Talvolta, da qualche parte, in qualche modo succede. Fare ricerca e costruire progetti e politiche urbane per le parti di città soggette a fenomeni di degrado sico e sociale attraverso l’analisi dei dati aperti

How can we recognize the insurgent presence of some situations of crisis “between the folds” of different urban patterns? How is it possible to recognize the presence of urban situations in which are both present some aspects of physical decay of the ordinary housing stock and several conditions of fragility and marginality of local social groups? How is it possible to recognize and highlight the presence of muti-problematic urban situations in which different hardship aspects tend to concentrate and reinforce each other, leading to the formation and consolidation of hidden and difficult situations to deal with by using the traditional and most common tools of urban planning and urban policies? Which kind of data and analytical tools can be used in order to recognize the concomitant and synergistic presence of different types of problems that are often and mostly concentrated in some specific places? Generally speaking, none of these can individually cause severe problems. What instead determines the "wicked" character of these problems lies in the integration/interaction of different aspects of disadvantages. GIS data sets can allow us to pinpoint very different phenomena within the territory and to identify them as a peculiar set of problems in some specific and multi-problematic ambits. But, what kinds of tools can be used, among those available in the field of urban studies and urban analysis, in order to try to identify tiny urban contexts characterized by the presence of multiple aspects of physical degradation and social unease? What procedures can be activated? What research methods are supposed to be used? All these questions do not allow immediate and unequivocal answers and, on the other hand, they make more evident the limits of the use of some traditional research tools and procedures. Nevertheless, the general research question (behind these multiple questions) is theoretically and practically relevant whether (as it looks to be) urban planning is more and more asked to deal with some critical aspects of social and urban regeneration in many and different contexts. This paper presents a research operation which is very experimental and not codified at all. The goal is to try to identify urban contexts in which it is possible to individually detect some significant elements by using a wide range of heterogeneous open data sets (anyway available for public and free consultation). The data sets have been selected on the basis of their ability to represent relevant and problematic phenomena which can be frequently recognized in different multi-problematic urban situations. The research assumes via Catullo in Milan as a case study: this is a small urban street on the northwest edge of Milan, where different aspects of physical decay and social difficulties are both present and wickedly interact.