Sustainable, inclusive and safe cities: reconstructing places after catastrophes

The devastation wreaked by earthquakes, floods and other natural catastrophes occurs on a time scale which is inversely proportional to that involved in reconstructing and readapting the places, their values and sense of identity. At the same time, the latter activities bring about a rapid transformation in the movements of people and objects and in ways of thinking. In post-seismic reconstruction, interventions carried out with little or no consideration for reconstructing the identity of a place have led in many cases to far greater damage than that caused by the earthquake itself: towns which have been duplicated, whole quarters eliminated, historical centres and buildings destroyed or made unrecognisable, sites intended for emergency use which have become permanent. There are three main factors in safeguarding the cultural and identity resources of a place subject to natural disasters: to establish a culture of risk in the population in relation to the historical identity of places; to provide for a conservation plan before a disaster; to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to damage and assessment. In line with this idea, as mentioned by Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (2015, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - 17 Sustainable Development Goals) it is important "substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels". Starting from this premises, aims of this work is present the first results of the research carried out in the framework of SISMI project within The Center of Excellence of the Technological District for cultural heritage in the Lazio region (https://dtclazio.it). In particular, the paper will present the first results of the task 1.5 "Italian and international best practices and placemaking" (with the author's co-responsibility), within the WP1 "Study and analysis of the historical-cultural, urban and socio-economic context". The case studies object of the research concern those interested by the Lazio 2016 earthquake. The general approach of the task 1.5 is devoted to identify methods for reconstruction which take in account social inclusion, participation, safety, place identity and sustainability.