URBAN REGENERATION PROGRAMS FOR SUSTAINABLE PLANNING IN HIGHLY VULNERABLE URBAN CONTEXTS

Topics of sustainable urban development and environmental sustainability are worldwideconsidered as fundamental for every strategy of urban transformation, renewal andregeneration. In particular, urban regenerations are urban re-development programsinvolving the rebirth or renewal of selected urban areas or district that have faced periodsof decline due to compounding and intersecting pressures. The programs cover manyaspects of the area to be re-generated such as physical, social and environmental contexts.Re-use of already built up areas and buildings, reduction of the demand for new soils tobe developed, increasing of appealing of dense city areas, increasing of social and spatialresilience are among the positive consequences of these programs.However, in the current debate about urban regeneration, few studies have evaluated thereal environmental outcomes and effectiveness of regeneration programs in terms ofphysical variables such as new provided greenspaces, accessibility to publictransportation, climate change or seismic risk reduction. This paper proposes a method toquantify the real outcomes and effectiveness of urban regeneration programs withreference to the above mentioned variables.As a real experience of urban planning, the new Local Spatial Plan for the Municipalityof Catania, a medium sized city in Southern Italy, is presented. The city is characterisedby a high density urban fabric, a general lack of urban greenspaces and high levels oftraffic congestion due to a massive use of private transportation. The urban fabric is alsovery vulnerable to seismic and climate change risks. Among the transformation tools, thenew Local spatial plan proposes regeneration actions aimed at the complete regenerationof old and dilapidated areas, not classified as historical heritage and heavily vulnerable toseismic risk. These actions include the complete demolition and reconstruction of theseareas within clearly defined boundaries, contributing to minimise soil consumption,maintaining as open public spaces the majority of existing non urbanised areas withinthe densely built-up settlement. The program of regeneration can dramatically contributesto the reduction of seismic and climate change risk and achieve a general requalificationof the urban environment.Starting from this planning experience, this paper focus on the evaluation of theregenerations programs included in the Local Spatial Plan. Regeneration Areas (RAs)have been identified by the municipality as characterized by high level of seismicvulnerability, urban degradation, lack of public services and urban environment quality.For the chosen areas, this study proposes the evaluation of the transformations potentiallyoccurring in the urban context by the proposed regeneration program. The followingaspects are evaluated:- reduction of risks (in terms of exposition and vulnerability to seismic and climatechange related risks)- mobility (concerning the presence of public means of transports, distance to the transitstops, roads, pedestrian and cycling lanes)- accessibility increase (in terms of access to trip attractions)- land-use diversity (in terms of number and distribution of different land uses)- public spaces and services (in terms of extension and functions)Each of the aforementioned aspects are evaluated by spatial indicators calculated by GIS.All indicators are calculated at different and size increasing units, in order to understandthe effect of a single regeneration project and of a number of concurrent projects withinthe considered geographical units. The geographical units are the RAs and districts.Different combinations of regeneration projects will be thus evaluated to highlight whichprojects produce the most relevant effects, calculated with the proposed indicators.This will allow the municipality to define scenarios of regeneration priority, in terms ofwhich projects might be financed and implemented firstly because of their higher positiveeffect on the urban environment. Such scenarios will generate positive effects not only tothe single areas to be regenerated but also to wider urban contexts, significantly reducingthe urban vulnerability to seismic and climate change risks and at the same time producingmore livable and healthy urban environment.