Knowledge-building models for environmental planning: The case study of Bari

The concept of ecosystem services arises as a formal outcome of historical processes of understanding and interpreting settlements as complex ecological systems. Because of a straightforward, bottom-up demand for environment enhancement, that concept increasingly occurs in discourses, in narratives, in the demands of common people, triggering a new urban environmental awareness. This is now often arising spontaneously in the protocols of participatory construction of plans, especially when planning for the future of complex environments such as city areas. The present study tries to elicit reflections around the weight of ecosystem issues in the case study of Bari (Italy), which is experiencing an inclusive process of construction of shared knowledge for the new master plan. Starting from an initial campaign of civic walks along urban neighborhoods and a subsequent questionnaire-based survey on the community, the paper carries out comparative analyses using problem-structuring methods, in order to evaluate and reflect on community behaviors and expectations about ecosystem services.