In recent times, awareness of climate change has been steadily growing. While both sea levels and global temperatures are rising, the oceans are warming and ice sheets are melting, human inhabitation of the Earth has also been increasing exponentially, raising such awareness to new heights. The interaction between society and the environment is everchanging, in turn leading to changes in both environmental and social systems. One of the main indicators of such interaction is the global population, whose growth is likely to affect many aspects of these systems. Population growth is far from homogeneous: there has been a shift in the centre of gravity of the population towards the coast, with almost half of the world's population living near coasts, whether oceans or seas. This has led to significant changes in both land use and landscape characteristics, resulting in an increase in extreme events like flooding, much of which occurs along coasts. Since there is little substantial proof of this interaction, we can only say that it is present and is affecting different systems to an unknown degree. Mobility represents a primary sector in the evolution processes of man-made systems, and the implementation of new mobility systems is a challenge in the direction of the efficiency of urban and metropolitan structures, and of ever-increasing sustainability of transport services. Among the sensitive areas of the planet, the Mediterranean is one of the most critical because of the high environmental load generated by the settlement weight of urban and metropolitan systems, by infrastructures, and industry along on its coasts. This situation has arisen due to the presence of economic and social factors pushing the Mediterranean environment to the limit of its regenerative capacity, imposing excessive stress on natural resources, particularly on soil, water and air. Territorial load, environmental load and climate change are closely related. Hence control and innovative management of the functional parts of the metropolitan systems (mobility, dwellings, production, tourism, and so on) are a necessity, and a technical and organisational challenge that the countries of the northern and southern shores will have to tackle with great determination and attention. The chapter aims to explore the issue of the urban and metropolitan mobility sector and its evolution within the Mediterranean territorial system. Our analysis may be divided into three main focuses: 1. new developments in the sector with the aim of identifying the contribution to be made to ensure a more advanced, sustainable and resilient organisation of the cities around the Mediterranean; 2. the current state of the environment and mobility in the metropolitan cities of the Mediterranean. This highlights the physical and functional distance existing among the urban centres of the northern and southern shores; 3. the contribution of methodologies and technologies of the smart city to the evolution of mobility systems.
The contribution of mobility systems to efficiency and sustainability of Mediterranean metropolitan systems
Rosaria Battarra;Giuseppe Mazzeo
2020
Abstract
In recent times, awareness of climate change has been steadily growing. While both sea levels and global temperatures are rising, the oceans are warming and ice sheets are melting, human inhabitation of the Earth has also been increasing exponentially, raising such awareness to new heights. The interaction between society and the environment is everchanging, in turn leading to changes in both environmental and social systems. One of the main indicators of such interaction is the global population, whose growth is likely to affect many aspects of these systems. Population growth is far from homogeneous: there has been a shift in the centre of gravity of the population towards the coast, with almost half of the world's population living near coasts, whether oceans or seas. This has led to significant changes in both land use and landscape characteristics, resulting in an increase in extreme events like flooding, much of which occurs along coasts. Since there is little substantial proof of this interaction, we can only say that it is present and is affecting different systems to an unknown degree. Mobility represents a primary sector in the evolution processes of man-made systems, and the implementation of new mobility systems is a challenge in the direction of the efficiency of urban and metropolitan structures, and of ever-increasing sustainability of transport services. Among the sensitive areas of the planet, the Mediterranean is one of the most critical because of the high environmental load generated by the settlement weight of urban and metropolitan systems, by infrastructures, and industry along on its coasts. This situation has arisen due to the presence of economic and social factors pushing the Mediterranean environment to the limit of its regenerative capacity, imposing excessive stress on natural resources, particularly on soil, water and air. Territorial load, environmental load and climate change are closely related. Hence control and innovative management of the functional parts of the metropolitan systems (mobility, dwellings, production, tourism, and so on) are a necessity, and a technical and organisational challenge that the countries of the northern and southern shores will have to tackle with great determination and attention. The chapter aims to explore the issue of the urban and metropolitan mobility sector and its evolution within the Mediterranean territorial system. Our analysis may be divided into three main focuses: 1. new developments in the sector with the aim of identifying the contribution to be made to ensure a more advanced, sustainable and resilient organisation of the cities around the Mediterranean; 2. the current state of the environment and mobility in the metropolitan cities of the Mediterranean. This highlights the physical and functional distance existing among the urban centres of the northern and southern shores; 3. the contribution of methodologies and technologies of the smart city to the evolution of mobility systems.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
