Maria Cerreta

• MS, PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Naples Federico II

Recent environmental, climate and sustainability challenges are leading several sectors, including cultural tourism, to rethink their development model in a more sustainable and circular perspective, preserving fragile resources—including cultural resources—and regenerating natural capital. The assessment of the multidimensional impacts of cultural...

The paper presents an action research process focused on exploring the potential of a hybrid evaluation methodology for urban, social, and cultural regeneration projects involving cultural heritage. Implemented in Anacapri, Italy, the In.Kiostro decision-making process suggests a proposal for the adaptive reuse of the former of St Michael Cloister,...

In European studies, the most used definition of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) is based on the European Urban Atlas, which includes public green areas primarily used for recreation and green areas adjacent to urban areas that are managed or utilized for recreational purposes. UGS play a vital role in creating sustainable and resilient cities, as they pr...

The study presents a methodological approach, characterized by scal-ability and replicability, aimed at developing a sustainable territorial strategy, sup-ported by a Collaborative Spatial Decision Support System (CSDSS). The main objective is to elaborate a regeneration process for infrastructure and territorial contexts capable of stimulating sit...

The European and international debate recognises reusing and enhancing Cultural Heritage as critical in sustainable and circular urban regeneration strategies. In addition, some categories of assets, such as former religious buildings, suggest activating network strategies to consider complex values and implement multi-method and multi-actor approa...

Transitioning towards a circular built environment and turning waste into resources have become one of the new sustainability paradigms today. However, a circular transition can be considered a ‘wicked problem’. The multiple dimensions and scales of the circular transition and its substantial spatial implications fit well into the planning approach...

Effective management of the complex Socio-ecological systems (SES) of the river basin, influenced by a range of social, economic, and environmental variables, requires multi-purpose Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSSs) to identify and select balanced and sustainable regeneration scenarios. In many cases, the lack of cooperation between administ...

In the active landscape of contemporary urban development, the intricate interplay between tourism dynamics and the real estate market has emerged as a critical area of concern. Tourist cities, characterized by their diverse urban functions and services, face complex phenomena that reverberate through the real estate markets. This research addresse...

The concept of ‘publicness’ addresses the intersection between people and their physical surroundings, and the ways in which they affect each other in an ongoing process. This point of relational exchange is the core concept behind ‘Public Space in European Social Housing’ (PuSH), a three-year HERA-funded project conducted by a transnational, multi...

The continuous transformations that characterise cities have placed at the centre of the political debate the theme of urban regeneration, as urban, environmental, and social rehabilitation, especially about degraded urban areas that become fertile ground for new urban functions. Considering degraded areas as the result of economic, social, physica...

The smart city concept describes the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in a sustainable urban context to improve its services’ efficiency and meet its inhabitants’ requirements. This transition towards sustainability includes creating circular cities with a focus on the well-being of the entire ecosystem. By employing Artifici...

The research aims to outline a tailor-made urban regeneration project for the urban brownfield area of Castellammare di Stabia waterfront, in southern Italy, structuring a multi-methodological and adaptive evaluation approach according to the Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) perspective.The methodological process is elaborated in three main...

Studies and reflections about landscape identify research perspectives that interpret the landscape as a fundamental resource for activating processes of local development. This is an issue of significant importance because the landscape represents the essential resource with which it is possible to compete in the global competition. Landscape can...

The complex nature of social inequalities determined by top-down urban planning choices leads the new urban regeneration to new cultural strategies. Various artistic and social projects have seen the light in Italy and Europe, bringing a new democratic way of producing culture. Artists and cultural planners work collectively as ‘territory entrepren...

The role of eco-museums, and public aquariums, as cultural attractors and generators of socio-economic impact on the territories and communities in which they operate, shows how the analysis and comparison of the various European experiences highlight the modernity of Anton Dohrn’s ideas and the creative strategies that have determined the virtuous...

Digital platforms and the sharing economy are influencing the socio-spatial dynamics of cities, generating new behaviors and uses, promoting new opportunities, and bringing to light many critical issues related to, for example, the real estate market and social inequalities. The short-term rental website Airbnb is a relevant example of how online i...

Culture, creativity and circularity are driving forces for the transition of cities towards sustainable development models. This contribution proposes a data-driven quantitative methodology to compute cultural performance indices of cities (C4 Index) and thus compare results derived by subjective and objective assessment methods within the case stu...

In recent years, the EU has sought to define sustainable transition pathways towards more equitable, prosperous, and inclusive urban and territorial models, capable of responding to the rapid degradation of ecosystems, and improving quality of life of citizens. In this context, ports have been recognised as key strategic hubs not only for economic...

