Is the compact city still sustainable after the COVID-19? Looking old research under new perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic that has been spreading throughout the world has posed new challenges. This situation affects also urban planning: the pandemic seems to have undermined some pillars such as the validity of the high-density city, promoted for several decades as a more sustainable form of settlements. Density is now debated in relation with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, being questioned as the cause of contagion. The real problem is not much to turn towards disperse settlements but rather to start investigating how to achieve the balance between keep limiting land take and urban sprawl through densification and the availability of open and natural spaces, with a new focus on ensuring health conditions and the respect of social distancing. Urban planning should have an even greater attention to the exact identification of ecosystem services and related benefits on health, and to the impacts and effects on health and wellbeing of alternative planning decisions prior to their implementation.