The general scope and aim of the "Urban Sustainable Environmental Actions" project can be summarized as follows: detecting how to achieve opportunities for people and businesses to settle, in a sustainable way, in existing urban areas, without further “land take”. This target is expected to be met through integrated policies and tools aimed at improving the “urban growth management” planning framework coupled with implementable, sustainable urban “interventions” for the re-use of underutilized, vacant or abandoned areas of land and existing settlements, both in historic districts and more recently built areas. Such an approach is targeted at confronting the obsolescence of urban areas and sustaining the “urban change”, and through city recycling, also improving the city’s environmental, social, economic sustainability, to provide more urban quality to urban communities and, at the same time support the local economy in the short and long-term, to help overcome the effects of the current down-turn. The "baseline study" contains the scientific background for the project, that joins 10 European Cities.
