Porti & ambiente — le notizie raccolte

(Porti strategici italiani: Trieste e Brindisi; Punti critici globale: Suez e Hormuz; map courtesy Google) Molti sono gli incontri istituzionali e non, in ambito europeo, che trattano questi temi, sottolineando che i porti, le navi e l’energia sono causa ed effetto della strategia energetica globale Stiamo vivendo una situazione geopolitica capace di compromettere il sistema dei trasporti in tutte le sue modalità. Le guerre nel Mediterraneo e nel Medio Oriente – US&Israel e Russia sull’Ucraina – stanno generando effetti immediati sul commercio marittimo internazionale e su tutta la catena degli approvvigionamenti. L’instabilità geopolitica sta trasformando i passaggi marittimi vitali in zone ad alto rischio, costringendo il settore a una continua riorganizzazione: crisi degli stretti – Hormuz e Suez – hanno rallentato i traffici in questo inizio 2026 e azzerato in quello iraniano; rerouting (cambio rotta): per evitare zone ad alto rischio, molte navi circumnavigano l’Africa via il Capo di Buona Speranza, con un aumento della distanza del 30-40% e una triplicazione dei costi dei noli; congestione operativa: i porti situati fuori dalle zone di conflitto devono gestire volumi di carico improvvisi e deviati, subendo forti ritardi nella distribuzione. Ed ancora, i porti europei sono diventati centrali per la sicurezza nazionale e la transizione verde: – hub per l’energia: molti scali, specialmente in Italia, stanno puntando a diventare leader nella fornitura di energia elettrica e nella gestione di impianti eolici per garantire l’autonomia energetica del Paese; – transizione verde: l’applicazione di normative come la tassa ETS sulle emissioni sta spingendo i porti verso modelli di economia circolare e riduzione dell’impronta di carbonio. Senza contare la geopolitica digitale: esiste un dibattito serrato per il controllo delle piattaforme e degli algoritmi che gestiscono la logistica; i porti devono digitalizzarsi per migliorare l’efficienza, ma anche per difendersi da minacce cyber. In Italia, poi, la sfida è anche normativa, con la transizione verso il modello dei “Porti SpA” e l’implementazione dei progetti legati al PNRR per modernizzare la governance e le infrastrutture fisiche. Gli analisti del settore concordano che i porti saranno chiamati ad affrontare delle sfide nuove, dalla situazione geopolitica globale a mantenere una dimensione di sostenibilità in tutta la loro funzione polivalente e soprattutto nell’innovazione energetica. I tre ambiti che un sistema portuale si trova ad affrontare riguardano l’elettrificazione dei porti, l’uso di nuovi combustibili marittimi e l’economia circolare. Senza dimenticare l’impatto del sistema EU-ETS sul trasporto marittimo europeo e la crescente rivalità tra gli Stati Uniti e la Cina per un nuovo dominio mondiale; nessun porto è escluso da queste sfide, sia esso europeo, africano, asiatico, cinese o americano. L’attuale crisi energetica e geopolitica pone tutti i sistemi portuali in primo piano, ricordando che il mondo – con la sua globalizzazione – continua a dipendere dalle navi, stretti marini, petrolio, gas, fertilizzanti, metalli, cantieri navali, porti e catene logistiche. Lo Stretto di Hormuz è parte importante del commercio marittimo mondiale di petrolio, gas naturale liquefatto, prodotti raffinati, sostanze chimiche, fertilizzanti, zolfo e alluminio; la sua chiusura parziale o totale non incide solo sul mercato energetica, ma anche sull’economia globale; i prezzi delle suddette materie trasportate diventano volatili incidendo sulla pianificazione logistica delle aziende e delle compagnie di navigazione. Pensiamo per un attimo anche al settore delle costruzioni navali: la crisi attuale sta influenzando il settore per la carenza di vernici, lubrificanti e altri derivati petroliferi, per cui molti cantieri navali – specie quelli asiatici – sono in difficoltà. Gli ordini di nuove navi fanno slittare i tempi consegna e non di giorni, ma di anni, con la Cina, Corea del Sud e Giappone che con i rispettivi cantieri soffrono interruzioni di forniture industriali e che ne limitano il rinnovo delle flotte. La crisi geopolitica, l’uscita degli Emirati Arabi Uniti dall’Opec, gli Stati Uniti che si pongono come fornitore ‘unico’ di energia alternativa per Europa e Asia, con esportazioni record di petrolio greggio e prodotti raffinati; una sicurezza energetica che non dipende più solo dalla disponibilità fisica della risorsa, ma anche da possibili decisioni di politica nazionale. La Cina, in questo scenario, mantiene tassi di crescita rilevanti per la sua economia grazie alle esportazioni, all’industria manifatturiera avanzata e agli investimenti industriali. La crescita cinese si basa sulla produzione industriale, la robotica, i veicoli elettrici, le batterie e la produzione ad alto valore, mantenendo una posizione centrale nel commercio marittimo globale. L’Europa, da parte sua, deve ancora pianificare una risposta strategica: Bruxelles pensa che competere con Stati Uniti e Cina occorra aziende più forti, più investimenti e maggiore autonomia strategica, senza considerare che in settori strategici come energia, difesa, tecnologia e infrastrutture è richiesta una regolamentazione più ‘agile’ e più sicurezza economica fra Stati membri UE. L’unica risposta che la Commissione offre – riconoscendo che non esiste una soluzione finanziaria oggi – è quella dell’elettrificazione, del rafforzamento dell’energia nucleare, dell’espansione delle rinnovabili, delle batterie e delle interconnessioni, e la riduzione della dipendenza dai combustibili fossili. Per i porti, la Commissione europea sottolinea di migliorare il livello di qualità dei loro servizi, in un ambiente di diversificazione e intermodalità, senza avvertire che in un contesto globale più politicizzato e incerto, il settore portuale marittimo sta tornando al centro dell’economia mondiale, con le professioni a terra e in mare in continua evoluzione. Abele Carruezzo Prof. di Navigazione e Trasporti Marittimi

There’s a strong case to be made forGoogle Mapsbeing the single best smartphone app around. Yes,even on iPhone. Since it launched on mobile in 2008, Google has spent the past two decades improving its mapping service, with new features, visual overhauls, and, of course, the introduction of AI. I’ve been using Google Maps on smartphones since the app first launched, and over those 18 years, I’ve witnessed these changes first-hand. It’s been an invaluable travel companion as I’ve ventured around the world, but in 2026, Google Maps is so much more than a simple mapping app. Maps can remember where you parked, show you the weather pretty much anywhere, double as a travel guide, and even take you back in time. Satellite view, navigation, and transit information are well known by now; I don't need to go over the basics. But here's a list of ways I use Google Maps to enhance my life. Google Maps is my first port of call when it comes to planning a work trip or vacation. Rather than head to a search engine or the likes ofGeminiorChatGPT, I find the mapping service a wholly encompassing experience. Zooming in on the area where I want to stay or explore, I use the handy shortcut buttons just below the search bar to display hotels or restaurants nearby. Google’s comprehensive business listings, complete with user reviews, provide a detailed breakdown of what’s available, and filter settings allow me to narrow down the options to those that interest me — all while seeing where they are on the map. You can even view hotel prices and availability, and book table reservations at restaurants from Google Maps. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. During a recent visit to Miami, for instance, Maps helped me plan a four-stop burger tour around Wynwood, with all the joints within a five-minute walk of our hotel. Seeing them all on the map in relation to our hotel, and with easy access to reviews, made the planning process easy. To make sure your pre-trip research isn’t forgotten, use the Lists feature to flag the places you’ve found. Tap a location of interest, and in the card that pops up, you’ll see a little bookmark icon. Tap that, and you’ll be able to add the location to one or more Lists. Google offers some pre-made lists, including 'Want to go' and 'Starred places', but you can also create your own. ‘Want to go’ is self-explanatory, and is what I use when planning a trip. It pops a green flag marker on all the locations you add to the list, making them easily viewable when you zoom in on the area in Maps. And once I’ve visited places, I move the ones that really stood out to me to a List I created called “Visited”. This gives you a personal history of your travels plotted directly on the map, and allows me to return to the places I really enjoyed if I were to visit the area again in the future. And these Lists can go further, too: you can add a note to a location you add to a List. While planning a trip to New York City in 2027, I’ve added Rudy’s Bar & Grill to my 'Want to go' list. However, I know once the trip rolls around next year, I will have forgotten why I flagged this spot — so by adding a note saying “With every beer, you get a free hot dog,” I know I’ll be primed once I arrive in Manhattan. The ability to download offline maps is no secret, but if you’re not aware of this feature, it’s not overtly obvious when using Google Maps. It is, however, massively useful when traveling abroad and you don’t fancy paying extortionate roaming charges. I always download the map for the areas I’ll be visiting, as I can’t always guarantee mobile signal, or whether my mobile plan will cover roaming. I’ve been able to save whole cities (including New York, Bangkok, and London) for offline use, and even multiple Caribbean islands in a single cache. Not everywhere is available to download offline, though. South Korea isn’t, for example. While not all functionality is possible with offline maps, you can use driving navigation and location search with the downloads without the need for an internet connection. To get to this feature, tap your profile picture in Google Maps, then tap ‘Offline maps’. Speaking of Google Maps’ in-car navigation — which has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion when I’ve been driving at home and abroad — you can further customize your experience. Diving into the settings to set the fuel your vehicle uses (gas, diesel, hybrid, electric), will allow Google Maps to better plan driving routes for you based on fuel efficiency and — in the case of EVs — charging stops. In the US, you can even tell Maps the exact make and model of your vehicle for even more accurate trip calculations, such as estimated battery usage for EVs. You can take the vehicle customization a step further too, with the ability to change the blue navigation arrow to a car icon. Google Maps offers eight different car models (plus five bikes) and eight different colors for a fun, personalized experience. A feature we love in our family is trip sharing. If I’m on the long drive home and using Google Maps for navigation, I can share my route with my partner, who can view my real-time progress, including my phone’s battery percentage, departure time, and estimated time of arrival. It’s easy to do — just start navigation in Maps, swipe the navigation card up, tap 'Share trip progress', and then select the contact you want to share with. I came across this feature accidentally during a recent long road trip, where I was slightly panicking that my phone battery was getting low and the USB port in my car had decided to stop charging. Navigation in Google Maps can be power hungry, and on long journeys, your phone will likely need a top-up. However, as I fumbled with my phone, I knocked the power key, which locked the handset. To my surprise, myGoogle Pixel 10 Procontinued to show navigation on the lock screen — albeit in black and white and with limited details compared to the full-fat experience. But it was a game-changer. Battery consumption was reduced, and I was able to make it home without my phone running flat. At the time of writing, lock screen navigation is only available on theGoogle Pixel 10series of handsets, but here’s hoping Google rolls it out more widely in the future. Vast parking lots can be challenging for the old memory. Great swathes of asphalt stretching far into the distance, each row of vehicles looking nearly identical to the last. I've found myself scratching my head at numerous locations when trying to remember where in a massive theme park or sports complex lot I left my car. Thankfully, Google Maps has come to my rescue on more than one occasion, with the ability to automatically drop a pin when it detects you’ve reached your destination and parked up. The small, circular ‘P’ icon it leaves on the map might look unassuming, but it can save you a lot of time and stress when returning to your vehicle. Look out for a prompt at the end of your navigated journey asking if you want maps to remember where you parked, or go to Settings > Notifications > Getting around > Parking Location. If you’re thinking about heading to the beach for the day and are checking out possible shorelines in Maps, you can also view the weather and air quality for a location without leaving the app. Zoom in on an area, and a weather icon will appear in the corner of the card at the bottom of the screen. Tap on this, and you’ll see the 24-hour forecast and air quality for that spot. I’m a sucker for a nostalgia trip, and combine that with a geeky obsession for maps (I have a geography degree after all), and Google Maps can end up stealing hours of my day as I take a step back in time with two features I just love. First up is Timeline, which has been around for a while. If you allow it, Google Maps can record your movements and save them in a calendar view. This is perfect if you’re trying to remember that really cool bar you stumbled into on a whim six months ago while on vacation in Rome, Italy, but can’t for the life of you remember what it was called or where in the city it was. A quick hop into Timeline, find the date in the calendar view, and you’ll get an itinerary breakdown of your movements that day so you can retrace your steps. As someone who enjoys digging into data and recounting previous excursions, I love this feature — but this level of tracking won’t be for everyone. You can turn Timeline tracking off by going to Settings > Location and Privacy > Timeline. The second time travel feature is a newer addition and is part of Street View. Enable this first-person view of a road, and you’ll see there’s an option to 'See more dates'. From here, you’ll be offered up the snapshots taken by Google’s Street View vehicles over the years — with some locations going back two decades. It’s fascinating to look at how areas have changed over the years. How many of my tips and features did you already know about? I'd love to hear how you use Google Maps — let me know your favorite tricks in the comments below. Follow TechRadar on Google Newsandadd us as a preferred sourceto get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can alsofollow TechRadar on TikTokfor news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us onWhatsApptoo. John has been a technology journalist for more than a decade, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He’s interviewed CEOs from some of the world’s biggest tech firms, visited their HQs, and appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC, and BBC Radio 4. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

