Urban Coastal Areas: Innovative Strategies for Collaborative Regeneration

The requalification of urban waterfront is one of the emerging themes of the XXth century urban policy of the seaside cities (New York, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Boston, etc.) which have to face their conversion or requalification, considering the sea and the bordering areas. These actions represent one of the greatest opportunities for urban development of these days and they have often provided the occasion to realize wider processes of regeneration in which integrated urban transformations were realized and shared with the urban community, restarting from its "maritime culture". Nowadays we perceive the sea and the maritime culture as leading resources for urban regeneration and local development. We can consider the sea as an "urban common good" for the sake of city and urban community, strictly related to their identity and culture. The sea as common good entails ensuring its fruition to everybody and the necessity of involving the members of urban community in its care and safeguard, both in decisions and in actions. Thus, considering the sea as common good can enable the creation of those conditions of "common ground" which Elinor Ostrom saw as fundamental to fulfill the trust, the integrity and the reciprocity between the community members, which recognize some "shared rules" for using the good. This approach may be the key for a cultural revolution in a time when political systems are unable to generate opportunities of development; that is to say the turn from a "vertical" vision (which has already proved to be ineffective), to a "lateral" or "horizontal" vision, which involves a "city consumer" who is at the same time a "city producer" of qualities widespread on territory, who is able with his actions to weigh on public choices. An approach of this kind can be recognized in New York City development process; indeed, the city has undertaken an overall redefinition of its urban structure starting from its historic relation with the sea, through the projection of sea toward city. Starting from the analysis of New York waterfront regeneration projects and the framework built by Ostrom to examine the main elements of a collective system, we can think of using the sea not as an instrument of examination, but as a guide to build a collaborative structure for the regeneration of seaside cities.