Maintenance and Urban Sustainability

The quest to attract urban sustainability involves accepting city as a “resource”, since such a capital, having an anthropic origin and so rich in value and history, has been accumulated thanks to the exploitation of natural capitals. Such an approach can contribute to achieve (even social) development aspirations, provided that the capital and the fluxes of natural resources are not exploited and degraded so as to compromise their future usefulness. The city, “unsustainable” by definition, in such a view aims to sustainability objectives, being intended as a resource, a place where to express the material culture of civilization, place where opportunities, values, information, events and social, economical and cultural life are joined together. The challenge of city care involves assuming urban development sustainability as the scenario within which the adequate levels of care, maintenance-conservation and consumption have to compare themselves with development aspirations, but at the same time the consumption/substitution of capitals made of urban resources should be coherent with the exigency of maintaining natural resources as well as those resources generated by anthropic action; such a challenge will have to be won by identifying new forms of urban policy, recognizing and enhancing the value of the role of maintenance for preserving the physical-natural-cultural heritage, by means of scientific processes of planning and control and by carrying out adequate action strategies.