The environmental justice (EJ) movement in the United States has long focused on water quality due to the threats that polluted surface and groundwaters pose to human health in historically marginalized communities. Recently, several advocacy groups, state agencies, and community-based organizations throughout the US have been working to rehabilitate urban rivers towards ecological and hydrological functioning through riparian and instream habitat improvements, channel modification, bank stabilization, dam removal, and other interventions. Many of these projects are attempting to integrate EJ concepts and practices into their river restoration efforts to make the project design, implementation, and outcomes more equitable and participatory. The goal of this paper is to examine how different elements of EJ–procedural, distributive, and recognitional understandings of justice–are (or are not) being integrated into restoration efforts across several urban settings. Employing a combination of textual analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, we examine cases drawn from cities participating in the Urban Waterways Federal Partnership program, an initiative coordinated through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that highlights justice as a critical component of successful urban stream restoration. This study’s central question is how the discourse and aspirations of EJ are shaping contemporary efforts at urban river restoration. Drawing on three study sites—projects on the Grand River (MI), the Bronx River (NY), and the Los Angeles River (CA)—our findings suggest that EJ is being incorporated into urban river restoration projects in the United States in innovative ways, most visibly through procedural and distributive justice initiatives. We also find evidence of progress towards articulating and achieving recognitional justice, but these achievements are particularly challenging in cities with historical legacies of institutional racism, raising questions about the limits of environmental restoration projects to address structural inequities in an urban context. Citation:Sneddon CS, Fox CA, Magilligan FJ, Bramsen AL (2026) Flows of justice? Situating environmental justice in urban river restoration. PLOS Water 5(5): e0000302. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302 Editor:Pamela Giselle Katic, University of Greenwich Natural Resources Institute, UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND Received:September 2, 2024;Accepted:March 5, 2026;Published:May 4, 2026 Copyright:© 2026 Sneddon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability:All data are within the manuscript itself. Funding:Grant awarded by the Dartmouth College Rockefeller Center for Public Policy to CS, CF, and FM (Award# 11-16-2022). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests:The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. As Robert Bullard wrote in his now classic monograph “Dumping in Dixie”, access to clean water is a major part of the environmental justice (EJ) movement in the United States [1]. Bullard’s initial focus addressed surface and groundwater contamination near Superfund and Brownfield sites that have been historically located near politically and economically marginalized communities of color largely in rural areas. Research on water and environmental justice over the past several decades in the United States has accordingly focused on how communities of color, low-income communities, and Indigenous communities are disproportionately exposed to contaminated sources of surface and groundwater and uneven access to clean drinking water [2,3]. Recent events underscore the environmental injustices that orbit around race, class, and water; a tragic example is the Flint, Michigan water crisis of the early 2010s, where immediate and long-term decisions by state officials, combined with decades of institutional racism, led to the dangerous exposure to unsafe drinking water by Black citizens of Flint [4]. While concerns over water quality remain an important academic and public focus, research on efforts to rehabilitate healthy and ecologically intact waterways through biophysical interventions that are attentive to the aspirations of EJ is far less common, particularly in the US context. Given that a growing number of advocacy groups, federal agencies, city governments, and community-based organizations throughout the US are working to rehabilitate rivers towards some degree of ecological and hydrological functioning [5,6], studies of how and why such efforts are integrating EJ into their initiatives are imperative. River restoration in the United States is a big business, with more than a $1 billion a year directed towards planning, implementation, and monitoring of restoration activities [7,8]. These efforts can be triggered by regulatory concerns to meet federal requirements concerning clean water via the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) requirements, the need to generate restoration credits in the evolving market-based approaches to restoration, and to enhance riverine aesthetics to spur economic renewal in urban settings. Examples of restorative interventions include riparian and instream revegetation, channel modification, floodplain re-connectivity, and dam removal, among other techniques [9]. Many restoration projects are also working explicitly to integrate EJ concepts and practices into the project design, implementation, and outcomes of river restoration, and asking crucial questions regarding who will benefit from projects’ anticipated outcomes and who should be involved in decision-making [10]. These concerns are particularly cogent in US cities, where decades of segregation, racist zoning regulations, and other sources of political-economic marginalization have resulted in greater exposure and proximity to degraded and altered rivers for low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. River restoration efforts in cities, beyond “clean-up” initiatives, have long been neglected by government agencies and conservation organizations, who have perceived urban stream restoration as too complicated or too expensive due to the highly altered nature of the waterways [11]. Worldwide, urban river restoration is thus increasingly seen as a priority by planners, scientists, and advocacy organizations due, in part, to historical patterns of infrastructure development and channel modification in cities [6,12,13]. In recognition of these challenges, the EPA launched the Urban Waters Federal Partnership in conjunction with 15 federal agencies in 2011. Its core mission is to “help urban and metropolitan areas, particularly those that are under-served or economically distressed, connect with their waterways and work to improve them” [14]. The program now encompasses 21 partnerships located in cities across the United States. While the literature on the Urban Waters Partnership website does not explicitly mention EJ, nearly all the partner collectives–typically comprising non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in coalition with community groups, businesses, and state and local government agencies–explicitly include EJ as part of their goals and activities. Yet what EJ might imply for how urban river restoration is designed and carried out is less clear. In contrast, scholars of EJ have long recognized the need to incorporate multiple dimensions of justice—including distributive (focused on how the outcomes of an intervention are distributed), procedural (who has a voice in decision making), and, more recently, recognitional (how cultural difference and historical processes of marginalization among different social groups are acknowledged and addressed)—into investigations of how environmental “goods” and “bads” are distributed throughout society [15]. Yet what does environmentally just urban river restoration entail? We see a vital need for examining not only how EJ is being integrated into urban river restoration (URR) efforts, but also how the multiple dimensions of EJ–distributive, procedural, recognition–are being specifically addressed (or not) within these initiatives. This paper investigates ongoing efforts in the United States to simultaneously rehabilitate the biophysical integrity of urban rivers while integrating multiple dimensions of environmental justice into the decision-making processes and activities of urban river restoration. We focus our central questions on the Bronx River (NY), the Grand River (MI), and the Los Angeles River (CA). We ask the following: To address these questions, we next review the literature on urban river restoration and how it aligns with contemporary deliberations on the different dimensions of EJ. We trace research within URR as it evolved from an initial focus on the management aspects of restoration, particularly the appropriate restorative techniques, to more recent calls to include social dimensions within URR activities. Second, we lay out our methods and methodology, detailing the criteria for case selection and offering details on how data collection and analysis were conducted. Third, we present our findings from URR projects in three study sites—the Bronx River (NY), the Grand River (MI), and the Los Angeles River (CA)—to highlight the ways in which the different dimensions of EJ are being integrated (or not) into specific activities associated with river restoration. We then turn to a discussion of our main findings, summarizing the accomplishments and ongoing challenges of URR in the US and elsewhere, focusing in particular on how a multidimensional understanding of EJ might be more effectively integrated into the design and implementation of restoration projects. Finally, we conclude with a brief summary and some potential areas of future research. At present, the world’s rivers and streams are confronting pressures from altered flows, climate change impacts, multiple forms of pollution, threats to aquatic biota, and accelerating rates of water extraction. In combination, these ongoing impacts make the biophysical status of the world’s waterways a significant and persistent problem. Numerous scholars, policy makers, environmental advocates and civil society organizations have promoted river restoration as vital to nature-society relations at multiple spatial scales [9,16,17] and, as mentioned above, these efforts have recently turned to urban waterways. In spite of a growing literature on urban river restoration (URR), there is increasing realization that the field of URR, both in theory and practice, has in many cases avoided or given scant attention to concerns over environmental justice (EJ).While a range of authors have detailed the multiple dimensions of justice that characterize both scholarship and advocacy in EJ [15,18–22], we focus on distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice, three of the most critical and frequently mentioned types of justice discussed in relation to EJ. Distributivejustice—similar to the concept of equity—deals with the outcomes of decision making and within EJ is concerned primarily with how environmental abuses or amenities are distributed across diverse social groups. In the context of river restoration, it directs attention to whether or not the outcomes of projects (e.g., enhanced ecological functioning, recreational amenities, and economic opportunities) are distributed fairly to all affected urban residents. Although outside the scope of our study, distributive justice in urban river restoration is also concerned with the possibility of green gentrification, and recent research highlights how improvements to urban river corridors can in some cases contribute to the displacement of low-income and minoritized residents [23,24].Proceduraljustice deals with whether or not all actors have the capacity and ability to engage in decision-making processes regarding a particular environmental project. Just procedures within river restoration might include comprehensive awareness raising campaigns of project plans, wide-scale participation in project design and implementation by diverse community organizations, influence over a project’s particular contours and how funding is directed, and other inclusive processes that ensure that the voices of communities affected by the project are not only heard but integrated into planning procedures [5]. Concerns overrecognitionaljustice highlight that some social groups are frequently overlooked as potential participants in environmental decision making, and that their specific worldviews and historical experiences are often ignored. Such misrecognition is often connected to historical patterns of marginalization based on social categories such as indigeneity, race, or socio-economic status [25]. In waterway restoration, a failure to recognize the processes that have alienated minoritized communities from rivers can confound efforts to promote justice purely on distributive and procedural grounds [18,26]. Towards the turn of the 20th century, an array of scholars, planners, government agencies, environmental groups, and community organizations in the US began to call more urgently for programs and funding that targeted river restoration, including urban waterways [27]. A key question at this time was what kinds of hydrologic and ecological interventions were technically feasible, economically efficient, and supported by governmental decision-makers [28,29]. These efforts tended to be expert-driven and reliant on scientific knowledge, focusing on biophysical goals such as reduced channel erosion and enhanced channel stability [30]. Many URR projects in the US during this period initially centered on four types of intervention: stormwater management, bank stabilization, channel modification and grade control, and riparian revegetation [29]. There was also growing awareness of a broader toolkit of restoration interventions—both physical and regulatory—that included enhanced fish passage, dam removal, floodplain buyout programs, and more [9]. The social dimensions of waterway restoration, if included at all, revolved around how to effectively mobilize government agencies at federal, state, and local levels to prioritize URR, and how to raise awareness of and support for restoration among undifferentiated urban populaces [28]. Many URR efforts along these lines reflected the interest and goals of government agencies, environmental organizations, and/or other interest groups, to the neglect of less powerful actors [31]. Recent research and practice in URR, however, foreground the social dimensions of environmental projects, emphasize how marginalized communities creatively engage with and even subvert the distributive and procedural aspects of EJ, and, albeit more rare, pay attention to the important role that recognitional justice plays in repair of urban waterways. Several studies clearly show that many URR initiatives in the US, while well-funded and technically sound, are often hampered by a failure to sufficiently engage all stakeholders in project planning and implementation—including low-income communities and communities of color [10,12,13]. Work grounded in political ecology focuses on the political and economic processes operating across several spatial scales that shape restoration efforts in ways that hamper effective integration of EJ elements. For example, efforts to restore Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River, a heavily degraded waterway running through largely Black and low-income neighborhoods in the city’s most heavily industrialized zones, are ostensibly aware of the need to enhance procedural justice. Yet Holifield & Schuelke [32] conclude that efforts by project advocates to make the initiative more participatory occur through procedures that are “carefully managed and typically oriented toward building consensus” while glossing over conflicts among different urban actors that arise from decades of environmental racism. Similarly, Kimari and Parish [33] trace how urban river restoration projects in Toronto and Nairobi give more weight to city authorities’ concerns for economic “revitalization” than to the goals of residents who interact with rivers on a daily basis. One of the clear findings of such work is that URR efforts will always be influenced by urban politics that shape outcomes and procedures in ways that often reflect the interests of politically and economically dominant actors, and thus limit opportunities to achieve distributive and procedural forms of justice. In addition to scholarship highlighting procedural and distributive justice in URR, recent studies also direct attention to recognitional justice, which is arguably more complicated to achieve in urban river restoration projects since it implies acknowledging (and ultimately undoing) decades of environmental injustices foisted on minoritized communities and the institutional structures that hinder transformative changes. Tribal involvement in river restoration projects is a particularly apt example of recognitional justice. For example, river restoration projects on the Elwha, the Klamath, Penobscot, and Ottaway, among others, are driven by recognition of how colonialism and other historical injustices have ruptured Tribal relationships with their rivers. Driven by Indigenous advocates, these projects have to some degree restored autonomous decision-making and legal rights to Tribes while acknowledging their cultural, spiritual, and historical relationships with their rivers (see [34]). In another vein, a recent case study in Atlanta highlights the strategies used by marginalized groups to counter the political and economic weight of state and corporate actors and, in doing so, redefining EJ on their own terms. The South River Watershed Alliance (SAWA), composed of residents from the “highly segregated, majority Black areas” of southeast Atlanta, started as an effort to mitigate sewage overflows contaminating these neighborhoods. During workshops with government agencies in the early 2010s, members of SAWA realized “framing strategy explicitly in terms of EJ seemed to promise little more than token representation of Black residents without meaningful decision-making authority over development affecting their community” ([35], 1598). Perceiving institutionalized efforts at promoting EJ as a script that preserves “business as usual”, SAWA representatives instead adopted a new strategy that affirmed a “right to nature” through canoe outings and other recreational activities even though these had been prohibited by regulations due to poor water quality. The re-framing of river