fact, in them, there are interconnections not only between abiotic and biotic factors of the ecosystem but also with anthropic factors. In the study area, the coastal landscape is made up of a large spatial heterogeneity of ecosystems deriving from the different uses of the territory by human activities and expressing the human impact on the level of naturalness of the territory. In particular, the coastal landscape is made up of natural ecosystems (riparian vegetation and low scrub) interspersed with ecosystems with different degrees of anthropization (agricultural areas, grazing areas, small urban centres). The heterogeneous coastal landscape is dynamic because, being the result of the interaction between the environment and man, it is affected by the continuous changes in land use and the extent of the various human activities [12]. Human well-being strictly depends on the quality of ecosystems that provide a series of services. The continuous transformation of areas with a high level of naturalness into anthropized areas (agriculture, pasture, urban) and the fragmentation of the habitat reduce the functionality of ecosystems and therefore the benefits for humans deriving from ecosystem services. Population explosion and land use change are among the main causes of habitat fragmentation.

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Fig. 5. Resilience Indicators/Areas Report for the Bacoli study area.

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For management purposes, it is necessary to restore the connection of isolated habitats through the design of ecological corridors in order to favour the continuity of animal and plant flows, conserve or recover biodiversity, and give the territory a great landscape, cultural, social value and cheapness.

6 Conclusions The analysis of the transformation processes of the coastal landscape, a place of friction between the urban element and the natural system, is aimed at refining knowledge on the sustainability indicators of urban and territorial regeneration. The described methodology is based on the peculiarities of the sample areas; the main use of the obtained results from the evaluation system of the incidence of human pressure on coastal landscapes is to establish any considerations on the connection between the pre-existing buildings and the natural habitats, in order to direct regeneration actions towards compatible and effective solutions in terms of impact mitigation. Referring to the graphics in Figs. 1,3, and 5, indicators are shown for each study area; the main impactive systems are recognizable in relation to the resilience field. The application of the proposed methodology returns data on the sudden or gradual changes that act in the habitats of the coastal and river systems, to guide the interventions to be adopted to maintain the resilience capacity of the ecological systems and to guarantee the prospects for the future well-being and development of the local community. Through this representation it is possible to control how much new future scenarios of transformation can affect the actual conditions by increasing or decreasing the resilience performance of anthropic, climatic and biodiversity. Acknowledgment. The contribution is the result of a common reflection by the authors. Despite this, the paragraph §3 is to be attributed to Catalano A. and Fabbrocino S., the §4.1 to Vitrano R., the §4.2 to Ilardi V., the §5.1 to De Joanna P. and Francese D., the §5.2 to Maisto G., while the introductory paragraph §1, §2 and §6 are to be attributed to all the authors.

References 1. IPBES (2019): Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Díaz, and H. T. Ngo (editors). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany 2. Francese, D.: Technologies for Sustainable Urban Design and Bioregionalist Regeneration. Routledge, UK (2016) 3. Francese, D., Buoninconti, L.: Progettare la rigenerazione del waterfront mediterraneo: soluzioni tecnologiche sostenibili e flessibili In: AAVV Il progetto di architettura come intersezione di saperi, Proarch, Napoli, pp. 1048–1053 (2019) 4. Signorini, 1935; Manfredini, 1963; Crescenti, 1967; Scrocca & Tozzi, 1999; Di Luzio et al. (1999) 5. Di Carluccio et al., Fabbrocino et al. (2016) 6. ISPRA, Report 348/2021 7. Stanisci (2007)

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8. Vitrano, R.M.: Principles of resilience and regenerative design in coastal environment. In: Tucci, F., (a cura di), Resilience between mitigation and adactation, pp. 84–97. Palermo University Press (2020) 9. Vitrano, R.M.: Sustainability and environmental transition: principles and design guidelines. In: Arabacioglu, B.C., Arabacioglu, P. (eds.) (a cura di), 7th International Conference on New Trends in Architecture and Interior Design, pp. 66–76, Istanbul, Ed. ICNTAD (2021) 10. De Joanna, P., Corbisiero, F.: Tourism and landscape: conflicts, cooperation and resilience. In: atti del Convegno Landscape at Risk - Section 4 - Landscape at risk of overexploration and tourism, SMC special issue n. 4, Luciano Editore, Napoli (2020) 11. Leone, U., D’Antonio, M., Orsi, G.: the urban development of campi Flegrei, Italy. In: Orsi, G., D’Antonio, M., Civetta, L. (eds.) Campi Flegrei. Active Volcanoes of the World. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37060-1_15 12. Maisto, G., et al.: Evaluation of tourism impact on soil metal accumulation through single and integrated indices. Sci. Total. Environ. 682, 685–691 (2019)

A Methodological Approach to Improve the Definition of Local Climate Zones in Complex Morphological Contexts. Application to the Case Study of Naples Metropolitan Area Carlo Gerundo(B)

and Marialuce Stanganelli

University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. With the intensification of climate change and urbanization processes, the topic of heat loads in urban areas has been receiving increasing attention from scholars and planners. In response to the pressing need to fill the gap between urban climatology and spatial planning issues, Canadian geographers Stewart and Oke introduced the concept of Local Climate Zones (LCZ). The main goal of LCZ system is to define morpho-typological (urban) surface classes that contribute to the creation of local climate conditions, mainly related to heat loads, based on a characteristic range of values of given parameters (Sky View Factor, permeability ratio, height and distance between buildings, anthropogenic heat fluxes, etc.). The LCZ concept was applied to understand which urban/rural spatial configurations were relevant for analyzing the urban climate. Although LCZ are an effective tool to make planners and designers aware of how urban configurations can impact on city temperatures and heat wave risks, they are rarely used as knowledge for climate-proof urban planning and design actions. Actually, the LCZ system suffers from some limitations, such as it lays on a topographically isotropic space and therefore does not take into account the relevant effect of the third dimension in lowering or enhancing heat loads. This paper propose an upgrade of the LCZ system through an integration with indicators able to describe topographical configurations with significant effects on surface heat balance. An application of the proposed method to Naples case study is presented, advantages, some limitations and future research prospects are discussed. Keywords: Local climate zone · climate change · climate-proof planning

1 Introduction Starting from the first decade of the third millennium, scholars from all over the world started to analyze the Urban Heat Island phenomenon, trying to understand what are the specific features of urban areas generating an increasing in temperature compared with surrounding rural areas. It is generally acknowledged that main influencing factors are © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 610–620, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_53

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related to: building materials features, percentage of green areas, presence of sea or water basins, structure of urban fabric and wind exposure. Starting from these assumptions and aiming at providing a framework for urban heat island studies, Canadian geographers Stewart and Oke introduced the concept of Local Climate Zones (LCZ) [1, 2]. The main goal of LCZ system is to define morpho-typological (urban) surface classes that contribute to the creation of local climate conditions, mainly related to thermal loads, based on a characteristic range of values of given parameters (Sky-View Factor, permeability ratio, height and distance between buildings, anthropogenic heat fluxes, etc.). The LCZ system was developed to enhance our understanding of which urban/rural spatial configurations were relevant for analyzing and to provide a framework for comparing urban microclimates within cities. Since 2012, when it was introduced by Stewart and Oke, the LCZ framework has been widely adopted in urban climatology research [3, 4]. The LCZ classes are formally defined as “regions of uniform surface cover, structure, material, and human activity that span hundreds of meters to several kilometers in horizontal scale” and are characterized by “a characteristic screen-height temperature regime that is most apparent over dry surfaces, on calm, clear nights, and in areas of simple relief” [1]. Stewart and Oke identified 17 distinct LCZ types, each representing a specific combination of properties of surface structure (e.g., building and tree height & density) and surface cover (pervious vs. impervious). Ten of them, which can be described as “urban”, are classified as “Built Types” while the remaining seven are classified as “Land Cover Types” [1, 5]. These zones help researchers and urban planners to analyze and compare microclimates within and between cities. The LCZ framework is valuable for various applications, including urban planning, climate change adaptation, and environmental monitoring. It helps in assessing the impact of urbanization on local climates, informing sustainable development practices, and designing green spaces to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Additionally, LCZ classifications can be integrated into climate models to improve the accuracy of urban climate simulations and predictions. Several classification methods have been developed and tested since LCZ system introduction, including remote sensing image-based analysing methods, GIS-based approaches and in-situ measurements [6]. As far as remote sensing image-based methods concerns, LCZ maps are typically generated by analyzing satellite images with semi-automatic image classification algorithms. The most common approach, named World Urban Database and Access Portals Tools (WUDAPT) protocol [7], consists of performing a supervised classification of Landsat satellite images using the random forest classification algorithm [8]. The WUDAPT protocol adopts a procedure formalized by Bechtel et al. [9], relying on an ‘off-line’ workflow that integrates Training areas, i.e. a set of LCZ-labelled polygons and Landsat 8 imagery within the SAGA software package [10] over a limited spatial domain. This protocol has been successfully applied in many LCZ mapping studies in different geographical regions. In recent times, some LCZ mapping experiment at large territorial scale were carried out. Milan Metropolitan City Authority applied LCZ classification to its administrative area by adopting an advanced automatic clustering algorithms based on four indicators

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(Buildings Heights, Sky-View Factor, Albedo, and Vegetation) and sample areas digitized on very high-resolution images, following the theoretical principles established by Stewart and Oke [11]. GIS-based approaches consist of processing and querying GIS data, usually vector ones, describing urban morphology, planning and even building information, in order to calculate indicators for classifying LCZ. Although vector-based LCZ mapping methods are not widely used, due to the difficulty in creating and/or obtaining precise datasets, some applications were recently conducted by adopting a decision tree process to classify LCZ [12]. This kind of approach does not usually impose the condition that all the indicators defining a LCZ have to simultaneously assume a value within the related thresholds, as theorized by Stewart and Oke [1]. Despite LCZ are an effective tool to make urban planners and designers aware of how urban configurations can influence city temperatures and heat wave risks, they suffer from some limitations. First of all, the maps produced by adopting the WUDAPT protocol to European cities proved to be not accurate, due to their complex urban morphology, if compared to the regularly gridded North American cities [13]. Furthermore, LCZ were theorized considering a topograpically isotropic space and, therefore, do not take into account the relevant effect of the third dimension in lowering or enhancing thermal loads. In other words, the effects of different morphological features of a city (such as elevation, wind exposure, distance from the sea, etc.) are neglected. Moreover, classifications of satellite images using object-based analysis or supervised pixel-based techniques do not often guarantee high spatial resolution results. Therefore, outputs of raster-based classification methods are often difficult to be interpreted at small scales. This study aims to investigate the influence that different topographical configurations can exert on the identification of LCZ. In detail, a methodology was set up to determine meaningful thresholds of relevant indicators for the identification of LCZ, in homogeneous topographical contexts. The methodology were applied to the case study of the metropolitan area of Naples, a territory presenting a wide range of morphological conditions due to the presence of hills, coastal ridges formed by ancient volcanic craters, inner and coastal plains. The study is organized in two phases. The first one is targeted to evaluate the applicability of LCZ classification of urban areas, as theorized by Stewart and Oke, to contexts characterized by complex soil morphology and by the proximity to the seaside by adopting a vector-based approach. The second phase is oriented to investigate how different topographical configurations can influence minimum and maximum thresholds of urban parameters traditionally adopted to classify urban LCZ.

