Regeneration agendas and inbound tourism flows have long been considered a remedy for economic crisis. In port cities, a prominent role in urban regeneration is played by the waterfronts, which have been undergoing radical makeovers worldwide since the 1960s. The city of Cagliari stuck to the same recipe, promoting a series of regeneration initiatives and implementing a series of policies to boost the tourism sector. This study combines the use of primary and secondary sources and the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data to create a useful picture of both current reality and historical development of the city. It demonstrated that development strategies promoted in Cagliari, rather than balancing tourism promotion and local community needs, contributed to the amplification and acceleration of the touristification process. Therefore, many of the challenges posed by overtourism, dread in the literature, are today faced by Cagliari and its inhabitants. In addition, the study also identifies in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic a unique opportunity to reverse the touristification process and to achieve a sustainable manner of tourism development. Therefore, it offers some policy recommendations to define principled urban regeneration models, alternatives which are able to achieve urban revitalization while avoiding touristification.

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are assuming a constantly increasing importance in management practices due to their key role in ensuring a sustainable future to fauna and flora on Earth. In addition, ES degradation and quality loss jeopardize current human activities. For this reason, it is essential to develop methodologies and practices able to efficiently assess environmental and socio-economic impacts in terms of ES deterioration, especially within protected areas. Norms and regulations have to be able to identify habitat and species categories to be preserved, and to determine the cost of their destruction and decline, according to a holistic vision, which includes social and economic impacts, besides the environmental ones. The paper illustrates the case study of the “Isola dell’Asinara” Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Sardinia, where an experimental methodology was developed with the aim to draw new regulations that integrate conservation measures of Natura 2000 sites included in its territory, provisions determined by the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) protocol and the Standardized Actions for Effective Management of MPAs (ISEA) project. Subsequently, in order to assess the status of ESs and impacts on ESs located within the MPA territory, an ecosystem-based approach was implemented and applied to the actions defined for the new regulation proposal. Results show that regulations are in this way valuably enriched by environmental aspects of the MPA that would otherwise be overlooked.

Contemporary urban areas are often characterized by various forms of enclaves, isolated from their surrounding geographical context. Urban green infrastructures provide an opportunity to open these enclaves, establishing physical and functional connections with the broader city, while also contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study examines the district of San Bartolomeo in the Italian city of Cagliari as an example of an urban enclave, and employs a participatory planning process to design a project that transforms it into a hub open to the wider city community. The result is a neighborhood shaped by its community, where social, economic, and environmental needs are balanced, fostering constant interaction between residents and the city as a whole.

Contemporary urban areas are often characterized by various forms of enclaves, isolated from their surrounding geographical context. Urban Green Infrastructures provide an opportunity to open these enclaves, establishing physical and functional connections with the broader city, while also contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study examines the district of San Bartolomeo in the Italian city of Cagliari as an example of urban enclave and employs a participatory planning process to design a project that transforms it into a hub open to the wider city community. The result is a neighborhood shaped by its community, where social, economic, and environmental needs are balanced, fostering constant interaction between residents and the city as a whole.