Information and creativity of the port city plan. A gis-based assessment model for catania’s harbor area

According to the Masterplan, Catania’s harbor area is subjected to an urban renewal program that involves the replacement and a radical repurposing of old factories and the introduction of multiple functions to be integrated to residential areas, seriously compromised both in physical either in social terms. Hypotheses of the Plan have been translated in this application with the ruling principles of the negotiated planning; so has been made an analysis, evaluation and project model that integrates spreadsheet features with the GIS ones, throughout the writing of a suitable informatics code. This model allows to apply the principles of the transfer development rights, and to check a variety of planning actions of different qualitative and quantitative profiles, through the principles of equalization that the model enables to evaluate in real time. The peculiarity of the GIS-Spreadsheets model is to be able to perform both graphical and numeric input and to get the match in real-time. The model combines space operations and economic calculation by allowing the designer to check, in real time, general hypotheses – concerning e.g. the scaling of the macro-urban functions and dimensions – and detailed hypotheses relating to the economic balance of transfers of development rights between the government and individual contractors. These quantitative, qualitative and spatial tests work out in terms of feasibility, costs and consistency with the urban strategy, basing on the evaluation model. Each building unit can be transformed in shape, size, purposes, and architectonic qualities, divided or merged with others, and these changes are followed by the corresponding numerical, economic and evaluation variations. This control skill is an important basic tool to practice creativity with strictness, in compliance with the concerted planning rules.