Water and land, cities on the waterfront. Throughout centuries human settlements along the water have searched for a well-balanced relation and have produced some of the most beloved european cities, wonderful and prosperous port cities, that are now at risk. They are facing threats brought by the increasing strength of natural phenomena and disasters. To overcome these challenges what needs to be done? The most relevant questions address how, when and what are the priorities. Settled along the waterfront of rivers, seas or oceans, each waterfront city holds specific challenges and requires adaptative measures. While new risks emerge, simultaneously new opportunities to re-imagine these cities and their urban waterscapes come forward.
In the early 21st century, communities inherited waterfronts mainly shaped during the 20th century, which were built on land- fill, using concrete and creating hard surfaces. New opportunities flourish when these areas envision the transition from such rigid, controlling infrastructures to solutions based on adaptation and integration of natural systems. A critical analysis of human actions on the natural environment has the potential to produce alterna- tives that integrate new strategies with ecological functions, favouring smooth systems and a more comprehensive and integrated approach to nature.
The shrinking of biodiversity, unprecedented climate swings and the raising costs of maintenance are symptoms of a planet struggling with climate change. To re-establish a healthy condition, cities seek to develop strategies of adaptation to make the built environment more resilient to face floods, droughts, high tides, tropical hurricanes and urban heat island effects.
To deal with this topic, an ambitious collaborative research network, funded by the Research European Agency Horizon2020 — RISE Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, was created to imagine Sustainable Open Solutions on Waterfront Cities facing Climate Change (SOS Climate Waterfront). The initiative acts asa unifying force, drawing together universities and stakeholders spanning Portugal, Poland, Greece, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. At its core, the research project summonses the exper- tise of researchers, PhD students and postdoc researchers to uplift scientific excellence through a global partnership.Its primary focus lies at the intersection of waterfronts facing climate change in five key european cities: Lisbon, Gdansk, Rome, Stockholm and Thessaloniki, located in the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. This multidisciplinary project put together a series of workshops, field work and conferences that served for sparkly ideas and enlightened thinking among the international team, municipal representatives, and a diverse array of experts. Participants covered various fields such as architecture, urban planning, environmental engineering, meteorology, law, economics, landscape, and others. These collaborative workshops involved immersive site visits, in-depth discussions, and targeted efforts on specific sites.
Collectively, the insights produced by this collaborative network offer a wide spectrum of possibilities, earnestly addressing the multifaceted challenges encountered by urban waterfronts in this era of extreme climate challenges. Participants hailing from diverse fields contributed to a cohesive body of knowledge geared towards birthing creative solutions, effectively spotlighting the material and immaterial exponentially rising costs associated with adapting to and mitigating the damages.
The emergent concept of ‘urban porosity’ stands as a pivotal framework, capable of fostering flood absorption, temperature stabilization, and the curbing of energy consumption. To face these present challenges, resilient urban environments include the inte- gration of circular economy principles and the activation of civil so- ciety towards sustainable practices and safeguarding biodiversity, implied through the concept of ‘porosity’. The flow of information between disciplines depends on the interdisciplinary exchange, enhancing the metaphorical meaning of this new concept.
The selection of five European Waterfront Cities aimed to cover a wide range of situations. Lisbon, Rome, Stockholm, Gdansk, and Thessaloniki were the main laboratories. The re- search on Lisbon’s Great Metropolitan Area addressed pivotal queries surrounding sea level rise, coastal dynamics, and human interactions within waterfront regions. Rome and the river Tiber dealt with coastal systems, historical approaches and dynamics in progress covering current transformations along the seaside and the riverfront. Stockholm, recognized as Europe’s fastest-growing city, grapples with pressing climate change challenges at its wa- terfront. Proposals across three urban sites were explored, each holding profound implications for the city’s waterfront landscape. Gdansk provided insights on how to integrate water management considerations into urban design and planning, since the growing amount of impermeable surfaces results in flooding and pollution of surface waters. The lowering level of the groundwater table im- pairs the growth of vegetation and saline intrusion into the coastal aquifers. Thessaloniki adopted a comparable approach, emphasizing the criticality of resilience for specific waterfront sites. Here, global and local expertise converged to envision transformative urban design solutions tailored to natural yet-to-be-rehabilitated waterfronts, with a keen emphasis on adaptive strategies amid urgent climate challenges.
