Unlocking Road Space: Desealing as a Strategy for Urban Sustainability

Desealing defined as the process of removing impermeable layers from the ground with the aim of restoring soil permeability and its ecosystem functions, is becoming increasingly central in urban environments worldwide. The desealing process can offer multiple benefits: it enhances biodiversity, reduces urban heat, improves stormwater management, and creates accessible spaces for social interaction and recreation. The desealing process is primarily promoted by the public administration on public land. It is inevitable that road space, which is typically dedicated to mobility, is affected. This has the potential to result in conflicts between the mobility needs and the increasing pressures that climate change exerts on urban systems and infrastructure. This contribution emphasizes the need to integrate a novel urban mobility paradigm to free road space for desealing processes. The methodology involves an analysis of the spaces dedicated to mobility in urban environments in the main cities of the Lombardy region, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The analysis is expected to reveal how much urban space is currently allocated to private cars, highlighting imbalances in the distribution of public space and underlining opportunities to create more equitable and inclusive urban environments through desealing processes. Integrating sustainable and active mobility with desealing strategies offers a pathway to more equitable and resilient urban environments, contributing to both the adaptation and mitigation of climate change, while demonstrating how urban design interventions can effectively reconcile mobility, social space, and sustainability.