restoration as “ecological appreciation” proved far more effective in mobilizing “middle- and working class suburban Black communities” in southeast Atlanta to engage politically in the project in support of its distributive and procedural aims ([35], 1599). The Atlanta case underscores that successfully integrating EJ concerns into repairing urban waterways often hinges on how community-based organizations advocating for equitable outcomes and recognition of their unique perspectives on the meaning of “restoration” engage with state actors. Indeed, this points to a recent debate in the geographical literature on the role of state actors in promoting or inhibiting goals of EJ advocated by the hundreds of communities across the US. Some critical EJ scholars argue that activists and their allies working within state institutions (i.e., regulations, bureaucracies) to promote EJ have largely failed to improve the socio-environmental conditions confronted by communities of color and low-income communities disproportionately exposed to environmental insults [36–39]. Under this view, structural racism is so deeply embedded within state institutions, EJ activists must start “seeing the state as an adversary that must be confronted in a manner similar to industry” for meaningful progress towards EJ to occur ([38], 530). In a rejoinder, a recent overview of how to situate the state within EJ theory and practice argues that ultimately the harshest critiques of the state as an institution for fostering EJ underplay the tangible ways that EJ advocates are able to effectively engage state actors and institutions in different kinds of justice-oriented projects. Such critiques also underplay the diverse characteristics of state actors that make them alternately hostile, neutral, or actively supportive towards EJ goals [40]. The Atlanta case explicitly supports the notion that EJ activists are able to effectively pursue EJ in terms of distributive outcomes, fair procedures, and recognition of past injustices in their community by creative engagements with state actors. In addition, research on dam removal underscores that state workers across various jurisdictions often act in ways that support restoration activities and undermine dominant discourses that allow for the inclusion of more justice-oriented perspectives [41]. Although the academic literature on URR highlights the vital need for simultaneously repairing urban waterways and incorporating elements of distributive, procedural, and recognitional elements of EJ, these discussions have been less attuned to how the different dimensions of EJ specifically shape restoration activities. Moreover, this scholarship has not sufficiently addressed the ways in which the integration of EJ goals might bolster (or hinder) efforts at rehabilitating urban waterways in part because there is no blueprint for successful integration, and the scope of a given project may be too constrained by funding, politics, or existing infrastructure. These restoration efforts also occur in differing urban settings where the political and historical contingencies may be unique thereby limiting a uniform combination of EJ and restoration. In addition, there remains a compelling argument for interrogating how state actors become enrolled within specific projects which can perhaps serve as an important template for future efforts. In the cases examined below, government officials play myriad roles, frequently serving as sources of funding, scientific expertise, project design, and other functions [41]. This paper uses three study sites to illuminate the multiple ways that discourses and objectives related to EJ are being integrated into urban river restoration in the United States. In a preliminary phase of the research, we initiated Google News alerts in 2021 using the keywords “river restoration” and “rivers and environmental justice” with both alerts continuing to the present. In a preliminary analysis of urban river restoration initiatives in the US, we became aware of the Urban Waterways Federal Partnership, an interagency program launched in 2011 and coordinated through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Of the 21 projects supported through the Partnership, we identified three study sites for more detailed investigation according to the following criteria: projects that maintained a significant focus on biophysical interventions (e.g., dam removal, riparian and instream revegetation, channel modification) as opposed to a water quality focus; and initiatives that explicitly identified environmental justice as a project emphasis. We also focused on projects that were at different stages of formal planning and implementation in order to highlight how conceptions of EJ, and its potential influence on restoration activities, might change over time. Our eventual cases—the Bronx River in the Bronx (NY), the Grand River in Grand Rapids (MI), and the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles (CA)—are as described below at quite different stages, ranging from over two decades of actual restoration activities (Bronx River) to years of planning with little implementation (Grand River) and early planning stages and no implementation (LA River). Lead organizations in all three cases explicitly state the need to integrate the principles of EJ into their restoration activities. For example, one aim of the Bronx & Harlem River UWFP is “to help overburdened and underserved Bronx communities reconnect to their waterways, reduce the negative impacts of urbanization on both water quality and human health, and restore impacted riverfronts while pursuing environmental justice.” Similarly, the Grand River/Grand Rapids UWFP singles out environmental justice as a key Workplan Initiative [42]. While less prominent in official documentation, the LA River Master Plan includes several grassroots EJ organizations as advisory partners [43], especially local community groups who fear the potential of green gentrification. In addition, these urban waterways are all prominent symbols of their cities, and historically have all been examples of the “urban stream syndrome” described by aquatic scientists as waterways subject to decades of extreme alteration and pollution levels [44,45]. Although all three are the focal points of comprehensive restoration initiatives, these efforts are at quite different phases of design and implementation. After several decades of programs of varying intensity, proponents of restoration of the Bronx River have accomplished many of their initial goals in terms of reduced pollution, ecologically and aesthetically enhanced riparian zones, and re-connecting many abutting neighborhoods with the river. The Grand River, in contrast, has for over 15 years been planning an array of interventions to rehabilitate the river for both biophysical and economic goals, but has yet to implement actual restoration actions. Restoration of the Los Angeles River is still largely in the planning and design phases. These cases thus afford the opportunity to explore how distributive, procedural and recognitional justice principles are or are not being effectively integrated into URR initiatives at different moments in project histories. We gathered information regarding each case initially through a review of regional and local media sources (newspapers, town meeting minutes, engineering reports, etc.). Having received CPHS (Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects) exemption from our institution’s IRB (STUDY00032760), our team also carried out multiple semi-structured interviews (SSIs) with project participants (seeS1 Text), primarily for the Grand Rapids (GR) case and to a lesser extent from the Bronx River site. In our original emails to potential interviewees, we mentioned that we were interested in their involvement and perspective on the dam removal process at their site, especially the ways that issues of environmental justice had been incorporated into the restoration process or in what ways it was being considered (or not). In all instances, the interviewees (all adults) agreed by email to be interviewed, although for issues of confidentiality we do not use any names. This confidentiality also prevents us from posting personal data related to the identities of our research participants. We spent several days in Grand Rapids in July 2023 where we interviewed a representative of the Mayor’s office; two staff members of the local Museum that often sponsors key meetings of affected stakeholders; two restoration advocates who launched the dam removal restoration project; a member of the GR Chamber of Commerce involved in the pioneering public-private partnership helping fund restoration; and two staff members of Grand Rapids Whitewater (GRWW), which has become the lead NGO for governing restoration activities. In addition, we interviewed two advocates for GR’s Black community who have been mobilizing efforts for the restoration plan to be more inclusive. In August 2023 we interviewed via Zoom an academic who is a member of the Latinx community in GR and involved in restoration governance. For the Bronx River, one of the authors attended a weekend event sponsored by the Bronx River Alliance in late August 2023, where they conducted semi-structured interviews and participant observation of educational and community-building activities in coordination with the Bronx River Alliance. One team member attended an online meeting organized by the Bronx River Alliance in June 2024 discussing the updated Bronx River Intermunicipal Watershed Management Plan (IWMP). For the LA River, we focused on secondary information (e.g., websites, published statements from key NGOs) in addition to a wide range of media reports since the rolling out of the LA River Master Plan in 1996 (it was updated in 2022). Although our investigation of restoration activities in the case of LA River does not include interviews or participant observation, we relied on the extensive information sources available through secondary literature, public statements from multiple stakeholders, planning documents, and news and other media sources. Thus, while our data concerning the LA River may not be as finely grained in terms of actors’ perspectives, there is sufficient information concerning discussions of EJ within restoration activities that offer valuable insights into our core research questions (see above). All the data for all cases is either contained within the article and/or alluded to in the appropriate source(s) in the bibliography. We queried interviewees in Grand Rapids and the Bronx about basic information on the history, management design, funding, and implementation of their restoration initiatives, as well as each participant’s views on how EJ objectives were being integrated into the project. We integrated and coded this qualitative information using ATLAS.ti, a commonly used computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). In our coding, we highlighted those themes emerging from project documentation, newspaper articles, and interviews that identified how distributive, procedural, and/or recognitional justice was manifesting within each study site’s URR efforts (seeS1 Table). Each instance of distributive, procedural, and/or recognitional justice was identified in project documents, media sources, and interview transcripts based on definitions of those terms (see above) in the academic literature and coded as a relevant variant of the broader category of EJ. These codes were then analyzed in relation to the actor or actors drawing on this form of EJ, the specific restoration activity being proposed (e.g., dam removal, expansion of riparian green spaces), and additional themes related to each study site. In line with our research questions, we also focused on the theme of barriers and opportunities to the different elements of EJ within URR projects. We used the Occurrence and Co-Occurrence function of ATLAS.ti as a way to organize, analyze, and generalize the data [46], which then served as prompts for use during the subsequent interviews. Restoring the Bronx River: “Bring the community in, because that’s the only way it’ll be sustainable” [SSI,BRA volunteer program assistant] Efforts to restore the Bronx River in New York City have by several measures yielded impressive results. Accomplishments include a decades-long clean-up of industrial and household waste and debris in the river’s channel and along its banks; improved water quality throughout the watershed; enhanced green spaces accessible to the North and South Bronx’s diverse neighborhoods; effective ecological management through plantings and invasive species removals; participatory planning and educational activities; and governance mechanisms involving the participation of over 80 community partners, businesses, and government agencies [47]. The Bronx River Alliance (BRA) has been the primary coordinating organization for stewardship of the Bronx River since the early 2000s, and the different principles of EJ–including distributive, procedural, and recognitional modes–are informing restoration design and implementation in a number of concrete ways [48] and were undertaken at a time when the tenets of EJ were less well-defined. These principles were forged and incorporated into river restoration through decades of tireless work undertaken by numerous community organizations and advocates of EJ, abetted through key government sponsorship and funding that, although not without challenges, explicitly recognizes the Bronx River as a vital community benefit. Restoration activities in the Bronx originated in the 1970s, initiated by community advocate Ruth Anderberg and NYPD Inspector Anthony Bouza, whose early advocacy for the river led to the creation in 1974 of the volunteer organization Bronx River Restoration. As Anderberg noted in 1979, “You couldn’t see the river for all the garbage that was in there – you could practically walk across it” [49]. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the BRR secured grants and political support from state and city agencies to continue the physical cleanup and focus on modest improvements in water quality, with an additional goal of seeing native fish species return to the river. Foreshadowing more explicit EJ movements in the 1990s, New York city officials in the 1980s recognized that the “river runs through communities with wide economic disparities, from affluent Westchester villages to South Bronx neighborhoods that are among the poorest in the country” [50]. There was thus at least some official acknowledgement that the river’s extremely poor condition in the South Bronx represented an environmental injustice. By the late 1990s, efforts to improve water quality and remove visible garbage from the river had proven reasonably successful, and the NYC parks commission launched a multi-year, $10 million effort to enhance and improve the river’s system of parks and greenways in the southern part of the watershed. This was significant because the South Bronx has historically been the site of multiple environmental injustices for the largely Black and Hispanic populations living near the river; it was “lined by industrial sites, highway overpasses and other emblems of the urban landscape” [51]. Under the coordination of BRR, several community organizations, government agencies, schools and local businesses formed the Bronx River Working Group in 1997 with community education and awareness raising centered on the need for river restoration at the center of their mission. In 2001, the Bronx River Working Group incorporated the Bronx River Alliance as a 501(c) [3] non-profit and the BRA has since been the driving actor in ongoing river monitoring, restoration and community programming. Their central goal is to transform the river into a “healthy ecological, recreational, educational, and economic resource for all communities through which the river flows” [47]. The goal of equitably distributing the multifaceted benefits of river restoration has thus been a crucial element of the BRA’s overall mission from its onset. One way the BRA builds procedural justice elements into their governance structures is through inclusion of community members and representatives of neighborhood associations within decision making bodies. For examples, local partners from riverine communities are embedded within all three teams of the Alliance– Greenway, Food Waste, and Ecology–which are co-chaired by community members. According to the BRA Community Outreach Coordinator, the aim of this level of participation is “to really serve as…steering committees for the work that the Bronx River Alliance” undertakes [SSI, 08/29/2023]. Serving as co-chairs “allows [community members] to really…help guide our priorities, and help guide the programming that we run” [SSI, Community Outreach Coordinator, 08/29/2023]. Encouraging this kind of community input has altered, for example, some of the Ecology Team’s priorities by promoting more nature walks, a direct response to community input. An online meeting on 4 June 