The Contemporary Coast as an Urban Amphibious. The Complex Relationship Between City–Sea Interface and Urban Coastal Society After the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

The contribution aims to explore the concept of urban coastal society, a community intimately connected to the coast and to the sea, in the context of the socio-spatial and climatic-environmental critical issues that characterize the development of large coastal cities during the past pandemic situation. In spatial and functional terms, the urban shore could be considered as an urban amphibious, that is, the urban area where the land and the sea physically meet, in relationship with the ability of the city and the coastal community to constantly adapt to these two systems. It is an aggregator of coastalcommons, shared resources whose importance is fundamental for the adaptation of the coastal society to external impacts. Anyway, its integrity appears to be fragmented since it is composed of variegated elements (port areas, production plants, urban beaches, insecure or abandoned spaces) that can also be considered as pieces of a potential green–blue infrastructure. In this sense, the concept of city–sea interface can be mobilized, as the physical, ecological, social and functional contact area between the edge of the city and the edge of the water: it can be considered as an expression of the urban amphibious, a space in which different ways of experiencing the coastal life of the city are juxtaposed, with a strong need for flexible management. These premises require us to investigate how to plan and manage ‘blue spaces’, considering them as potential quality public areas along the urban shore: during the Covid-19 pandemic, this necessity becomes even more absolute in relation to the evolution of social needs that require a greater amount of public space to guarantee to each user valuable social spaces while preventing contagion. Coastal areas therefore take on an even greater social and therapeutic value in large coastal cities.