2 Case Study 2.1 Data and Methods The performed analyses were referred to a portion of the more densely urbanized area of the Metropolitan City of Naples (Italy), and the minimum analysis unit chosen was the census tract belonging to the Population and Dwellings Census carried out by the National Statistical Institute (Fig. 1). A georeferenced dataset (UTM-WGS84) extracted from the geographical database (DBT) of Campania Region authority, derived from the Regional Technical Map (scale

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Fig. 1. Identification of the study area within the Metropolitan City of Naples in Campania Region, Italy.

1: 5.000, 2004/2005 edition), was used to calculate 5 indicators belonging to LCZ theoretical framework by Stewart and Oke [1]. The processed DBT data included polygons identifying different land uses such as buildings, roads, paved surfaces, permeable areas (parks, pitches, bare soils, flowerbeds, etc.). Moreover, from the Metropolitan City of Naples geographic information system we obtained high-resolution raster data: Digital Terrain Model and Digital Surface Model (LIDAR surveyed in 2009–2012, 1 m × 1 m resolution) and a Land Surface Temperature map (acquired using remote sensing techniques, 3 m × 3 m resolution). According to the available data, for each census tract, the average Land Surface Temperature was assessed and five indicators were calculated: Sky-View Factor (SVF), Building Surface Fraction (BSF), Impervious Surface Fraction (ISF), Pervious Surface Fraction (ISF) and Building Height (BH). All the analyses were performed in a GIS environment using the software ArcGIS Pro. The Sky-View Factor was assessed by preliminary processing the Digital Surface Model with the software Relief Visualization Toolbox, which produces, as an output, a raster image where each pixel value is the Sky-View factor calculated in that point. Therefore, the Sky-View factor of the census tract was evaluated as the average value of the pixels corresponding to the non-built portion of the census tract itself [14]. Building Surface Fraction was calculated as the ratio of the Building area, i.e. the floor space of the buildings within the census tract when looking at them down from the sky, divided by the census tract total area. Impervious and Pervious Surface fraction were estimated as the ratio of the total amount of paved areas in the census tract, i.e. buildings, roads, non-permeable open spaces, and the total amount of permeable areas in the census tract, i.e. parks, pitches, bare soils, flowerbeds, etc., respectively, divided by the total area of the census tract itself. Building Height was calculated as the ratio of the sum of the

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buildings’ volumes within the census tract divided by the Building area of the census tract, estimated as explained above. In view of limiting the following steps to the urban areas, the census tracts showing a Building Surface Fraction higher than 10% were selected and analyzed. 2.2 A Vector-Based LCZ Classification Attempt A preliminary attempt was made to classify the urban census tracts belonging to the whole study area into LCZ, according to Stewart and Oke thresholds: multiple queries by attribute were performed to find the census tracts having the five indicators’ values simultaneously within the 10 urban LCZ threshold intervals. It was observed that a very few amounts of census tracts were fulfilling the conditions to be classified as one of the 10 LCZ. Actually, 71% of the analyzed census tracts were not classified since one or more indicators showed values falling outside the LCZ threshold intervals (Fig. 2a). Basically, Stewart and Oke LCZ classification method adopted thresholds oriented to define regions showing uniform surface cover, structure, material, which could be easily identified in a traditional North American urban context. Therefore, some indicators, such as the Building Height, present thresholds that are hardly never respected, in particular for the densest urban tissues. In order to solve the mismatch between the LCZ method thresholds and the maximum and minimum values of the analyzed indicators, the former were rescaled according to the maximum and minimum values assumed by each indicators among all the census tracts in the study area. Despite the rescaling process, the number of unclassified units was still high (70%) (Fig. 2b). One of the main reasons can be ascribed to the relevant statistical correlation among some indicators, such as Sky-View Factor and Building Surface Fraction or Permeable Surface Fraction and Impermeable Surface Fraction. Therefore, another classification attempt was made by repeating the queries with the above-mentioned rescaled indicators but excluding the Sky-View Factor. In this way, although a slight enhancement of classification efficacy was achieved, the overall percentage of unclassified units remains relevant (64%) (Fig. 2c). 2.3 Proposal for the Identification of LCZ Indicators Threshold for a Complex Topographic Context In order to analyze the variability of LCZ indicators thresholds according to different topographical contexts, an in-depth analysis was carried out focusing on the western part of the study area adopted in the first step. This area corresponds to the part of the thermal map surveyed in the hottest day and, therefore, exhibiting the highest Land Surface Temperature. To identify different topographical conditions within the study area, a multivariate clustering tool was applied to the census tracts. This tool finds natural clusters of vector features based solely on feature attribute values. In this work, the attributes chosen to describe topographical conditions of the study area were the Mean Altitude, calculated as the average value of the pixels of Digital Terrain Model falling within the census tract, and the distance from water basins, evaluated as the minimum distance of the census tract border from sea and lake shores.

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Fig. 2. (a) LCZ classification attempt using five indicators and adopting LCZ thresholds by Stewart and Oke; (b) LCZ classification attempt using five indicators and adopting rescaled thresholds; (c) LCZ classification attempt using four indicators and adopting rescaled thresholds.

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As Initialization Method, we chose Optimized seed locations, an unsupervised method which randomly selects the first feature and makes sure that the subsequent selected one represent features that show very different attributes values. K medoids algorithm was chosen to partition features into clusters since is more robust to noise and outliers in the input features parameter value and is recommended for large data sets [15]. In order to set the most appropriate number of clusters parameter value for our data set, different numbers of clusters were experimented, noting which values provide the best clustering differentiation. Finally, a number of clusters equal to 6 was set, which allowed to identify 4 Topographical Classes. Cluster 1 is representative of Coastal Hilly context, showing a mean altitude (MA) equal to approximately 90 m above sea level and an average distance from water basins (AWD) equal to 1.850 m. Cluster 2 clearly gathers census tracts belonging to Coastal Flat areas (MA = 24 m, AWD = 905 m). Cluster 3 collects census tracts far from the seaside (AWD = 3.498 m), exhibiting hilly mean altitudes (MA = 198 m). Clusters from 4 to 6 represent the total amount of inner flat census tracts since they exhibit an overall mean altitude (83 m) significantly lower than the other hilly cluster (MA equal to 81, 120 and 59 m respectively) despite they show an aggregate average distance from water basins (WD = 7.900 m) close to the highest values of the census tracts belonging to the other inner cluster (AWD equal to 5.878, 8.843 and 10.780 m respectively) (Fig. 3a).

Fig. 3. (a) Topographical Classes; (b) Land Surface Temperature Classes.

The same tool was applied to the census tracts data set considering the average Land Surface Temperature (LST) as attribute values for clustering. Four clusters of temperature were identified, and it was observed that clusters’ temperature values limits correspond

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to natural break classification intervals, which were categorized as the following LST Classes (Fig. 3b): – – – –

Very High (LST ≥ 41°C); High (38°C ≤ LST < 41°C); Medium (35°C ≤ LST < 38°C); Low (LST 250.000 ab: 12 Pop cities > 250.000 ab: 7.706.912 (16,31%) N. Cities 45.000-250.000 ab: 77 Pop cities 45.000-250.000 ab.: 6.065.575 (12,83%) Italy 1991, total population: 56.504.666 N. Cities > 250.000 ab: 12 Pop cities > 250.000 ab: 9.599.982 (16,99%) N. Cities 45.000-250.000 ab: 140 Pop cities 45.000-250.000 ab.: 11.706.446 (20,72%) Italy 2023, total population: 58.836.667 N. Cities > 250.000 ab: 12 Pop cities > 250.000 ab: 8.915.914 (15,15%) N. Cities 45.000-250.000 ab: 160 Pop cities 45.000-250.000 ab.: 12.746.129 (21,67%)

Fig. 1. Rank-size distribution of Italian Municipalities 1951–2023 (source: Istat Census data).

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the period of industrialization and urbanization of the country and the transition from a predominantly rural economy to an economy first of all industrial and then of services. In 2023, the exponent grew slightly, reaching around 1.26. Referring to the insights developed in support of this note for a more detailed illustration of the results obtained, it is highlighted how the Italian urban system is characterized by the presence of a few large cities and by a multitude of medium and small-medium centers [15] and how this distribution has been maintained and even consolidated over time (the increase, even if not very consistent, of the exponent is an indication of the movement of population shares from small centers towards metropolitan areas, but, to a no lesser extent, precisely towards the cities of medium size The Italian spatial organization (which records few differences between north, center and south in this respect, remains constantly centered on a dense network of medium-sized cities, composing a composite landscape where there is a constant gradient of urbanity ranging from centers with 10,000 inhabitants up to cities with 100–200 thousand inhabitants, and this regardless of the contraction phenomena that have been recorded for several years now [16–21].