SOCRATES (SOcial multi-CRiteria AssessmenT of European policieS) is a software tool explicitly designed for impact assessment problems. Three main components constitute the core of SOCRATES: multi-criteria, equity and sensitivity analyses. The impact matrix may include quantitative (including also stochastic and/or fuzzy uncertainty) and qualitativ...

The emergence and diffusion of social impact measurement for assessing culture-led regeneration projects underline the need for suitable approaches and tools to support public institutions and local administrations to guide their implementations. The paper introduces a methodological proposal for social impact assessment, structured and tested with...

Starting from 2015 in Naples, Italy, the Short-Term Rental season (STR) has been inaugurated with Airbnb. In 2019 the apartments of the STR panorama constituted 12.35% of the entire residential real estate stock in the historic centre of the city, starting a gradual process of airification. The observed condition has produced a progressive expulsio...

The exceptional circumstances we are going through, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, request a reflection on the need for new methods and tools for sustainable urban development implementation. Culture is one of the critical components to promote new approaches for a more sustainable circular city, able to activate and support innovative processes for...

The synergy between the city and the port area represents an essential component for the sustenance of the economic system of the European Union. In this perspective, ports have been recognised as critical strategic hubs in economic competitiveness, job opportunities and investments. Nowadays, ports as strategic hubs suggest an increase of spaces d...

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a method to evaluate a project or a policy, considering all costs and benefits to encourage a medium- and long-term vision. The CBA application fields are broad, counting as primary domains: transportation, environment, cultural heritage, energy, research and innovation, and information technology. This paper shows a...

The concept of the Living Lab is closely connected to the priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and of the Digital Agenda for Europe and is the subject of numerous user-centric open innovation programs and European projects supported by the European ENoLL Network. The chapter presents a new methodology, called Collaborative Urban Living Lab (CoULL...

The geodesign framework has supported stakeholder engagement in policy-making and planning with its innovative, practical, operational, fast, and participatory tools for a long time. Although geodesign has provided practitioners with systematic and technologically sound solutions for sustainability problems within the International Geodesign Collab...

Il contributo descrive un percorso di attivazione di sinergie ed alleanze tra ricercatori e attori locali in un territorio interno della Regione Campania, in Italia. Il focus è rappresentato dalla sperimentazione di pratiche abilitanti e collaborative che possano contribuire ad innescare un processo incrementale di empowerment di comunità finalizza...

The challenges introduced by the Circular Economy make it possible to elaborate new approaches and tools capable of activating changes in resource management and territorial transformations. Considering the city as a complex system, like a living organism, urban metabolism identifies the processes and flows that can help recognise waste as resource...

According to the current European scenario, cultural, creative, and community-led policies play an increasingly important role in influencing local resources, systems, and infrastructures management and demand a novel approach in governing, financing, and monitoring urban regeneration processes. Therefore, cities become contexts where cultural and...

From urban regeneration to social regeneration up to culture-led regeneration, the concept of urban regeneration evolves from the idea of the physical transformation of cities to a more complex vision of changing able to improve the inhabitants’ quality of life. At the same time, the social dimension of the recognised impacts, from a factor juxtapo...

The strong socio-spatial implications of the covid-19 pandemic and the physical distancing measures have emphasised the fundamental role played by socio-digital networks in sharing and urbanising information. Worldwide, the emergence of shared survival needs led to the self-organisation of local communities in care infrastructures for mutual aid, p...

The conventional approach that often dominated spatial planning has prioritized urban expansion and new urban transport infrastructure without fully considering environmental aspects. While this has generated new urban models and economies, it has also significantly impacted the territory and landscape negatively. The construction of road infrastru...

The evaluation of the Cultural Ecosystem Services represents an evolving research field that analyses the processes of enhancing the landscape and its components. The contribution presents a multidimensional approach for identifying and evaluating the Cultural Ecosystem Services that characterize the coastal strip of Cilento and, specifically, with...

In a scenario in which the climate changes subject urban centres and large cities to high levels of environmental vulnerability and criticality underway, it is evident the need to define operational and straightforward decision-making tools capable of prefiguring and verifying the effectiveness of urban transformation climate-adaptive regeneration...

Construction and Demolition Waste represents a priority stream for the European Union and has a large potential for closing the material circulation loop in line with the Circular Economy principles. The present study focuses on the socio-economic and environmental implications of the management of such waste in the Campania Region (Italy), with th...

