Cities under Pressure: Strategies and Tools to Face Climate Change and Pandemic

Abstract

This paper investigates the problems and stresses of the contemporary city, mainly due to natural and health factors, related to climate change and the pandemic COVID19. Besides highlighting the characteristics of climate change and the ongoing pandemic, this study focuses on the analysis of the main effects and consequences that these phenomena have produced on the city and the vulnerabilities of the urban system. To understand how these events have impacted the urban environment, directly and indirectly, this research undertakes to define some specific indicators capable of comparing the phenomena and assessing their repercussions. The Methodology is based on the following focal points: on the analysis of the urban shocks that have affected the cities in the last decade, on the comparison between contemporary survey data and those relating to historical trends, on the definition of the main urban sectors particularly affected by the onset of urban shocks, and on the definition of strategies, actions, and tools deemed to be effective in the implementation of a post-pandemic and climate-proof city. These results were achieved through complementary urban design and tools capable of creating a post-pandemic and climate-proof adaptive city, within a cross-disciplinary approach.