a b s t r a c tDuring the last 10 years, opposition by local communities against the development of industrial facilities, energy technologies and transport infrastructures has steadily grown. Negative externalities on the environment, quality of life and health are the most frequent motivations of the opponents. Disputes are typically grounded in environmental, social and economic concerns about the local impacts of new development proposals. Within this context, this paper aims to explore the existence of a potential relationship between the level of territorial vulnerability and the distribution of local conflicts surveyed by the local and national press in the Lombardy Region (Italy). This type of relationship is investigated using an empirical analysis based on an overlay mapping of different informative layers. The vulnerability index has been calculated according to the most recent conceptual and analytical frameworks developed in the scientific literature. It is a multidimensional index grounded in environmental, social and economic criteria. The outputs of the vulnerability assessment have been placed into thematic maps to provide a comprehensive overview of the environmental and socioeconomic state of the Lombardy Region. In addition to the general degree of vulnerability, the maps display the local conflicts surveyed by the NIMBY Forum, an Italian survey of territorial disputes managed by the Agency of Research and Information Society. The maps provide a means of i) putting forward some hypotheses about the oppositions that have emerged around the localization of new facilities, including mainly industrial facilities, waste disposals, energy plants and transport infrastructures, and the vulnerability of the Lombardy Region; ii) identifying the driving factors of territorial vulnerability; iii) investigating whether the local oppositions are directly proportional to territorial vulnerability. The first results indicate that a direct relationship among territorial vulnerability and conflicts does not exist. This outcome, even on a preliminary basis, provides a new analytical perspective for understanding the reasons behind local community protests.

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The article innovative aim is to introduce a research made to suggest some simple ways to improve the planning and design strategies for ensuring the highest sustainability level in child-friendly cities. The environments surrounding us strongly affect our perception of belonging to a place, and our social, mental, physical health. Therefore, designing and planning friendly environments for people of all ages should be perceived as one of the most important responsibilities for planners and politicians. At this point, in order to make cities friendlier for its inhabitants, it is considered useful to focus on the most vulnerable classes of people living in urban environments, such as children, because a city that is friendly for its kids will be welcoming also for anyone else. As a matter of facts, a child-friendly city is usually a urban environment that is suitable for most of its inhabitants and this is even more important in the most critical situations, such as the poorest slums of a developing city, like Istanbul, and its most fragile neighborhoods, like Tarlabasi. The research results highlighted that Tarlabasi has unique spatial child-friendly characteristics, despite its physical, social, and economic disadvantages, and these conditions can be dramatically improved with some very simple and affordable projects.

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