Retreat, Cooperate, Overlap. Rethinking spatial strategies for coexistence on the Medi-terranean coast within climate change

Ventimiglia, Rita;Ricchiuto, Giacomo;Kasselouri, Eleni;et.al.
(2025) AESOP (Association European Schools of Planning): Planning as a Transformative Action in an Age of Planetary Crisis — Location: Istanbul (7.July.2025)

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  • Ventimiglia, Ritaorcid-logoUCLouvain
    Author
  • Ricchiuto, GiacomoPolitecnico di Milano
    Author
  • Kasselouri, EleniIUAV
    Author
  • et. al.
Abstract
This contribution explores innovative planning strategies, still largely underexplored in the Mediterranean context, aimed at rebalancing and rethinking the interactions between anthropic systems and ecological processes along the coastline. The Mediterranean coast presents a complex composition of diverse coastal typologies, characterized by varying degrees of human occupation and a wide array of land uses. Within this heterogeneous framework, anthropogenic systems and local ecologies coexist in a delicate balance, increasingly threatened not only by anthropogenic pressures but also by the accelerating impacts of climate change. As a stratified geographic space of interactions, the Mediterranean coastal region is undergoing profound transformations due to climate change. Recognized as both a climate change and biodiversity hotspot, it faces rising sea levels, increasing land and sea temperatures, and shifting water balances, all of which are reshaping livelihoods and ecosystems. Within this context, Mediterranean coasts can be conceived as landscapes of coexistence, continuously transitioning and highly dynamic environments. These liminal territories, situated at the interface between land and water, present a certain spatial depth and width both seawards and landwards, functioning as buffer zones where transformations of coexisting systems permeate multiple layers, influencing both natural and human-made environments. The paper examines landscapes of coexistence by focusing on medium-scale, often highly infrastructured and sparsely populated Mediterranean coastal territories, calling them ‘Medi-terranean’: small villages, dispersed urban agglomerations and small deltas. Despite their intermediate scale, these configurations are among the most widespread and dominant territorial formations within the basin, occupying a significant portion of the overall coastal area and, consequently, emerging as some of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. Specifically, the study investigates the notion of coexistence within these critical landscapes, proposing an integrated approach to address contemporary environmental and socio-spatial challenges on three case studies identified along the Medi-terranean coastal region, proposing three strategic approaches - retreat, cooperation, and overlap - as analytical lenses to explore potential opportunities for fostering diverse landscapes of coexistence: (i) retreat, that entails creating space for ecological processes by stepping back, removing permanent structures that disrupt ecological continuities, and establishing open spaces that allow natural systems to regenerate. By prioritizing ecological resilience, retreat facilitates the formation of open ecological corridors and buffer zones; (ii) Cooperation fosters dialogue between different systems within a shared space, conceptualized as an intermedial zone between the built and natural environments. By designing spaces that accommodate both human and non-human inhabitants, cooperation enables a middle ground where hybrid landscapes can emerge; (iii) Overlap strategy emphasizes spatial and functional integration, promoting a network of shared uses and activities that enhance synergies between anthropogenic and ecological systems. Overlap facilitates the formation of multifunctional landscapes, where interactions between human and natural processes are reinforced, creating a common ground. The findings of this explorative analysis underscore the necessity of making space for nature at multiple scales and through diverse approaches in order to redefine systemic interactions and reimagine future landscapes of coexistence along the Medi-terranean coast. Ultimately, this paper extends an open invitation to reconsider how we engage with "nature" within the planning and design processes.
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Ventimiglia, R., Ricchiuto, G., Kasselouri, E., & et al. (2025). Retreat, Cooperate, Overlap. Rethinking spatial strategies for coexistence on the Medi-terranean coast within climate change. AESOP (Association European Schools of Planning): Planning as a Transformative Action in an Age of Planetary Crisis, Istanbul. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/273769