Cities in Emergency: Practices of Sustainable Urban Regeneration in Spain and the United Kindom

The processes of metropolitanisation have triggered a complex urban crisis, characterised by the confluence of environmental demands linked to the climate crisis and deeply rooted socio-economic shortcomings. Within this framework, the new Leipzig Charter (2020) delineates three perspectives for sustainable urban development in cities facing emergencies, namely, “just”, “green”, and “productive”. In this context, the contribution, which is part of a broader research project (funded within the PNRR) of the PDTA Department at Sapienza University of Rome entitled “New rules, parameters, indicators, operational references of the urban plan for an eco-sustainable approach to urban regeneration” (PI Laura Ricci), aims to construct an interpretative framework of significant European best practices, at a local scale, adopting an ecological-environmental approach to urban regeneration. Specifically, a comparative analysis of the Spanish and British contexts is proposed to highlight how the local planning of the analysed territorial contexts supports such an ecological-environmental approach to urban regeneration, with the aim of delineating exportable guidelines capable of implementing, in subsequent phases of the research, Italian local planning within the triple perspective outlined by the new Leipzig Charter.