2 Identification and Classification of Medium Cities: A Literature Review The identification of the “medium-size cities” can be performed, following the literature on the subject [22–25] starting from the simple demographic dimension considering as such all the cities that do not have metropolitan characteristics and which are above a certain threshold, which varies according to the interpretations. In other words, the definition of medium city is residual with respect to the concept of metropolitan city (or area) and suburb or village. English literature (i.e.: Batty, [26]) usually distinguishes between “city”, strictly understood as urban poles and “town” which could be translated as “town”, i.e. an urban center equipped with a certain level of services as well as a demographic “mass” of a certain size. The urbanization process that has initially affected the United States and Europe since the twentieth century has gradually led to a detachment from the purely administrative definition of city, the delimitation of which is provided simply by the recognized jurisdictional boundaries (and which have, especially in Europe, a long duration). The idea of an urban area (often referred to as an “urban district”) has made its way to the detriment of the administrative definition of a city. Starting in 1910, with the definition introduced by the United States Bureau of Census of “metropolitan districts”, the concept of “extended city”, first applied to cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants and the surrounding rural territories, has been perfected over time first through the Standard Metropolitan Areas (urban areas with a core area of 50,000 inhabitants) and the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA), based on the consideration of mobility as a fundamental element for the delimitation of the urban field. Starting from the second post-war period, a series of methods are consolidated characterized by an approach to the definition of the city (and of the metropolitan area in particular) which places at the center of the analysis the flows rather than the settlement forms (built-up areas) which are considered as a consequence of these. Starting from the embryonic study by Friedman and Miller [27] who introduced the concept of “urban field”, the idea of the urban

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area understood as a physical entity is definitively overcome and instead considered as a network of flows and locations formed by people, goods and information. The urban field is a system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan spaces, with a central city of at least 300,000 inhabitants around which there is a large area (up to 100 miles). The Functional Economic Areas (Fea), represent labor basins formed by the central city and by the set of centers in which the population resides who commute daily to go to the central workplace. In the most recent European and international studies and research, the Functional Urban Area (FUA) principle is adopted to define and delimit cities (whether metropolitan or not), which in turn derive from a previous similar attempt which, within the OECD, had been defined Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) which were the result of urban areas delimited as areas characterized by significant shares of commuting to and from the central city [28]. The process of formation of Functional Urban Areas (FUA), shared and adopted internationally by Eurostat and the OECD (2012, 2013) [34], in order to make urban and metropolitan areas comparable regardless of the administrative geography of the different states, considers, by superimposing and integrating them, three of the dimensions that contribute to outline them: the physical-morphological, the functional and the administrative (imposing a different constraint with respect to the latter in the definitional process). In conclusion, it can be summarized that in the literature the medium-sized city is normally recognized as that urban reality characterized by a central urban center of at least 50,000 inhabitants with a functional area (obtainable on the basis of commuter flows) which can even reach 200,000 inhabitants. Beyond these thresholds we must speak more correctly of metropolitan areas. This basic definition can be supplemented by the consideration of other elements, such as the economic profile (where a clear prevalence of the secondary and tertiary sectors and a residual agricultural function must emerge) and the offer of rare services. At an international level, some authors (for example Batty, [26]) identify 30,000 inhabitants as the minimum population threshold for a settlement to be defined as a city and therefore distinguish itself from the concept of hamlet or village. Other authors push this threshold even further down, making it coincide with 10,000 inhabitants: to strengthen these definitions it is necessary to take into consideration the functional profile of the urban realities considered and to evaluate what the role of the agricultural sector is (this question is also decisive in order to distinguish urban from rural in official statistics, a matter of extreme complexity and which must be compared with the most recent theories of the urban: [29–32].

3 A Taxonomy of Medium-Sized Italian Cities A taxonomy of medium-sized Italian cities can be produced by attempting a synthesis between some studies on the Italian urban system. A first study to be evaluated is that carried out by the OECD which, on the basis of the functional method, recognizes 83 functional urban areas in Italy, divided internally into core areas and hinterlands.

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In Italy, Istat (2017) has produced, albeit with a completely similar approach, a more refined classification of urban areas, based on local labor systems (in turn reconstructed on the basis of commuter flows) which has led to the recognition of 21 major urban realities and 86 local systems of medium-sized cities. This classification is based on the Euostat-OECD methodology on the definition of functional urban areas and therefore takes into consideration both the elements that refer to density and those relating to commuting. Another interesting study on medium-sized cities is the one carried out by Ifel for ANCI in the context of the 2014–20 partnership agreement [33]. The universe of medium-sized cities was defined in two steps, combining the following criteria: the presence of a minimum demographic size, a relevant and recognized administrative centre, as well as a pole offering basic and essential services. In the first phase, municipalities with a population exceeding 45,000 inhabitants were selected, which were not metropolitan cities, but which were “urban poles”, as well as specialized in the secondary or tertiary economic sector, for a total of 94 administrations. In the second phase, all the provincial capitals with more than 45,000 citizens not included in the first phase were added, again net of the metropolitan cities, as well as the Municipality of Aosta, the only regional capital not included in the previous definitions, for a total of 105 medium cities. A different approach to defining the degree of urbanity is the one developed by the Department of Cohesion within the framework of the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI). The developed methodology was obviously oriented towards defining internal areas, but urban areas and poles can be deduced by difference. For the definition of internal areas, SNAI uses as an indicator the degree of accessibility for citizens of a specific municipality to essential public infrastructures and services, such as proximity to public health structures, the possibility of easy access to secondary education and the proximity to infrastructure dedicated to mobility. Italian municipalities are classified according to the presence or absence of essential public services and infrastructures. The urban centres, in particular, are defined as service supply centers and must in fact have at least one first-level DEA hospital; all secondary school provision; a “Silver” railway station. From this category, the municipalities are further subdivided into inter-municipal poles and into poles if they are provincial capitals as they are the seat of other services to the citizen which were the responsibility of the provinces. Municipalities that do not fall into this category are instead classified on the basis of the average travel time necessary to reach the nearest service center, identifying belt municipalities, intermediate areas, peripheral and ultra-peripheral municipalities. The poles appear to be 181, welcoming municipalities within a demographic range that goes from Rome (2,748,109 inhabitants) to Camposampiero (11,817 inhabitants). Finally, there is the administrative classification that came into force after Law 56/2014 (so-called “Delrio Act”) which reconciles a hierarchy of Italian urban centers into 107 territorial units, including 14 metropolitan cities. The taxonomy proposed here (Table 1) is based on a combination of the factors considered for the classifications deduced from the studies cited, considering the 5 guiding criteria those of belonging or not to said classifications (being or not the capital of province, SNAI pole, FUA, and whether or not they belong to the ISTAT classification of urban systems of medium-sized cities [35], or to the IFEF-ANCI classification). This approach leads to a list of 54 medium-sized cities that could be defined as major (since

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they are considered medium-sized cities in all five classifications), 36 “second-tier” medium-sized cities that meet only 3–4 out of 5 criteria, and minor urban centers (i.e. cities which, despite being above a certain demographic threshold or in any case having been classified as urban poles by the SNAI methodology, do not manage to add more than two criteria). The proposed taxonomy also makes territorial clusters of medium-sized cities emerge with some clarity. Table 1. A taxonomy of italian medium-sized cities. Name

N. of cities

Cities

Fascia alto padana

13

Asti, Bergamo, Brescia, Novara, Padova, Treviso, Varese, Verona, Vicenza, Busto Arsizio, Mantova, Monza, Vigevano

Città delle Alpi Fascia basso padana

6 12

Bolzano, Lecco, Trento, Aosta, Como, Cuneo Alessandria, Cremona, Ferrara, Forlì, Modena, Parma, Pavia, Piacenza, Ravenna, Carpi, Reggio Emilia, Rovigo

Cluster medio adriatico

8

Ancona, Pesaro, Pescara, Rimini, Ascoli Piceno, Chieti, San Benedetto del Tronto, Teramo

Cluster alto adriatico

3

Pordenone, Trieste, Udine

Cluster alto tirrenico

7

La Spezia, Livorno, Massa, Pisa, Savona, Carrara, Sanremo

Asse alto toscano

4

Prato, Empoli, Lucca, Pistoia

Spina centrale appenninica

7

Arezzo, Campobasso, L’Aquila, Perugia, Terni, Foligno, Siena

Cluster medio tirrenico

6

Grosseto, Latina, Civitavecchia, Frosinone, Rieti, Viterbo

Dorsale Appennino meridionale

10

Avellino, Caserta, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Potenza, Salerno, Benevento, Crotone, Lamezia Terme, Matera

Cluster pugliese

7

Barletta, Brindisi, Foggia, Lecce, Taranto, Andria, Trani

Cluster siciliano

5

Ragusa, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Gela, Siracusa

Cluster sardo

2

Sassari, Olbia

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Fig. 2. The Italian urban system (Istat, 2023 Census data). Cities and FUAs

4 Conclusion: Profiles of Medium-Sized Cities and Their Role in the Italian Urban System The first set of medium-sized cities (i.e. those defined here as main medium-sized cities and secondary or second-level medium-sized cities) can also be analyzed on the basis of their socio-economic profile, i.e. the type of activity prevalent in the local labor system to which they belong and also on the basis of three further criteria that are interesting for the purposes of assessing the potential impacts of the urban policies: the added value produced (total and per capita), the average per capita income and the average real estate values urban areas (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). The result is a highly articulated picture, where the notable internal functional differentiation of the Italian medium-sized centers emerges. Beyond the single productive specializations (almost always present in the profile of all medium-sized cities), what appears evident is the consolidation of multidimensional profiles in terms of economic

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Fig. 3. Socio-economic profiles of medium-sized Italian cities.

trajectory. Tourism, with all the activities connected to it, represents an important asset for almost all of the medium-sized Italian cities, which have been able to link the productive sectors and those of services with this important productive activity aimed at hospitality. On the other hand, it is evident that the preponderant part of the country’s historical and artistic heritage is concentrated in medium-sized Italian cities (with international excellence, suffice it to mention Padua, Vicenza, Bergamo, Bolzano, Trento, Mantua, Lucca, Verona, Como, Perugia, Pisa, Matera, Lecce, Ragusa, Syracuse, just to

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stay with the best known). The ability to integrate productive activities following the phase of productive decentralization that occurred at the turn of the millennium with those of service and tourism in particular, was not taken for granted and is accompanied by a general rise in the average level of urban life, witnessed in measure from the average income indicator which, with few exceptions, remains high and usually higher than the national average (about 20,700 euros). In the secondary medium-sized cities, however, the average taxable income is generally lower than in the group of medium-sized cities which have defined themselves as main, testifying how the smaller towns show, in some cases, signs of crisis. The average income per inhabitant, which is obviously lower than the taxable income (measured only on the taxpayer base), may be the sign of a weak redistribution with consequent polarization of income towards smaller (and richer) segments of the population. This first classification of medium-sized Italian cities shows the temporal and spatial stability of the Italian urban system which is strongly characterized by the conspicuous presence of numerous medium-sized cities. Zipf’s analysis of the distribution shows that medium-sized cities show constant and explosive growth over time (as a group of cities). As a whole, they are growing (in terms of demographic size) more than in metropolitan cities. It should also be highlighted how medium-sized Italian cities are extremely dynamic, showing in some cases strong demographic growth trends. This demographic growth is an indicator of a remarkable economic performance: medium-sized Italian cities are at the center of the Italian production district system: a highly diversified system that has shown great capacity for adaptation and resilience. Medium-sized Italian cities are characterized by a level of performance (economic, environmental, social livability) that is on average higher than both metropolitan areas and the multitude of small centres. They pose unprecedented questions in terms of spatial planning and are often protagonists of significant experiences in the field of land management.

