[EN] Urban Corporations have been for over fifty years a fundamental element for that Local Authorities have developed both its housing and land policy, making effective the constitutional right to a decent and adequate housing, such as the development of effective and efficient municipal public services and the exercise of economic activities for the benefit of the inhabitants of the population. Despite this, the Urban Corporations are viewed negatively by some sectors of society, especially in the current economic crisis situation by the fact that in its performance apply private law and the economic-financial system of the private companies. By considering these as evading means for the economic and administrative established controls for administrative bodies, what makes some economic slippage leading to a rise to the debt overhang of the Local Authorities using them. A contrary conclusion has been reached after a thorough analysis and systematization of the rules for the application to determine its legal complex regime and the detailed study of the performance of various Urban Corporations. The analysis in this investigation demonstrates that the local urban corporations are, not only an optimum mean to develop the housing and land municipal policy which is so necessary in a crisis situation and need of housing in which we find ourselves, but also an efficient tool for the delivery of local services. The application in its performance of a legal regime-economic subjected to the Accountancy and Private Law before is not as a negative but an essential element for optimal delivery of services and the exercise of economic activities by account of its city hall, especially in order to the intervention in the complex and changing urban sector and real estate. / [ES] Las Sociedades Urbanísticas han sido durante más de cincuenta años un elemento fundamental para que las Administraciones Locales hayan desarrollado tanto su política de vivienda y suelo, haciendo efectivo el derecho constitucional a una vivienda digna y adecuada, como el desarrollo eficaz y eficiente de servicios públicos municipales y el ejercicio de actividades económicas en beneficio de los habitantes de la población. A pesar de este hecho constatado, por la especialidad de que aplican en su actuación el Derecho privado y el régimen económico-financiero de las sociedades mercantiles privadas, son vistas negativamente por algunos sectores sociales, especialmente en la actual situación de crisis económica, por considerar éstas son un medio de evadir los controles económicos y administrativos establecidos para los órganos administrativos, lo que produce, a su juicio, cierto descontrol económico que ha dado lugar al sobreendeudamiento de las corporaciones locales que las utilizan. Tras un profundo análisis y sistematización de la normativa de aplicación para determinar su complejo régimen jurídico y del estudio pormenorizado de la actuación de diversas sociedades urbanísticas se llega a la conclusión contraria. El análisis efectuado en la presente investigación pone de relieve que las sociedades urbanísticas locales son, no solo un medio óptimo para desarrollar la política municipal en materia de vivienda y suelo, tan necesaria en una situación de crisis y de necesidad habitacional en la que nos encontramos, sino también un instrumento eficiente, para la prestación de servicios locales. La aplicación en su actuación de un régimen jurídico-económico sometido a la Contabilidad y al Derecho privado antes que ser un elemento negativo, es un elemento esencial para óptima prestación de servicios y el ejercicio de actividades económicas por cuenta de su ayuntamiento titular, especialmente en orden a la intervención en el complejo y cambiante sector urbanístico e inmobiliario. / [CA] Les Societats Urbanístiques han sigut durant més de cinquanta anys un element fonamental perquè les Administracions Locals hagen desenvolupat tant la seua política d'habitatge i sòl, fent efectiu el dret constitucional a un habitatge digne i adequat, com el desenvolupament eficaç i eficient de serveis públics municipals i l'exercici d'activitats econòmiques en benefici dels habitants de la població. Malgrat aquest fet constatat, pel fet que apliquen en la seua actuació el Dret privat i el règim economicofinancer de les societats mercantils privades són vistes negativament per alguns sectors socials, especialment en l'actual situació de crisi econòmica, per considerar aquestes són un mitjà d'evadir els controls econòmics i administratius establits per als òrgans administratius, la qual cosa produeix, al seu judici, cert descontrol econòmic que ha donat lloc al sobreendeutament de les corporacions locals que les utilitzen. Després d'un profund anàlisi i sistematització de la normativa