Preface

Currently, the housing conditions of large urban agglomerations present the strongest critical elements facing the human habitat. Faced with epochal climatic, social, and epidemiological challenges, urban areas are suffering recurring calamities, risks, and problems that require profound transformations. From a phenomenon of concentration of human activities, large conurbations, an image of wise use of environmental, territorial and landscape resources and of interaction with human capital capable of imagining, realizing and building an artificial "second nature", maximum and complex abstraction and expression of human ingenuity, during the pandemic, they experienced a negative trend that saw them empty and then repopulate after the positive results of the vaccination campaigns. However, metropolises around the world are still the areas where the most relevant social and environmental challenges are concentrated, and although they cover less than 3% of the earth's surface [1], they are responsible for 71% of global carbon emissions related to energy [2], and in particular, climate change [3]. Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, which are both global and local issues, are increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme temperature and precipitation events, against which large urban areas play a crucial role as key players in the transition to a sustainable and low-carbon economy. As architects, engineers, and scholars of the sector we are called to provide timely and adequate responses to the phenomenon, investigating approaches and methodologies capable of improving this type of urban form by following and pursuing mitigation of extreme phenomena through policies, studies, circular economy, and resilience design strategies. Furthermore, the pandemic has posed further challenges, especially in places where conditions of overcrowding and instability make the response to the global health crisis even more complex [4].

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlines seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a sustainable future [5]. SDG 3 aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages. SDG 13 addresses climate change and its impacts and SDG 15 addresses the sustainability of forests, combatting desertification, and halting biodiversity loss [6]. SDG 11 aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. In addition, target 11c plans to support Less Developed Countries (LDCs) through financial and technical assistance in the construction of sustainable and resilient buildings [7].

This book discusses the dynamics of the spatial development of agglomerates, taking into account the SDGs, and analyzes the environmental risks to which they are subject due to climate change. It addresses the development of sustainable transport infrastructures and new socioeconomic transformation and regeneration strategies of urban settlements. It is divided into two sections. The first section includes chapters that address the problem of large urban agglomerations and propose new forms of regeneration from the top down.

The second section includes chapters on the conformation of spaces and their agglomerations. The proposed solutions focus on climate-adaptive strategies to affect the mechanisms of urban transformations and their implementation.

The design attention, at different scales, from territory to architecture, focuses above all on those emerging contexts (Brazil, India, Africa) where 95% of the world's demographic development will be concentrated [8], making structural changes necessary. Central to this approach is the "production of local knowledge," understood as a culture of living and acting, contrasted with housing realities characterized by spatial and social inequalities, lack of quality of living spaces, and greater exposure to epidemiological, environmental, and cultural shocks. Some authors propose a new dwelling paradigm, capable of involving the weakest populations through a bottom-up, shared, and not imposed design. The term resilience, in this sense, implies both an environmental instance, connected to the attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change also through the promotion of local empowerment and social connections, integrating categories of the population excluded from the urban design, within design attention addressing the challenges of the future.

#### **Alessandra Battisti and Serena Baiani**

**V**

[1] European Environment Agency (2016). Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016 transforming Areas, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD

Publishing, Paris.

[2] Center for International Earth Science Information Network

Documentation for the Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4), Revision 11 Data Sets, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), Palisades, NY

[3] Florczyk, A., C. Corbane, D. Ehrlich, S. Freire, T. Kemper, L. Maffenini, M. Melchiorri, M. Pesaresi, P. Politis, M. Schiavina, F. Sabo, and L. Zanchetta (2019), GHSL Data Package 2019, JRC 117104, EUR 29788 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

[4] UN-Habitat (2020). Guidance on COVID-19 and Public Space. United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi.

[5] UN-Habitat (2017), New Urban Agenda, United Nations Conference

[6] UN-Habitat (2018). SDG Indicator 11.7.1 Training Module: Public Space. United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi.

[7] Dijkstra, L. and H. Poelman (2014), 'A harmonised definition of cities and rural areas: the new degree of urbanisation', Regional Working Paper 2014, WP 01/2014, European Commission Directorate-General for

Regional and Urban Policy.

[8] OECD (2012), Redefining "Urban": A New Way to Measure Metropolitan

on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), United Nations, General Assembly,

A/RES/71/256, New York.

(CIESIN), Columbia University (2018),

cities in a changing climate.

**References**

Department of Planning, Design, and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

#### **References**

[1] European Environment Agency (2016). Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016 transforming cities in a changing climate.

[2] Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University (2018), Documentation for the Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4), Revision 11 Data Sets, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), Palisades, NY

[3] Florczyk, A., C. Corbane, D. Ehrlich, S. Freire, T. Kemper, L. Maffenini, M. Melchiorri, M. Pesaresi, P. Politis, M. Schiavina, F. Sabo, and L. Zanchetta (2019), GHSL Data Package 2019, JRC 117104, EUR 29788 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

[4] UN-Habitat (2020). Guidance on COVID-19 and Public Space. United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi.

[5] UN-Habitat (2017), New Urban Agenda, United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), United Nations, General Assembly, A/RES/71/256, New York.

[6] UN-Habitat (2018). SDG Indicator 11.7.1 Training Module: Public Space. United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi.

[7] Dijkstra, L. and H. Poelman (2014), 'A harmonised definition of cities and rural areas: the new degree of urbanisation', Regional Working Paper 2014, WP 01/2014, European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.

[8] OECD (2012), Redefining "Urban": A New Way to Measure Metropolitan

Areas, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Publishing, Paris.

## Section 1
