CONFIGURATION ANALYSIS AND SPATIAL PLANNING IN THE COASTAL SETTLEMENTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Introduction
During the last century, the population along the Mediterranean coasts has been growing with an impressive trend. Since the ‘50s most of these areas have attracted people from inland cities and marginal rural places, thanks to their economic opportunity and desirable locations, so as to result today clearly overcrowded. The gap between populations living in urban centres as opposed to those in the surrounding urban areas has likewise increased [13]. Schneider & Woodcock however noted that, since the 1980s, cities of different kind, dimension and position all over the world are involved in sudden transition processes, from a compact to a dispersed urban structure [14]. Recent studies proved that such a process involved also the Mediterranean coast [5]. High transformation speed, low urban density and overcrowding are actually a fiddly issue to cope with. Spatial planning is moreover less supplied then it seems to face urban pathologies, than it was before. It is primarily caused by a lack in knowledge, due to the hurdle in acquiring reliable and objective information on urban phenomena. Consequently, urban and territorial planners have difficulty expressing medium/long-term predictions, with impacts on urban and territorial policies. Many models are flourishing to fill the gap, but, in this broad framework, assessing and modeling complexity in cities is gaining momentum, leading the quest for a new “science of urbanism”. […]