Addressing Social Sustainability in Urban Regeneration Processes. An Application of the Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation

Abstract

The concept of sustainability is widely seen as fundamental to set up urban and territorial transformations. Sustainable development is a multidimensional and multi-perspective process that deals with the environmental, economic, and social dimensions, with the aim to find a balance among these. Despite this growing attention to sustainability the social perspective has been the less explored of these dimensions and only recently it is receiving consideration due the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim at creating sustainable and inclusive cities and communities. In the SDGs, specific attention is focused on the improvement of the quality of life of inhabitants through specific actions dedicated to the valorization of cultural resources, to the protection of the environment, and also to promote the involvement of the local communities in setting policies and programs. The final objective is defining projects based on the social needs shared by the communities. This paper aims at exploring the social sustainability related to urban regeneration processes with particular attention to social cohesion and community engagement. Six different urban regeneration strategies, developed for the regeneration of an urban area located in Northern Italy and based on social housing interventions, have been evaluated in accordance with their social impacts on the stakeholders involved. The paper proposes a multi-methodological approach based on the combination of the stakeholder analysis with the NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments) methodology, a particular type of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation. The stakeholder analysis has been applied to identify the actors to involve in the evaluation, whereas the NAIADE methodology has been implemented for the selection of the most preferable strategy. This method allowed the assessment of the different strategies through the comparison and the mediation between the technical and the social rankings, thus considering the stakeholder preferences in the final evaluation. The final result is coherent with the initial purpose and it demonstrates that the inclusion of the stakeholder is fundamental for the achievement of a consensus solution.

Urban Regeneration through Integrated Strategies to Tackle Inequalities and Ecological Transition: An Experimental Approach

“…Social sustainability should be an integral part of all urban regeneration initiatives, but it is only recently that it has been increasingly taken into account with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [6]. This trend is also described in a study by the Western Australian Council of Social Service (WACOSS), which found that while considerable work has been conducted "on the environmental and economic aspects, the social has tended to fall off the sustainability agenda" [7].…”

Rehabilitation of Mass Housing as a Contribution to Social Equality: Insights from the East-West European Academic Dialogue

“…By considering MHN rehabilitation challenges, it is recognised that the application of architectural design to advance social equality can be a link for balancing and further strengthening all components of sustainable urban development. In the research of these aspects, the dominant engagement of multi-methodological approaches is recognised: (1) For exploring the social sustainability related to urban regeneration processes [25]; (2) for addressing spatial inequality through neighbourhood-based regeneration and community participation [26]; and (3) for developing the concept of socially integrative city aligned with the regeneration policies [27]. Through defining social equity in the context of urban resilience, Meerow et al [28] identified a tripartite framework of social equity that includes distributional, recognitional and procedural equity dimensions: (1) equitable distribution of resources, (2) acknowledgement of different social groups, and (3) equitable involvement in participatory processes.…”

The Financial Sustainability of Cultural Heritage Reuse Projects: An Integrated Approach for the Historical Rural Landscape

“…The obtained result can be analyzed to test its robustness through a Sensitivity Analysis and its level of consensus through implementing a Social Multi-Criteria [46].…”

“…The financial sustainability of the reuse project can be assessed by referring to two profitability indicators [46]. The former is the Net Present Value (NPV), given by the sum of the present values of the incoming and outgoing individual cash flows, as shown in Equation ( 2…”