Urban Integrated Regeneration: Lessons from Two European Cities

Urban Integrated Regeneration: Lessons from Two European Cities Regeneration has the main aim to give a new usability to urban areas that are not more able to provide a proper quality of life to citizens? life, or proper context to the productive and industrial system. The reasons requiring regeneration can be of economic, social and environmental nature and from the point of view of this research these three aspects have been investigated in a choice of regeneration processes. The request of a balance, between the expectations of economic activities, society desires and environmental protection, is the same at the very base of sustainability concept. The purpose of this paper is to verify how two European cities ? Copenhagen and Barcelona ? have developed and recently applied urban regeneration policies in a perspective of sustainability. A survey of urban regeneration polices activated in these cities put in evidence that beside the planning tools usually provided by local legislations, a range of new programs has been introduced, both of urban planning character and more oriented to management and processes that the national governments have decided to support. In fact, both cities are implementing two different programs to support integrated urban regeneration: Kvarteløeft in Copenhagen and the more recent Llei de Barris in Barcelona. These integrated programs are basically complex instruments contributing to enhance a sustainable perspective in urban planning practice. The emerging scenario is plenty of success but also of contrasting results that put at the forefront the necessity of an integrated approach in local policies for urban sustainable development. Key Words: urban regeneration, integrated policies, strong sustainability approach, local governance, participation