2024 explicitly sought input from at-large community members throughout the Bronx concerning the Intermunicipal Watershed Management Plan (IWMP), an update to the 2010 IWMP; as one of the BRA conveners put it, “you know your areas and neighborhoods best” and can serve as the eyes and ears of the BRA for identifying issues and opportunities about restoration [PM, 06/04/2024]. One of the more singular aspects of the Bronx River Alliance’s work is the emergence of the Greenway Program, which has been a fulcrum for EJ-inspired collective action for over three decades. In the early 2000s, the Bronx River Working Group envisioned a 23-mile riverine corridor from the East River to the upper watershed’s Kensico Dam as a key component of the river’s overall restoration [15,52]. The guiding vision was focused on “community involvement in cleaning up and revealing a previously hidden river,” a plan that hinged crucially on “bottom up, grassroots political advocacy” in addition to securing sufficient funding ([53], 75–76). The parks eventually created under the umbrella of the greenway—including Concrete Plant Park, Starlight Park, and Hunts Point Riverside Park—were originally conceived in the early 2000s and were a direct response to the activities of community-based EJ organizations such as Banana Kelly, The Point CDC and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) [54],who successfully opposed the installation of a city-sponsored sewage treatment plant and a waste transfer station in predominantly Black neighborhoods of the South Bronx in the 1980s and 1990s [52]. These groups vociferously represented the interests of people of color and low-income neighborhoods in the planning and implementation of restoration activities. The popularity of the parks and the longstanding commitment of the BRA to procedural, distributive, and recognitional forms of EJ are directly linked to the sustained activities of these community-based organizations who prioritized EJ goals as central to just river restoration. The EJ campaigns in the early 1990s—that eventually led to expansion of green spaces—often assumed a confrontational stance toward government agencies, yet the architects of Bronx River restoration have also recognized the need for government involvement. As a result, government funding has been crucial to undertake restoration in a way that meets the varying needs of a large and heterogeneous group of communities and participants. River restoration in the South Bronx, a journalist points out, “illustrates how government, although it can be obstructionist and infuriating, is also indispensable to urban improvement” [55]. Former parks commissioner Adrian Benepe estimated that of the $700 million spent on Bronx parks during the administration of NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (2002–2013), $100 million had “gone to the river and riverside parks;” additional money came into the effort from upper watershed towns such as Yonkers, White Plains, Scarsdale, and Greenburgh following legal settlements over pollution [55]. Most recently, the BRA (in conjunction with NYC Parks) received $10 million-award from the Department of Transportation for an expansion of the Greenway that will link Concrete Plant and Starlight Parks in the South Bronx, underscoring the vital importance of state funding [56]. The BRA’s educational activities and awareness-raising campaigns, particularly those focused on youth, are key expressions of distributive justice, ensuring that the benefits of a cleaner and rehabilitated riverine environment are shared equitably throughout the Bronx, and in particular in the historically disadvantaged communities of the South Bronx.Table 1gives a sense of the diversity and function of events scheduled to connect people to the river over a one-month period in 2024 and is representative of other events throughout a given year. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.t001 These kinds of activities serve multiple purposes, but perhaps none more so than raising awareness that the Bronx River is a community hub that can offer educational, recreational, environmental, and other kinds of benefits to anyone who wants to become involved. The work of the BRA then is simultaneously focused on equitably distributing the multiple benefits of river restoration throughout the watershed—but especially in the South Bronx region—and on prioritizing inclusionary activities. With regard to recognitional justice, the BRA and its partners in the city government realized that decades of marginalization of Black and Hispanic communities in the South Bronx required that any restoration activities acknowledge the past environmental injustices experienced by certain neighborhoods and their residents. Following decades of urbanization and industrialization, the river had become from the late 19thto the mid-20thcentury “a sink for dumping sewage, trash, and industrial waste” ([48], 4). By the 1950s and 1960s, loss of manufacturing jobs in the South Bronx combined with white flight to the suburbs of the northern portions of the watershed, as well as government inaction, created conditions where the largely non-white residents of the lower watershed were disproportionately exposed to all kinds of environmental ills. The Bronx River watershed thus has been and remains characterized by deep socio-economic and racial disparities [48]. The BRA clearly recognizes these disparities in their approach, and orients its activities and programming towards neighborhoods in the South Bronx where environmental injustices have historically been the most acute. Moreover, as mentioned above, struggles over EJ in the Bronx during the 1980s and 1990s were a formative element of the eventual institutionalization of the BRA and its activities. In summary, the BRA undertakes a wide range of activities, all of which to some extent are oriented towards expanding EJ goals. Procedurally, the BRA’s activities typically involve input from the communities most directly affected by past environmental insults as well as, importantly, those residents who stand to gain from increased environmental amenities and education campaigns. Over a decade ago, a NYT journalist aptly captured the ethos of the Bronx River restoration activities: …compared with headline-making projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the unexpected renaissance under way along the south end of the Bronx River flies largely below the radar. Park by park a patchwork of green spaces has been taking shape, the consequence of decades of grinding, grass-roots, community-driven efforts. For the environmentalists, educators, architects and landscape designers involved, the idea has not just been to revitalize a befouled waterway and create new public spaces. It has been to invest Bronx residents, for generations alienated from the water, in the beauty and upkeep of their local river [55]. Despite the measurable successes and general recognition that restoration activities on the Bronx River have attained through this overarching philosophy, there remain important constraints on these initiatives. For instance, comprehensive biophysical restoration of the watershed is most likely unattainable due to the highly urbanized character of the formerly forested basin. In addition, the presence of the Kensico Dam in the upper portion of the watershed in Westchester County (Fig 1) places significant limitations on achieving historical flows in the river. The transferable lessons of the Bronx River’s restoration can be heralded but may be somewhat limited as well. For example, the river’s rehabilitation in a way that prioritizes justice concerns has benefitted from the South Bronx’s long history of active EJ movements, which brought vital attention to the structural nature of White supremacy and environmental racism in the 1980s and 1990s [48]. Many facets of EJ, as a result, have been more fully integrated into the political and governing systems of NYC since the 2000s [57]. Overall, the two decades since the BRA’s creation have been characterized as a period when distributive, procedural, and recognition forms of EJ have been to a certain extent normalized within the organization’s operations and, importantly, in its relations to both government agencies and its partner organizations. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1b243539f4514b6ba35e7d995890db1d). https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1b243539f4514b6ba35e7d995890db1d). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.g001 The history of the Grand River in Grand Rapids (MI)— referred to as the Grand River corridor as it runs through the city’s downtown—is interwoven with histories of industrialization, demographic changes, and racial inequalities. The first dam on the Grand corridor was built in 1866 and in the following decades large boulders and rocks along the river bed were removed and used in local construction projects, resulting in the disappearance of the city’s namesake rapids by the early 20thcentury. The loss of the rapids was quickly followed by the construction of four low-head run-of-river dams (Fig 2) to help regulate water levels with the aim of using the river as a conduit for moving logs downstream. The vision of returning the rapids to the Grand River was first broached in 2008 by two kayaking enthusiasts, who envisioned removing the dams along the river’s downtown corridor and constructing a whitewater park with a standing wave that, taken together, would spur economic opportunity through increased tourism. As we detail below, the initial plan has expanded to include broader aims: economic revitalization of the city’s downtown; a watershed-scale project that includes green corridors and parks throughout the city and associated county; and linked projects to ensure that urban river restoration addresses EJ concerns. The discourses of EJ put forward by a range of actors over the years have influenced the project in various ways, and what was initially a project concerned primarily with restoring hydrologic functioning and creating recreational opportunities transformed into something different: a project where questions surrounding the equitable distribution of benefits of URR and giving previously marginalized groups a voice in governance of the project became amplified. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.g002 As in the Bronx case, historical contingencies have shaped how URR is engaging with different dimensions of EJ within efforts to rehabilitate the Grand River. Grand Rapids (GR) initially attracted Black Americans from the South during the Great Migration of the 1920s and 1930s for occupations in the lucrative furniture manufacturing sector [58]. However, like many cities in the upper Midwest, GR has had a predominantly White population throughout most of its settler history with upwards of 80 percent of the population being White (non-Hispanic) as recently as 1980. Following the “rust-belt” deindustrialization of the late 20thcentury wherein its overall population declined by 10 percent, Grand Rapids has slowly regained its population, reaching a level of just under 200,000 in the 2020 census. These gains have also led to an increasingly diverse population where 20 percent as of the early 2020s identifies as African-American and 16 percent as Latino/Hispanic. Despite the increasingly diverse demographics, the legacies of redlining and other forms of housing market discrimination, in addition to other forms of structural racism, have resulted in highly uneven population distribution based on race (Fig 3), which have important implications for how the benefits and costs of river restoration might be distributed. The Black community, for example, has experienced social and environmental injustices for decades. As emphasized by a local businesswoman and community organizer, “I’m a third generation here [in Grand Rapids]. And this is where we were redlined to over here [pointing to a map], so this is where black people had to live. Right. With all the contaminants from the river, from the factories, from the highway, so we’ve been surrounded by pollutants, the river was one of them” [SSI, 07/14/2023]. The African-American community was historically relegated to low-diversity, more distal neighborhoods (Fig 3); and even as the neighborhoods have become less segregated over time (Fig 3), the African-American population remains significantly removed from the river which has complicated efforts to generate restoration efforts more inclusive of the African-American community. Important to notice the greater diversity in the Black neighborhoods from 1990-2020 but still remaining more distal to the Grand River (Base layer from Mixed Metro (mixedmetro.us), Town Boundaries and Lakes from Michigan Open Data, Roads from US Census Bureau, Great Lakes Boundary from USGS). Important to notice the greater diversity in the Black neighborhoods from 1990-2020 but still remaining more distal to the Grand River (Base layer from Mixed Metro (mixedmetro.us), Town Boundaries and Lakes from Michigan Open Data, Roads from US Census Bureau, Great Lakes Boundary from USGS). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.g003 For the past several years, restoration efforts have been overseen by a local non-profit organization, Grand Rapids Whitewater (GRWW), which has coordinated its programming and planning with key local and regional government institutions, including offices within the City of Grand Rapids, the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC), the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Downtown Grand Rapids Incorporated (DGRI), the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority (GRDDA), and many others. Concerns over distributive and procedural justice were presumed to be present at the beginning of the project; as one of the co-founders of GRWW puts it, the project’s sponsors set out in the early years to “take into account as many people’s thoughts, science obviously leading the way, and see what we can accomplish that would be a win for as many people as possible” [SSI, 07/13/2023]. These early efforts became more institutionalized as the co-founders recognized their desire to improve kayaking conditions could lead to broader scale changes; “we realized that there was so much more going on in this river….For two years, we were kayakers, but then we became [...] river restoration advocates” [SSI, 07/13/2023]. After its creation in 2008, GRWW received a $25,000 grant from the GRDDA, and raised enough funds from local businesses and grassroots fundraising efforts to hire a consulting firm that confirmed most of the original riverbed was intact upstream of the Sixth Street Dam, and that contaminated sediments would not be a problem if dams were removed [59]. After an initial fundraising and networking period, in 2013 the Urban Waterways Federal Partnership program accepted the GRWW’s application to be part of the program, which gave the project “the official nod of legitimacy towards what we were trying to accomplish” [SSI, 07/13/2023]. This was also the period when City officials, GRWW, and their supporters began to more actively contemplate how EJ goals of distributive, procedural and recognitional justice might be better integrated into the design, implementation, and outcomes of the project. This was in part prompted by involvement with the EPA Urban Waterways program, which perceived efforts to rehabilitate urban rivers as a means to redress the unequal distribution of environmental harms—for example, polluted water and highly altered channel morphology—from the decades of neglect of urban rivers. The City government has been centrally involved in efforts to make river restoration more equitable and inclusive through other mechanisms. Since its creation in 2013, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. (DGRI)—an organization that includes a range of government, private, and community leaders—has led efforts to “reestablish the Grand River as the draw to the city and region” [60] through a range of activities including developing plans for a recreational trail along the river, providing feedback on restoration activities, and improvements to An-Nab-Awen/Indian Mounds Park, a site of significant cultural importance to the Indigenous American Tribes in the region. A centerpiece of the city’s efforts is a community engagement project, known asGrand River Voices, which solicits input from residents to weigh in through virtual and in person events. It has also created a 15-person advisory board to help guide development of the equity framework. “Our community has a really ambitious plan to build a beautiful river corridor running through our community,” said the chief outcomes officer at DGRI. “It’s clear that all of the project partners in this work believe that building that beautiful river should benefit as many people as possible;” ultimately, “(w)e want to build a river for all, and the idea of this equity framework is really doing the deeper work to define what we mean by equity” (quoted in [59]). The River for All slogan was officially adopted by the city in 2017, and prompted efforts to enhance distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice through the Micro-Local Business Enterprise (MLBE) program initiated in July 2020. According to the city’s former Equity Analyst: By creating a program that is intentionally designed to decrease systemic barriers for businesses owned by women and people of color, we are allowing more voices to be brought to the table when it comes to growing and improving our city. Our vision for aRiver for Allstarts with these restoration projects and extends into the future recreation programming, educational resources, and ecological and cultural preservation in and along the Grand River…That means how can we imbed equity systemically? [61] The MLBE program currently includes 77 total companies across 34 industries including construction, landscaping and tourism. The newly registered businesses account for a 57 percent increase since July 2020 with many of the businesses being minority- and woman-owned [62]. By prioritizing businesses owned by women and people of color, the program seeks to distribute the substantial funds going towards river restoration more equitably. In addition, bringing atypical voices to urban planning and the acknowledgement of systemic barriers (i.e., racism and sexism) to economic participation, the program points to the need to advance both procedural and recognitional justice. Around the time of the launching of the MLBE program, the non-profit agency Grand River Network—which emerged from DGRI and the City government as part of Grand River Voices—began crafting the Grand River Equity Framework. The document’s attention to distributive and recognitional justice is overt: the “revitalization initiative represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure future river-related programming, policies, and infrastructure benefit all Grand Rapidians, with a focus on those that have been disproportionately impacted by racial, environmental, economic, and other forms of injustice” [63]. The Equity Framework came as a direct response from community advocates who did not perceive that river restoration was being designed as equitably or inclusively as claimed in numerous project documents. Reflecting on the time when she first heard about restoration efforts in the early 2020s, a community organizer/entrepreneur recalled, “We’ve been amplifying our voice for a long time. It’s just that we haven’t been being heard.” This perspective was acknowledged by a representative of the Grand Rapids Office of Equity and Engagement: “We know that our communities of color are being left behind when it comes to development projects, engagement contracts, the outdoor industry as a whole. So, we have opportunity here to lead with equity” (quoted in [64]). As noted previously, the MLBE program launched by the city endeavors to directly address years of economic marginalization in Grand Rapids by prioritizing minority- and women-owned businesses for the construction work involved in improving the waterfront, and indeed for returning rapids to the river through the augmentation of gravel, rocks, and boulders. Yet this raises a dilemma in terms of how recognitional justice might be aligned with distributive and procedural justice. As explained by members of the Black community, historic patterns of racism in the city have meant that very few if any Black-owned businesses have the equipment, staff, and resources required to bid on and secure contracts for much of the large-scale construction work envisioned as part of the revitalization efforts. Thus, while efforts to distribute some of the economic benefits of river restoration more equitably are welcome, there is frustration that the historical processes of marginalization that prevent some social groups from taking advantage of economic opportunities have not been more explicitly recognized as barriers. Indeed, as relayed by a Kent County Commissioner (also an urban sociologist), “there’s been a kind of growing cynicism of certainly the Black community historically, but also Latinos that this [urban] development is uneven…that the people that are benefitting are the downtown interest groups, they’re using public funds to support these interest groups, but we don’t benefit [and] that is true historically” [SSI, 07/17/2023]. Thus, recent steps in the direction of recognitional justice are welcome, but many in the Black and Latino communities are taking a “wait and see” position. Perhaps the central way that Grand River restoration is working to integrate distributive, procedural, and recognitional forms of EJ is the vision—shared by nearly every participant we talked with—i to reconnect the river with the everyday lives of city residents. The aforementioned County Commissioner shared that the Grand has historically been “viewed as a dividing line for ethnicity and class and religion,” an informal barrier that in the early decades of industrialization separated the “Catholic/Irish/Lithuanian/Polish workers” on the Westside from the Heritage Hill neighborhood of industrialist mansions on the Eastside.” More recently, on “one side of the river, you got basically an African American community. On the other side of the river, you have essentially a Latino community;” many believe that within an inclusive and ambitious river restoration effort “there are opportunities to connect the two” [SSI, 07/17/2023]. This refrain is seconded by Mayor Rosalynn Bliss: “My hope is that as we restore the rapids, we’re also restoring this connectivity and that it will no longer be a divider” (as quoted in [65]). In this vision, the Grand River may become a central gathering place for its diverse community. To help deal with the spatial inequities such as the majority African-American community residing at some distance from the river (Fig 3) where restoration activities are concentrated, community leaders have been gathering funds to develop bike and hiking trails and expanded greenway spaces that will enhance access to the river front amenities for the more distal Black neighborhoods [66,67]. Furthermore, another UWFP stated goal—to expand economic opportunities—is accomplished via the creation of 1,500 one-time jobs, additional permanent annual jobs, and projected increased revenues of $15–19 million/year from new recreational activity. Accordingly, these economic opportunities are expected to help disenfranchised communities by propping up women- and minority-owned businesses as detailed under the MLBE. The initiative to restore the Grand River’s biophysical functioning in a way that forefronts equity and inclusion remains a work in progress. Despite the significant setback of EGLE and the EPA denying the City the permits necessary to restore a semblance of the rapids in 2023, all actors engaged in the project are optimistic that the river will be restored in some fashion. And indeed, at the time of writing Grand Rapids Whitewater, whose project manager declared, “(i)t’s not dead,” and the City government is moving forward with a new permit application [68]. Although the whitewater wave structures are no longer part of the design, the revised project entails the removal of four low head dams along the river’s downtown corridor and placing thousands of pounds of boulders and rocks to generate natural riffles and rapids, create enhanced habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms, as well as three boulder vane structures to facilitate shore access. Deputy City Manager Kate Berens states that the redesigned project has “responded to the concerns raised” by EGLE and the EPA in 2023 and has been “working very closely with” the agencies throughout the redesign process (as quoted in 61). A later phase includes removal of the larger Sixth Street Dam and an instream structure to prevent the further upstream migration of the invasive sea lamprey. Actual construction work is targeted for 2025 and the total cost of the redesigned initiative is between $15–20 million. The city submitted a permit application for the revised project in May 2024, and was recently awarded a $7 million state grant to facilitate restoration [69]. Restoring the LA River: “You cannot get to a resilient and equitable Los Angeles, without a comprehensive plan for restoring the Los Angeles River. “ [LA Waterkeeper, quoted in [70]] In the early 2000s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was prepared to declare all but three miles of the LA River non-navigable and therefore not subject to the Clean Water Act. After kayakers surreptitiously journeyed the length of the river in 2008, the EPA ruled that the entire river was indeed navigable and subject to federal water quality standards [71]. Today, many LA residents express optimism about recent restoration plans. As UCLA environmental historian Jon Christensen notes: “[T]hey want it to be everything...it represents all sorts of goals for the city... a sign that the river is a place where dreams and hopes about the city are coming together” (cited in ([72])). The LA River Master Plan [43] lays out an ambitious vision for restoring the river and benefitting the communities through which it flows, envisioning the river as a “complex ‘system of systems’ in which people, places, and the environment are encouraged to coexist, intermingle, and thrive” [6,43]. The Plan centers equity, calling for partnerships with Indigenous communities, landbanks to protect land for affordable housing, and more parks for underserved communities, among other initiatives. Implementation of the vision remains embryonic, in part because of the scale of the endeavor (the watershed is home to roughly 9 million people), the multiple stakeholders involved, the degree to which the river has been physically altered, and competing ideas about what should be prioritized. In addition, salient critiques of the official plan have emerged from community-based organizations and environmental advocacy groups. For example, two conservation groups sued LA County in 2022 over the Master Plan, claiming that the county “failed to disclose impacts to disadvantaged communities along the river... which is a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act” (as quoted in ([73])). It is not yet clear how environmental justice goals will shape river restoration interventions, something acknowledged in the Master Plan which makes clear there is “no singular 51-mile design strategy”, and that needs and opportunities will be different at various reaches of the river ([43], 19). Nearly a million people live within a mile of the river along those reaches as it flows from Canoga Park to Long Beach, passing through 17 municipalities and scores of communities [17,43]. All but a few miles of the landscape through which the river flows are highly developed, with major impacts on the river’s ecology. The river is now mostly a concrete channel, the creation of which was a response to the river’s historically flashy and unpredictable flood regime. In the early 20thcentury, floods increasingly threatened the city’s population and infrastructure, both of which had expanded in the historical floodplain. With the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913--after which the city no longer needed to rely on the river for drinking water--management priorities turned to controlling the floods. In 1938, an exceptionally large flood led to widespread damage, setting in motion plans by the USACE to control the water through channelization and concretization of the river [74]. While this successfully protected the downtown area from floods, it also transformed the river into “little more than a local joke” – a trash-strewn and weed-infested channel that barely registered as a river for most residents (([75]),1). Channelization not only erased the waterway from the city’s mental map, it also amplified injustices along the river, worsening racial and income disparities in communities that had suffered historically from redlining and disinvestment [72]. Residents in these areas suffered from exposure to toxic waste left by industrial activities, while simultaneously lacking green parks, open spaces, and other environmental amenities. These disparities are most notable along the southern half of the river, where river-adjacent communities have the highest exposure to environmental and health hazards ([43], 118). LA River restoration has created opportunities for communities and advocacy organizations to become involved in urban renewal in new ways, and it has created space to express desires and needs around access to nature and recreational opportunities [76]. The Master Plan describes efforts at procedural justice, noting: “At every step of the process to update the LA River Master Plan, LA County provided opportunities to inform and engage the public. This two-way communication strategy employed a variety of media and activities across the county to ensure that resident concerns and aspirations across geographic, language, and accessibility spectra were recognized and reflected in the plan” ([43], 125). Even with a more inclusive process, there are significant disagreements about what restoration should prioritize and how to achieve EJ goals. Some groups, such as Friends of the LA River (FoLAR), focus on the ecological health of the river and how that affects vulnerable communities. FoLAR envisions “a verdant Los Angeles River that supports vulnerable communities in climate adaptation. The river will be transformed into a dynamic, functioning ecosystem that reduces flood risk, cleans the air, cools temperatures, and supports the biodiversity essential to our collective wellbeing” [77]. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) similarly supports benefitting communities by bringing “ecological processes back to the urban watershed.” The Bowtie Wetland Demonstration, which will “transform a former railyard along the LA River into an open space filled with native plants and walking paths” is an example how environmental advocates seek to integrate ecological and social concerns [78]. These organizations’ lawsuit against LA County reflects dissatisfaction with the process and projects outlined in the Master Plan, particularly with regard to ecological impacts [73]. Other organizations, such as East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ), focus more centrally on justice for communities, advocating for inclusion in decision-making and equitable distribution of benefits, while raising concerns about potential displacements related to river restoration projects. For example, when the Lower LA River Master Plan was finalized in 2017, it included a “Community Stability Toolkit,” which was included because of EYCEJ’s advocacy for a Plan that would maintain the cultural cohesion of communities of color while enhancing economic opportunities [79]. A film produced by EYCEJ specifically engages recognitional justice, calling for “reclaiming the dignity and respect of the river for the South LA river communities” [79]. EYCEJ and other grassroots organizations also oppose some of the more spectacular aspects of the Master Plan, such as the series of platform parks in Southeast LA that would span the LA and Rio Hondo rivers proposed by the late architect Frank Gehry ([80]). Gehry’s project seeks to address the need for green space along a stretch of the river highly burdened by environmental and health hazards by building huge platforms (up to a mile long) that would support trees, grasses, ponds, and trails, creating recreational opportunities for communities and achieving some distributive justice ([81]). He makes the case that there is no way to rehabilitate the river at this site, because the concrete and channelized waterway protects against high flows during flood events. This is also the position of the Master Plan, which argues concrete removal would lead to increased flooding and displacement [43]. Importantly, flood-prone areas in the lower reaches of the river are disproportionately lower income, minoritized communities. A recent study showed that Black residents of LA county are 79 percent more likely than white residents to be living at risk of deep flooding of at least three feet. For Latinos, the figure was 17 percent, and for Asians, 11 percent [82]. Gehry’s vision of how to re-connect communities with the river, given the physical constraints posed by the concrete channel, captures the significant challenges and contestations associated with meeting EJ goals in LA River restoration. While it is unclear whether the platform parks will ever come to fruition, the responses to the proposed project also provide insight into contestation over EJ in river restoration. Many communities and local organizations are concerned that Gehry’s cultural center and platform parks would attract and disproportionately benefit wealthier residents, displacing the lower income residents they were intended to serve and thus undermining distributive justice goals. In LA, high rents and a limited housing stock combined with limited