Le opere idriche e le vie d’acqua nella formazione del tessuto storico urbano. Paradigmi di governance tradizionale e conservazione del patrimonio culturale

The demand for adopting sustainable city models that ensure the preservation of the natural and built environment, the efficient utilization of resources, and a higher quality of life is becoming increasingly urgent. Nowadays, there is a growing necessity to reevaluate research assumptions, broaden the field of investigation, and consider the urban organism as the result of the inter-change between natural and anthropic elements. The harmonious coexistence of natural forms and human works has generated historical heritage over the centuries. Special attention is given to the effect of natural resources on cultural heritage, understood in its broadest sense. Specifi-cally, the analysis of the relationship between the historical city and the water resource allows for an interpretation of the role of water as a driver of urban evolution in its social, architectural, technical, and cultural organization. Starting from a preliminary knowledge phase, the study aims to examine the effect of water on the definition and evolution of the forms of the historic urban structure in contexts where the design of the city is traditionally strongly connected to the pres-ence and perception of water in its various forms. The research is applied to the case study of the city of Salerno, in which the built environment is recognized as a true territorial structural system characterized by the relationship between the anthropic and natural elements that compose it and that have defined its unique and identity-based features over time. However, part of this asset is severely compromised, and risks being wholly lost in the chaos of the contemporary city due to the lack of knowledge, maintenance, and management strategies.