Enhancing the use of Nature-based solutions in urban planning

Davide Geneletti (University of Trento) and Chiara Cortinovis (Lund University)

This session aims at discussing the opportunities and challenges associated to the development of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in urban areas. Experiences and evidence are needed to improve our understanding of the range of economic, social and environmental benefits provided by NbS in cities, as well as to promote their inclusion in urban planning and decision-making processes. The session welcomes presentation of pilot applications, desk-top reviews of case studies, proposal of analytical methods and tools, as well as theoretical frameworks and perspectives. Examples of topics of interests include:

• Ecosystem service assessments as a basis for the design of NbS;
• NbS and environmental justice in cities;
• Co-benefits and trade-off associated to NbS in urban areas;
• Cost-effectiveness of NbS, particularly when compared to gray infrastructures;
• NbS, urban regeneration and environmental justice;
• Upscaling NbS across spatial planning tiers;
• Designing, assessing, and optimizing NbS scenarios in cities.

Modelling to innovate planning solutions for socio-ecological systems

Antonio Leone (University of Salento), Angioletta Voghera (Polytecnic of Turin)

Planning linked to resilience is a relatively new concept, although there are certain parallels between the evolutionary concept of resilience and planning as a complex process and interconnected system of strategies and actions, which operate at multiple scales and timeframes, oriented towards multiple trajectories. This innovation needs the improvement of specific methodologies for evaluation and modelling environment, landscape and territories for defining planning scenarios.

Input Visions: new technologies, data and hybrid models for spatial planning

Romano Fistola (University of Sannio)

This session has the aim to pay attention to all the innovative "visions" for the transformation managing of urban and regional contexts referable to the use of methods, processes, practices and tools that new technologies and the evolution of the urban planning allow us to prefigure. The innovative visions of the new urban and territorial structures can concern topics such as: new interpretative models of the anthropic settlement, innovative procedure of urban planning, GIS-BIM interaction, advanced representations of the territory, data-analysis techniques and extraction of mining from big data, smart grids and alternative energies for the city, urban regeneration practices conducted by adopting urban-art and bottom-up procedure of social participation, prefigurations of the urban transformation through augmented and mixed reality, innovative renaturalizations of man-made contexts, micro-mobility, development of applications (smartphones) for the urban fruition, smart tourism, etc... The heterogeneity of the contributions could be considered as one of the elements of interest of the session becoming an effective indicator of the liveliness of the reflection on the urban phenomenon and the real possibilities of a step towards new scenarios of the urban discipline

Urban metabolism and simulation for decision making in spatial planning

Francesco Nocera, Riccardo Privitera, Vincenzo Costanzo, Gianpiero Evola (University of Catania)

Urban warming has a significant impact on human life by reducing comfort levels, increasing the air pollutants’ concentration and energy consumption for air conditioning, while also negatively affecting the urban economy.

This warming effect, known as Urban Heat Island (UHI), is mainly determined by the presence of impervious surfaces that absorb and store solar energy and anthropogenic heat during daytime, and then release these quantities to the ambient air mainly at nighttime. In fact, built surfaces cannot discharge heat by natural processes such as evapotranspiration as in the case of green and blue surfaces, and this turns out to significantly raise the air temperature.

Although many researchers all over the world are assessing the performance of a range of technological countermeasures to the UHI phenomenon, and various public administrations are making efforts to improve urban planning and landscape design by a more conscious design, a lack of holistic approaches to UHI mitigation still emerges. This session aims at filling this gap by welcoming submissions from various domains of knowledge (engineering, social science, economics), with an emphasis on how urban planning can benefit from (can take into account) the synergic effects of different mitigation strategies

Submissions presenting both original and review research should focus on one or more of the following topics:

• Urban heat island effect and microclimate
• Urban air quality
• Population exposure and health impacts
• Urban vegetation and green cities
• Urban resilience and climate change
• Urban ecosystems
• Cool materials
• Blue infrastructure
• Urban policy, planning and design

Perfomance-based planning

Raffaele Pelorosso (Tuscia University), Bao-Jie He (University of South Wales)

The strategic objective of a performance-based approach within urban and regional planning is to use performance information of the studied socio-ecological systems to generate decisions for sustainabile and resilient urban development. Performance-based planning (PBP) has attracted the attention of researchers and several papers have been presented in a recent Special Issue (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/sustainable-cities-and-society/special-issue/10B4NMF57P4). The flexibility of planning and policies, local adapted planning standards and strategic plans are some of the main features of PBP. The session welcomes contributions adopting or discussing PBP approaches within different research areas such as water and climate-sensitive planning, ecosystem services and green infrastructure, environmental and urban regeneration, energy, transportation and moreover their inclusive and systematic integration in land use planning. The session aims to further explore the potentialities, limitations, applicability and transferability of performance-based approaches in the planning practice. As a session outcome, a position paper on a peer review WoS or Scopus journal is scheduled.