existing green spaces make gentrification in this area a very real concern ([43], 113). Environmental groups oppose the plan because they do not want more concrete, even if it is suspended over the channel. Instead, environmental organizations such FoLAR want to see more focus on “meaningful ecological restoration” [77], which requires channel restoration, including “strategic partial concrete removal” [72] and nature-based flood solutions for much of the river corridor. FoLAR argues that such interventions will have ecological and health benefits, making vulnerable communities more climate resilient, thereby leading to more distributive justice. A project that stands in contrast to Gehry’s platform parks from an EJ perspective is Taylor Yard, a100-acre, riverfront public access and ecological restoration project, which has an equity strategy at its core [83]. Located at the site of former rail yard (Fig 4), the project is a centerpiece of LA River restoration efforts, with estimates of final costs for transforming the yard reaching as high as $1 billion. A final design was recently selected for the first part of the project, the Paseo del Rio greenway. The 12-acre park will include nature trails, wetlands, viewpoints, and riparian habitat. While this project does not involve the river channel directly, other phases of the Taylor Yard Project, namely the G2 River Park Project, propose more engagement with the river itself. One of the conceptual plans for that project includes a new island in the stream (an opportunity for a more natural split flow, as well as riparian and upland vegetation), with another proposing some channel modification (terraces and a soft edge) [83]. Equity encompasses multiple dimensions of environmental justice in this project, since access to the riverfront addresses historical marginalization and is intended to promote more equitable distribution of the benefits of a restored river. From a procedural justice perspective, the planning process has included area residents, community and environmental groups, business owners, educators, landowners, agency and elected officials, and other local stakeholders. Note the proximity of the BIPOC community directly adjacent to the river (Base layer from Mixed Metro (mixedmetro.us), Watershed boundary from StreamStats, Project Locations from LA River Master Plan, Roads from US Census Bureau, Waterbodies from Natural Earth, County Boundaries from LA Open Data). Note the proximity of the BIPOC community directly adjacent to the river (Base layer from Mixed Metro (mixedmetro.us), Watershed boundary from StreamStats, Project Locations from LA River Master Plan, Roads from US Census Bureau, Waterbodies from Natural Earth, County Boundaries from LA Open Data). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.g004 Both Taylor Yard and Gehry’s platform parks are included in the LA Master Plan. The differing responses to these projects offer interesting insights into the complex role of EJ in urban river restoration. First, Taylor Yard’s planning process has been genuinely inclusive, responding to community-generated ideas and attentive to local needs in the design process. The 100 Acre Partnership, for example, is committed to an “ecologically focused and community driven process” to restore the 100-acre area that comprises Taylor Yard [84]. It is doing this, in part, through the creation of the Community Taylor Yard Equity Strategy, which is working to ensure that equity is “at the core of redevelopment, addressing critical issues like displacement, environmental justice, and economic security” green [85]. In contrast, Gehry’s project risks amplifying unequal power relations in the decision-making process, since the design was conceived and presented without community input. Additionally, while both projects seek to distribute river restoration benefits more equitably, Gehry’s project is also heightening fears of gentrification and displacement, reflecting a failure to acknowledge the misrecognition of historical legacies of environmental injustice in those communities. Taylor Yard does not inspire that same concern, perhaps because recognitional justice is informing what is happening on the ground. The types of green spaces and recreational opportunities are ones desired by the community and not necessarily intended to attract outsiders. But, even with projects that seem to achieve some level of procedural, distributive, or recognitional justice, it is not clear to what extent such interventions can address the structural determinants of ill health and socio-economic marginalization that characterize many of the river’s abutting neighborhoods, raising questions about the limits of river restoration projects to effect transformative change. Finally, the profound physical alteration of the LA River, and the extent to which the city has come to rely on a concrete channel to funnel water to the sea, creates significant limits to the restoration process. Attempts to achieve more robust ecological justice for the river (e.g., removing concrete, reclaiming floodplains) would likely require relocating infrastructure and neighborhoods. While this is true for most urban river restoration projects, a concretized channel amplifies the tension between ecological justice for the river and social justice for people. Reflecting on our primary research questions, ongoing efforts at urban river restoration (URR) as practiced on the Grand, Bronx, and Los Angeles Rivers have engaged questions and principles of EJ, but in ways that are highly varied and have arguably not fulfilled their potential for promoting the broad aims of distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice. Across all study sites, the discourses and aspirations of EJ have shaped URR efforts most tangibly by foregrounding concerns over equity across all aspects of restoration governance. In addition, this overt focus on EJ has gone beyond mere rhetoric and has however haltingly invited greater levels of participation from historically underrepresented communities in river restoration planning and activities. In the Bronx River case, EJ advocacy organizations and Black and Latino neighborhood groups played key roles in shaping the implementation of restoration projects. Advocates for Grand Rapids’ Black communities have forcefully inserted their perspectives and aims into forums for restoring the Grand River. And grassroots organizations in LA River have brought to light some of the problematic features of the basin’s Master Plan in terms of exacerbating environmental injustices in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Despite these tangible examples of EJ shaping URR, one of the central results of our research underscores the fact that integrating EJ into URR activities is highly contingent on multiple factors present to varying degrees in the three sites. These include: pre-existing community concerns over EJ that became folded into restoration planning and implementation (Bronx, LA); adequate restoration funding mechanisms at federal, state, and city levels (Bronx, Grand); participation in restoration planning and decision making that is actively sought and meaningful (Bronx, Grand); and institutional capacity and coordination between project managers, community advocacy organizations, and state/federal agencies (all sites). This last factor is particularly salient. Collaborations between state actors and non-state actors in the Bronx case have been effective, partially effective in the Grand River case, and somewhat limited in the LA case (albeit with pockets of success). These contingencies deeply shape both the opportunities for and barriers to the integration of distributive, procedural and recognitional modes of EJ into restoration initiatives. While this result may not be satisfying in terms of generalizable lessons for integrating EJ effectively within urban river restoration, it pointedly highlights that there is no “one size fits all” approach to this integration. We also set out to identify barriers to and opportunities for integrating the distributive, procedural, and recognitional dimensions of EJ into urban river restoration initiatives. The results here are a mixed bag. For example, an unresolved question relates to the question of whether, in highly urbanized environments where multiple economic and political pressures have marginalized lower income communities and communities of color, the expectation that river restoration will be a tool for achieving greater levels of recognitional, distributive and procedural justice might be unrealistic in the short term. A significant barrier across all study sites thus becomes undoing some of the structural sources of environmental injustice that have accrued over several decades. The Bronx River experience suggests, however, that opportunities exist for achieving distributive (e.g., greater access to river-oriented green spaces for historically underrepresented neighborhoods) and procedural (e.g., multiple pathways for previously marginalized groups to participate in planning and restoration activities) goals, but this achievement requires years of coalition-building, funding, and conscious efforts to build on other, non-river related EJ campaigns. And these broader-scale campaigns hinge crucially on state actors explicitly recognizing past injustices. The Bronx River case also suggests that cautiously and strategically leveraging state actors as allies in URR can enhance aims across the different dimensions of EJ. For the Grand River, the original restoration initiative, characterized as “science based” and focused on generating renewed flows for recreation and economic purposes, provided opportunities for advocacy groups emerging from, for example, Black communities in the city to forcefully demand that the River for All project become more inclusive in terms of project planning (procedural justice) and anticipated economic benefits from restoration (distributive). Yet the actual biophysical restoration of the Grand River has stalled temporarily despite strong alliances with city officials, due to barriers associated with the permitting process. In the case of the highly altered LA River, the trade-offs between the different dimensions of EJ, and between EJ goals and biophysical restoration of the river itself are likely to always be apparent. For example, restoration of the river and river-adjacent neighborhoods through additional green spaces and other environmental amenities may bring recreation and health benefits to communities (achieving distributive aims), but could also lead to negative impacts such as displacement and gentrification, a maldistribution of environmental benefits resulting from a lack of recognition of ways that environmental racism has been institutionalized over many decades within the LA region [38]. An additional barrier to bringing EJ more robustly into URR in the LA River flows out of the years of antagonism between community organizations advocating for EJ and city, state, and federal officials perceived as inattentive to their concerns. Another key finding relates to the importance of disentangling the different strands of EJ in order to identify the opportunities for more vigorously integrating EJ into URR and other types of restoration projects. Importantly, the distributive, procedural, and recognitional aspects of EJ cannot be uncritically lumped together as “social dimensions” of URR; nor can they be analyzed in isolation. Rather, they overlap and are intertwined. In the case of the Bronx River, efforts to ensure that historically marginalized communities enjoy the benefits of a restored river through access to improved riverside parks reflect both distributive justice and recognitional justice, particularly if the area is one that was previously red-lined and suffered from divestment. Additionally, many scholars see the lack of recognition of diverse cultural identities within a city or other social collective as a significant barrier to achieving distributional objectives of environmental initiatives such as river restoration, even if some level of procedural justice is present [18]. Simply having a “seat at the table” does not automatically secure meaningful participation in shaping a project’s design. These three aspects of EJ also vary depending on several factors: the historical contingencies of the projects and the cities in which they reside; the specific types of restoration activities proposed; the array of regulations, policies, and funding that guide restoration; and the power relations among the different actors engaged in restoration activities. As shown by the Grand River restoration project, there is no guarantee that proclaiming a project equitable in terms of design and implementation will necessarily resonate with urban communities long marginalized and excluded from political and economic decisions. Even in cases where URR initiatives consciously recognize historical patterns of exclusion based on race, gender, and/socio-economic status within a city, there is little likelihood that such recognition will effectively alter the institutional forces driving urban inequalities that have operated for decades. When examining our three study sites, we also see the different elements of EJ manifesting according to different timelines and different intensities in terms of their ultimate impacts. In the Bronx, where organizations committed to EJ for other purposes played key roles in the formation of the coalition that became the Bronx River Alliance, the distributive, procedural and recognitional aspects of EJ have been deeply integrated into restoration activities in ways that are transformative for many of the community’s residents. This is not to say that biophysical improvements to the river are complete. In the case of the Grand River, proponents of restoration have always considered the river’s revitalization efforts inclusive, yet it was only more recently that key officials in the city government and community organizers discerned that the project’s distributive and procedural justice aims could be enhanced by recognizing the city’s long history of politically and economically marginalizing communities of color. LA River restoration has been more top-down in its planning and design, with opposition ranging from environmentalists who want more in-channel interventions to restore ecological processes, to communities that feel excluded from decision-making. While official documents and the planning process both have an EJ focus, how this will affect individual projects is not yet clear. Our findings suggest that EJ is being incorporated into urban river restoration projects in the United States in innovative ways, most visibly through procedural and distributive justice initiatives. We also find some evidence of progress towards articulating and achieving recognitional justice, but these achievements are proving particularly challenging in cities with historical legacies of institutional racism, raising questions about the limits of environmental restoration projects to address structural inequities in the urban context. Future research should address some critical questions about the theoretical and practical interconnections between urban river restoration and the concept of environmental justice. One looming question is whether the rehabilitation of urban waterways in the ways described here accomplish biophysical aims (e.g., more natural flow and sediment regimes, upstream-downstream connectivity, enhanced aquatic biodiversity) while simultaneously enhancing EJ in cities? For example, calls for recognitional justice in some project sites—extensive parks, trails, and greenways under the rubric of URR—may actually be diluting efforts to achieve biophysical restoration and the distributive benefits this might confer. Moreover, successfully incorporating EJ into URR may require thinking at larger spatial scales and more holistically versus a singular focus on the urban corridor. Rather than simply seeing it as river restoration of a downtown urban watercourse, we should be emphasizingriverscaperestoration that includes more distal and diverse environments and neighborhoods. While our research reveals that there is no single model for incorporating the important and different elements of EJ into efforts at urban river restoration in the US or elsewhere, we argue that our cases offer important conceptual and pragmatic lessons regarding the need to identify and explain historical and local political contexts before meaningful progress can be made on socially just urban river restoration. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.s001 (DOCX) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000302.s002 (XLSX) This research was funded in part by a Seed Grant from the Dartmouth College Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. We would like to thank the numerous individuals who agreed to be interviewed for this research. Lily Pogue and Mia F. Compton-engle helped with data entry, and Aletha Spang provided crucial cartographic assistance.

