Water sensitive urban design for climate change adaptation: multi-scale strategies and sustainable technologies for urban regeneration

The Water sensitive urban design methodology outlines a holistic design process aimed at defining the most appropriate actions for the transformation of buildings and open spaces, urban blocks and neighbourhoods, cities and landscape, considering the built environment and the natural systems in an adaptive and co-evolutionary logic. In such a design perspective, based on the analysis of key indicators in a multi-scale framework and the understanding of expected performance levels from adaptive design solutions at different scales, the city as a whole constitutes a system of networks composed by “resilient cells”, conceived as interdependent and mutually interacting sub-systems (Walker, Salt, 2011) for the sustainable management of water resources and related climate risks. Every cell is designed as a dynamic apparatus aimed at the reactivation of the ecosystem services, to improve the health and well-being of the inhabitants, to pre- vent discomforting phenomena (e.g. due to the urban heat island) and to absorb variations in terms of extreme weather events. The experimental design methodology outlined in this paper was developed as part of research activity conducted at Università Federico II di Napoli, Department of Archi- tecture (Diarc) within institutional projects and the contribution of experimental educa- tional activities on the topic of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, namely: - Metropolis - Integrated and sustainable technologies and methodologies for adaptation and safety of urban systems. Project Ponrec - Stress Scarl, Regione Campania high technology district for sustainable building, 2014-2016 (Diarc coordinator: V. D’Ambrosio); - Urban open spaces resilient to rainwater under climate change. Project Faro - Uni- versità Federico II di Napoli, Sciences and technologies pole, 2010-2012 (scientific responsible: M.F. Palestino); - Water recycling in the Block 103 Kreuzberg: effects on our well-being inside the built environment, 2012 (Cristina Visconti, tutor M. Losasso); - Innovative water concepts: sustainable urban regeneration and climate change adaptation in East Napoli, 2012 (Cristina Visconti, supervisor M. Losasso); - The resilient river: redevelopment of public spaces as a strategy to increase the resilience of the Mithi river in Mumbai, 2013 (M. Prisco, supervisor M. Losasso, co- supervisor M.F. Leone).