Computational planning

Bernardino Romano, Alessandro Marucci, Francesco Zullo, Lorena Fiorini (University of L'Aquila), Beniamino Murgante (University of Basilicata)

The objective of a Computational Planning Support Systems (CPSS) is to efficiently calibrate and orient territorial governance actions by evaluating different possible scenarios and their impacts, ensuring a high level of environmental quality and a sustainable urban development. This tool integrates the new technologies available today and it is able to store, manage and analyse large amounts of data (Big data); also guaranteeing a high flexibility and effectiveness of adaptive control mechanisms through the use of indicators engineering. The main aims of the session regarding the use of the CPSS on the urban, regional and landscape planning processes but also on the urban renewal and regeneration actions as well as the transportation systems. This system could therefore represent an opportune and valid solution, in a territory that is rapidly changing and where the extreme events, linked to the aforementioned climatic changes, are more and more frequent.

As a session outcome, publication on a Sustainability Special Issue is scheduled (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Computational_Planning).

Geodesign for informed collaborative spatial decision-making

Michele Campagna (University di Cagliari), Ana Clara Mourao Moura (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Francesco Scorza (University of Basilicata)

Aim of this session is to foster the discussion on all the dimensions of Geodesign, including the process (geodesign as a verb) and its product (geodesign as a noun). Experiences from research, education and practice are welcome in order to contribute to the discussion on geodesign innovation with regards to representation and forecasting of territorial dynamics at all scales, as well as to evaluation, impact assessment and decision-making. Particular attention will be given to collaboration in planning, design, and decision-making, and to its role in addressing current complex challenges in spatial governance.

Planning and Design of ecosystems services: Assessment frameworks, models, mapping, and implications

Corrazo Zoppi, Sabrina Lai (University of Cagliari)

This Session aims at bringing together scholars from diverse fields, interested in explaining, exploring, and assessing the multifaceted interrelationship between nature and human beings. Nature (with both its biotic and abiotic components) provides people with a number of goods and services which constitute the foundations for human life and wellbeing, and which have traditionally been referred to as “Ecosystem Services”. This workshop yearns for high-quality presentations describing original interdisciplinary research results or case studies concerning Ecosystem Services assessment models and mapping, as well as their implications for practitioners, academics, and decision makers. Notwithstanding the huge progress made since the release of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a significant interdisciplinary effort is still required in order, on the one hand, to understand how biodiversity works to deliver ecosystem services, how (and to what extent) such services are supplied, how human activities (first and foremost land-use/land-cover change) impact on the supply of Ecosystem Services, and how supply and demand are spatially intertwined, and, on the other hand, how this body of knowledge can be put to good use to inform decision-making.

Green infrastructure for planning healthy urban environments

Junxiang Li, Caiyan Wu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Daniele La Rosa (University of Catania)

Green infrastructure (GI) has emerged as a promising nature-based solution for providing social, economic, and ecological benefits to promote urban sustainability. GI, as an interconnected network, can deliver a wide variety of ecosystem services, such as recreation, water purification, biodiversity conservation and climate resiliency, etc. however, what’s health services GI has, and how GI can be integrated into planning to enhance healthy urban environments have not been well addressed. This session intends to highlight and discuss the cutting-edge knowledge in GI and its roles for planning healthy urban environments. It especially focuses on the health effects of GI and their linkages to public health-oriented planning to enhance human well-beings and benefits. The session welcomes research and planning scientists and professionals who come from cross-disciplines to inspire novel ideas and present their new findings.

The mitigation of peripheralization risk in urban and regional planning

Roberto Gerundo, Alessandra Marra (University of Salerno)

The term peripheralization indicates a process that has the potential to generate social, physical and environmental degradation regardless of spatial proximity to urban centres. Due to global trends in the metropolization of highly populated areas and the depopulation of inland areas, there is a risk that such processes can affect both cities and countryside, from regional large scale to small scale urban settlements.

At a territorial level, the European Union identifies the so-called inner peripheries as potential threats to cohesion and development.

At an urban and a metropolitan level, deprived areas are associated with both spatial and non-spatial peripheralization:

• the spatial sense refers to peri-urban areas, in particular to the phenomena of sprawl and sprinkling and, in general, to land take;
• the non-spatial sense refers to urban poverty, recently investigated together with the issues of fuel poverty and environmental justice.

This session aims to collate research findings, experiences and practices that address these issues at different levels, with particular reference to risk assessment and mitigation strategies in urban and regional planning.

Strategies and Actions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in mediterranean regions

Francesco Martinico (University of Catania), Marialuce Stanganelli (University of Naples), Luca Barbarossa (University of Catania)

Since almost a decade, European Union is putting effort to tackle climate change and trying to implement different policies, i.e. the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP). Each of the EU Member States has also put in place its own domestic actions that build on the ECCP measures or complement them. Especially in the field of research and education, European Commission has developed multiple initiatives: from program at the continent scale (i.e. Copernicus monitoring services) to the allocation of relevant funds in the recent H2020 and Erasmus+ programmes.

Particularly, Mediterranean territories face specific risks of climate change more than other regions in the world, with specific relation to impacts of global warming: models developed by IPCC cast delineate a clear trend in the pattern of some climatic parameters, with an increase in average surface temperatures in the range of 2.2 and 5.1 °C for the period 2080-2100. For the same period, the same models foresee a pronounced rainfall regime changes in the Mediterranean, with estimated decrease of precipitation in the range of -4% - -27%.