In this publication, to address the complexity of this emergent topic, the editorial board selected original high-quality papers presenting current research, accommodating a broad spectrumof approaches ranging from speculative, informal investigationsto conventional scientific research, included in the organizationof the three chapters of this book. The first regards “sustainable strategies and cultural heritage” as local geographic and historical resources that stand as potent tools geared toward confronting the current and forthcoming societal and environmental conditions. The second chapter, on “urban waterscapes”, covers an imperative need to consider interdisciplinarity and consequent emerging chal- lenges. The third and final chapter on ‘porosity’ explores case-studies and the opportunity to fortify cities with greater resilience amid the dynamic new necessities for a “sponge-built environment”.
“Sustainable Strategy and Cultural Heritage” explores concepts and projects relating water to landscapes and cultural heritage, focusing on the impacts of the contemporary uses. History without geography is meaningless. Each cultural landscape and the way each community relates to its particularities sustains the re-signification of elements of value, new functions or conservation of heritage buildings and sites.
This first chapter gathers articles that privilege the discussion of anthropic transformation, including how tourism and economic factors impact and influence the public space.
Generations that preceded ours have tested and built many solutions which proved to be resilient and some are still active. There are records of artefacts and strategies that were well adapt- ed and yet built with simple low-tech resources.
From the cultural heritage perspective, it is meaningful to ana- lyse projects that were tested over long periods of time, including adaptive heritage, cases that enhance the integration between landscape and heritage. At present, high levels of sustainable efficiency can be reached by using either high-tech or low-tech solutions, mainly learning from the past. In the second chapter, dedicated to “Urban Waterscapes”, the critical discussion within the interdisciplinary group is driven by a search for hidden, sometimes forgotten knowledge to shed light on local, resilient and low-tech solutions. New solutions emerge from the exchange of expertise between various fields of knowledge, such as geographic, social, environmental, etc. Sustainable transformation is often based on transdisciplinary approachesand emerging strategies must include the role of the communi- ties located along the water. Cross visions between cities lead to the exchange of best practices and are used to imagine beyondthe vulnerable physical reality. Risks of floods, high tides, obsolete infrastructures are part of cultural sites along the waterfront. Currently blue and green strategies search for low carbon energy, transition to soft edges and resilient design, mitigating urban heat islands effect. Increasingly relevant are some of the recent research projects that propose innovative resilience methodologies. At pres- ent they are delivered from interdisciplinary teams, also address- ing comparative cases that succeed to preserve and enhance the natural setting and the built environment.
In the third and last chapter, “Porosity”, articles present systems of resilience to adapt and mitigate effects of climate change, such as environmental planning addressing new patterns brought by extreme swings in the waterfront. The concept has been used across-disci- plines, blending architecture, biology, organic forms and processes providing productive conceptual frameworks. It highlights the tran- sition of the built environment from hard edges to soft edges, and focuses on emergent trends of new urban waterscapes that negoti- ate with nature. It includes future strategies able to act like sponges that are able to absorb without degrading. In fact, nurturing a sponge effect portrays the transition from the 20th to the 21st century.
The concept of urban "sponge effect" implies porosity, urban waterscapes, sustainable strategy and cultural heritage. It requires a profound shift in the way of thinking, from the prominent position of control over nature to a dialogue with nature that can be reinter- preted, producing new meaning and applications within a new con- text. This shift has profound implications in the way cities have been designed, in terms of dealing with green infrastructure, integrating nature, organizing regionalization, transportation, sustainable urban development and circular economy. Sponges take and give, are passive and active, thus opening a new realm of opportunities.
