Fostering Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) Along Waterfronts for Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Quality

In the last decades, flooding risks have created a serious problem for people protection and the environment. In fact, climate change projections show that heavy rainfall and flooding have become more frequent mostly due to high urban densities and impermeable sur faces such as buildings, car parks, roads that prevent the infiltration of water into the ground. Accordingly, there is a need for protecting major urban areas against climate change and stormwater manage ment must be considered a great urban challenge. This contribution explores some implications of a ‘Sustainable Drainage Systems’ (SuDS) in urban areas, especially along waterfronts of great historical value. It discusses the forms and config urations that must be provided in order to obtain urban spatiality, temporality and quality. It also stresses a specific way to experience historic environment through a strategic way of using specific waterfront sites that could be transformed into ‘places’ enacting forms of re-appropriation and contribution to make safer places. More precisely, this paper focuses on redefining the ways that urban space along the Arno River in Florence can be managed better and transformed for climate change adaptation by using SuDS tech niques within a wider urban regeneration.