Thermal Urban Natural Environment Development

Thermal wells are a historical, cultural identity space; but often a fragmented and marginal sector of the city; it has characterized by an unplanned development. Sometimes there is a lack of regional and municipal management of this resource; wellness tourism is not developed or is The management often suffers from a lack of professionalism and planning but also a lack of knowledge and attention. Four cities will be studied as best practices and front runner in this area, the city of Viterbo in Italy, Turnhout in Belgium, Heerlen in The Netherlands and the town of Caldes de Montbui in Spain. In the whole process will be engaged all partners and followers cities to take advantage from the relationship and from involvement in the experimentation of nature based innovations procedure and technologies for cities and environment. Viterbo is front runner for the enhancement of the thermal resource from an health and economic point of view; Caldes de Montbui as regards the use of waste water of the spa process for agricultural purposes. Turnhout and Heerleen for an energy transition with the use of geothermal energy as a lever towards a carbon neutral society. The front runner cities are conceived as “living laboratories” and are coaching cities; the followers city will carry out a local implementation of achievements developed in the front runner cities and will enhance the development of sustainable urban planning.