References 1. Auerbach, F.: Das Gesetz der Bevölkerungskonzentration. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 59, 74–6 (1913) 2. Zipf, G.K.: Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1949) 3. González-Val, R.: The evolution of US city size distribution from a long-term perspective (1900–2000). J. Reg. Sci. 50(5), 952–972 (2010) 4. González-Val, R., et al.: New evidence on Gibrat’s law for cities. Urban Stud. 51(1), 93–115 (2014) 5. Arshad, S., Hu, S., Ashraf, B.N.: Zipf’s law and city size distribution: a survey of the literature and future research agenda. Physica A 492, 75–92 (2018) 6. Soo, K.T.: Zipf’s Law for cities: a cross-country investigation. Reg. Sci. Urban Econ. 35(3), 239–263 (2005) 7. Batty, M.: Rank clocks. Nature 444(7119), 592–596 (2006) 8. Krugman, P.: Confronting the mystery of urban hierarchy. J. Jpn. Int. Econ. 10(4), 399–418 (1996) 9. OECD: Redefining “Urban”: A New Way to Measure Metropolitan Areas. OECD Publishing, Paris (2012)

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10. OECD: Definition of Functional Urban Areas (FUA) for the OECD Metropolitan Database. OECD Publishing, Paris (2013) 11. Indovina, F.: La metropoli europea. Una prospettiva. FrancoAngeli, Milano (2014) 12. Dematteis, G., Bonavero, P.: Il sistema urbano italiano nello spazio unificato europeo. Il Mulino, Bologna (1997) 13. Accornero, C.: Città, società, territorio: conversando con Arnaldo Bagnasco. Historia Magistra: Rivista di Storia Critica 20(1), 107–120 (2016) 14. Becattini, G.: Mercato e forze locali: il distretto industriale. Il mulino, Bologna (1987) 15. De Rossi, A. (ed.): Riabitare l’Italia. Donzelli, Roma (2018) 16. Curci, F., Kercuku, A., Lanzani, A.: Le geografie emergenti della contrazione insediativa in Italia. Analisi interpretative e segnali per le politiche. CRIOS 19–20, 8–19 (2020) 17. Lanzani, A.: Città, territorio, urbanistica tra crisi e contrazione: muovere da quel che c’è, ipotizzando radicali modificazioni, Milano, FrancoAngeli (2015) 18. Caselli, B., Ventura, P., Zazzi, M.: Città in contrazione. Maggioli, Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna (2019) 19. Clementi, A., Dematteis, G., Palermo, P.C. (eds.): Le forme del territorio italiano. Laterza, Roma-Bari (1996) 20. Lanzani, A.: I paesaggi italiani. Meltemi, Roma (2003) 21. Kercuku, A., et al.: “Italia di mezzo”. Region (Louvain-la-Neuve) 10.1 (2023) 22. Balducci, A., Curci, F., Fedeli, V. (eds.): Oltre la metropoli: l’urbanizzazione regionale in Italia. Guerini e Associati, Milano (2017a) 23. Balducci, A., Curci, F., Fedeli, V. (eds.): Post-Metropolis Territory: Looking for a New Urbanity. Routledge, London, New York (2017) 24. Mascarucci, R. (ed.): Città medie e metropoli regionali. INU Edizioni, Roma (2020) 25. Trigilia, C.: “Le città medie al Nord e Sud”. Relazione a Scuola Nazionale di Sviluppo locale. Laterza, Bari (2014) 26. Batty, M.: Inventing Future Cities. MIT Press, Cambridge (2018) 27. Friedman, J., Miller, J.: The urban field. J. Am. Inst. Plan. 31, 312–320 (1965) 28. EEA (European Environment Agency): Ensuring quality of life in Europe’s cities and towns. Tackling the environmental challenges driven by European and global change. EEA Report n. 5, Copenhagen (2009) 29. Brenner, N. (ed.): Implosion/Explosion. Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization. Jovis Verlag, Berlin (2014) 30. Brenner, N., Schmid, C.: Towards a new epistemology of the urban? City 19, 2–3, 151–182 (2015) 31. Soja, E.W.: Postmetropolis. Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. Blackwell, Cambridge (2000) 32. Soja, E.W.: Regional urbanization and the end of the metropolis era. In: Bridge, G., Watson, S. (eds.) The New Blackwell Companion to the City. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford (2011) 33. IFEL – Fondazione ANCI: L’Italia delle città medie. IV Quaderno della collana i Comuni, Roma (2013) 34. Dijkstra, L., Hugo, P., Veneri, P.: The EU-OECD Definition of a Functional Urban Area. Oecd Publishing, Paris (2019) 35. Istat: Forme, livelli e dinamiche dell’urbanizzazione in Italia, Roma (2017)

Limit Land Take. A Matter of Thresholds? Cristina Montaldi1(B)

, Francesco Zullo1

, and Michele Munafò2

1 Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University

of L’Aquila, Piazzale E. Pontieri 1, Monteluco di Roio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy [email protected] 2 Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Rome, Italy

Abstract. Soil is a key element for achieving national and international sustainability objectives. However, the legislation in this field is still far from defining the limits of land take, without prejudice to the objective of zero net land consumption to be achieved by 2050. In Italy, the legislation on the subject is very varied. Among this work’s objectives is to identify the weaknesses and strengths on which to focus new policies and tools to control the land take. The definition of land take in the regional laws is often ambiguous, and the methods indicated for containment as well as for monitoring often appear to lack scientific basis. The most important problem the international community raises is the lack of proportionality between the variation of urbanization and that of population. As evidence of this, Agenda 2030 has developed, in the context of reaching the target 11.3 a specific index the “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” (LCRPGR) which aims to monitor the relationship between the scale of urban development and demography, to link the growth of urbanized parts to the real demographic dynamics that are found in the territory. The correct identification of threshold values now appears to be a viable solution for achieving the objectives set at the European level. The proposed work represents a first exercise in this direction. The comparison of the LCRPGR index with established indices of scientific literature (both of quality of life and of configurational analysis of urban spaces) could provide useful indications. Keywords: land use · land take · legislation

1 Introduction Periodically, for several years now, a bill has been presented in Parliament with the declared objective of containing/stopping/reducing land consumption, but to date the best result obtained has been the approval of the Ddl 2039/2014 in the Chamber alone. The need to pass a law on the subject is obvious, but now at the national level, we limit ourselves to acknowledging that for the umpteenth consecutive year additional soil has been consumed. The latest figure indicates that an area of 69.1 km2 has been urbanized with a speed of 19 ha/day [1]. This strong production of potential standards is also linked to the measures of the European Union that since 2002 (Decision 1600/2002/EC) announced to commit itself in this regard. However, these requests were not enough. On © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 695–705, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_60

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the other hand, even at Union level, despite the good intentions that have been stated in various ways, no existing directive has been adopted. The concepts of consumption, pollution and soil protection are also recurrent in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) approved on 13.07.2021, with the general objective of reducing the first two and improving the last and with the intention of adopting a law on sustainable land use. Since the transfer of functions in urban planning (Presidential Decree 616/1977) the Regions have legislated on the matter. Almost all the Regions, in fact, at least mention the containment/arrest/reduction of land consumption in their objectives of territorial government but also in other protection instruments such as the Landscape Plan. The terms and measures adopted, as well as the objectives set, are certainly multifaceted and, in some cases, it is difficult to reduce them to a common denominator. Particular attention has been paid to the methodologies adopted for the reduction of land consumption, among which the most frequent is the imposition of maximum thresholds. In this regard, an experiment was conducted on some indicators related to urban land conversion and demographic dynamics, focusing in particular on parameter 11.3.1, “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” (LCRPGR), introduced by the 2015 United Nations Global Agenda for Sustainable Development for the control of urbanization in the 2030 scenario. The problem most raised by the international community is the non-proportionality between the variation of urbanized areas and that of population. The correct identification of threshold values for the above index appears today to be a feasible solution for achieving the objectives set at Community level. To this end, therefore, the proposed work represents a first exercise in this sense. The comparison of the LCRPGR index with consolidated indices of the scientific literature (both quality of life and configurational analysis of urban spaces) could provide useful indications in the direction of the correct and scientific identification of threshold values. The work then proposes a careful examination of the regional regulations in force on the subject in order to analyze the measures introduced today on the national territory.

2 Materials and Methods The methodologies adopted first required an analysis of national and regional regulations about land consumption found at national and regional institutional portals. Specifically, for the national laws the site of the Senate Camber has been consulted (https://www.senato.it/). The last access to the website is 31 July 2022 and it has been considered all the texts presented to the Chambers that make explicit reference, in the title, to land consumption or its management. For regional and provincial regulatory framework, laws in force or bills about land consumption, territory and landscape management have been considered. The reference date is 20 April 2022. The computational simulation part was carried out working at the provincial scale, as a geographical base of connection between the region and the municipal body. The vector data used together with the demographic ones (reference years 2021 and 2022) were retrieved from the Istat portal (https://www.istat.it/). For all provinces, the smaller islands were not considered. Land consumption and use were found at the SINA National Environmental Information System (https://groupware.sinanet.isprambiente.it/). The reference years considered are 2021 and 2022. Both are raster data with a spatial resolution of 10 m processed by ISPRA

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on the basis of data from the National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA). The data derive from photointerpretation of satellite high-resolution images. The elaborations relating to land consumption were carried out considering the classes shown in Table 1, for land use the classes “Urban and similar areas” and “Quarries and mines” were considered. Table 1. Land consumption classes used in the elaborations. Code

Description

1

Soil consumption

11

Permanently consumed soil

12

Reversibly consumed soil

111

Buildings and warehouses

114

Airports

115

Ports

116

Other impermeable/unpaved paved areas

117

Paved permanent greenhouses

118

Landfills

123

Extractive areas not renaturalised

124

Pitched quarries

125

Photovoltaic fields on the ground

Several indices were used in the discussion, including the “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” (LCRPGR) and the Moran index. All indices are shown in Table 2. The Moran index for the study of urban dispersion models present for each Italian province was calculated according to the formulation shown in Table 2 using SAGA-GIS’s Global Moran’s I for Grids Tool (V.7.8.2) and choosing “Queen” as the type of spatial continuity [2]. The formulation of the LCRPGR index is shown in Table 2. Since this index can only be measured in the presence of positive demographic dynamics, a new version has also been proposed that tries to overcome this problem (Eq. 3). In order to evaluate a possible correlation between the proposed indices and the quality of life, the ranking drawn up annually for the national territory at the provincial scale by the economic-political-financial newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore” was analyzed, the reference years are 2021 and 2022. This ranking has been conducted since 1990 (https:// lab24.ilsole24ore.com/qualita-della-vita/) and, to date, considers 90 indicators, divided into the following six thematic macro-categories (each composed of 15 indicators): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

wealth and expenses; business and work; environment and services; demography and health; justice and security;

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6. culture and leisure.

