Environment and social welfare in the city: experiences and renewed challenges for urban strategies

Abstract

The environmental and social systems that sustain urban life appear to face significant challenges: the costs of the pandemic, the effects of climate change and the persistence of social exclusion. When dealing with them, some of the studies and practices discussed in this article explore the possibilities for renewing urban planning approaches and methods. The question is how to plan an urban form sensitive to both environmental and social systems supporting built spaces. This means how to regulate urbanization so that it does not alter the biological functioning of life-supporting systems through environmental impacts, or destroy the systems of social promotion of equality and rights based on the welfare state through the commodification of their relationships. For this reason, practices that attempt to orderly incorporate metrics on ecosystem service performance and social aspects into planning and citizen participation processes are of interest. Once again, the pandemic crisis has highlighted the interconnection between environmental and social issues. This implies the involvement of cities because environment and social welfare are components that underpin the quality of urban structures and lives.