The Recovery of Disused Infrastructure and Military Areas in Spain and Italy, Contributions to the Regeneration of Territories

Brownfields represent complex areas that require appropriate intervention strategies. Now more than ever, the impetus for sustainable land recovery is through the regeneration of sites destroyed and contaminated by conflict or abandoned land conservation activities. These include barracks, forts, defensive and warning installations, former powder magazines, and disused military infrastructure. A forward-looking vision suggests innovative strategies for regeneration. The essay presented is the result of research conducted on best practices for the regeneration of military areas and is entitled: “Urban regeneration of brownfield sites for future sustainability scenarios.” The essay will present a careful review of the literature and state of the art focusing on best practices in terms of innovative responses useful for ecological transition and resilience of territories. Through the reconnaissance of legislative and programmatic guidelines and the examination of Spanish and Italian case studies, 3 phases of the regenerative process will be identified: 1. Decontamination; 2. Renaturalization/environmental rebalancing; 3. Refunctionalization. The essay shows how decontaminated sites will be able to be part of a single environmental and social infrastructure and will have to meet qualitative/quantitative and performance parameters.