This session showcase examples of research projects, policies and case studies concerning strategies and concrete actions of climate change adaptation and mitigation at different scales and geographical contexts for the Mediterranean regions. The session will also aim to develop an opinion paper based on the presented contribution.

Analysis and planning of Rural Landscapes

Andrea de Montis (University of Sassari)

Contemporary spatial analysis and planning is characterized by the implementation of the principles proposed by the European Landscape Convention. According to this supranational treaty, planners are recommended to focus on all types of landscapes, including urban, peri-urban, and rural landscapes. In addition, the treaty clarifies that even degraded landscapes deserve a finer focus and the definition of proper quality objectives. A major criticality of the rural built landscapes consists of the interplay between human settlements and landscape, a general phenomenon which triggers the fragmentation of original large habitats intro smaller and more isolated patches. In this scenario, ecological networks and broadly green and blue infrastructures serve the cause of the reduction of negative effects of fragmentation (i.e. de-fragmentation). Colleagues interested in these issues and the related implications are invited to send an abstract following the directions reported in the official website. This special session is inspired and funded by the Aunomous Region of Sardinia through 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 complex territorial networks].

Maintenance, upgrading and innovation in Cultural Heritage

Chiara Garau (University of Cagliari), Giampiero Lombardini (University of Genova), Anna Maria Colavitti (University of Cagliari)

Nowadays, the symbiosis of tourism and cultural heritage with their classified resources is proving to be decisive not only for giving an integrated offer of typologically diverse goods, but also for fully entering into national and international competitiveness, even in those territorial contexts that cannot boast a cultural heritage of established value. For this reason, the preservation of the values that each cultural good expresses, assumes importance with maintenance, requalification and fruition interventions, aimed at the symbiosis of the habitat in which the good must be evaluated.

For the effectiveness of this action, which must be coordinated between all the national and international institutional competences, it is important to consider the economic sustainability to be verified through the activities of protection, enhancement and management able to build a network based on cooperation of public hand and private participation. Moreover, through the new technologies and digital simulations that make the contextual display of distant and typologically different complexes possible, culture and visitors can access the renovation and historical contextual planning phases.

In this regard, this session welcomes (but is not limited) papers aimed at proposing new methods and visions, theoretical approaches and case studies of (i) cultural heritage enhancement, or (ii) management and planning of the cultural goods networks, also for tourism purposes, or (iii) balance between economic success, social equity and environmental preservation.

Accessibility in urban planning: moving towards innovative approaches

Rosa Anna La Rocca (University of Naples)

The concept of accessibility has been in use for a long time, with still diverging interpretations of its significance and formulation. This is even more real if considering the town planning context, even though it is quite undeniable the strategic role of accessibility for the definition of sustainable urban practices. The meaning, the measure and the application of urban accessibility has been a topic much discussed by academics and researchers until now. However, the concept of accessibility as a “means” to support the need for integrations between the targets of the mobility system planning and the urban planning tasks has been few investigated, yet. The accessibility paradigm indeed can help to this integrations basing on its interdisciplinary nature.

In the context of these considerations, this section welcomes theoretical contribution as well as technical and professional papers aimed at proposing innovative methods, techniques, and tools that explore the issue of urban accessibility, in order to support integration between mobility system and land use planning towards more sustainable and actual scenarios

The University

One of the largest Italian universities, with its 45,000 students, the University of Catania was founded in 1434, which makes it the oldest University of Sicily. Teaching and research activities are managed by 17 departments, a school of medicine, a school of modern languages in Ragusa and a school of architecture in Syracuse.

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Catania

Catania is the second largest city of Sicily located on its eastern coast, facing the Ionian Sea and at the foot of Mount Etna. It was founded by the Greeks in 729 BC and it has a rich history, characterized by the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Swabian, Angevin, Aragonese, Spanish dominations that you will be able to spot through its beautiful monuments. The city of today, mostly of the eighteenth century, is the result of the reconstruction, following the strong earthquake in 1693. A splendid expression of the Sicilian Baroque style, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Catania is truly a city to discover!

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Accommodation

Walking distance from the conference venue (less than 1000 mt)

Hotel
Manganelli Palace
Il principe ****
Liberty Hotel ****

B&B - Houses - Hostels
La Collegiata
B&B Garibaldi
B&B Crociferi
Amenano B&B
B&B Stesicoro
B&B Rapa Nui
B&B Bellini
B&B Porta Carlo V
B&B Sicilia Home
Catania House
Palazzo Bruca
Palazzu Stidda
Gattopardo House
B&B Antico corso
Quattro Canti Suites
Sleep Inn Catania Rooms
Catania City Centre
4 rooms relax
Sicily House
Bella Stella
Doralice
Globetrotter
Principe di Francalanza
I Vespri
B&B Catania Inn
Politi Residence
Casa Vacanze Mirò
Casa Maravigna
Ostello del Plebiscito
Ostello degli Elefanti