Circular Economy and Resilience Thinking for Historic Urban Landscape Regeneration: The Case of Torre Annunziata, Naples

The landscape, as an archive of the traces of the history of man and nature, can be considered a holistic indicator of sustainable, inclusive, safe, resilient cities as set out in Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The UNESCO Recommendations on Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) reflect it as a dynamic/evolving system that changes over time to meet social needs: it requires to be managed in a sustainable way, not only as a resource to be preserved. The beauty of the landscape is a common element in the development policies of many small-medium European and Italian cities. However, the state of abandonment and decay, the lack of investments, of often emigrated skills are the detractors. The circular economy model applied to the HUL leads to the ability to maximize the value of settlements, activating social, economic and environmental synergies. The research identifies the relationship among Circularity, Productivity and Resilience as an effective key to achieve the goals of Agenda 2030. The methodological approach tested on the case study of Torre Annunziata, Naples has reached a system of resilience performance indicators to express the complex nature of HUL and define a scenario of circular regeneration, based on the recreation of a virtuous circuit between physical, environmental, social, economic systems.