d'aplicació per a determinar el seu complex règim jurídic i de l'estudi detallat de l'actuació de diverses societats urbanístiques s'arriba a la conclusió contrària. L'anàlisi efectuat en la present recerca posa en relleu que les societats urbanístiques locals són, no solament un mitjà òptim per a desenvolupar la política municipal en matèria d'habitatge i sòl, tan necessària en una situació de crisi i de necessitat habitacional en la qual ens trobem, sinó també un instrument eficient, per a la prestació de serveis locals. L'aplicació en la seua actuació d'un règim jurídic-econòmic sotmès a la Comptabilitat i al Dret privat abans que ser un element negatiu, és un element essencial per a òptima prestació de serveis i l'exercici d'activitats econòmiques per compte del seu ajuntament titular, especialment amb vista a la intervenció en el complex i canviant sector urbanístic i immobiliari. / Bueso Guirao, E. (2016). LA SOCIEDADES URBANÍSTICAS LOCALES COMO INSTRUMENTO DE GESTIÓN DE SERVICIOS Y DE DESARROLLO DE ACTIVIDADES ECONÓMICAS [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/61780

Il presente lavoro di tesi è strutturato in tre sezioni principali. La prima, che comprende i primi due capitoli, riguarda i riferimenti per la conoscenza: al fine di definire il contesto mondiale nel quale si inserisce la tesi, vengono analizzati i dati riguardanti i disastri naturali avvenuti e quelli relativi ai possibili scenari futuri anche in relazione ai cambiamenti climatici. La seconda parte, dedicata ad approfondimenti alle scale europea e italiana, effettua nei capitoli 3-4-5 una sorta di downscaling dei primi due: la medesima struttura di analisi viene riproposta, applicata e approfondita ad una scala spaziale di maggior dettaglio, prima quella europea e successivamente quella nazionale, focalizzando l’attenzione su un particolare tipo di disastro, vale a dire le alluvioni. La terza sezione concretizza il contributo metodologico del lavoro proponendo una nuova metodologia per l’elaborazione dei piani di protezione civile comunali o intercomunali, in particolare in riferimento agli scenari di rischio idraulico, e la sua diffusione con relativa verifica applicativa. / The present study is composed of three main sections. The first, covering the first two chapters, deals with references to knowledge: in order to define the worldwide scenario to which this study is referred, data on really occurred natural disaster and on possible future events are analyzed, considering also the probable influence of the on-going climate changes. The second part, chapters 3-4-5, is a sort of downscaling to the European and Italian territory of the first two chapters’ analysis. The same methodology is detailed and implemented for the analysis of a particular event’s type: flood risk (in Europe and Italy). Third section is about the methodological contribution of the study: a new approach to civil protection planning at local level is suggested, with a particular focus on flood risk scenarios. This new civil protection planning methodology has been applied to a real context and the relative case study is presented.

La tesi modifica l’indice di qualità della vita urbana introdotto da Roback (1982) in letteratura. L’obiettivo è quello di misurare il livello di accessibilità per particolari beni distribuiti all’interno di una singola città, sfruttando un indice di disugliaglianza alla Atkinson-Kolm-Sen, disaggragabile in funzione delle diverse caratteristiche considerate. Il modello teorico è stato provato su dati per il Comune di Milano, che hanno permesso di calcolare indici di prezzo edonico per le caratteristiche introdotte nell’intervallo 2004-2008. L’analisi della segregazione residenziale all’interno del comune è stata valutata nell’intervallo 1991-2007 e da questa è stata sviluppata un’analisi dell’indice di segregazione di Atkinson coerente con le misure di uguaglianza e segregazione esistenti nella letteratura dei pianificatori e dei sociologi. / The thesis modifies the urban Quality of Life index introduced in the literature by Roback (1982). The aim if the work is to measure the level of accessibility to particular goods distributed within a single city, exploiting the inequality index à la Atkinson-Kolm-Sen, which can be disentangled depending on the characteristics considered. The theoretical model has been tested on data about the Municipality of Milan, at carring out as well hedonic price indices over the characteristics introduced in the time span 2004-2008. The analysis of the residential segregation has been referred to the time span 1991-2007 and it has yielded a residential segregation index consistent with measures of both fairness and segregation, already available in the literature of planners and sociologists.