According to the current European and Italian scenario related to urban regeneration, cultural and landscape heritage valorization is being enhanced by the activation of innovative processes and new emerging approaches. These involve the development of methodologies and tools that can address decision-making processes based on creative practices co...

The concept of transformative resilience has emerged from the recent literature and represents a way to interpret the potential opportunities for change in vulnerable territories, where a socioeconomic change is required. This article extends the perspective of transformative resilience to an assessment of the landscape multifunctionality of inland...

The research focuses on Italian Internal Areas to rethink the role of the project and evaluation to identify regeneration strategies capable of generating multiple relationships with the territory and new values, through the structuring of a multidimensional process and open project. Combining different ways to explore, understand, evaluate and des...

The Metropolitan City of Naples represents the experimentation context of a Circular Economy Model, to verify the potential that the city-port system can make explicit and operative the principles of a type of economy that identifies new and innovative waste resources development opportunities. The principles and tools of the Circular Economy requi...

The concept of transformative resilience emerges from complex recent literature and represents a way to interpret the potential opportunities to change in vulnerable territories, where a socio-economic change is required. This article extends the perspective of transformative resilience to assessing of the landscape multi-functionality of inland ar...

The international debate on the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage sites consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals has become increasingly important in the implementation of circular economy models for urban policies. The new values that characterize cultural assets, considered the result of a collaborative process, can enhance both manufa...

The Faro Convention introduces an innovative concept of cultural heritage by recognising the importance of the community that is formed around the cultural asset to be enhanced. This concept is consistent with the New European Agenda for Culture, especially the European Year Cultural Heritage (EYCH) Initiative 9 “Heritage for all: citizen participa...

The international debate on the adaptive re-use of cultural heritage sites following the Sustainable Development Goals becomes more central than ever in the implementation of circular economy models for urban policies. The new values that characterise the cultural assets, considered as the result of a collaborative process, can enhance both the man...

The complexity of the urban spatial configuration, which affects human wellbeing and landscape functioning, necessitates data acquisition and three-dimensional (3D) visualisation to support effective decision-making processes. One of the main challenges in sustainability research is to conceive spatial models adapting to changes in scale and recali...

In the framework of the circular economy, the operational integration of metabolic flows management and co-planning of waste territories, also defined wastescapes, has been implemented by the Geodesign Decision Support Environment (GDSE) platform, a tool developed in the H2020 REPAiR project. The GDSE can be described as a Decision Support System (...

Maritime transport technologies and infrastructures development fostering global economies since the second half of the 20th century, conditioning the reshaping of the territorial system in terms of social and spatial organisation, detaching port functions from urban ones and weakening their relationships. The reorganisation of the same activities,...

The paper explains a research methodology to understand the impacts of touristification and overtourism on the urban dimension. A block of the Naples historic downtown (Italy) has been selected as a sample to verify the transformations induced by the airification process of the city since 2015 on the social and urban environment, investigating the...

The circular economy paradigm identifies the need for rational use and adequate reuse of all resources, including cultural heritage. This study explores the opportunity to apply a circular economy model to culture-led regeneration processes oriented to cultural heritage valorisation. The methodological process identified tries to structure an integ...

The unresolved territories are privileged places for the proliferation of degradation phenomena that affect the environment and human well-being. The impacts of their critical conditions go beyond the limits of the damaged urban fragments, involving the built environment, society, economy, culture, and conditioning quality of life. This paper propo...

The unresolved territories are privileged places for the proliferation of degradation phenomena that affect the environment and human well-being. The impacts of their critical conditions go beyond the limits of the damaged urban fragments, involving the built environment, society, economy, culture and conditioning quality of life. This paper propos...

This contribution refers to a research carried out between the Departments of Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II and the University of the Republic in Montevideo. The research focuses on the theme of re-use as a practice able to trigger synergistic mechanisms between different entities and identities of the urban fabric. At the ce...

This research aims at evaluating socio-spatial exclusion, through select-ed spatial indices of isolation and segregation, within the Municipality of Naples (Italy), where entire communities, living in social housing districts, face critical conditions of social isolation and exclusion from the processes of urban development. The methodological appr...

The complexity of urban spatial configuration, which affects human-well being and landscape functioning, needs acquisition and 3d visualisation data to inform decision-making process better. One of the main challenges in sustainability research is to conceive spatial models which are capable of adapting to changes in scale and recalibrating the rel...

The research aims at evaluating the ability of a peri-urban system to activate territorial self-regenerative processes, according to Circular Economy principles. The adopted methodology identifies opportunity-spaces, through indices of space heterogeneity and of the relational dynamics, established in collective spaces. Through a site-specific set...

