At the edge of metropolitan complexity. Designing green and blue infrastructure for the regeneration of complex metropolitan landscapes

The aim of the research project is to devise a tool capable of helping in the decision-making phase, the technician or entity in charge, to the careful choice of where to concentrate and invest their resources. The need to think of a method with these characteristics, stems from the awareness that urban planning has to do with a huge variety of topics and knowledge related to each other, and therefore it might be advantageous to be able to rely on a tool capable of managing, monitoring and evaluating choices. The tool involves the formulation of an intervention priority matrix, calibrated with the aim of adapting the complex landscapes of Mediterranean metropolises to the effects of climate change, understood as a complex system. In fact, the matrix considers various physical and functional characteristics of a permeable open space, which in our case sees the goal of identifying those soils that, in the face of climate challenges, in their current state, generate risk and degradation. The main topic around which this research project is structured, therefore, is closely related to complexity. The study focuses on the analysis of a complex spatial system by trying to dissect the peculiarities of the relationships between the parts. Dealing with a complex system, the first step was to try to break down this main element into two macro categories: natural capital and human capital. Realizing that, while succeeding in defining the two main triggering and generating elements of a complex territorial system, the sum of its individual parts will never result in the totality of the system under consideration, it was decided to structure a method of approach and a related decision-support tool such as to encapsulate those features that, due to the critical issues faced in the territorial context of research, will be preponderant towards the expected project results