Promoting integrated urban development. An application in Naples metropolitan area

Urban development policies that integrate land use and transport were created to reduce urban sprawl, limit the increasing number of motorised trips and present brownfields in strategic areas of cities. They integrate urban and transport-planning theories and practices, whose application may be complex. However, the necessity of densify station areas with high-quality, functional mixed developments is widely recognised in theory. This paper provides an innovative methodology to assess transit station areas and hence support decision-makers in identifying critical assets for investment. The methodology draws on the node-place model developed by Bertolini (1996). The first section summarises its key features, benefits, drawbacks and implementation challenges. It then proceeds to investigate the possibility of implementing the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) approach in the context of a Southern European city, traditionally considered a typical compact form of development and often lacking integrated urban and transport planning. The proposed methodology is applied to the Naples Metropolitan area (Italy) case, which includes 92 municipalities and over 3 million inhabitants one of the highest population density values worldwide. In the last two decades, plans and strategies were designed on a new scale and partially implemented to promote urban and transport development, such as the ‘Piano delle 100 stazioni’ (Plan of 100 Stations) for the municipality of Naples. The application could allow the individuation significant transit corridors and urban hotspots within the Naples metropolitan area, where the implementation of integrated transport and urban strategies would effectively combat current and future development challenges.