Table 2. Formulations of the used indices.

3 Results 3.1 Regulatory Framework The attention to the issue of land consumption in the parliamentary context is not recent. The first references to this issue are found in the bill (ddl) n. 1298 presented on 7.02.2007, not converted into law but still among the first to show interest in the problem. As expressed in the presentation speech to the Senate “An important novelty is certainly represented by the prescriptions [...] which impose a rigorous containment of land consumption, a field in which Italy has so far been completely absent, while in all the most

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important European countries in the last decade policies have been launched concretely aimed at preventing the dissipation of the territory». But what is the current situation? What has been done about this during the recent parliamentary terms? Attempts to pass a law on the subject have been varied. Specifically, as of 31 July 2022, the texts presented to the Chambers that make explicit reference, in the title, to land consumption or its management, are 54, distributed from 2010 to 2022, as shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen from the number of measures that the attention to the issue is greater during the first year of the Legislatures, to then tend to gradually weaken. Despite numerous attempts, only one of the bills was approved in the House, but the examination in the Senate Committee (S.2383/2017) has stalled since 2017.

Fig. 1. Bills on land consumption. Source: [3]

The cornerstone, around which the real effectiveness of a rule is determined, and particularly for a regulation linked to these issues is certainly that of definitions. Although the need to standardize the conceptual part is well known, as many as 26 of the draft laws do not contain any definition in this regard. This is sufficient to cast doubt on the potential effectiveness of regulatory instruments that aim to curb a phenomenon without actually having given it a clear and unambiguous definition. On the other hand, the definitions, when present, are varied and in some cases easily misunderstood. It turns out that for 28 bills there are 17 distinct definitions, which differ not only formally, but for the very concept of land consumption, as if the latter were not a physically tangible phenomenon but the result of arbitrary interpretation. In the panorama of definitions, the general approach of considering the land consumed when it is removed for agricultural purposes is recognized. In 6 ddl, land consumption is understood only as loss of agricultural area; In another 13, natural, semi-natural and vacant land are annexed to the agricultural area in different combinations. In 4 cases, urban and peri-urban areas are included. According to the definitions, we speak of land consumption if it occurs mainly by phenomena such as waterproofing (17 ddl) and/or urbanization and construction (10 ddl). The Italian regional legislation on the subject, updated to 30 April 2022, is quite diverse. The first distinction concerns the type of measures. Specifically, all regions, with the exception of

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Molise, mention land consumption in at least one measure. The regions of Abruzzo and Campania mention it in bills, while the remaining regions address the issue in current regulations. Going into the merits, ten regions/autonomous provinces do not have any definition of land consumption, but at the same time it is referred to in the objectives of the laws and, in some cases, methodologies are indicated for its reduction/containment. This absence seriously calls into question the effectiveness of these measures, which aim to curb a phenomenon without having provided a specific definition. It follows that only 11 standards contain a definition and, among them, 7 different definitions are identified. Also at regional level it is confirmed that in most cases (6 regions) the soil is considered consumed if it is removed from agricultural uses. Waterproofing and overbuilding, artificial cover and settlement transformations are considered the main cause of land consumption (6 cases each), followed by urbanization (4 cases). In light of this, it was verified if and which regions provide interventions for the reduction of land consumption and what is the type of same. As shown in Fig. 2, the proposed methods to reduce, limit or stop this phenomenon are numerous. Depending on the scale of intervention, they can be divided into three groups: urban scale, settlement scale and building scale. In any case, the proposed methodologies are numerous. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 2, 15 different denominations are identified, of which 4 require interventions at the scale of the single building, 5 at the scale of the settlement and 6 at the urban scale. Overall, it should be noted that the preferred type of intervention is that on an urban scale and the imposition of maximum consumption thresholds, in urban planning instruments, is the one that is most frequently indicated with 10 regulatory measures out of 20, followed by urban regeneration (6 laws). At the scale of the settlement, on the other hand, reference is mainly made to the reuse (6 laws) and recovery (4 laws) of the existing building heritage. At the scale of the single building, finally, we mainly opt for energy and structural requalification (3 laws). Overall, all regions propose at least one qualitative and/or quantitative method to reduce land use. As shown above in Fig. 2, the regions that adopt the thresholds as a method to intervene on land consumption are half of the total and, for this reason, it is appropriate to analyze them in detail. Specifically, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region and the province of Bolzano do not identify any numerical value (Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Bolzano). The regions of Abruzzo, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Sicily allow a maximum increase proportional to the existing urbanized which oscillates between 3 and 10%. For the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, on the other hand, the regional objective is to reduce the total area of the consolidated transformation/urbanization areas by 40% by 2050. These values are important to understand both what territorial scenario the individual regions envisage, and what is the national framework that follows. By way of example, if we used the most frequent value to outline a national evolutionary scenario, it would appear that, if a further area equal to 10% of the current one were urbanized, the resulting increase would be greater than 2100 km2 : an area almost equal to that of the province of Reggio Emilia, which would bring the national urbanized surface to almost 24000 square kilometers and would raise the waterproofing density to 8% compared to the current value of 7.11% [1]. About this last value, it must be noted, as highlighted by numerous studies [3–5], that the Italian territory is characterized by a strong urban

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Fig. 2. Frequency of methods in regional/provincial regulations to reduce land consumption. Source [20]

dispersion characterized by the presence of single buildings or small aggregates, which, precisely because of their size, escape the data used despite its high resolution. These percentages, therefore, underestimate both the current and potential magnitude of the phenomenon. According to regional regulations, in fact, the actual identification of the forecasts must be after the careful and punctual reconnaissance of the existing urbanized which, of course, requires a scale of extreme detail, in order to take into account that portion of the building that escapes the data taken into consideration for this simulation. 3.2 Evaluation of Cut-Off Values The values resulting from this simple simulation fully justify the international attention to the non-proportionality between the variation of urbanized areas and that of population that led to the formulation of index 11.3.1, “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” (LCRPGR) for the control of urbanization. In this regard, an experiment was conducted on this index and some consolidated indices of the scientific literature that could provide useful methodological indications in the direction of the correct and scientific identification of threshold values. This experiment is in continuity with previous works [6, 7] that investigated the possible correlation between the quality of life recorded in the Italian provinces and the LCRPGR index. The calculation of this index for 2021 showed that only 10 provinces out of 107 recorded a positive population change between 2021 and 2022. The LCRPGR for these 10 provinces assumes an average value of 4.52, a value lower than that measured for the other chronosections [6, 7]. This small number of provinces represents a sample that is statistically not relevant

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to the objectives set. For these reasons, a correction of the index has been proposed to also consider negative demographic dynamics, inserting an absolute value within the logarithmic function (Table 2 Eq. (3)). The results following the change show an average LCRPGR value of −2.25 for the 97 provinces with decreasing population in the period surveyed. As shown in Table 3, the value of the correlation coefficient between the modified LCRPGR and the ranking of “il Sole 24 Ore” has R^2 = 0.0021. Carrying out this same analysis by quartiles shows that the correlation between the index and the ranking of “Il Sole 24 ore” is stronger for the second and fourth quartiles. Given the limitations of the LCRPGR index intrinsic to its own formulation, the DLTV (Demo Land Take Variation) index was chosen. This index is a reformulation of the DUC/DUI index consolidated index of the literature [8] whose formulation identifies the variation of the urbanized between two chronosections in relation to the population variation in the same period. In this case, not the variation of the urbanized surface is evaluated, but the soil consumed. The formula is given in Table 2 Eq. (4). For this index, a possible correlation with the positional variation of the provinces in the two rankings on the quality of life between the two chronosections considered (2021 and 2022) was analyzed. The correlation coefficient per sample total was found to be 0.051, which is lower than that of the 1, 2, and 3 quartiles. Specifically, what is detected is a positive change in the ranking position where the DLTV index has increased. Table 3. Values of the coefficients of determination. Index

1st quartile

2nd quartile

3rd quartile

4th quartile

Total sample

LCRPGRm

0.061

0.181

0.017

0.123

0.010

DLTV

0.067

0.076

0.186

0.002

0.051

Moran

0.096

0.0001

0.147

0.00004

0.043

Another evaluation concerned the spatial configuration of the soil consumed that occurred in the investigated period (always incremental for all Italian provinces), using the Moran index and in particular the measured variations of the index in the investigated period. Specifically, the evaluation of the variation of this index showed that only 19 provinces out of 107 saw an increase in the Moran index indicating a decrease in urban dispersion. In general, there is a decrease in the Moran index between 2020 and 2021, indicating an increase in urban sprawl compared to the previous condition. About the possible correlation between the quality of life and the Moran index, there is a low correlation value for all quartiles. The highest values are recorded for the third quartile.

