A Method Proposal to Adapt Urban Open-Built and Green Spaces to Climate Change

Abstract

To rapidly adapt cities to the growing impacts of climate change, the open space system can play important functions as climate regulators and accelerators of sustainable urban development. To this end, this paper aims to provide a methodology that classifies open spaces on the basis of their physical characteristics and their contribution to climate vulnerability and articulates them according to the costs required for adaptation and the benefits brought. The method was applied to the city of Naples, which is an interesting case study due to its heterogeneous territory in terms of geomorphological features, such as hilly conformation and coastal location, and urban assets characterised by densely built urban fabrics with different distributions and kinds of activities. The results showed that (i) the open spaces with both low thermal and hydraulic performance are predominantly located in the peripheral part of the city, and (ii) the central area is strongly characterised by this dual issue. The latter output confirms the need to update the transformation rules of high historical-architectural value areas by introducing new resilience requirements criteria that cities are asked to have.