These days, cultural heritage is one of the topics at the center of the urban sustainability agenda. Current economic and urbanization trends place significant pressure on urban resources, systems, and infrastructures and demand for novel approaches in governing, financing, and monitoring urban performances with particular attention to abandoned, u...

The city-port context involves a decisive reality for the economic development of territories and nations, capable of significantly influencing the conditions of well-being and quality of life, and of making the Circular City Model (CCM) operational, preserving and enhancing seas and marine resources in a sustainable way. This can be achieved throu...

I rifiuti, gli scarti, frutto di un mal funzionamento metabolico della città, intesa come organismo vivente, impongono, con sempre maggior urgenza, un loro ripensamento in chiave sostenibile e circolare affinché, considerati come risorse per il territorio, possano stabilire una stretta sinergia tra pratiche di riuso e rigenerazione ambientale. Il c...

The city-port involves a decisive reality for the economic development of the territories and nations, capable of significantly influencing the conditions of well-being and quality of life, and of making the Circular City Model operational, preserving and enhancing seas and marine resources in a sustainable way, through the construction of appropri...

L’attivazione di un processo di gestione, recupero, rigenerazione e riciclo dei paesaggi di scarto, definiti “wastescape”, costituisce la sfida affrontata nell’ambito del Progetto Horizon 2020 “REsource Management in Peri-urban Areas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism” (REPAiR). Secondo i principi dell’Economia Circolare, i wastescape possono essere co...

The increasing complexity of waste flows management impose rethinking of the urban metabolism in a sustainable and circular perspective, considering waste as potential resource for the territory even in terms of environmental regeneration. In the light of the above, the paper aims to report the ongoing experience of the Federico II research unit wi...

Resource consumption and related waste production are still rapidly increasing all over the world, leading to social and environmental challenges and to the production of the so-called 'wastescapes'. Peri-urban areas-in-between urban and rural territories-are particularly vulnerable and prone to develop into wastescapes because they are generally c...

Health inequality and environmental justice are two crucial issues concerning informal waste management, and they need suitable data and decisive policy-related remediation to face and solve the extreme exposure and inequities of local communities. In this context the "REPAiR, REsource Management in Peri-urban AReas. Going beyond Urban Metabolism"...

Current and increasing transformation makes it more than ever necessary to develop an ability to plan and manage the different changes. Nowadays in order to make cities more resilient, policymakers are required to consider the various challenges that climate change related to urban development can bring under conditions of uncertainty. Within the c...

Current and increasing transformation makes it more than ever necessary to develop an ability to plan and manage the different changes. Nowadays in order to make cities more resilient, policymakers are required to consider the various challenges that climate change related to urban development can bring under conditions of uncertainty. Within the c...

The end of waste emergency was formally declared in the Campania Region, by the end of 2009. After decades of inefficient management and illegal disposal phenomena, hazardous waste dumped in agricultural fields in the vicinity of residential areas has caused environmental and human health damage. This widespread emergency led various groups of citi...

Nell’attuale dibattito scientifico, le città rappresentano i contesti in cui si concentrano risorse, capitali, competenze e talenti ed, al contempo, luoghi in cui si condensano molteplici sfide che riguardano la dimensione ambientale (inquinamento, rifiuti, cambiamenti climatici), quella socio-economica (disoccupazione, esclusione sociale, benesser...

The research investigates the possibility for regenerative socio-spatial dynamics to be activated within peri-urban areas, through community engagement in transformation and cooperative processes, promoting environmental integrity and socio-spatial diversity. This contribution aims at evaluating different scenarios involving social self-organisatio...

The paper aims at testing an evaluative methodology for choosing the best-fit alternative of sustainable development for a complex urban context, stressing advantages and limitations in using Analytic Network Process (ANP) multi-criteria method to rank sustainability indicators, that have been conceived as the criteria - in meaning of control param...

At European, national, regional and local level, several approaches are related to the Cultural and Creative Production System: new cultural districts, creative reuse of buildings and industrial sites, cooperation for common goods are becoming economic trends. This process is building the conditions necessary to encourage new cultural and creative...

Attualmente i porti, come nodo del sistema logistico a supporto dello scambio commerciale internazionale, rappresentano una realtà economica determinante per lo sviluppo economico del territorio e della nazione (Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti, 2013), che determinano impatti significativi sulla città sia influenzando le condizioni di...

According to the current European conditions, culture-led urban regeneration policies and practices are being enhanced by the introduction of interdisciplinary innovative approaches. These involve the development of methodologies and tools that are able to address material and immaterial networks of micro-communities in a systemic and circular mann...