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La delegada territorial Belén do Campo supervisó la limpieza de 50 hectáreas en Lousame, enmarcadas en un plan de prevención de incendios forestales de la Xunta La Xunta de Galicia ha puesto en marcha un despliegue preventivo contra los incendios forestales con una ambición técnica y económica hasta ahora inédita. La delegada territorial de la Xunta en A Coruña, Belén do Campo, se desplazó este lunes hasta el municipio de Lousame para supervisar los trabajos de limpieza y acondicionamiento de montes que se ejecutan en el marco del Pladiga 2026. Esta actuación, que afecta a una extensión de 50 hectáreas situadas en el límite con Rianxo, forma parte de un plan que este año prevé intervenir en más de 33.880 hectáreas en toda la comunidad. Acompañada por el alcalde lousamiano, Esteban Ares; el concejal de Obras e Medio Ambiente de Rianxo, José Alberto Angueira; y por la directora territorial de la Consellería de Medio Rural, Nieves Mancebo, Do Campo destacó que el objetivo prioritario es anticiparse al fuego antes de que llegue la época de alto riesgo. «A anticipación e a planificación son ferramentas fundamentais na loita contra os incendios, polo que resulta imprescindible actuar durante todo o ano na conservacin e mellora destas infraestruturas forestais», subrayó la delegada. Blindaje en diez municipios El proyecto visitado hoy no es un hecho aislado, sino que se integra en una estrategia que abarca a diez ayuntamientos del área de influencia de Barbanza y el Sar: Boiro, Lousame, Dodro, Noia, Rianxo, Rois, Outes, Porto do Son, Padrón y A Pobra. En estas localidades se están creando áreas cortafuegos y mejorando pistas forestales con un presupuesto que supera los 257.000 euros y un plazo de ejecución que se extiende hasta octubre. Las tareas actuales en Lousame se centran en la mejora de las áreas de defensa para «limitar a continuidade da biomasa vexetal e reducir así o risco de propagación dos incendios forestais». Uno de los pilares de la campaña de este año es la protección de las zonas habitadas a través del convenio con la empresa pública Seaga para la limpieza de las franjas secundarias (las más cercanas a las casas). La Xunta ha duplicado la inversión para este fin, alcanzando los 25 millones de euros. En la provincia de A Coruña, la respuesta municipal ha sido masiva: 90 de los 93 ayuntamientos ya se han adherido al sistema. Do Campo definió esta hoja de ruta como «unha planificación preventiva ampla e estruturada, que ten como finalidade reducir a carga de combustible vexetal, mellorar a accesibilidade ao monte e minimizar o risco de propagación do lume nas zonas máis sensibles». Prioridad en la comarca La nueva planificación eleva de 157 a 276 el número de parroquias priorizadas en toda Galicia debido a su actividad incendiaria. La comarca de Barbanza tiene un peso específico en esta lista, sumando 14 de las 27 parroquias seleccionadas en toda la provincia. El reparto sitúa a Porto do Son a la cabeza con 5 parroquias, seguido de Boiro (3), Rianxo (2) y una en A Pobra, Carnota, Lousame y Ribeira respectivamente. En estos puntos críticos, los propietarios pueden contratar desbroces preventivos bonificados con Seaga a un precio de 420 euros por hectárea. Además, la Xunta reforzará la formación vecinal para crear aldeas preparadas. «A prevención require tamén implicación social e coñecemento, por iso é fundamental seguir achegando información útil á cidadanía para que saiba como actuar antes, durante e despois dunha situación de risco», concluyó la delegada.

Il Comitato per la protezione dell’ambiente marino dell’Organizzazione marittima internazionale (IMO) ha concluso la sua 84a sessione impegnandosi a ricostruire il consenso sulle emissioni globali del trasporto marittimo, lanciando al contempo l’allarme sui rischi ambientali nello Stretto di Hormuz e adottando nuove misure per contrastare l’inquinamento atmosferico nell’Atlantico nord-orientale. A conclusione della riunione, svoltasi a Londra dal 27 aprile al 1° maggio 2026, il Segretario generale dell’IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, ha dichiarato: “Siamo tornati sulla strada giusta, ma dobbiamo ricostruire la fiducia. Vi incoraggio a mantenere questo slancio durante il vostro lavoro intersessionale e a preparare proposte che possano unire i membri.” Il Comitato riprenderà la sua seconda sessione straordinaria venerdì 4 dicembre 2026, previa conferma da parte dell’85ª sessione (MEPC 85) che si terrà dal 30 novembre al 3 dicembre. Quadro di riferimento IMO per le nette zero Questa settimana quasi 100 delegazioni sono intervenute per esprimere il proprio punto di vista sull’adozione di “misure a medio termine” per affrontare il problema delle emissioni di gas serra (GHG) provenienti dalle navi, note come Quadro Net-Zero dell’IMO , presentando diverse proposte su come portare avanti i negoziati. Il Comitato ha convenuto di istituire un gruppo di lavoro intersessionale per risolvere diverse problematiche e promuovere una maggiore convergenza su una misura globale in vista dell’85ª sessione del MEPC, che si terrà tra sei mesi. Gli Stati membri potranno presentare nuovi emendamenti e modifiche al progetto di emendamento precedentemente approvato. Prima della MEPC 85 (dal 30 novembre al 3 dicembre) saranno programmate due riunioni intersessionali (dall’1 al 4 settembre e dal 23 al 27 novembre), nonché un seminario di un giorno per esperti sui modelli di “catena di custodia”, che tracciano l’origine e il movimento dei combustibili lungo la catena di approvvigionamento, garantendo che le emissioni siano correttamente tracciate e verificate. La seconda sessione straordinaria del MEPC ( aggiornata lo scorso ottobre) dovrebbe riprendere il 4 dicembre, previa discussione in occasione dell’85ª sessione del MEPC. Stretto di Hormuz e ambiente marino Il Comitato ha adottato una risoluzione che condanna gli attacchi contro le navi mercantili nella regione dello Stretto di Hormuz e i relativi rischi di inquinamento marino. Il Comitato ha riconosciuto la vulnerabilità del Golfo Persico e delle acque adiacenti, avvertendo che tali attacchi potrebbero causare un inquinamento marino su vasta scala, come petrolio, sostanze pericolose e nocive e residui pericolosi derivanti da missili, droni, incendi ed esplosioni. Il Comitato ha chiesto al Segretario generale di monitorare gli impatti ambientali e di riferire in merito alla prossima sessione del Consiglio dell’IMO. Nuova area di controllo delle emissioni per l’Atlantico nord-orientale Il Comitato ha adottato una nuova Area di controllo delle emissioni (ECA) nell’Atlantico nord-orientale, introducendo limiti di emissione più severi per gli ossidi di azoto (NOx), gli ossidi di zolfo (SOx) e il particolato (PM). La data di entrata in vigore è fissata al 1° settembre 2027, mentre l’ECA diventerà effettiva 12 mesi dopo, nel 2028. La Zona Economica Esclusiva (CEA) comprende le zone economiche esclusive e le acque territoriali, estendendosi fino a 200 miglia nautiche dalle linee di base di Groenlandia, Islanda, Isole Faroe, Irlanda, Regno Unito continentale, Francia, Spagna e Portogallo. All’interno delle ECA , le navi devono utilizzare carburante con un contenuto di zolfo non superiore allo 0,10%. La riduzione delle emissioni di SOx e NOx diminuisce il rischio di cancro ai polmoni, malattie cardiovascolari, ictus e asma infantile. Migliora inoltre la visibilità in mare e riduce l’acidificazione, contribuendo a proteggere le colture e le foreste. Strategia e piano d’azione 2026 sui rifiuti di plastica in mare Il Comitato ha adottato la Strategia 2026 e il Piano d’azione per affrontare il problema dei rifiuti di plastica in mare provenienti dalle navi, riaffermando l’obiettivo dell’IMO di azzerare gli scarichi di rifiuti di plastica in mare dalle navi entro il 2030. La strategia e il piano d’azione mirano a migliorare le strutture di accoglienza portuale e il trattamento dei rifiuti, rafforzando la conformità normativa ed espandendo la sensibilizzazione del pubblico e la formazione dei marittimi, nonché la cooperazione internazionale, compresa l’assistenza tecnica mirata e lo sviluppo delle capacità. Aggiornano e sostituiscono la strategia del 2021 e il piano d’azione del 2025 per affrontare il problema dei rifiuti marini . Sviluppo di un codice per il trasporto di granuli di plastica Il Comitato ha convenuto di elaborare un codice obbligatorio che disciplini il trasporto marittimo di granuli di plastica in container, ai sensi dell’Allegato III della Convenzione MARPOL e/o della Convenzione SOLAS. Il Sottocomitato per la prevenzione e la risposta all’inquinamento (PPR 14) è stato incaricato di redigere il codice e di riferire al MEPC. Interventi sulla marcatura degli attrezzi da pesca Il Comitato ha approvato una circolare che promuove l’attuazione di sistemi di marcatura degli attrezzi da pesca, in linea con le Linee guida volontarie della FAO sulla marcatura degli attrezzi da pesca (VGMFG). Lotta contro gli organismi acquatici nocivi nelle acque di zavorra Il Comitato ha approvato un pacchetto di emendamenti alla Convenzione sulla gestione delle acque di zavorra ( BWM ), a seguito di una revisione del trattato e dei relativi strumenti nell’ambito di una fase di acquisizione di esperienza (EBP). La revisione è stata condotta per perfezionare l’attuazione, colmare le lacune normative e garantire che la Convenzione rimanga uno strumento efficace e pratico per la protezione degli ecosistemi marini. Gli emendamenti riguardano diverse disposizioni obbligatorie della Convenzione (regolamenti e appendici contenuti nell’Allegato alla Convenzione). Il Comitato ha adottato le Linee guida riviste per la gestione delle acque di zavorra e lo sviluppo dei piani di gestione delle acque di zavorra (G4). Riduzione del rumore irradiato sott’acqua dalle navi Il Comitato ha fatto progressi nei suoi lavori sul rumore irradiato sottomarino ( URN ), concordando in linea di principio di estendere la fase di acquisizione di esperienza (EBP) di due anni, fino alla fine del 2028. L’obiettivo dell’EBP è quello di affrontare gli ostacoli che gli Stati membri incontrano nell’applicazione delle Linee guida URN dell’IMO (Linee guida rivedute per la riduzione del rumore irradiato sottomarino dalle navi al fine di affrontare gli impatti negativi sulla vita marina – MEPC.1/Circ.906/Rev.1 ). Il Comitato ha concordato in linea di principio di commissionare all’IMO uno studio sulle emissioni di URN, come base di dati per possibili misure future. Gli Stati membri sono stati inoltre invitati a presentare proposte per una tabella di marcia politica sulle emissioni di URN alla MEPC 85. Nuove uscite Il Comitato ha concordato tre nuovi risultati su cui lavorare nei prossimi due anni: Modifiche al regolamento 12 dell’allegato VI della MARPOL per vietare la reintroduzione di sostanze che riducono lo strato di ozono sulle navi; e per vietare la reintroduzione di sostanze che riducono lo strato di ozono sulle navi; e Misure per affrontare la questione delle navi di superficie autonome marittime ( MASS ) negli strumenti di competenza del Comitato per la protezione dell’ambiente marino. È stato approvato in linea di principio un nuovo documento sul tema “Sostenere l’attuazione dell’accordo BBNJ nell’ambito del quadro normativo dell’IMO per la protezione dei mari, degli oceani e della biodiversità marina”, che sarà sottoposto a ulteriore esame da parte del MEPC 85. Altre decisioni chiave Il Comitato ha inoltre adottato provvedimenti in merito ai seguenti punti: Ha approvato i termini di riferimento per il quinto studio IMO sui gas serra e ha richiesto al Segretariato dell’IMO di avviare la procedura di appalto per lo studio; e ha richiesto al di avviare la procedura di appalto per lo studio; Sono state adottate le Linee guida del 2026 per le misurazioni al banco prova e a bordo delle emissioni di CH4 e/o N2O provenienti dai motori diesel marini; per le misurazioni al banco prova e a bordo delle emissioni di provenienti dai motori diesel marini; Approvate le bozze di emendamento al Codice Tecnico NOx del 2008 relative ai combustibili non contenenti carbonio, in vista di una successiva adozione. È stato concordato che si dovrebbe sviluppare uno strumento giuridico vincolante e autonomo per il controllo e la gestione del biofouling delle navi, al fine di minimizzare il trasferimento di specie acquatiche invasive. Un resoconto completo della riunione sarà disponibile a tempo debito.

