Narrating Coastal Fragility: Toward a Spatial Theory of Resilience

This chapter addresses the structural tension between conservation imperatives and development pressures within Mediterranean coastal protected areas, where governance frameworks rarely treat ecological and cultural fragility as components of a single systemic condition. Taking the Riserva Naturale Statale del Litorale Romano (~15,900 ha, Rome, Italy) as a case study, the chapter develops a multidimensional analytical framework integrating four perspectives – environmental-ecological, urban-settlement, historical-archaeological, and accessibility-fruition – through weighted multi-criteria mapping at 1:10,000 scale. The resulting fragility indices, connectivity gap analysis, and heritage accessibility scores reveal synergistic vulnerability patterns in which ecological degradation, functional isolation of cultural assets, and governance fragmentation mutually reinforce one another. Building on these findings, the chapter proposes territorial network strategies grounded in historic rural infrastructure as lightweight connective tools, advancing Mediterranean coastal landscape urbanism theory and offering a replicable framework that moves beyond the conservation–development dichotomy.