4 Conclusion Considering what emerged, the attempts for the approval of a national standard on the subject of land consumption were multiple and distributed over a decidedly long period of time. This testifies to the importance and, at the same time, the delicacy and complexity of the issue, which directly and indirectly involves a multiplicity of economic, political

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and social interests. Inevitably, they influenced the non-approval of one of the 52 bills. Even if in the first instance the objectives are the same, the approval of one or the other would have led to different outcomes, as evidenced by the variety of definitions of the very concept of land consumption. In the regional rules, the methodologies proposed for the reduction and containment of the phenomenon are variously identified; However, reference is often made to future measures such as threshold values. In the case of the latter, among the values observed most frequently, there is a maximum increase of 10% compared to the current urbanized. The peculiar fact is that in no case is the logic behind explained in the choice of this threshold value. The implementation of this scenario (10% increase in urbanization) is certainly not in line with the real needs of the population, as desired by the 2030 Agenda, considering that Italy is experiencing a phase of progressive population aging and records the depopulation of many areas [9]. As outlined in this work, the UN introduced the LCRPGR index to monitor this phenomenon. This index, however, has several weaknesses both inherent in its formulation and related to the fact that the index is only quantitative and not configural and therefore does not take into account the spatial distribution of built-up areas of equal size, which in a country like Italy is extremely essential. As is now known, this parameter is sometimes more important than quantity [10–14]. The steps to identify sets of indicators to measure/monitor land use are numerous and complex. The identification of cut-off values of these indicators are essential to justify effective legislation to control/curb/reverse the irreversible effects of land use. Such clustering procedures for indicator values linking ranges of values with verifiable effects [15–17] are quite simple when the effects of the analyzed phenomena are objectively tangible and measurable (e.g. degrees of noise, pollution, lighting…), but it is much more challenging when these effects are observed in the medium/long term and subjectivity prevails over objectivity in determining harmful aspects. The complexity is evidenced by what emerged from the European, national and regional regulatory analysis. Only at this last level have threshold values been imposed to be reached in variable time intervals, proportional to different phenomena and with different numerical values. Even the international scientific literature is not yet able to provide references of sufficient reliability and scope, being a typical application of indicator engineering [18, 19]. The LCRPGR index is expressly used to monitor and control local planning tools. Hence the need to include threshold values in the regulations, addressing the complex issue of calibration and sampling. In the case of areas with positive demographic trends, the LCRPGR index is certainly feasible. However, in the opposite case, it is necessary to use other parameters to grasp different ongoing processes, such as economic or social ones, in addition to the configurational development of the territory itself. For these reasons it has been proposed to introduce indices such as Moran’s. Once the threshold value has been identified, however, it is crucial to identify the ways in which these intentions are declined within the rules and what are the concrete measures to be taken to achieve these intentions. This research has among the future objectives to identify possible correlations between specific aspects of analysis (environmental, economic, demographic) in order to identify those that are most influenced by the entity of the urbanized and the spatial configurations assumed by it and to identify in this way the threshold values capable of conditioning the specific socio-economic-environmental components.

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5 Aknowlodgment This contribution is realized within the framework of the PNRR project “GeosciencesIR” funded by the European Union Next Generation EU (PNRR “GeoSciencesIR” – Missione 4, “Istruzione e Ricerca” – Componente 2, “Dalla ricerca all’impresa” – Linea di investimento 3.1, “Fondo per la realizzazione di un sistema integrato di infrastrutture di ricerca e innovazione”. Finanziato dall’Unione Europea NextGenerationEU CUP I53C22000800006).

References 1. Munafò, M.: A cura di, Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici. Edizione 2022. SNPA/ISPRA, Roma (2022). https://www.snpambiente.it/wp-content/uploads/ 2022/07/Rapporto_consumo_di_suolo_2022.pdf. Accessed 15 Sept 2022 2. Lloyd, C.: Spatial Data Analysis: An Introduction for GIS Users, 206 p. Oxford University Press (2010) 3. Camagni, R., Travisi, C.: L’insostenibilità dello sprawl urbano: un’analisi dell’impatto della mobilità in Italia. Scienze Regionali 5(3), 41–62 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3280/scre2016002008 4. Gibelli, C.: Forme della città e costi collettivi: l’insostenibile città dispersa. Archivio di studi urbani e regionali 83, 19–38 (2005) 5. Romano, B., Zullo, F., Fiorini, L., Ciabò, S., Marucci, A.: Sprinkling: an approach to describe urbanization dynamics in Italy. Sustainability 9(1), 97 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/su9 010097 6. Romano, B., Zullo, F., Saganeiti, L., Montaldi, C.: Controllo integrato delle dinamiche urbane e demografiche: un complesso problema di cut-off. In: Ardiciacono, A., Di Simine, D., Ronchi, S., Salata, S. (a cura di) Consumo di suolo, servizi ecosistemici e green infrastructures. Rapporto 2022, pp. 63–71. INU Edizioni, Roma (2022) 7. Romano, B., Zullo, F., Saganeiti, L., Montaldi, C.: Evaluation of cut-off values in the control of land take in Italy towards the SDGs 2030. Land Use Policy 130, 106669 (2023) 8. Romano, B., Zullo, F.: Land urbanization in central Italy: 50 years of evolution. J. Land Use Sci. 9(2), 143–164 (2014) 9. Istat: Rapporto annuale 2022. La situazione del Paese. Istituto nazionale di Statistica, Roma (2022). https://www.istat.it/storage/rapporto-annuale/2022/Rapporto_Annuale_2022. pdf. Accesed 15 Sept 2022 10. Filpa, A., Romano, B.: Pianificazione e reti ecologiche, Planeco, 300 p., Gangemi Ed. Roma (2003) 11. Chen, Z., Xu, B., Devereux, B.: Urban landscape pattern analysis based on 3D landscape models. Appl. Geogr. 55, 82–91 (2014) 12. Ewing, R., Hamidi, S.: Compactness versus sprawl: a review of recent evidence from the United States. J. Plan. Lit. 30(4), 413–432 (2015) 13. Ronchi, S., Arcidiacono, A., Pogliani, L.: Integrating green infrastructure into spatial planning regulations to improve the performance of urban ecosystems. Insights from an Italian case study. Sustain. Cities Soc. 53, 101907 (2020) 14. Cutini, V., Di Pinto, V., Rinaldi, A.M., Rossini, F.: Informal settlements spatial analysis using space syntax and geographic information systems. In: Misra, S., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2019. LNCS, vol. 11621, pp. 343–356. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03024302-9_25

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15. Cai, J., Wei, H., Yang, H., Zhao, X.: A novel clustering algorithm based on DPC and PSO. IEEE Access 8, 88200–88214 (2020) 16. Greenacre, M.J.: Clustering the rows and columns of a contingency table. J. Classif. 5, 39–51 (1988) 17. Kim, B., Kim, J., Yi, G.: Analysis of clustering evaluation considering features of item response data using data mining technique for setting cut-off scores. Symmetry 9(5), 62 (2017) 18. Fiorini, L., Marucci, A., Zullo, F., Romano, B.: Indicator engineering for land take control and settlement sustainability. WIT Trans. Ecol. Environ. 217, 437–446 (2019) 19. Mantey, D., Pokojsky, W.: New indicators of spatial chaos in the context of the need for retrofitting suburbs. Land 9(8), 276 (2020) 20. Montaldi, C.: Consumo di suolo: un complesso quadro di politiche, definizioni e soglie. Territorio, Franco Angeli Editore

Recuperate the Existing. Technical Devices a Réaction Poétique Ludovico Romagni(B) Scuola di Architettura e Design di Ascoli Piceno, Università di Camerino, Ascoli Piceno, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The planetary preoccupation around the climate change questions, requires a new literacy of aesthetics taste that updates the codes of project, in order to safeguard the lived and built environment. Paradoxically, when climate change begins to take on an aesthetic connotation, it is precisely the theme of aesthetics that is largely absent from the debate on sustainability and training courses. The figure of the designer, also from a training point of view, needs other knowledge necessary for the implementation of the new environmental and technological requests. Even within a necessity multidisciplinarity process, he seems to be chasing skills distant from his fields of knowledge, losing the real contribution he is able to offer: designing devices capable of improving human living conditions on the basis of an aesthetic and cultural principle. Educating to a new aesthetic experience aimed at the sustainable world is a fundamental objective of the ecological-technological transition. Our aesthetic taste, about conservation and historical ‘patina’ as well as shared references of modernity, is contaminated with ‘probable devices of sustainability’ towards a new aesthetic sense. The sustainable city and its architecture must not be the poor sister of the unsustainable one: on the contrary it must be more beautiful, aesthetically stronger and more convincing. A work on the beauty of sustainability to keep together necessity and freedom of choice, ‘because, in the end, it will be aesthetics that will make sustainability sustainable’. Keywords: form · formativity · aesthetics · conflict

1 Introduction It is difficult today to imagine transformative planning and processes for cities. The city is shrinking. Despite data attesting to the contrary the idea of ‘zero land consumption’ seems to have been metabolized and even elaborated through compensatory strategies. Similarly, ‘simple’ and even somewhat rhetorical strategies, such as urban forestation or of soil demineralization, now appear to be common sense operations rather than real responses to the dramatic nature of the changes taking place. Imagining the city today means assessing its erasures, identifying the parts to be regenerated, to be demineralized, and introducing radical elements of transformation capable of improving operating conditions and preventing multiple levels of risk. In any case, it means above all confronting © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 706–716, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_61

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the existing. The ‘built paradigm’ describes the urban scenario today. For the first time in history, the new can be conceived exclusively as a derivation-action of the existing. Marc Augé defines the existing as an immense ruin (site city) in which the unfinished and abandoned fragments of the contemporary coexist, that is, the waste of the city that is being built (or attempts to do so), the ruins of the city of history as well as the ruins of the Modern (Augé 2004). Practically everything. But if everything is already in exist-ence and needs to be adapted, transformed, consolidated, reinserted into a context with new characteristics, does it still make sense to distinguish the project of rehabili-tating an urban part or building from a new urban project or building? Renato Bocchi notes how, almost always, in interventions on architecture (particularly in our historic centers), we have witnessed the use of traditional formulas of intervention ranging from the ’rare’ replacement to architectural restoration (Bocchi 2013, pp.180–185). Yet the need to adapt the existing to the new requirements of improved living conditions, enjoyment and protection of urban spaces, and sustainability of architecture, makes it necessary to conceive more complex operations than simple conservative restoration. At the urban scale, there is a need to redefine more articulat-ed and complex relational systems that forcefully take on the serious critical issues caused by climate change. At the architectural scale, there is a need to define degrees of ’increasing alteration’ of the existing to ensure levels of adaptation and refunction-alization that are also not typologically compatible. Comparison with new mobility systems, connections to environmental systems, escape strategies, and the quality of public spaces broaden the scope of the project. The Supremacy of the Existing The growth of interest that intervention on the existing has experienced in recent decades, in Europe, is easily explained from different points of view, starting with the economic one. In Italy alone, all sectors related to construction have recorded, between 2008 and 2015, a decrease ranging from 20% to 60%, with the only exception of the item related to interventions on pre-existing buildings (Ance 2016). According to Donatella Fiorani, this shift in investment is in turn the result of the convergence of several factors, among which the most incisive are: the increased sensitivity to sustainable land consumption, the difficulty of proceeding, for much urban and industrial architecture, with building replacement practices, the unprecedented attention to accessibility and safety practices, requirements related to energy containment and seismic improvement, and the need to counter the decommissioning and abandonment of historic buildings and to encourage tourist use (Fiorani 2017, 33–36). The extraordinary amount of historicized buildings in Italy has fostered the understandable emergence of a culture of constraint and preservation as a heroic act of defense of the identity of territories against the degenerative processes that in the last decades of the last century have plagued the landscape, the city and architecture. The significant acceleration of urban devastation phenomena caused by increasingly frequent natural events (of different forms) has initiated a reflection on the need to introduce technical/architectural devices, in the city and on its buildings, capable of alleviating their effects. What emerges is that the dimensional and formal consistency of these elements cannot be compressed within the ideological framework of radical preservation.

