Riverside Resilience: Design – Research – Approaches

The prevention of natural disasters linked with the contingency/recovery planning disciplines has been recognised as crucial for the future of Europe. With respect to risk management related to watercourses, urban open spaces are often identified as areas prone to natural hazards rather than structuring components of the territory able to implement mitigation infrastructure and reduce the exposure to flash floods and other calamities. Alternative mitigation strategies combined with a regional planning approach are needed, which this paper addresses by describing innovative urban design concepts that focus on flood resilience. By applying resilience theory, this contribution aims to explore in particular an alternative framework for urban flood hazard management in peripheral contexts, such as the Bisagno River Valley in Genoa.