A Bottom-up Approach to Urban Waterfront Regeneration: A Proposal for the City of Portici

In the last decade, some strategies were elaborated with the aim of economic revitalization and urban regeneration starting from the deterioration conditions that affected urban waterfronts and port areas, considering such areas as engines of the urban transformation process in a broader environmental context. In this perspective, it is necessary to accompany the regeneration process of coastal areas with actions related to accessibility and architectural heritage and environment requalification of surrounding areas, settling new functions capable of activating new economic circuits. The paper describes the construction – in a bottom-up approach – of a shared strategic vision for the sustainable development of the city of Portici, with particular reference to its port area. The project proposals for waterfront regeneration have been elaborated in a forum in which participants were divided into four groups (citizens, third sector, technicians and private sector). Joining the visions of the four groups, a shared vision to the year 2020 was built, also by means of the development of specific proposals and design ideas. At the end, a Decision Support System was elaborated, starting from the Social Networks Analysis (by means of the Ucinet software), in order to analyze coalitions and conflicts, leading to the impact assessment of the different projects applying the ANP (Analytic Network Process) multicriteria method.