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The issue of design over pre-existence and the sometimes antagonistic position established between designers of the new and restorers is entering a phase of redefinition. The confusing extension of the concept of historicity to much of the built environment is making impractical, or at any rate slowing down, any project of urban and architectural transformation. But what is a historic building today? Italian law defines historic as a building between fifty and seventy years old regardless of its aesthetic formal qualities. To intervene on an architectural organism with these temporal characteristics there is a need for special procedures, protections, specific clearances oriented to guarantee its preservation. But in a city now completely built everything is more than fifty years old: historic architecture, Modern, Late Modern and even what we might call contemporary architecture coexist in a condition of potential crystallization. Consequently, all projects for the transformation of our cities and our landscape should fall under the specific expertise of restorers and structural engineering. The exhibition Cronocaos created by OMA/Rem Koolhaas and first presented at the 2010 Venice Biennale, expanded and replicated at the New Museum in New York in 2011, starting with the reflection that 12% of the world’s heritage falls under different regimes of preservation and protection (natural or cultural) raises the need for reflection to “find a shape for the future of our memory”. According to Koolhaas, the goal is not to propose a better theory of preservation, but to return to a reflection on the existing, on the integration of the past with the present, on the need for a normative and especially a cultural update regarding the issue of “preservation”. In contemporary times, the increase in the feeling of nostalgia is being matched by a dangerous reduction in that of memory: in fact, at present there is maximum nostalgic display of respect for the past, but minimal awareness that its preservation has been from the very beginning a sign of radical transformation. Sustainable Alterations In our urban systems and on the architectures that comprise them, protection from hydrogeological hazards, heat, the need to reduce Co2 input to the air, and the many other critical factors is becoming dramatically important. It is no longer enough to conserve. Such radical interventions are needed that they cannot be contained within the realm of conservation strategies. Sustainability cannot be achieved through the simple application of codified and reassuring mechanisms. The necessary interventions must start from a newfound confidence in the transformative processes that have always accompanied the evolution of our cities is necessary. But then what are the possible spaces to focus a new and virtuous relationship between the existing and the project of ‘sustainability’. Where to find this new space? The city, the territory as a whole, so densely built and overwritten by fragments of historicity, modernity and contemporaneity is the only possible place for experimentation. Especially in Italy, urban centers not only can, but must become the palimpsests where simply to protract that relentless work that history has always operated on its public spaces and buildings, annexing, intersecting, overlapping and carving out volumes, layers, and thus narratives, in the previous plot. A mode of intervention on the existing must

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be promoted that strongly declares the time of the project by referring to an ideal of sincerity towards the flow of history without the fear of inserting strongly contemporary objects into the pre-existence, which in this way becomes the theater of new spatial and conceptual tensions. The Layering of Sustainability Often, as Venturi argued, necessities or adverse conditions lead to “contradictions” in the city and the building; they may manifest themselves between plan and volume, between interiors and elevation, between the various historical stratifications, or in other forms. The designer manages to resolve these contradictions, arriving at a “complex” result, that is, not clean, not elegant, and not ideal. This kind of result is often not understood but represents the shared idea of ‘beauty’ for most ordinary people who deal with a city full of discontinuous and contradictory elements all day long. The embryonic research, 110_the layering of sustainability, which I am conducting within the Unicam School of Architecture and Design in Ascoli Piceno, redesigns, in an ironic and conflicting way, the most celebrated architectures of modernity and late modernity by contaminating them with possible technological devices (Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4). With provocative intent, the drawings raise a cry of alarm toward the need to educate our aesthetic sense to a new relationship between the existing and its project of regeneration. Much like Venturi in his complexities and contradictions of architecture, the digital collages review all the awkward elements in architecture: those out of scale, those out of place, those that have nothing to do with the context, describing their potential. They analyze the irregular meshes of plans and elevations, and the meshes interrupted by extraneous elements showing their validity in compositional terms. It is better to have an imperfect architecture made of different elements that find a seemingly random relationship than a building that has never undergone transformation (Venturi 1966). The graphic elaborations we construct never try to mitigate impurities or hide them, but highlight them, making them the focus in the viewer’s vision; the parts commonly considered the noblest of selected buildings become supports for catchment devices, bioclimatic greenhouses, water harvesting systems, energy production systems, extreme weathering systems. Formativity In the current era, in which there is a growing interest in the theme of sustainability and a strong demand for beauty, I believe it is necessary to try to make the two instances share. Architecture by its very nature has always been confronted with the theme of beauty, and today it addresses the theme of sustainability as if it were something new and not a matter of course. Every architectural project begins as the initial impulse of a process, whether it concerns a conceptual dimension (of idea) or the realization of a work. Every architecture insists on a territory and configures a stratification of traces and sedimentations of other and articulated processes (D’Urso, Nicolosi 2022). The project, once realized, becomes part of a process that from the ideational and realization phase continues over time when the work is used and deteriorates. According to Italian philosopher Luigi Pareyson, the work of art, of architecture, does not coincide with the Croce idea of being the result of an intuition but is an expression of ‘such doing that, while doing, invents the way of doing’ (Pareyson 2010, p. 18). He actually goes beyond

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Fig. 1. L. Romagni, S. Porfiri (2021), 110_The layering of sustainability, Casa della Cooperativa Astrea, L. Moretti 1947/51

the concept of ‘aesthetics of form’ and defines an aesthetic theory of ‘formativity’. He asserts that ‘form’ takes on a dynamic character. It is the result of a process of formation. A theme already dear to many. Stendhal, for example, said “beauty is not an outcome but rather a process that, through the appropriateness of construction, transmutes an intuition, which is subjective and emotional, into arbitrariness in principle of necessity” (Stendhal in Messina 2018, p. 206). It is not surprising to see how the theme of ‘formativity’ (form as process), applied to the transformative dynamics of land, has been widely analyzed and metabolized given its complexity. But what happens when the theme of ‘formativity’ invests the urban and architectural scale in a city that is already all written? If everything is existing, the contemporary design of sustainability can be nothing more than yet another layering of a process.

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Fig. 2. L. Romagni, S. Porfiri (2021), 110_The layering of sustainability. Condominio in via Nievo _ Milano, L. Caccia Dominioni 1955/57

2 Process and Design Despite the consensus that architecture is the outcome of successive modifications and never offers a stable image (its form shows itself in the present but it also shows its past), the action of altering the built environment, especially the historicized one, has increasingly been directed toward the application of only the scientific rigor of a method aimed at substantial preservation that mortifies the creative act and makes us lose the poetic root of our discipline. Gradually the conservative solution, favored by the proliferation of the spheres of protection, specific institutions and identity associationism, has handed us an unmodifiable city where all the elements that constitute heritage, not only historicized, have undergone a process of crystallization. The neo ‘passion’ for anything that can offer a historical or even vernacular patina has surpassed the desire for the preservation of the historicized components but has extended to affect those belonging to the Modern, late Modern and even contemporary seasons. In essence, a kind of renunciation has taken

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Fig. 3. L. Romagni, S. Porfiri (2021), 110_The layering of sustainability. Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi _ Milano, Vittoriano Viganò 1953/57

hold toward those opportunities for courageous transformation that have remained caged within the reassuring logic of immodifiability. Yet the city and architecture have always functioned according to successions of unstable balances. It is not possible to postulate a state of equilibrium that is unchanging over time; inevitably something happens that corrupts the previous condition, something that stands in opposition to the given equilibrium: an earthquake, the destructive action of the weather, a flood, a catastrophic event. However conceived and designed to [re]exist, architecture inevitably gives way to gravity, which will always eventually prevail over it. Architecture cannot be the art of perpetual and unchanging equilibrium. Its somewhat ephemeral condition of static efficiency is bound to surrender to natural gravitational forces. This does not mean that it ceases to exist. According to a different configuration, defined by a different condition of equilibrium, architecture does not disappear but simply transforms itself as if it experiences a series of different balances that succeed one another over time altered and modified not only by natural processes, but also by the intervention of man who uses it and transforms it by adapting it to new needs (Romagni 2018, pp. 21–42). We are faced with the problem of reconstructing a new balance, including an aesthetic one, that restores or prevents from the dramatic effects of climate change. The problem is how to address the vastness and multiplicity of this complex design field. With what tools? The most important tool available to architecture is the project, which today extends its meaning, more and more, toward the concept of process. Architecture is thus faced with a crossroads whereby it must take on the dual role of design and process. The design objective will be to provide man with objects capable of connecting him with the environment in which he lives for adequate and sustainable living. The

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processual objective, on the other hand, will be to relentlessly build relationships, which are more formative because they are increasingly linked to the ever-changing conditions of reality. In both cases, beauty plays a critically important role in the transformation of reality and the consequences of sustainability (D’Urso, Nicolosi 2022).