La Tesi indaga sulle attività finalizzate a valorizzare i beni culturali materiali e immateriali che costituiscono una risorsa del nostro paese, formalmente molto tutelata, ma ancora poco valorizzata. L’obiettivo è quello di delineare politiche e progetti territoriali e urbani a partire dal riconoscimento del valore dei beni culturali da parte delle comunità locali, e gli strumenti di gestione e di valutazione a sostegno di scelte condivise e fattibili. Le azioni da intraprendere riguarderanno più forme di turismo culturale integrate con più campi di attività sociale ed economica nella convinzione che ciò possa garantire uno sviluppo “sostenibile”, attraverso un equilibrio tra popolazione residente e popolazione turistica e tra i canali di investimento pubblici e privati in più settori di attività economica. Il lavoro si sviluppa in una prima parte indagando le dinamiche turistiche, il significato di cultura e bene culturale, gli approcci finalizzati all'analisi dei fenomeni culturali e termina con l’elaborazione di una matrice e dei relativi indicatori e campi di indagine, sottoposta agli operatori economici circa le potenzialità e le criticità del sistema turistico italiano. La seconda parte descrive l’importanza ed il ruolo di alcuni personaggi del passato e di oggi, che hanno contribuito al miglioramento della qualità della vita attraverso interventi nei settori della cultura e della domanda sociale. Inoltre sono stati affinati ed ampliati i campi di indagine e gli indicatori della matrice, somministrata a più categorie di stakeholders, con l’obiettivo di indagare le differenze di approccio e di punto di vista di operatori privati e pubblici. L'ultima parte della Tesi traccia una proposta di procedura per la programmazione e per la valorizzazione degli attrattori turistici locali, individuando come volano la componente culturale presente in ognuno di essi e le modalità di integrazione con altri aspetti del territorio, con particolare attenzione alle località del territorio italiano meno conosciute. / This PhD Thesis investigates the activities aimed to promote cultural heritage and intangible assets that constitute a resource of our country, formally very protected, but still little valorized. The mission is to delineate urban and territorial policies and projects, starting from the recognition of cultural heritage value by local communities, and delineate tools for management and promotion supporting feasible and shared choices. Actions to be undertaken will concern many cultural tourism types integrated with social and economic activities, because the belief is that all of this will ensure “sustainable” development. This is possible through a balance between resident and touristic population, and through public and private investment channels in many sectors of economic activity. The first part of the Thesis investigates the tourism’s dynamics, culture and cultural heritage’s meaning. This part inquires approaches aimed to analyze cultural phenomena, and it ends with developing a matrix with associated indicators and research’s range, to submit to economic stakeholders to investigate potentiality and critical aspects of Italian tourism. The second part of Thesis describes the importance of some present and past characters who have contributed to improve quality of life, through interventions in cultural and in social demand’s areas. In this part it has been refined the range of investigation and the matrix’s indicators, and the matrix has been given to various groups of stakeholders, with the aim to explore the differences in terms of approaches and viewpoints of private and public operators. The third, and the last, part of the Thesis tries to draw a procedure’s proposal to program and valorize the local touristic attractors, identifying in each of them the cultural component, and how they interact with other aspects of the territory, focusing on lesser-known places of Italian territory.

The recognition of nature in the resolution of societal challenges has been growing in relevance. This recognition has been associated with the development of new concepts from science and policy such as natural capital, ecosystem services, green infrastructure, and more recently Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). NBS intends to address societal challenges in an effective and adaptive form providing economic, social, and environmental benefits. The overall aim of this PhD thesis is to develop an environmental and economic assessment of NBS for highly urbanised territories based on rationales and models underpinning ecosystem services, urban/landscape ecology, and life cycle thinking approaches. This combined evaluation approach would help to better understand if NBS are cost-effective or not. The aim is developed according to four specific objectives. The first objective corresponds to the characterisation of NBS in relation to urban contexts and the problematics that they can help to address or mitigate. To achieve this objective a critical review on the study of the relationship between NBS, ecosystem services (ES) and urban challenges (UC) was developed. As a main output, a graph of plausible cause-effect relationships between NBS, ES and UC is obtained. The graph represents a first step to support sustainable urban planning, moving from problems (i.e. urban challenges) to actions (i.e. NBS) to resolutions (i.e. ES). The second objective corresponds to the definition of an adequate set of biophysical and monetary assessment methods and indicators to evaluate the value of NBS in urbanised contexts. To achieve this objective, a review of existing methods on ecosystem services