Rischio sismico, vulcanico e bradisismico permanente: paesaggi vulnerabili tra rischio antropico e densificazione della Città Metropolitana di Napoli.

The environmental crises that periodically affect Naples and the Metropolitan City are closely linked to the volcanic nature of the territories and in particular the coastal strip. The coastline, in fact, is characterised by the two main volcanic apparatuses of the Phlegraean Fields and Vesuvius, not forgetting the first and most ancient one of Monte Echia, on which Palepoli was built, and the whole set of volcanic craters that shape the entire coastal arc as far as the internal offshoots of the southern Apennine ridge. The beauty of the landscape, the fertility of the volcanic soils for the production of food, the mild climate, the pedoclimatic environment favourable to human settlement and the succession of bays and inlets that allowed safe harbours have always been determining factors in the birth and growth of towns and cities that attracted people and populations from more inland areas of the Campania Region that were not as hospitable. This tendency has been accentuated by choices of location of large industrial apparatuses, decision-making centres on an urban, provincial and regional scale, institutional headquarters, courts and universities as well as large hospitals. Naples and its province, then metropolitan area, up to the institution of the Metropolitan City, has uninterruptedly recorded one of the fastest demographics and building growth rates in the entire country. Only in the most recent past have Naples and the Campania region been overtaken by Rome and Lazio in terms of resident population, with Milan and Lombardy leading the way, yet they remain first in terms of territorial population density per square kilometer. The gradual increase in population and building density in Naples and the Metropolitan City, which has reached 53% of the entire population of Campania in just 9% of the Region's territory, has led to an increase in the exposure of the resident population and all the existing assets to permanent seismic, bradyseismic and volcanic risks. The urban densification project, pursued over the last twenty years, is even more serious than the urban expansions in the reconstructions after the Second World War or following the 1980 earthquake due to the further epidemiological health crisis from Sars-Covid-19 with the need for physical distancing and environmental remediation.