Urban environment. An analysis of the Italian metropolitan cities

This paper provides an overview of the environmental situation in Italian Metropolitan Cities. The transition from a fossil city to a renewable city shows a critical state, also if the intersection of settled critical elements with new trends of the global world (above all in economy and technical innovation) can represent an occasion for these cities. The interest on urban environment results by the growing importance of the question. The cities are among the main generator of pollution and of greenhouse gas, and their impact is growing because they are growing in many parts of the world. The state of the environment, not positive, can be the basis for a deeper discussion on the steps to take to reduce the weight of the cities. These can be one of the main target of the future policies in the urban and metropolitan systems in Italy and in Europe. The non-recognition of the urban vulnerability is a risk for the urban systems that can be fought with a growing capacity to manage the changings and with an effective participation of the urban users. The paper deepens the results of a previous paper that considers the same urban system under the light of other main characteristics. The establishment of the metropolitan cities can be a step in this direction only if the consciousness of the environmental problems enter as main topic of the local and national transforming actions.