valuation, life cycle cost analysis and life-cycle assessment are developed. The review takes into account specific constraints such as easiness to use and availability of data. At the end, potential methods and indicators were selected, which will be later integrated in the combined assessment framework. The third objective corresponds to the design of a combined assessment framework integrating methods from life cycle assessment, landscape/urban ecology and ecosystem services that quantifies the environmental and economic value of NBS informing about the cost-effectiveness of its entire life cycle. To achieve this objective, a conceptual framework is developed. From it, a system dynamics model of ecosystem (dis)services is developed and coupled with a life cycle assessment method. The combined evaluation is tested with a relevant NBS type (i.e. urban forest) in a case study in the metropolitan area of Madrid. The fourth objective is the development of a decision support (DSS) tool that integrates the assessment framework as part of iterative design processes in urban planning and landscape design. The DSS intends to enhance the interrelation between science, policy and planning/design. To achieve this objective a user-friendly web-based prototype DSS on NBS, called NBenefit$®, is developed. The prototype DSS provides the user a simple form of quantifying the provision of multiple ES and costs over the entire life cycle (implementation, operational life, and end-of-life) of NBS. This thesis contributed to the characterisation of NBS and its environmental and economic assessment to inform urban planning and landscape design processes, allowing decisions that are more informed. / Il riconoscimento della natura nella risoluzione delle sfide sociali è diventato sempre più importante. Questo riconoscimento è stato associato allo sviluppo di nuovi concetti provenienti dalla scienza e dalla politica, come il capitale naturale, i servizi ecosistemici, le infrastrutture verdi e, più recentemente, le soluzioni basate sulla natura (NBS). NBS intende affrontare le sfide della società in una forma efficace e adattabile fornendo benefici economici, sociali e ambientali. Lo scopo di ricerca di questa tesi di dottorato è quello di sviluppare una valutazione ambientale ed economica delle NBS per territori altamente urbanizzati basata su logiche e modelli che hanno alla base i servizi ecosistemici, l'ecologia urbana e paesaggistica e degli approcci di approcio life cycle. Questo quadro di valutazione combinato aiuterebbe a capire meglio se le NBS sono costo effetive e se contribuiscono a uno sviluppo resiliente e sostenibile. Questo scopo di ricerca è sviluppato secondo quattro obiettivi specifici. Il primo obiettivo corrisponde alla caratterizzazione delle NBS in relazione ai contesti urbani e alle problematiche che possono aiutare ad affrontare o mitigare. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo è stata sviluppata una revisione critica dell letteratura sullo studio della relazione tra NBS, servizi ecosistemici (ES) e sfide urbane (UC). Come risultato principale, si ottiene un grafico delle relazioni causa-effetto plausibili tra NBS, ES ed UC. Il grafico rappresenta un primo passo per supportare la pianificazione urbana sostenibile, passando dai problemi (es. UC) alle azioni (es. NBS) alle risoluzioni (es. ES). Il secondo obiettivo corrisponde alla definizione di un set di metodi e indicatori di valutazione biofisica e monetaria adeguate per valutare il valore della NBS in contesti urbanizzati. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, viene sviluppata una revisione dei metodi esistenti sulla valutazione dei servizi ecosistemici, l'analisi dei costi del ciclo di vita e la valutazione del ciclo di vita. La revisione tiene conto di vincoli specifici come la facilità d'uso e la disponibilità dei dati. Alla fine, sono stati selezionati potenziali metodi e indicatori, che saranno successivamente integrati nel quadro di valutazione combinato. Il terzo obiettivo corrisponde alla progettazione del quadro di valutazione combinato, integrando metodi di valutazione del ciclo di vita, ecologia paesaggistica / urbana e servizi ecosistemici che quantifica il valore ambientale ed economico della NBS informando sull'efficacia in termini di costi del suo intero ciclo di vita. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, prima viene sviluppato un quadro concettuale. Da esso, viene sviluppato un modello di dinamica di sistemi per calcolare i servizi (e disservici) ecosistemici, il quale è interrelazionato con un metodo di valutazione life cycle. Questa valutazione combinata viene testata con un tipo di NBS pertinente (foresta urbana) in un caso di studio nell'area metropolitana di Madrid. Il quarto obiettivo è lo sviluppo di uno strumento di supporto decisionale (DSS) che integri il quadro di valutazione come parte dei processi di progettazione iterativa nella pianificazione urbana e nella progettazione del paesaggio. Il DSS intende migliorare l'interrelazione tra scienza, politica e pianificazione / progettazione. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo è stato sviluppato Nbenefit$® un prototipo di DSS online per la valutazzione NBS di facile uso. Il prototipo DSS fornisce all'utente una forma semplice per quantificare multipli ES e costi (internalizatti o no) durante l'intero ciclo di vita (implementazione, vita operativa e fine vita) del NBS. In conclusione, questa tesi ha contribuito alla caratterizzazione di NBS e alla sua valutazione ambientale ed economica per informare i processi di pianificazione urbana e progettazione del paesaggio, consentendo decisioni più informate.

