Climate Change in urban water system challenges: towards an integrated anticipatory planning approach

The main goal of these reflections is to investigate and highlight innovative approaches in Climate Change driven policies, aimed at overcoming the waterfront cities’ critical aspects. The ‘River contracts’ experience, explored through two case studies in the Roman hydrographic basin, is conceived to tackle the increasing vulnerability of its territory, looking for a sensible attitude towards the integration of water systems, green corridors and open spaces, with actions to be planned and shared through participatory democracy’s steps. Anticipatory adaptation looks ahead to the project scenario trying to implement policies and strategies preventing potential disasters. Creative design and conscious management embracing different spatial scales play a crucial role in enhancing the anticipatory adaptation and resilience approach. The variety of trends, contexts and spatial scales highlights that it is definitively time for fostering the ‘adaptation approach’, supported by mitigation strategies, with a clear twofold aim: risks to be minimised and potential opportunities to be caught.