Addressing the topic of brownfields that are located near waterways involves several disciplines. These are areas that, due to the complexity and specificity of the dimensions involved and their dynamics, require an integrated approach and innovative methods of analysis and planning/design. These areas usually present a high landscape value while being affected by forms of degradation and risks to the environment. The relocation of manufacturing activities, which began as early as the last century in Europe and has accelerated in recent decades in southern Italy, has led to the gradual decommissioning of substantial portions of industrial heritage in many rural and peripheral areas and urban centers. Important and strategic industrial areas by the sea, or along the edges of water, lakes, rivers, and estuaries, have also become threatened by the progressive loss of or decrease in economic activities, investments, infrastructure, and related services. Methods: This paper, after an examination of best practices in design and planning for the rehabilitation and reuse of brownfields, will analyze two or three case studies that are significant in terms of their context specificity and location in relation to the waterway. The goal is to understand the potential of such interventions to promote sustainable transformation and counter abandonment. Strategies will be devised to avoid this risk, enhancing the coasts as spaces for rebirth and innovation.

The paper will seek to bring out, based on the analysis of the case studies, the type of relationship with the environment, and the design responses with respect to intervention priorities, that have emerged by proposing a regeneration model.

Possible and diverse design strategies for the regeneration, preservation, and enhancement of the industrial heritage, involving resources and actors in the area by returning the industrial heritage of the sites to the site of collective cultural heritage, are proposed.