Urban density and Sustainability

The intensification of the interdisciplinary debate on urban dispersion and land take, which for some time has animated various sectors connected with the Sciences of the Territory, is focusing interest on the relationships between urban/demographic density and socio-economic-environmental sustainability in a much more consistent and articulated way than it ever happened until some time ago. Since the II World War, municipal urban planning tools have made use of these parameters to guide the evolution of the settled territories substantially by means of the resulting building types, but without considering possible consequences in terms of impact on the environmental or social costs of the technical choices. The angle of scientific observation and reflection on this field of use of density parameters, with rather elementary traditional forms of application, is taking on a very different character with the development of the debate on the excesses of urban conversion of soils and related issues, which today include also the compaction actions of the building. For the practical implementation of these "infilling" and "de-sealing" actions it must be taken into account that urban fabrics, throughout Italy, are filled with precarious/disused surfaces suitable for new functions ranging from environmental requalification to insertion of building volumes deemed necessary to meet the normal dynamic needs of resident communities. But to use them there is a need to activate advanced negotiation procedures. Contrary to what is happening now, the convenience of these procedures should be decidedly oriented towards the public interest, rethinking solutions for the geographical relocation of concessions / compensations and broadening the spectrum.