Sustainable Urban Planning: my hometown Fermo, a city of tomorrow?

According to the European Commission report The Cities of Tomorrow, a city of tomorrow “is one in which all dimensions of sustainable urban development are taken into account in an integrated way”.

Such a city should be a platform for democracy, social progress, dialogue and diversity, should be a green and eco-efficient place where technology is used for urban governance, innovation, economic growth, education, health, safety and security.

According to the UNFPA report  State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities and around 70% of the European population lives in urban agglomerations of more than 5000 inhabitants.

Cities, therefore, play a key role in the social and economic development, being a concentration of businesses, workers, consumers and institutions, but are affected by serious challenges, like:

– population growth, causing high pressure on the city infrastructures like transportation, housing, water, energy efficiency and other city services and high capital expenditure necessary for maintenance and redesign;

– diverged economic growth: according to the McKinsey research Urban World: Cities and the Rise of the Consuming Class, the 600 largest global cities will contribute 65% of global GDP growth from 2010 to 2025;

– greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs): the fast increasing level of GHGs emissions is bringing sustainability at the center of the cities’ development agenda, pushing governments and other institutions to plan a long term strategy where water management, transportation, energy efficiency, urban planning and green buildings represent the main priorities;

– lack of funds: the current financial crisis is affecting the cities budget and their ability to respond to these challenges.

These concerns regard small and medium sized cities too. According to the EU report “Small and medium-sized cities often play a pivotal role within regional economies. They constitute the building blocks of urban regions and lend character and distinctiveness to their regional landscapes (….). Small and medium-sized cities are, therefore, essential for avoiding rural depopulation and urban drift, and are indispensable for the balanced regional development, cohesion and sustainability of the European territory.”

Fermo, is my hometown, a small city of 38000 inhabitants in Marche region, on the east coast of the center of Italy.

Despite its dimension Fermo plays an important role within the local economy, but can we talk about a city of tomorrow?

The local government has recently increased the investment and its efforts in order to solve some of the urgent issues that were affecting the sustainability of Fermo: waste management, water management and sanitary sewer. Let’s see these initiatives.

Waste Management

In 2002 the local government found ASITE, a multiservice organization focused on waste management, environment, energy and ICT.

ASITE implemented several initiative aimed to make Fermo a greener city, here some of the most successful ones:

– mandatory organic waste collection

– door-to door waste pick up service (different day for different type of waste collection)

– extension of the waste door to door pick up to other areas

– bandiera blu 2013:  the Foundation for Environmental Education has awarded Fermo with the blue flag, symbol of a green and clean city.

Water management and sanitary sewer

The water management system is coordinated by CIIP, a public company managing 1277 km of drainage system and offering sanitary sewer and depuration services to almost 500.000 inhabitants.

The quality and efficiency of the infrastructure is ensuring a water dispersion and waste of just 10-15%, respecting the internationaI IWA standars (International Water Association).

My sister, Virginia Recanati (CIIP engineer working in the water management sector since more than 10 years) worked during the last three years in one of the most successful project related to the sanitary sewer: a 4 millions euro high-tech purification plant able to serve 20.000 people and aimed to improve the drainage system (an urgent issue that was undermining the local government due to an imminent European fine).

As a conclusion I believe we can refer to Fermo as a potential city of tomorrow. This historical town on the green Marche hills is taking small actions that could be scaled and replicated to the other proximate communities, being a good example of sustainable urban planning development.

Comments Off on Sustainable Urban Planning: my hometown Fermo, a city of tomorrow? / 18 May 2013 por Veronica Recanati
IMSD /

Comentarios cerrados.