Eleventh International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Sustainable urban development in Europe is an essential condition not only for achieving the economic, social, and territorial cohesion, but also for improving the quality of life of the European Union citizens. The 2014-20 Cohesion Policy before and the EU Urban Agenda identified in metropolitan spaces the centre of a community project that considers the city as the protagonist of the European future, increasingly pursued in the name of environmentally sustainable development. The degree of response and understanding of the various problems arising from the achievement of sustainable urban development is different from one country to another: for example, in the environmental policy sector, it is clear that some cities and urban centres of Europe have already adopted many years’ strategic measures to reduce the amount of polluting gases. Although in Italy the National Urban Agenda is promoting the Smart Cities and the optimization of a circular economy, the country is still far from reaching the goal of managing the metropolitan areas according to urban sustainability principles, as confirmed also by the “Guidelines for Green Cities” of the last years by the Foundation for Sustainable Development. This paper therefore aims at investigating the possible support of the Italian cities, characterized by strong heterogeneity, to the process of European integration and to the achievement of sustainable urban development.

Presenters

Stefania Montebelli
Associate Professor of Geography and Human Geography, Department of Human Sciences, University of Guglielmo Marconi, Roma, Italy