Climate change scenarios predict alarming levels of water scarcity and damaging flood events worldwide. Considering hydric systems in integrated spatial planning will be crucial in mitigating, adapting, and reversing climate change’s catastrophic effects. This paper focuses on fluvial restoration as part of urban and territorial regulatory frameworks in the Andalién River and the city of Concepción in Chile. We consider three work scales: (i) basin, (ii) river reaches which focus on the city–river interplay, and (iii) site-specific, deepening the discussion around the last two. The objective is to elaborate an interdisciplinary dialogue between urban design, fluvial dynamics, and the Chilean regulatory framework where property rights play a predominant role in the management of natural resources (water and land). In this regard, the ‘New Latin American Constitutionalism’ offers concrete possibilities to operationalize an emerging paradigm that recognizes legal personhood for Nature. The incorporation of an ecological function to property rights emerges as a new way in which the principles of resilient urban development can be applied in order to combine river dynamics and urban growth.

L’état écologique et la fonctionnalité des cours d’eau du bassin de l’Èbre ont subi une détérioration remarquable au cours des dernières décennies, à cause du changement global et des pressions anthropiques directes. Face à cette problématique les initiatives de restauration sont encore peu abondantes, locales et très dispersées dans le territoire. Dans le contexte espagnol, le bassin de l’Èbre n’est pas moteur dans le développement de la restauration fluviale. L’administration hydrologique a préféré fondamentalement la récupération de zones humides. Cependant, des bases consolidées existent pour pouvoir développer une restauration fluviale dans l’avenir : des paradigmes théoriques associés aux groupes de travail, la mise en pratique de quelques actions comme exemples de démonstration et la possibilité de travailler de façon intégrée avec la conservation (des réserves naturelles fluviales) et la gestion d’inondations (l’espace de mobilité ou territoire fluvial).

This article examines how urban and industrial expansion in Talcahuano, Chile, has intensified disaster risk in areas of high ecological value, particularly Santa Clara and El Morro Canal, located within the Rocuant-Andalién Wetland system. These sectors are exposed to flooding, storm surges and tsunamis, while also forming part of a coastal wetland landscape with key ecological and hydrological functions. Through a landscape-based perspective, the study identifies inadequate urban planning, fragmented governance and industrial pressure as central drivers of vulnerability in the Bio Bio region.The article argues that disaster risk reduction requires the integration of existing natural systems—especially coastal urban wetlands—into urban planning and design. Rather than treating nature as residual land, the study understands the built and natural environment as a dynamic socio-ecological system that demands adaptive, hybrid and resilient design approaches.Grounded in a multi-layered resilience framework, the research explores strategies that combine risk mitigation, ecological restoration and urban adaptability. It aims to show how green-blue infrastructure and landscape-based design can reduce exposure to natural hazards while strengthening the capacity of vulnerable communities and ecosystems to adapt, recover and transform under climate change.