The City Under Transformation - Urban Landscapes: Environmental Networks and Quality of Life - page 25

Fig. 4.13 Marche region, Italy. Small, rural settlements scattered in the hills and valleys

An epic phenomenon, according to the Population Division of the United
Nations, which means only one thing: the Earth is at risk of coming up short
in terms of environmental sustainability and energetic consumption . Not only
that, population growth is confronted every day with the malfunctioning of the
cities and their metabolism, through settlement dispersion , building waste,
the consequent destruction of the natural heritage and agricultural land ,
traffic congestion, and finally, the catastrophic effects of climate change. All
of these signals are manifest in the degradation of the landscape and the qual-
ity of life for city inhabitants, with a consequent profound crisis in contempo-
rary living.

4.2 The City in Crisis

Instead of the many settlement models indicated previously, what about sim-
ply consolidating a model of “shrinking cities” [24]? Certainly, today a reflec-
tion is called for on how not to lead the city of tomorrow into collapse by acti-
vating a complicated lifesaving course in the name of sustainability, with the
primary goal of improving the quality of life of the population.