3 From Housing Unit to Urban Regeneration The design intervention on newly built architecture is not simple. On the process level, we can observe the outcomes (including aesthetics) of the government-funded energy efficiency program. For such a large investment, the improvement of the urban scenario is minimal. The attempt has been to investigate the opportunities for architectural and urban redemption of parts of the city (particularly buildings within urban suburbs close to historic cores) starting with the efficiency upgrading of the existing housing unit. Already some years ago, within an Urban Genhome university research we tried to investigate how starting from the efficiency from the single housing unit it was possible to activate a process of urban redevelopment. The point from which the research started, was to consider the existing as the genetic heritage of the city. The city is a complex mechanism in which the dynamics of relationships are still in many ways unknown and under-investigated. The Urban Genhome, as Federica Ottone states, represents the starting point through which to understand the mechanisms that have determined urban growth and the emergence of aggregative and constructive systems “typical” of a place (Ottone 2018, pp. 11–19). This can be a key to resetting programmatic and design strategies by emphasizing unexplored opportunities to improve the quality of the environment and the built environment from the scale of architecture, of the individual building. In practice, it is a matter of codifying, analyzing, and intervening on all construction “anomalies,” energy “pathologies,” seismic “vulnerabilities,” design weaknesses-that is, all the genetic mutations of the urban system, starting from the housing unit and arriving at the connective tissue that holds urban functions together. A strategy that in adaptive form reconstructs a procedure that from the unit, through reiteration and aggregation redefines an urban scenario. From the point of view of architectural design it means participating in that process of formativity in which the layer of the sustainable becomes one of those significant steps in the image of the building. It will have to take into account the same tools of compositional control of the project in which the new elements are able to establish a virtuous relationship with the existing. On an urban scale, the opportunity to rethink public space by charging it with the role of protection from the events caused by climate change is becoming a shared goal and has already been tested in several redevelopment projects. In Rotterdam, the Watersquare built in the Benthemstraat area and designed by De Urbanisten, takes advantage of the need to redevelop a square by creating a system of basins and canals that collect rainwater for use in irrigating public greenery. When the plaza is dry, it hosts children’s sports activities; when there is rainfall, even heavy rainfall, it turns into a water catchment basin. In the Plaza de Espana in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Herzog & de Meuron, introduce a new artificial topography, a fragment of built landscape that evokes the Atlantic and the volcanic reliefs peculiar to the Canary Islands. The large size of the arrangement is

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composed of a concave circular surface that not only evokes scenarios of relationship with the Atlantic landscape but also transforms itself, in the event of stormwater overload, into a catch basin. Many other examples show us how interventions capable of making a contribution to the reduction of the destructive effects caused by climate change on the city need dimensional spheres of intervention and measurement of elements that cannot be compressed into the bed of a crystallized city refractory to even radical transformative processes. In the formative process, the layer of sustainability will assume a weight capable of transforming the image of the city and its architecture. In this complex and evolving context, ‘beauty’ as an object of sustainability should not be considered the end of sustainability design but, reversing the paradigm, should be used as a means. Beauty as one of the means, not the last, to achieve sustainability. Alessandro Armando argues that “instead of sovereignly asserting the values of architecture (beauty, quality, usefulness) as an indisputable ultimate end, we can use them as a means” (Armando in Cao 2020, p. 69). Select and choose those elements that exist and are judged relevant around which to build transformations, reviewing them in interesting relationships with possible devices for sustainability. Build that tension between the parts that creates attraction, curiosity, and fulfillment. In this way different elements can be related in a new and different, morphologically qualifying plot. As Rejina Lucci states, “in identifying this right relationship between elements, pieces, parts of the urban composition, at any scale, find the alchemy of the beautiful solution of the beautiful form” (Lucci 2016, p. 234).

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Fig. 4. L. Romagni, S. Porfiri (2021), 110_ The layering of sustainability. Case Sperimentali _ Stoccarda, Mecanoo 1993

References Augè, M.: Rovine e macerie. Il senso del tempo. Bollati Biringhieri, Torino (2004) Bocchi, R.: Dal riuso al riciclo. Strategie architettonico urbane per le città in tempo di crisi. In: Marini, S., Santangelo, V. (a cura di) Viaggio in Italia, Aracne, Roma (2013) Cao, U. (a cura di): Architettura e conflitto. Manifestolibri, Castel San Pietro Romano (RM) (2020) D’Urso, S., Nicolosi, G.M.: L’estetica della sostenibilità. tab edizioni, Roma (2022) Fiorani, D.: Restauro e progetto. In: Cocco, G.B., Giannattasio, C. (eds.) Misurare Innestare Comporre. Pisa University Press, Pisa (2017) Lucci, R.: Relazioni interessanti. In: Amirante, R., Piscopo, C., Scala, P. (a cura di): La bellezza del rospo. Venustas, architettura, mercato, democrazia, Clean, Napoli (2016) Messina, B.: L’indicibilità della bellezza e l’appropriatezza della costruzione. In: Carpensano, O., Nencini, D., Raitano, M. (a cura di): Architettura in Italia. I valori della bellezza, Quodlibet, Macerata (2018) Ottone, F.: “Urban GenHome”: un approccio multidisciplinare per interpretare le trasformazioni urbane. In: Ottone, F., Cocci Grifoni, R., d’Onofrio, R. (a cura di): Urban Genhome. Nuove opportunità di trasformazione degli spazi urbani, LetteraVentidue, Siracusa (2018) Pareyson, L.: Estetica. Teoria della formatività. Bompiani, Milano (2010)

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Romagni, L.: Armonia e contrasto. Ovvero l’equilibrio in architettura. In: Petrucci, E., Romagni, L. (eds.) Alterazioni. Osservazioni sul conflitto tra antico e nuovo, Quodlibet, Macerata (2018) Venturi, R.: Complessità e Contraddizioni nell’Architettura. Dedalo, Bari (1966) Ance: Osservatorio congiunturale sull’industria delle costruzioni (2016).http://www.ance.it/docs/ docDownload.aspxçid=28869. XXIV Rapporto Congiunturale Previsionale del Cresme 2016

Advanced Planning Tool Mosaic (A-PTM) Decision Support Tool Towards the Sustainable Development Goals Vanessa Tomei(B)

, Bernardino Romano , and Francesco Zullo

University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, AQ, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. In this session, it is therefore proposed to institutionalize the technical device “Planning Tools Mosaic” (PTM), developed within the project “Sost.EN. &Re” (Sustainability, resilience, and adaptation for the protection of ecosystems and physical reconstruction in Central Italy). PTM is defined as a homogenous and standardized overall picture of the main contents of municipal urban planning instruments. The proposed mosaicing is based on two technical models: a basic set-up (B-PTM) and an advanced one (A-PTM), able to provide indications about the perspectives of urban evolution of a given territory. The session proposes an experiment on the Abruzzo Region, developing an analysis of the current state of municipal planning in the region itself through a recognition of the availability of documents, the type of tool and the updating period. A first phase of the work concerned the regional survey of the type of urban planning tool in force for each municipal authority, together with the year of approval of the same, in order to obtain an updated overview of the state of municipal planning of the Abruzzo region. Keywords: Municipal planning · Planning Tools Mosaic · sustainable development · urban densification

1 Introduction The Seventh Environmental Action Plan approved by the European Parliament sets the goal of zero land use in Europe by 2050 while the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan for people, the planet and prosperity signed in September 2015 by all 193 UN member states [1]. To be able to achieve these objectives and implement these actions, new spatial planning techniques and instruments must be introduced to provide rapid and timely responses to the territorial transformations towards the objectives for the development of sustainability (Agenda 2030). This paper proposes the establishment of a technical device called “Advanced Planning Tools Mosaic” (A-PTM) which is defined as a homogeneous and standardized framework for the contents of municipal regulatory plans [2] within a specific geographical area: the area destinations, the synoptic system and the technical rules defining the urban transformations. The A-PTM, while intervening when the municipal plans are already in force, provides a framework © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 A. Marucci et al. (Eds.): INPUT 2023, LNCE 463, pp. 717–727, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54096-7_62

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for future territorial arrangements, thus overcoming the current opacity, promoting public awareness of the objectives of the plans to be able to intervene efficiently with any awareness-raising, participation, and monitoring actions. Being Italian law rather outdated (Law 17 August 1942, n. 1150), each region has proceeded to draw up its own urban planning laws in order to replace inevitable anachronisms. “Hierarchical” planning processes [3] are typically established on different spatial/administrative levels, but it should be noted that, in practice, the highest levels of planning have never really played a decisive role in directing decisions to the lowest level In fact, to successfully integrate A-PTM in an organic way within the Italian planning framework, it is crucial acknowledge the almost complete autonomy of Italian municipalities in managing various types of transformations. Lacking an overall strategic vision, this planning approach has led, in the last 50 years, the development of urban fabrics with distributive characteristics, constructive and formal quality average worse than it is found in the European, despite the Italian historical centers retain a high-quality landscape and architectural recognized and appreciated worldwide. In Italy, the programs and transformative actions concerning built parts, infrastructure and social services of all kinds are therefore controlled by 7904 municipalities and an equal number of mayors, councils and Municipal boards governing soil tiles with an average surface area of approximately 38 km2 . For these reasons, town planning and town planning has been defined as “molecular” [4] leading to serious consequences on the over-urbanization that is very disorganized, extremely energetic, and not very functional for the rational organization of public services. This disorganity of the urban fabric, with a strong mixture of different types (consolidated fabric, dispersed fabric, residual sections) and functions [5] has generated a real territorial pathology without distinction throughout the country that has been defined sprinkling [6], resulting in a model now recognized in the national and international scientific literature of the sector. Since municipal plans are the tools with the greatest decision-making capacity, their mosaicization through GIS platforms would allow the achievement of many objectives: • reading of the settlement pressures to which the territory is subjected (summation of the individual transformations that each municipality provides for inside) • monitoring and control over time through an appropriate set of indicators to be included in the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedures of the plans • development of knowledge frameworks and evaluation of the objectives of future broad area plans. This is a bottom-up approach (from the bottom up) but resulting from today’s condition, but it is necessary to recover a chance of strategic vision. The survey was carried out both through the consultation of the websites of the municipalities and through telephone contact/e-mail in cases of absence of such information on the relevant websites. In addition, there was the possibility of direct access to the main plan documents and their format of disposal. This reconnaissance is fundamental as well as indispensable for the implementation of a correct mosaic of municipal urban planning tools as it allows to design the necessary technical and ontological homologation measures. In conclusion,

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it was possible to highlight critical situations, proposing choices of urban densification and territorial monitoring.

2 Study Area The study area is the Abruzzo region in Central Italy (Fig. 1), covering an area of 10,831 km2 (3.5% of the national territory) occupied by 1,269,860 resident inhabitants [7]. Local settlement patterns are heavily influenced by the orography of the territory, with urban areas mostly concentrated along the coastal strip as well as in some internal basins of the Apennine mountains and in the wider river valleys. Municipalities are generally very small in terms of land area and the ones located in mountainous areas stand out for their remarkably low population density. Out of the total of 305 municipalities, 41 (13%) fall into the “very small” category (VS - area less than 12 km2 ), while 229 (three quarters of the total) belong to the “small” category (S) between 12 and 65 km2 . It can also be seen from Fig. 1 that most of the territory and the regional population are both placed in the VS+S categories described above [8].

Fig. 1. Geographical position of the Abruzzo region in Italy and distribution rate of the number of municipalities, surfaces, and inhabitants on a regional basis per size category ( 165 sq km = Very Large (VL).

3 Materials and Methods The data used for this paper was obtained from multiple institutional platforms. Information on demographic trends was extracted from ISTAT censuses (Central Institute of Statistics - https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/6789). Recent urbanization (2012, 2015, 2016,

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2019) [9] and land use patterns were extracted from the website of the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). Information on the updating of the current municipal planning comes from the Report INU (National Institute of Urban Planning) which records the Italian situation regarding the different levels and forms of spatial planning, every two years. The section used in this work is the one updated to 2019 [10] with the 5 chrono sections