Building the coastal resilience. Two case study research for the governance of urban coastal areas

Abstract

The paper proposes the review of two case studies located in the context of the Sorrento Peninsula, Italy. Both studies are here discussed as demonstration projects referring to the topic of the proactive management of coastal areas. The paper highlights first the common ground of the case studies in order to define the framework of understanding that links together the two experiences despite the diversity of the project aims and of the specific findings of each. The two demonstration projects work indeed on the topic of the governance of coastal areas by the aim of improving sustainable tourism. The main aim of both projects lie in achieving methodologies for supporting decision process and for communicating design options at different levels: political, technical, social. Further, the projects work on the use of indicators for orienting project decision (ex ante) and for monitoring the project efficiency (in itinere). The paper illustrates the two experiences through the voices of the Authors/ Designers: the first part deals with the project proposal for enhancing the environmental and cultural value of the shoreline of Meta Municipality, a small centre near Sorrento, Italy, that aims at upgrading the existing urbanand environmental services (Losasso). The other paragraph discusses the INTERREG Cooperation Project - Med.Coast.Net - by which the EU partnership worked for testing the viability of Emas Certification for the urban coastal area management (Rigillo). Conclusion points in evidence the findings of each project in terms of innovation of the project process and of the design products. The last comment deals with the feedback received from the territory and the concerns about the gaps to fill.