Promoting a city-river balance within neighborhoods in transition along the Rhone

Abstract

Relationships between cities and their waters have always been evolving. In a context of transition towards sustainability, finding a balance between the urban and river spaces may contribute to the development of new resilient neighborhoods. To that end, a tailor-made multi-criteria evaluation method appears necessary to gather information not only on sustainability performances of neighborhoods projects but also on specific features linked to a balanced relationships between rivers and cities. On these observations, we develop the concept of city-river balance by focusing on the Rhone territory. It serves as a basis to design an innovative decision-support tool for comparing forward-looking visions for rhodanian neighborhoods in transition. First, this paper presents the methodological research approach taken to develop the tool. Then, it explains the structure and functioning of the tool, followed by a test application to a case study, the Jonction sector in Geneva, Switzerland. Preliminary results show that specific city-river balance components and indicators can explicitly be thematized and measured. Moreover, such a tool could unveil hidden potentialities and help stakeholders to make informed-decision through a resilient vision for the regeneration of rhodanian neighborhoods. In that sense, it promotes not only a transition towards sustainability but also the emergence of a city-river balance.