FROM DISUSED RAILWAYS TO COASTAL GREENWAYS. A TRANSITION WITHOUT A TERRITORIAL PROJECT

The research addresses the transformation of disused railways into coastal greenways in Italy—a rapidly expanding phenomenon that currently includes five completed coastal greenways and fourteen more in planning. This topic is particularly significant not only in quantitative terms but also in its contextual relevance: coastal greenways traverse areas marked by high levels of structural vulnerability, exposed to landslides, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events. Despite these challenges, greenways and territorial fragilities are currently treated as separate and independent design themes—a division that must be overcome. The aim of the research is to envision the greenway not merely as a pedestrian and cycling path, but as an environmental infrastructure capable of triggering a broader territorial project. A project conceived as a relational system open to interactions with the landscape and coastal vulnerabilities, moving beyond the dual mistake of reducing the greenway to a transit-only function and the land to a mere support for the shift from railway to pedestrian-cycling use. The adopted method is based on a critical review of specialized literature and a comparative study of international case studies. This comparison reveals a general insight: the greenway is part of a broader system in which the landscape and vegetation play multiple, highly significant roles. The research hypothesis is that the coastal greenway, if conceived as an environmental infrastructure integrated with Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI), can transform territorial vulnerabilities into design opportunities, contributing to the management of fragilities through the restoration of the relationship between soil and subsoil, stormwater drainage, and ecological regeneration of the coastal territory. The results are translated into four operational guidelines. The first concerns the infrastructure space, where the use of permeable paving can restore the relationship between soil and subsoil, facilitating stormwater drainage. The second relates to the space associated with the greenway, where GSIs can play a strategic role not only in water collection and management but also in fostering connections between the sea and inland areas. The third guideline is an invitation to broaden the perspective to include the landscape and, in the case of Italian coasts, their territorial fragilities. The fourth highlights the need to reform the regulatory framework, which is currently lacking and inadequate. However, the absence of specific legislation should not be seen as a prohibitive factor: the devices used in the case studies, although not foreseen by Italian regulations, are not prohibited. This means that the greenway as an environmental infrastructure is a concrete intervention possibility, provided that design practices are innovated.