Authors were selected through a double-blind peer review process. Each article reveals a concerted collaboration between academic institutions, local planning authorities and cultural institutions fostering a transformative shift in urban thought. Continually pushing the envelope, this ongoing project serves as a catalyst for innovative approaches, aimed at effectively grappling with and adapting to the multifaceted impacts of climate change within urban landscapes. The theoretical discussion includes the selection of a series of innovative urban strategies to be implemented. How will solutions to adapt and mitigate enhance the resilience of cities?
This comprehensive initiative seamlessly integrates cutting-edge technology, meticulous data collection, and imaginative design, culminating in the development of resilient solutions with potential applicability at both local and european sites. Each of the selected cities has water as its backbone, having developed and adapted along the waterline, adding value to its community.
The far-reaching outcomes of this concerted effort have been disseminated through diverse channels, encompassing open-access databases, scholarly publications, and engaging exhibitions. Between chapters, the illustrations consist of design projects that were developed by the collaborative network of experts participating in the research project throughout four years. The five projects on display were conceived as responses to climate change in the five selected cities. Together, they illustrate solutions designed to deal with each city’s specific challenges, offering opportunities to strengthen their resilience, adapting to new climate patterns and minimizing the impacts of the climate crisis on the waterfront.
The projects conceived for the metropolitan areas of Lisbon, Gdansk, Rome, Stockholm, and Thessaloniki demonstrate both sensitivity and intelligence. Sensitivity to the unique geography, history, and local community of each city, and intelligence in inte- grating new climate patterns in the design, to mitigate their effects. They were developed by multidisciplinary teams composed of experts from academic and non-academic institutions.
They are presented through drawings, including maps and diagrams. The outline of the line, that holds together the solution. Drawings are a universal language that preceded the written word. The ideas illustrated in the five selected projects presented in the book are fundamentally the result of site-specific conditions. The approach itself is multidisciplinary, based upon many different schools of thought. They merge the gap between the material and the functional, the pragmatic and the imaginary/visionary looking at the important structures and signs of the problem from the perspective of discovering how they relate to collective activity.
Each design proposal emerges from the methodology adopted. When experts holding complementary disciplines are engaged in dialogue, at first there is a moment dominated by a cacophony while facing a complex number of parameters that need to be combined. It is chaotic and unpredictable before reaching a common ground. Ideas are shared in a cross-pollination of visions among partners from public and private, academic and non aca- demic sectors in different countries.
The problems and threats are real and expanding rapidly. Solu- tions emerge from dialogue; they are creative and depend on the combination of such interdisciplinary fertile discussion. Coming from various fields of knowledge, each contribution has its own perspective and need to combine each expertise to the common vision. The formula that sustains each of the five projects succeeds to expand new perspectives and discovers new ways of designing that cannot be described in words alone. Only multidisciplinary teams composed of open-minded experts could develop such per- tinent, sustainable and inclusive design.
The richness of the solutions presented is the result of a dialogue process, which opens up new alternatives also useful for other european cities. The proposals aim to build new infrastruc- tures that integrate nature, and its ecological systems, instead of trying to limit and control. They promote solutions where there is a dialogue relationship rather than a power relationship over climate manifestations. The names assigned to the five projects reflect this perspective: “Vine as a Spine” in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, “A leaf on the water” in Gdansk”, Let it Ti(be)r” in Rome, “The Arc” in Stockholm and “Clean the soil” in Thessaloniki. All share an innovative approach, promoting contemporary strategies for urban resilience. They are inspired by the geomorphologic conditions of each waterfront area, regarding their transformations by industrial-ization, throughout the 20th century.
The content produced for this book is the result of a wide international collaboration, aiming to share a body of knowledge through text and drawings. In times of uncertainty, researches have followed a methodology that has been useful for the scientif- ic community, and can be extended to stakeholders, decision makers and to the general public interested in waterfront cities facing climate change. The Sustainable Open Solutions (S.O.S) presented within this publication are different from the common S.O.S mean- ing (Save Our Souls), which is normally associated with a last call for help. Instead, the premises of the research carried out privilege successful initiatives to highlight positive ideas that may build an inspiration for the future.