The assumption of Neoliberalism in the economy has multiplied exponentially financing speculation, and produced several “distortions” both in the social system and in the job market: the destruction of a welfare program, the attack to the right of the labor market and workers right, the powerful growing of financial institutions supported by the IC...

This paper analyses the issue of urban vulnerability assessment, aiming to identify appropriate strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change, through decision-making processes that are attentive to the spatial, territorial and geographical scale. In complex decision-making problems, the spatial assessment of homogeneous vulnerability classe...

The paper presents the elaboration of a culture-led regeneration strategy that is structured through a multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder decision-making process for the Quartieri Spagnoli (QS), a historic district of the city of Naples (Italy). Beginning with an evaluative approach specific to the deliberative methods, a Multi-Stakeholder Spa...

In this research paper, we define and test an ELECTRE III-based approach to the construction of non-compensatory composite indicators; these indicators are used for the evaluation of environmental and social performances of urban and regional planning policies. We tested the methodology for the construction of the Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (...

This research aims to test a scalable and transferable Geographic Information System (GIS)-based evaluation methodology for the identification, quantification and assessment of multi-functional landscape features. The evaluation of multi-functional features is one of the key tasks required when it comes to identifying the values that people attribu...

The paper introduces a methodology for a learning and negotiation process that supports urban regeneration, combining management models and multi-criteria/multi-group evaluation methods. The purpose concerns the urban regeneration issue in an interdisciplinary complex decisional context where Place Branding, Community Planning, Community Impact Eva...

The paper introduces a methodological approach for a Deliberative Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (DSM-CE) able to support cultural enhancement, combining deliberative multi-criteria evaluation methods and Geographic Information System (GIS). The purpose concerns the cultural regeneration issue in an interdisciplinary complex decisional context w...

This paper puts forth a Multi-Stakeholder Spatial Decision Analysis (M-SSDA) which combines Multi-Stakeholders Decision Analysis (M-SDA) and GIS processing based on a collaborative, hybrid and adaptive evaluative approach to support the elaboration of enhancement strategies designed for resilient landscapes. This methodology has been tested in the...

DOI: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE17.139 Authors: Loreto Colombo, Maria Cerreta and Immacolata Geltrude Palomba Abstract: Urban sprawl is one of the most widespread forms of soil consumption. In accordance with EU decisions, some European states have approved or are approving regulations for the limitation of soil consumption. On Italian land the phenomen...

p> Purpose: Identify homogeneous areas for metropolitan cities in order to activate a new governance based on territorial synergistic and symbiotic conditions, thus increasing multidimensional territorial productive processes through spatial planning. Methodology/Approach: The adopted methodology aimed at structuring a Spatial Decision Support Sys...

The concept of human smart landscape introduces a perspective of research where the landscape identifies a complex system of relationships among the various smart dimensions (smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, smart living, smart governance) and different interpretative approaches, overcoming the consideration of territ...

The paper recommends a methodology for data gathering and processing through the spatial analysis techniques and the combinatorial multi-criteria procedure of Weighted Linear Combination (WLC). The purpose concerns the spatial problem structuring in a complex decisional context lacking in the geographical dataset. The processing of data and informa...

The paper introduces the multi-methodological decision-making process implemented in the ‘Green Lucania project’ by a multidisciplinary research group of University of Naples Federico II, Department of Architecture (DiARC), for the cultural landscape valorization of Pisticci municipality (Basilicata Region, Italy). To identify situated synergistic...

In 2006 European Commission stated that soil, fairly recognisable as an ecosystem structure, can be considered essentially as a non-renewable resource, thus triggering both studies for the assessment of land take phenomenon and actions for its mitigation and reduction. In last two decades, a deeper and ecosystem approach to land-use policies target...

The paper explores the consequences of resilience loss in some social-ecological components of Venice port-city in Italy and suggests integrated sustainable strategies on increasing their stress response capability. The urban model of Venice depends on two influential factors: the natural balance between land and water, and the social-economic depe...

The paper aims at the development of a Collaborative Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (C-MC SDSS) for the evaluation of multifunctional landscape according to a human smart perspective. The C-MC SDSS addresses landscape transformation and preservation processes, leading to consistent choices with the principles of local self-sustainab...

The purpose of this paper is to define a methodological proposal towards a Spatial Decision Support System for strategic planning, based on the evaluation of Cultural Landscape Services (CLS). A combination of multidimensional evaluation techniques, multi-group analysis and Geographic Information Systems is applied to the simulation of landscape en...