The complex systemic vision and local milieu to face the challenges of resilience

Abstract

The metaphor of “resilience” appeared in urban and regional planning at the end of last century as a tool to achieve sustainable cities. Scientific research, policies and actions have been recently developed on resilience as response to the challenge of climate change. The most appropriate definition of resilience related to town planning is the ecological one looking at “city system” as an organism in continuous transformation. The city acts as a living organism able to react to stressful events, natural or socio-economic, to achieve acceptable levels of efficiency.
The three prevailing thematic fields on the resilience studies focus on: resilience and sustainability, resilience and adaptation, resilience and territorial risks.
The challenges of resilience concern natural and social changes such as: climate change, hydro-geological risk, flood risk, coastal erosion, desertification, urban heat island, lack of primary goods (water and agricultural goods), population growth, increasing concentration of urban population, scarceness of energy resources, growing gap between rich and poor countries.
Spatial Planning for resilience should adopt principles of sustainable design like: decrease of land consumption, green infrastructure, enhancement of slow mobility, protection of rural and cultural heritage, sprawl reduction, compact city models.
From a theoretical point of view, the cultural approach on the resilient city has been founded on structuralism and systems theory. Moreover the concept of urban milieu represents a theoretical and operational tool for territorial analysis because it is able to recognize the qualities of resilience of an urban region, aimed to the implementation of actions and physical projects.
The editorial suggests to examine scientific studies, experiences and actions on urban resilience, paying attention to the theoretical principles of systemic analysis and local milieu in order to explain the capabilities of urban regions to produce useful innovation to face the stressed events impacting on the territory.