Sustainable Urban Regeneration: Integrating Green Infrastructures and Nature-Based Solutions in Altamura

The integration of green infrastructures into urban planning has the potential to create more resilient and livable cities. This paper intends to present a co-programming path that has seen professionals and non-profit organizations collaborating with the Municipality of Altamura (Italy) in the development of planning tools and urban interventions based on the creation of new public spaces through the strategic use of NbS. It explores the concept of the “new public city” which prioritizes the creation of public spaces and green infrastructures as a means to improve the social and environmental sustainability of the urban environment. A critical analysis, aimed at detecting the imprinting and the strategic role that empty spaces have assumed in defining urban settlements, is carried out, starting from a reconsideration of its known “claustri” in the historical city center. Is highlighted how this urban imprinting has been pivotal in the drafting of recent planning tools aiming to activate resilience-based urban regeneration (UR) processes in periurban areas. Afterwards, the green infrastructure’s pilot project “IxE-CO2”, today under construction within the recent Parco San Giuliano suburban district, is presented and analyzed. Finally, methodological aspects, challenges and opportunities are deduced from the planning tools and the pilot case.