Sustainability: is it too late?

UPLanD intend to promote an interdisciplinary approach to town and regional planning, landscape and environmental design as an effective form of the governance - sustainable and eco-efficient - of processes for the protection, enhancement and development of urban contexts. The first issue of third Volume of UPLanD intended to dwell on the subject of resources conservation considering that after an era of irresponsible use and that of ideological conservation is the time for an overall rethinking of the strategies with which sustainability is pursued. Because if it is impossible to continue to waste resources, it is often too late to simply protect what is left. Soil, landscape, water, air, biodiversity, climate: in many areas of the planet the level of compromise is such that only a virtuous process of regeneration can bring the system back to a condition of “sustainable” equilibrium. Furthermore the fact that 54% of world population already live in cities and by 2050 two more billion inhabitants will be added, shape this issue in a predominantly urban dimension. Lack of sustainability generates many consequences. Among these, climate change is perhaps the most relevant. Cities, besides contributing to the causes of climate change, suffer its negative effects, with strong impacts on the quality of life of inhabitants. It is here, in fact, that the hazards resulting from the phenomenon, given the high levels of vulnerability and exposure, generate the most significant risks.