In the Veneto Città Diffusa, the decentralized urban landscape of the Veneto Region, Northeast Italy, the economic growth of recent decades brought about increased urbanization and agricultural intensification. The process of change has been accompanied by the extension and/or maximization of centralized services of drinking water, irrigation, waste water and drainage to meet greater demands for the provision and disposal of water. Accordingly, the structure of a formerly poor rural landscape has been adapted to support an affluent industrialized and urban one. However, all this has had detrimental side effects, which, in time might seriously compromise the quality of life in this landscape. On one side, the transformations that occurred have in fact given rise to unexpected problems of drought, flooding and pollution of water; and recent changes in climate patterns have further intensified these risks. On the other side, the long term fine grained carrying structures of the landscape fabric –like roads, field ditches, stream and river corridors, dirt roads, paths etc.-, as the very basis of the landscapeâ€TMs unique ecological diversity, and once used to convey the areaâ€TMs flows now risk general extinction. The existing road system is also increasingly under pressure to intensify traffic that creates congestion, pollution and unsafe conditions. From a planning and design perspective, this calls for adequate methods and tools that can help designers to tackle the needs for more sustainable water flows as well as the needs for a recovered ecological integrity (including spatial intelligibility) of this urban landscape. This can be of a great importance also for a better understanding of other territories of urban dispersion which are spreading especially over the European and –although in very different forms- the American continents. The present research aims to contribute to the planning and design answers to these urgent problems. For this purpose, the urban landscape of the Veneto Città Diffusa was approached with principles derived from an Integrated Water Management approach (IWM) that, recently, has been successfully applied in the urban context as an alternative to the technocratic approach of maximizing flows. Storage of water is the key principle, for it can bring about decentralized storage, which means new and different water flow management and spatial arrangements. This can ultimately be obtained through the placement and implementation of small scale and decentralized infrastructures. By focusing on the interrelation between flow patterns and spatial arrangements in a small portion of the Veneto Città Diffusa –i.e. the case study landscape- the study has elaborated and confirmed two specific closely related assumptions. The first assumption is that the recent loss of landscape diversity and the increasing problems of flood, drought and water pollution of the Veneto Città Diffusa are closely related and ascribable also to the processes of centralization of the water flows that accompanied the areaâ€TMs economic growth. The changes of flow patterns and spatial arrangements of the case study area that happened over the last decades were systematically observed in a threefold area-flow-actor perspective. Insights into the present arrangements of irrigation, drainage, drinking water and waste water at the scale of the Consorzio di Bonifica Valli Grandi e Medio Veronese waterboard also accompanied the investigation. The diagnosis showed that the centralized systems arranged to perform greater inflows and outflows, draw heavily on resources and often risk exceeding the regionâ€TMs ecological carrying capacity. Moreover, the centralized arrangement often conflicts with the decentralized character of the settlements. No synergetic relations have been developed between the man-made water system and the existing pervasive fine grained elements of the landscape. Instead, this rich capital asset has been left behind and even neglected. And such forms of negligence have ultimately brought about a massive loss of biodiversity, accessibility and spatial intelligibility of the local landscape. This leads to the second assumption that has been researched: in the decentralized urban landscape of the Veneto Città Diffusa, answers that design measures can give in response to increasing water-flow dysfunctions and loss of diversity can be based on decentralized water storage systems that make use of the existing fine grain structures of local landscapes –ditches, streams, land depressions, former pits, hedge-rows, dirt roads, paths etc.- and promote a local-based utilisation of resources (resilience), while fostering a stronger local identity, biodiversity and accessibility for more coherent spatial arrangements. Building on the Ecological Conditions Strategy conceived by Tjallingii (1996), a set of guiding models was developed. In the models, the principles of Integrated Water Management were tuned to those fine grained landscape elements that still structure the low plains of the Veneto –the built lot system, the agricultural field system, the road system, the stream system and the excavation site system. Principles and models of integration and decentralization drove the exploration of design options for different levels of decentralized management of water in the case study area. The creative design process of learning produced a useful toolbox of design models. The design exploration also proved that the dispersed urbanization of the Città Diffusa can be made suitable to accommodate modern integrated and decentralized water systems that, by re-activating the existing carrying structures, also contribute to recovering the landscape. Decentralized urbanization can actually be an ally in the search for sustainable and legible settlements that also reuse and recycle water locally. Designing an integrated water system that fits with the Città Diffusa and contributes to the ecological integrity of this urban landscape remains an important challenge. The tools that can be of practical help to designers and decision-makers who are willing to undertake this challenge were investigated and worked out. Nonetheless, the way to realize the outlined strategies is complex and affected by uncertainty. In this context more research is needed to investigate the effects of decentralization at the level of the region on one side, and on the other side to investigate how these integrated systems can be set to fit present institutional and market frameworks. In conclusion, the study generated concrete proposals for one or more pilot projects that will be extremely important to creating consensus in the decision process during the testing of models and strategies.

