Planning for resilient cities requires an evidence-based understanding of flood risk and the involvement of stakeholders and local actors. The paper addresses research developed within the URCA!—Urban Resilience to Climate Change: to activate the participatory mapping and decision support tool for enhancing sustainable urban drainage—project. A top-down/bottom-up participatory and flexible methodology for the conception of participatory mapping aimed at the planning and installation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) on the territory is then developed. The innovative methodology is applied and tested in the case study of the Sampierdarena district in Genoa, northern Italy. This research paper illustrates the development of a participatory map (Pmap) that can support the implementation of SUDS as mitigation/adaptation strategies, integrating technical assessment and containing community visions and expectations. Findings concerning the connections between proposed SUDS locations and their frequencies confirm the relevance of the commercial area and the main traffic lanes along, confirming that all zones characterized by intense vehicular and pedestrian flow are suitable for SUDS as a solution to contribute to urban flood resilience. The georeferenced and intergenerational Pmap may be integrated into a decision support system to be developed as a guidance tool for the public administration.

Engaging stakeholders in disaster recovery planning helps identify recovery needs accurately and integrates diverse perspectives into planning procedures. This study presents a quali–quantitative participatory method for identifying the urban functions that must be preserved to initiate the recovery process and ensure the rapid restoration of the entire urban system. The method involves evaluating the relative importance of different functions and analyzing their interdependencies through participatory fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) with local stakeholders. The inclusion of diverse stakeholders facilitates precise need assessment, fosters dynamic information exchange and promotes innovative, user‐centred, bottom–up interventions that better reflect the realities of the affected communities. The approach was tested in a case study conducted in Sanremo, Italy, as part of broader research aimed at developing a decision support system to expedite recovery processes and enhance urban resilience. The participatory FCM session in Sanremo identified essential functions beyond emergency services, including supermarkets, educational services and pharmacies, centred around the temporary shelter function, which emerged as pivotal during the recovery process. A critical analysis of the FCM‐based approach highlights its benefits and offers insights for further strengthening participatory planning in disaster recovery.

Despite broad consensus on the importance of participatory processes in disaster risk management and urban resilience building, substantial gaps persist, including scarce research on monitoring and evaluating participation, lack of comparative studies, underexplored policy and institutional roles. The paper provides methodological and empirical insights by developing and validating two indicator-based tools: one for ex ante assessment of institutional capacity and the other for supporting monitoring and ex post evaluation of participatory processes. The paper also tests them through a comparative study employing a standardizable and reproducible methodology and synthesizes findings from a systematic review of case studies and a semi-systematic review of grey literature to compile a comprehensive pool of criteria and indicators. These are screened, assigned a weight (either by Equal Weight or Best Worst Method) and are aggregated in the two innovative tools mentioned above. These are tested on four case studies: recent local-scale participatory processes aimed at reducing disaster risk and promoting urban resilience addressing multi-hazard scenarios. The research quali-quantitatively demonstrates how, in the four case studies, greater institutional capacity turns into a higher-quality participatory process. Furthermore, the paper improves practical knowledge on participatory processes in disaster risk management and urban resilience building and lays the foundation for evidence-based innovative guidelines for their planning a priori.

Addressing the spatial dimension of prisons contributes to promoting wellbeing for all stakeholders living and working therein. From the review of international literature and Italian regulations, no useful technical manual for prison design/regeneration is available. The paper therefore outlines a transdisciplinary methodology for bridging this gap and provides an approach for the co-planning of such facilities which, given their architectural layout, the actors and functions involved, are conceptualized as Cities in the City. As part of a multi-actor, interactive collaboration and negotiation process, the element of space –availability, distribution, quality, accessibility– is analyzed and strategic actions are defined to improve security-safety, quality of life and sustainability. The methodology is applied to the Genoa Pontedecimo Prison.