Michele Talia

Selection of Indicators of Urban Sustainability and Quality of Life of City Inhabitants

The quality of European landscapes and the quality of life of city inhabitants are closely related to economic, social, and cultural aspects that are manifest in time and space. This connection, interacting with the local economy, responds to the recreational, emotional, and spiritual needs and the sense of identity of the community, as the Mercer survey and Eurobarometer have highlighted. If our cities are unsustainable, as often happens, the urban landscape could/should become the litmus paper that allows the state of places to be synthetically interpreted and supports the delineation of indications to solve the problems (Benson and Roe 2007). When following this road, it is necessary to consider the technical aspects of sustainability policies—such as energy savings, recycling, environmental management, etc.—and non-technical aspects such as social behaviours and spatial organization. All of these aspects together, in addition to the way in which they interact, contribute to determining the characteristics of a given urban landscape and the quality of life of city inhabitants. The continuous “feedback” between sustainability and quality of the urban landscape and their interaction with the quality of life of city inhabitants have been the subject of numerous studies and reflections in the contemporary scientific panorama. In this respect, the 2010 book by Claudia Dinep and Kristin Schwab Sustainable Site Design Criteria, Process, and Case Studies for Integrating Site and Region in Landscape Design highlights how “…urban sustainability is fundamentally the sustainability of the urban landscape as a whole”. In a 2004 essay, MacKendrick and Parkins maintained that the sustainability of the urban landscape could be defined as the capacity of a landscape system to generate and maintain conditions for a safe, harmonious, and adequate environment of life that respects ecosystems (MacKendrick and Parkins 2004).

For a New Urban Governance

The economic/financial recession that has affected the cities and economy of the west is forcing a rethinking about the current model of development and planning a return to governance policies based on enhancing territorial, local, and urban capital. It is not possible for this to occur in terms of further growth, accumulation, and the consumption of scarce resources. Instead, it is necessary to design polycentric, denser cities, regulating the reuse of land to a multifunctional dimension, reconfiguring spaces, and producing more resilient, adaptive, and quality urban fabrics. Cities, in that they are social organizations created to be functional for humans’ many needs, could become the space in which citizens find answers to their demands for well-being and quality of life. In this sense, cities have found it necessary to address some substantial questions in new and creative ways. These questions relate to: Waste reduction and a more efficient use of resources (human capital, land, landscape worth, environmental quality, energy) Conservation and the hydrogeological balance of the land Greater sobriety and effectiveness in urban planning Reorganization of material and immaterial infrastructure networks Involving a larger number of subjects and new players in transformation and regeneration processes Building ethics of collective goods to ensure real sustainability in enhancement processes and the use of these goods to block their irreversible consumption Redefining behaviours, habits, and lifestyles of inhabitants and operators imprinted with a more conscious, responsible use of their territory.

Urban-Planning Tactics and Strategies in New Decision-Making Processes

In the West, the basis on which the main institutions of economic and social power, which until a few years ago were deemed to be very solid, have begun to waver dangerously. A climate of uncertainty and concern is spreading in public opinion and in scholarly circles which risks obstructing the search for interpretations and rigorous, convincing treatments to deal with a particularly negative international framework. According to Ulrich Beck (2009), the systemic crisis triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. definitively immersed us in a “global capitalism of uncertainty” such that the climate we are experiencing is characterized by a widespread awareness that unmistakable changes are about to arrive. Their direction, however, is still unknown.

Urban Policies for Urban Sustainability and Quality of Life of the City

Despite the prolonged, unbridled process of urbanization that has concentrated 53% of the world’s population and more than 73% of the European population in cities, the confirmation of an Urban Agenda on the international level is still struggling to take off. As has been highlighted many times, this disappointing result stands in open contrast to the many initiatives assumed in recent decades by the United Nations and the European Commission, so that national governments have almost worked alone and in a convergent way over this period to maintain control of their respective urban policies (Boni 2016).

The DSS and Its Possible Applications

Acting amid uncertainty is a perennial situation in territorial planning, having always dealt with the inevitable relativity of assessments and choices regarding settlement transformations (Camagni and Lombardo 1999). Today, however, the complexity of territorial government when facing insecurity on different scales characterizes the historical period in which we live and requires a rethinking of the ways of carrying out territorial government activities that must deal with a continuous evolution situation. This not only requires rapidity and a capacity for updating and deciding between different options but also the willingness to address a multitude of new actors that have recently entered the decision-making process.