Marsia Marino

Contemporary cities constitute both the primary site where the climate crisis manifests its most evident impacts and the privileged laboratory for testing strategies of adaptation and resilience. However, the growing emphasis on “climate neutrality” policies risks obscuring the social dimension of urban regeneration processes, thus generating new imbalances and forms of exclusion. This paper offers a critical reflection on the role of urban planning beyond climate neutrality, reorienting it towards a perspective of climate justice capable of integrating ecological transition goals with those of social and territorial cohesion. The research adopts a mixed-method approach, combining theoretical and documentary analysis with empirical case comparison, to investigate the relationship among urban regeneration, urban welfare, and spatial inequalities. The study aims to identify strategies for preventing climate gentrification, a phenomenon in which adaptation and mitigation measures—if not accompanied by adequate redistributive mechanisms—produce socio-spatial displacement effects that exclude the most vulnerable communities from the environmental benefits generated. The comparative analysis of two international case studies—Little Haiti (Miami) and the Green Corridors of Medellín (Colombia)—reveals two contrasting trajectories of the ecological transition: a regressive one, driven by market logics and real-estate valorization, and a progressive one, grounded in principles of equity, participation, and inclusive distribution of environmental benefits.

Within the ongoing scientific and disciplinary debate on the interplay between climate change and land-use governance, this paper highlights the critical role of urban planning and design in shaping environmental regeneration strategies for coastal urban areas vulnerable to flooding phenomena. These flood events—driven by the combined effects of sea-level rise (SLR) and riverine flood—represent one of the key challenges facing the “global risk society” given their increasing impact on urban areas and the tangible economic, social, and environmental damages they produce. In this context, this paper presents selected outcomes from the findings of the research project “Climate-proof planning and regeneration strategies for adaptation to sea-level rise. Experimentation and innovation in local urban planning in at-risk areas of the Lazio region”, conducted at Sapienza University of Rome. The project focuses on research and experimental planning in coastal areas of Lazio identified as being at risk of SLR-related flooding by 2100. It aims to define theoretical–methodological and operational references for urban regeneration with an ecosystemic approach within the framework of so-called climate-proof planning. This study examines three macro-areas, further subdivided into seven distinct sites, categorized by their prevailing urban functions. For each site, following a preliminary assessment of flood-prone zones, tailored design actions are proposed. These actions are framed within three overarching of urban resilience strategies, developed in previous research by the authors: “defence”, “adaptation”, and “relocation”.

The distinction between the current urban crisis and that which emerged in the latter half of the last century lies in the rise of environmental concerns linked to the climate crisis, which compound the existing socioeconomic issues. The “new urban question”, in its intersectional sense, necessitates high levels of integration, interdisciplinarity, interscalarity, and iterativity to recompose the physical and socioeconomic components of change. In this regard, the proposed contribution aims to develop a transferable methodology to guide urban regeneration actions that are sustainable from a socio-economic and environmental perspective, capable of leading to the creation of “Healthy Neighbourhoods”. This objective is pursued by the authors through the definition of a toolkit of design parameters to assess the improvement of an urban area before and after the regeneration intervention. Indeed, each proposed parameter affects one or more of the ten indicators used to evaluate the health of a neighbourhood. The proposed methodology will later be tested, in subsequent phases of the research, on the case study of Pietralata (Rome, Italy).

From the perspective of the scientific-disciplinary debate within urban planning, this research addresses the theme of the “new urban question” resulting from environmental concerns related to the climate crisis and socioeconomic issues that have now become structural. It then delves into the connection between urban environment quality and quality of life, ultimately questioning the role that territorial governance tools play in positively influencing the perception of well-being in cities. The overall objective of this contribution is to define an interpretative framework for experimental approaches in territorial governance. This overarching objective is articulated in the definition of two specific outcomes, pursued through an inductive methodology. The first one involves establishing an initial set of urban welfare indicators; the second entails defining strategies for planning, designing, and regenerating the public components of the city that could influence the indicators. Both outcomes are designed to be exportable to different territorial contexts.

The increasing concentration of people and economic activities in urban areas intensifies the pressure on the urban environment and hastens environmental degradation processes. Therefore, addressing the impact of climate change on cities is an urgent matter that demands the immediate attention of policymakers, researchers, and the general public, not only for its environmental but also socioeconomic ramifications. Within this framework, the research focuses on the effects of climate change on coastal cities and aims to define guidelines for the innovation of urban planning tools from a climate-proof perspective. Specifically, the study analyses the effects of two phenomena related to climate change: heavy rainfall, river overflow, and sea-level rise, to establish a replicable approach for updating the documents that constitute the cognitive framework of the Local Urban Plan through the preparation of a multi-risk map (that considers different time horizons) and consequently the prescriptive apparatus of the Plan through the definition of a toolkit of site-specific design actions oriented towards urban adaptation. The proposed methodology is tested on the case study of Isola Sacra, Fiumicino (Italy), and is intended to apply to other territorial contexts. The aim of this study, in accordance with the principles of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) framework, is to furnish theoretical-methodological and operational guidelines to translate risk knowledge, despite its limitations due to variables and uncertainties in measurements, into effective urban adaptation measures.

According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID, 2022), the number of displaced people worldwide at the end of 2021 was 59.1 million, with 53.2 million of them being the result of conflicts and violence, and 5.9 million caused by climate-related disasters. Furthermore, the In-ternational Organization for Migration (IOM) predicts that the climate crisis will be solely re-sponsible for one billion migrants by 2050. In this context, the research examines the issue of coastal multi-risk arising from a combination of heavy rainfall, river's overflow, and sea-level rise phenomena, analysing it through the disciplinary perspective of urban planning. Specifically, the study focuses on the need to upgrade the Local Urban Plan from a climate-proof perspective by defining a method aimed at updating the territory's cognitive framework through the preparation of a multi-risk map (which considers different time horizons), as well as the prescriptive apparatus of the Plan through the definition of a toolkit of site-specific design actions oriented towards urban adaptation. The proposed methodology is verified on the case study of Isola Sacra, Fiumicino (Italy), and it is intended to be applicable to other territorial contexts. The research aims to outline guidelines for updating urban planning tools from a climate-proof perspective to promote long-term resilient urban development in risk-prone areas.

Cities and urban systems are the places most responsible for climate change, but at the same time they are the places where its effects are felt the most. A state-of-the-art analysis showed that Ecological–Environmental, Settlement, and Infrastructure and Service Systems are the components of cities most exposed to risk phenomena. Therefore, it is important to identify site-specific actions aimed at enhancing ecosystem services and building hierarchical ecological networks (green and blue infrastructures), according to an Ecosystem-based Approach (EbA). In this regard, the contribution presents the results of a research work on the theme of multi-risks connected to climate change, referring to heavy rains and river flood phenomena and sea level rise and proposes a systematisation of international best practices in the field of the Ecosystem-based Approach (EbA). Each best practice analysed is traced back to the three urban resilience macro-strategies of “defence”, “adaptation”, and “relocation/de-anthropisation”, already conceptualised by the authors during their joint research activity. The aim is to outline a synthetic toolkit of site-specific design actions, exportable to other contexts, intended as a tool to support the innovation of urban planning tools at the local level.