Smart Governance: Strategic Planning and Urban Regeneration. Manchester and Turin Case Studies

The evolutionary process undertaken by many European cities which leads from urban agglomerations to smart cities requires the adoption of a strategic and integrated approach to environmental, economic and social topics, according to a medium - long term vision and through new funding formulas that involve private capital to ensure interventions feasibility. The implementation of effective public policies requires strong coordination by the Public Administrations in complex cooperation processes with economic operators, inter-sectoral planning, a local approach to urban development. The paper discusses some governance tools applied by local public bodies to urban regeneration interventions, assuming that traditional models of governance and programming are inadequate. The paper identifies strategic planning as the main tool of governance to manage the dynamics of contemporary cities. In particular it identifies two concrete case studies of strategic planning processes applied to urban regenerations - East Manchester and Barriera di Milano in Turin - and outlines some common aspects considered essential to pursue the feasibility of the operations. Both the examples may be acquired as a benchmark by local authorities to pursue their objectives of evolution towards a smart city, beyond purely programmatic formulations which may sometimes remain unimplemented.