Green Infrastructures and Water Management. Urban Regeneration Strategies to Face Global Change

Abstract

The global crisis that exacerbates pathologies of the contemporary city and territories directs research and urban planning experimentation towards new approaches aimed at defining integrated and multi-scalar strategies of regeneration, based on the concept of resilience. At a global level, Green and Blue Infrastructures constituite a shared and consolidated field of experimentation to pursue the rebalancing of urban and territorial systems through place-based policies and approaches and a strong involvement of socio-economic actors and local communities in decision-making and management processes, designing new sustainable and resilient assets and encouraging the emergence of virtuous and ecologically oriented behaviors. In this context, water resource is a structural and strategic component for renaturalization, adaptive and resilient management of risks, and revitalization of territories, but also a leitmotiv of social-innovation and social-inclusion processes. Water management allow to restore ecological functioning of natural cycles, to integrate virtuous forms of recycling and reuse, to adopt sustainable mobility, and to activate eco-friendly uses of public spaces with recreational and inclusive character. The cases illustrated represent, on the international scene, emblematic and consolidated examples: the case of Copenhagen with regards to the pivotal role of urban areas in addressing climate change; the case of Philadelphia, both in terms of private and community involvement in pursuing a tangible improvement of the cadre de vie.