“[…]Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors; […]Acknowledging that the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside, in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas[…]”. The starting point of this research is the innovative definition of landscape, given by the “European Landscape Convention”, that draws the attention to the need of: - examining the territory as a spatial and temporal continuity; - considering the territory transformations as a value; - giving equal dignity to ruined territory, refusing the idea that only beautiful landscape deserve to be protected. Among the several and diverse European studies on infrastructure and landscape relation, the research focuses on marginal areas created by the infrastructure for mobility (road and highway) in the landscape. These areas are lacking a clearly defined function, they are not anymore part of the landscape, but they have not become part of the infrastructure. These areas are defined as infrastructural refuses. The attention is shifted from the design of the road and from the aesthetic of mobility to the new spaces created by the infrastructure in the landscape. Moreover, the research tries to analyze the infrastructural refuses only ex-post, when these spaces have already been created by the construction and use of a road, or theoretically created in-fieri by an infrastructure project that has overlooked these areas, forgetting to design them, or simply not taking into account their existence. The first part of the research is devoted to define the identity of the infrastructural refuse through the critical analysis of the main theories of the protagonists of the international debate supported by the identification of literature related to the topic. The infrastructural refuse is then described through analytical tools (morphology and perception) that show the effects of infrastructural transformation focussing mainly on mobility infrastructure transformation in Trentino Alto-Adige. The case study analyzed is the trunk road 12 on the stretch called Tangenziale di Trento, and more specifically the transformation caused by the junctions close to urban areas. The Tangenziale is a great artery of traffic that often cuts through the surrounding areas leading to real marginal areas. The research then proceeds to the definition of refuse as a value and tries to highlight its potential for transformation mainly by analyzing the strategy of recycling. Different types of re-use of infrastructural refuses are described: the artistic-temporary use, the daily spontaneous use by the population, and finally the illegal use. The research analyzes the mobility infrastructural refuses: outlining possible transformations, design, re-inventions; illustrating the unexpressed features of the places; re-drawing with different connotation signs that have lost their original meaning; eventually reaching the “operatività dello scarto”. Negative actions like abandon, refuse, waste can become occasions to re-shape and re-think the landscape. The results of the research show the possibility to re-think the infrastructural refuse spaces as a reserves of soil, suggest alternatives to the mentality of the compensation and mitigation, calling for the evolution of the protocols of mobility infrastructure design.

This thesis addresses three interlinked aspects that are relevant for mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions in urban planning. The first aspect concerns the integration and use of ecosystem service knowledge in spatial planning. A literature review aimed at analysing practical applications of ecosystem services in real-life planning processes and instruments reveals both the outcomes generated and the procedures adopted to integrate them, as well as the main advantages, constraints, enabling factors, and open issues associated with ecosystem service knowledge integration in spatial planning processes and instruments. The second aspect is related to the use of spatial assessments of ecosystem service demand to support an effective planning of Nature-based Solutions at the city scale. An approach is developed to allocate and prioritize Nature-based Solutions in cities in order to deliver ecosystem services for addressing the existing urban challenges while maximising the benefits for residents. The approach is tested in the case study area of Valletta (Malta), identifying the potential sites for the implementation of eleven types of Nature-based Solutions, assessing the demand for five priority ecosystem services, and identifying what type(s) of Nature-based Solutions, among the eleven proposed, should be implemented in each potential site, as well as the sites that should be prioritized first. The third aspect involves the promotion of the implementation of Nature-based Solutions in urban plans through the use of suitable policy instruments. A matrix that links the suitable instruments identified to different typologies of Nature-based Solutions reveals the range of instruments that can be deployed to promote the implementation of each type of Nature-based Solution. The matrix is then applied to analyse which instruments are currently deployed and which are not in the two urban plans covering the case study area of Valletta, hence the missing opportunities that could be further exploited.

