Introduction. The contemporary urban coast.- The Urban Coast as a Complex Interface.- The city sea interface and the socio environmental value of urban shores.- Urban coastal society and its relationship with the sea.- The effects of climate change on contemporary urban coastlines.- Governance of coastal public space in the Euro Mediterranean context.- Research question socio ecological use of the city sea interface in the Euro Mediterranean context.- Programmatic and Design Approach to the City Sea Interface.- Maritime Spatial Planning legal frame work for the Euro Mediterranean coast.- Geo spatial approach for the study of city-sea interface characters.- Psycho social approach to analyse coastal social perception.- Methodological framework for socio environmental benchmarking of city sea interfaces.- Analysing the City Sea Interface the cases of Marseille and Naples.- Marseille, Naples European urban coasts in comparison.- Framework of existing urban plans and policies for the city sea interfaces of Marseille and Naples.- Geo spatial approach for the city sea interfaces of Marseille and Naples.- Psycho social approach applied to the urban amphibious in Marseille and Naples.- Conclusions and research perspectives.

This book delves into the concept of city-sea interface as a space of strong physical, ecological, social and functional connection between the edge of the city and the edge of the water, recalling the idea of an urban amphibious, in relation to its flexibility to community, environmental and management issue that prevent the sustainable development of urban coasts. In particular, the volume relates the spatial planning of littoral spaces with the demands of contemporary urban coastal society, since such complex places constitute crucial hubs for the fruition of coastal ecosystem services.

The work explores these topics in the Euro-Mediterranean context, with regard to densely urbanised land-water areas through a methodological framework. A legal analysis describes the main coastal governance and Maritime Spatial Planning guidelines and how they are incorporated in national littoral management systems; the geo-spatial approach defines a spatial data model for the socio-environmental features of the interface; finally, the psycho-social approach aims at studying the social representations in relation to accessibility, uses and planning adaptation.

This framework is proposed as a benchmarking tool: specifically, it has been applied to Marseille and Naples, two similar Mediterranean cities with complex city-sea interfaces. Moreover, it may also support the implementation of coastal-maritime planning at a local scale.