he role of waterfront areas for the historical city and the urban territory. Regeneration experiences in England and France

Abstract

Several considerable processes of urban regeneration, carried out in the last decades, have particularly concerned brownfield areas, along sea, rivers and canals.
Some operations, run in the wake of European policies for urban areas or programmes related to cultural and sport events, have actually contributed to the renaissance and vitality of territories in decline.
Nevertheless, in a period of deep economic crisis and unemployment, urgent environmental emergencies, multiplicity and diversity of social instances, there is a real need for approaches more and more consistent with objectives of both physical/environmental and socio-economic regeneration.
English and French experiences of waterfront regeneration are interesting, in different ways, in relation to the process activation/implementation (partnership organisational structure, private/public investment ratio, duration), as to enterprises, employment and innovation (office, retail and leisure space, enterprise localization, cultural attractions and urban design), with regard to local communities, services and cultural heritage (increase of population and local employment, accessibility to housing and integrated services, mobility and transport, conservation and valorisation of buildings and sites of architectural or historic interest, involvement and participation to local planning processes), as to the use of resources and pollution reduction (energy management, building recovery and brownfield regeneration, etc.).