Las urbes en su percepción como geografías, como lugares en la historia y en la memoria de las personas, pueden eludir el paso del tiempo alcanzando la eternidad. Pero en su realidad más física, identificada por los elementos que la construyen, quedan sujetas a un ciclo de vida que encadenada el momento de su nacimiento con el de su decadencia. Nada en esta vida tiene una duración ilimitada. Las ciudades eternas sólo viven en las metáforas románticas, y al resto, el paso del tiempo les provoca pérdidas en sus capacidades. Con todo, la realidad que es siempre obstinada, insiste en mostrarnos como no somos plenamente concientes de esta caducidad. De esta manera, seguimos contemplando las transformaciones como situaciones excepcionales, fuera de los previsible y por tanto exenta de la dirección de sus cambios. Sin embargo, las transformaciones han convivido con las diudades desde su propia creación. Los cambios no sólo se hacen patentes een los espacios , que antes vacíos se colonizan después, para albergar nuevos crecimientos. También los tejidos construidos aportan cuotas de crecimientos a través de cambios experimentados sobres sus propias estructuras. La renovación de los tejidos urbanos, que aunque bien estudiada desde la doctrina en algunas de sus fórmulas más conocidas como la Reforma Interior, no lo ha sido tanto en la ciudad contemporánea, ni tampoco en aquellas manifestaciones menos organizadas pero muy intensas que tanto protagonismo tuvieron en el siglo XIX. Tammpoco lo ha sido la relacion existente entre las operaciones de transformaciçon y los crecimientos por nueva extension que constituyen las alternativas basicas del crecimiento urbano. / Temes Córdovez, RR. (2007). El tapiz de Penélope. Transformaciones residenciales sobre tejidos sin valor patrimonial [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/2906

La finalidad de esta tesis es prever el impacto territorial de la alta velocidad ferroviaria en el Corredor Madrid-Levante (Madrid-Castilla La Mancha-Comunidad Valenciana-Murcia) en el horizonte 2021. Su interés radica en la próxima llegada de los nuevos servicios ferroviarios al Corredor de acuerdo con la extensión prevista de la red ferroviaria en buena parte de la geografía española y europea. La incidencia del tren de alta velocidad en aquellos países donde ya se encuentra disponible desde hace varias décadas como Japón, Francia e incluso España, a través de la línea Madrid-Sevilla desde 1992, ha sido destacada en muchos casos, advirtiéndose, a raíz de la aparición de éste, remodelaciones en el sistema de ciudades, en sus relaciones de jerarquía, etc. Precisamente, la estimación del sistema de ciudades futuro, como elemento significativo de los cambios producidos en el sistema territorial, tras la incidencia esperada de la alta velocidad en el Corredor, constituye el objetivo último del estudio. De este modo, en la tesis se trata de responder a cuestiones como: - ¿Será suficiente la puesta en marcha de los servicios de alta velocidad para estimular la actividad turística? ¿Será similar el impacto sobre los distintos modelos de desarrollo turístico; a saber, turístico residencial, hotelero, e incluso cultural o rural? - ¿Puede contribuir la alta velocidad a dinamizar espacios en declive o con problemas migratorios? - ¿Será la alta velocidad un revulsivo para un subsector productivo en decadencia y con gran importancia histórica como el manufacturero? La respuesta encontrada es que los efectos sobre el desarrollo de las infraestructuras, y especialmente las ferroviarias, sólo se materializan bajo determinadas condiciones, que no dependen exclusivamente de estas infraestructuras, sino del conjunto de "potenciales" y de "ventajas o desventajas comparativas relativas" de cada territorio. / Ortuño Padilla, A. (2009). Incidencia de las líneas de alta velocidad en el desarrollo del corredor Madrid-Castilla la Mancha-Comunidad Valenciana-Murcia [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/6862