La nuova unità della serie Imo II rafforza la strategia della Fratelli Cosulich nella transizione verso combustibili alternativi Pechino – A due mesi dal varo della prima unità della serie, una nuova nave del gruppo Fratelli Cosulich ha toccato l’acqua. Infatti è stata varata la Lucia Cosulich, segnando un ulteriore passo concreto nel percorso della Marine Energy unit verso l’adozione di combustibili marini alternativi e lo sviluppo di soluzioni di bunkering sempre più sostenibili. La cerimonia si è svolta presso il cantiere Taizhou Maple Leaf Shipyard, in Cina, riunendo il team di progetto, partner e stakeholder per celebrare il passaggio della nave dal cantiere al mare. A rendere l’occasione ancora più significativa è stata la presenza di Lucia Cosulich, madrina della nave. Nel suo intervento ha espresso gratitudine verso tutte le persone coinvolte, sottolineando il valore della collaborazione che ha reso possibile il progetto e il suo contributo al percorso dell’industria marittima verso il net zero. Con il tradizionale taglio del nastro, la Lucia Cosulich è stata ufficialmente varata, entrando così nelle fasi finali che precedono il completamento e la consegna. Seconda di quattro unità gemelle methanol-ready Imo II, la nave si inserisce in una strategia più ampia. Progettata fin dall’origine con predisposizione all’utilizzo del metanolo, punta alla transizione energetica: integrare l’impiego di carburanti alternativi con la flessibilità necessaria per operare in modo efficiente nel mercato contemporaneo. Tra le principali caratteristiche progettuali figurano il rivestimento delle cisterne cargo in epossifenolico e sistemi predisposti per la futura integrazione di nuovi combustibili. Soluzioni che permettono alla nave di adattarsi all’evoluzione delle normative e delle esigenze operative, mantenendo al contempo elevati standard di sicurezza e prestazioni. Ogni unità di questa serie contribuisce a rafforzare la capacità del gruppo di offrire soluzioni di bunkering affidabili e innovative. Con il varo della Lucia Cosulich, questa visione continua a prendere forma, consolidando il ruolo di Fratelli Cosulich nella transizione energetica del settore marittimo.

LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) - El presidente de Canarias, Fernando Clavijo, regresará estos martes, 5 de mayo, y miércoles, día 6, a Bruselas para reclamar a la Comisión Europea ayudas específicas ante la crisis energética en el archipiélago por el incremento de los costes de los combustibles como consecuencia de la guerra de Irán. Así lo ha anunciado el portavoz del Gobierno de Canarias, Alfonso Cabello, durante la rueda de prensa posterior al Consejo de Gobierno, donde agregó que el objetivo del viaje es explicar la "especial incidencia" que está teniendo esta crisis en un territorio ultraperiférico como son las islas. De esta manera, explicó que en la agenda de trabajo se incluyen reuniones este martes con el Comisario Europeo de Transporte y Turismo, Apostolos Tzitzikostas; y otra el miércoles con la vicepresidenta ejecutiva de la Comisión Europea, Teresa Ribera. "En ambas reuniones --continuó-- el presidente tratará con las primeras autoridades europeas en materia energética y de conectividad, las preocupaciones por la especial incidencia que está teniendo en el archipiélago el incremento de costes de los combustibles producido como consecuencia del conflicto bélico en Oriente Medio". Clavijo incidirá en que, como territorio ultraperiférico, Canarias cuenta con un sistema energético aislado y aún muy dependiente del petróleo, además de que el 90% de los suministros llegan por vía marítima y el transporte aéreo es vital para la conectividad. Para hacer frente a esta realidad y al amparo del artículo 349 del Tratado de la UE, debatirá con Tzitzikostas y Ribera la posibilidad de activar acciones concretas en beneficio de todas las RUP para proteger a sus ciudadanos del incremento de precios. Cabello incidió en que el objetivo es que Bruselas tenga presente a Canarias a la hora de adoptar medidas, porque "es evidente la crisis energética golpea con mayor intensidad a territorios alejados y dependientes del exterior como es el caso del archipiélago y de todas las regiones ultraperiféricas". De cara a lograrlo, este nuevo viaje del titular del Gobierno canario a Bruselas se produce en un momento clave en que la UE debate cómo afrontar los efectos del conflicto bélico en Oriente Medi. De hecho, justo el pasado miércoles y a propuesta de la vicepresidenta Ribera, la Comisión Europea puso sobre la mesa una batería de medidas urgentes ante la crisis energética producida por el cierre del estrecho de Ormuz. Este plan, denominado AccelerateEU, recoge una batería de acciones de emergencia destinadas a reducir la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles, proteger a hogares e industrias y acelerar la transición hacia energías limpias. La iniciativa europea propone rebajas fiscales en la electricidad, bonos energéticos y la posibilidad de prohibir temporalmente los cortes de suministro. Además, el presidente de Canarias aprovechará las reuniones con la vicepresidenta y el comisario europeo para reclamar que estas herramientas se adapten a su realidad insular y ultraperiférica, y que el plan AccelerateEU incorpore esa perspectiva en cumplimiento del artículo 349 del Tratado que garantiza un tratamiento específico para las RUP. Por otro lado Clavijo pondrá sobre la mesa de los representantes de la Comisión Europea otros dos asuntos prioritarios para el archipiélago que el Gobierno autonómico lleva meses trabajando, pero que "cobran ahora una mayor importancia debido a la crisis energética generada por la guerra de Irán", según destacó el portavoz. En primer lugar, el presidente aprovechará las reuniones con la vicepresidenta y el comisario europeo para obtener información de primera mano sobre el balance que está elaborando Bruselas sobre los resultados del Régimen de Comercio de Derechos de Emisión de la UE (EU ETS) en sus dos primeros años de vida. El equipo de Ursula Von der Leyen evaluará en los próximos meses las medidas que entraron en vigor el 1 de enero de 2024 para luchar contra el cambio climático obligando a las aerolíneas y compañías marítimas a pagar por sus emisiones de CO2. Desde la puesta en marcha de los ETS, Canarias, Baleares, Ceuta y Melilla quedaron exentas del pago por sus conexiones aéreas y marítimas con la península y entre las islas. Clavijo quiere obtener de Ribera y Tzitzikostas, responsables de este expediente, garantías de que esta excepción se mantendrá más allá de 2030. Cabello recordó que se trata de una medida "vital" para la conectividad del archipiélago y subrayó que las islas dependen totalmente del transporte aéreo y marítimo. El representante del Gobierno subrayó asimismo que la exención del ETS cobra más relevancia cuando la falta de combustible por la guerra amenaza la operatividad de las compañías y podría provocar un aumento de precios en los billetes. Finalmente, otro asunto fundamental que el presidente analizará con la vicepresidenta ejecutiva de la Comisión Europea es la necesidad de que se amplíe el plazo para ejecutar los Fondos Next Generation para que Canarias pueda cumplir su Plan de Energías Sostenibles. Esta petición fue elevada por el Ejecutivo canario al Gobierno de España hace meses y, el pasado 24 de abril, la hizo suya Pedro Sánchez al defenderla junto a Italia durante el Consejo Europeo informal celebrado en Chipre. El Ejecutivo autonómico considera que existen argumentos muy sólidos para prorrogar más allá del próximo mes de junio -el 30 de agosto para los Estados miembros- la justificación de las ayudas europeas destinadas a energías limpias, sobre todo cuando el conflicto bélico de Oriente Medio aconseja reducir la dependencia de la UE de los combustibles fósiles. Así lo defenderá el presidente Clavijo ante Ribera tras exponer que, de aplicarse el plazo actual y negarse la prórroga, está en riesgo la ejecución de proyectos millonarios vitales para avanzar en la descarbonización del archipiélago. Para evitarlo, el Gobierno de Canarias trabaja también con el Estado en vías alternativas que permitan el desarrollo de los proyectos, aunque requieren asimismo la aceptación por parte Bruselas. Rufián pide a Sánchez reaccionar al caso Zapatero: "Si es verdad es una mierda, si es mentira es una mierda mayor" Puy du Fou España despide a tres empleados y reforzará sus protocolos tras investigación interna sobre bienestar animal Rufián asegura que está "dispuesto" a presentarse a las generales liderando un nuevo espacio de izquierdas Los Mossos detienen a Jonathan Andic por la muerte de su padre, el fundador de Mango Isak Andic Rosa López, destrozada tras su ruptura con Iñaki García tras más de seis años de relación

Aker Solutions, Knutsen NYK Carbon Carriers (KNCC), a joint venture of Knutsen Group and NYKLine, and Vår Energi CCS AS, the project’s operator, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance the Trudvang CO2 transportation and storage project in the Norwegian North Sea. The partnership will combine KNCC’s specialized CO2 carriers equipped with dynamic positioning systems, with Aker Solutions’ techno-economic expertise, technical solutions and CCS EPC capabilities to support the design of an unmanned CO2 injection platform that enables direct offshore batch injection. According to Aker Solutions, the concept is designed for scalability and replicability, enabling initial injection volumes of approximately 2 million tons per annum (Mtpa), with the potential to scale to over 20 Mtpa. The three parties will work together to optimize the technical and commercial framework for the project, focusing on joint engagement with customers, regulators, and other stakeholders to strengthen market confidence, as well as flexible logistics to develop CO2 transportation scenarios for both medium pressure (MP) and elevated pressure (EP) modes to accommodate different value chain requirements. The MoU also implies the partners will focus on infrastructure optimization on the unmanned platform designs and subsea solutions to minimize the environmental footprint and reduce operational costs and direct offshore injection to mature the interface between CO2 vessels and offshore receiving facilities and ensure safe operations in the North Sea environment. Trudvang, the company that holds the EXL007 CO2 licenseawarded by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy in September 2023, is owned by Vår Energi CCS with 40% equity, INPEX Idemitsu Norge with 30% equity and Storegga Norge with 30%.The project will inject CO2 into the Utsira Formation CO2 storage site on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Take the spotlight and anchor your brand in the heart of the offshore world! Join us for a bigger impact and amplify your presence at the core hub of the offshore energy community!

Twenty years ago, the most exciting shows on television were scripted dramas. Today, prestige TV is still kicking around on HBO’s Sunday nights, and once a year there’s a freakAdolescencestorm. But it’s notYellowstoneorHouse of the Dragoninciting colleagues and neighbors to talk about religion, politics, dating, class, and race. It’sThe Secret Lives of Mormon WivesandLove IslandandSurvivor— series that reliably confront taboos and dominate watercooler talk. Just this year, Taylor Frankie Paul’s abortiveBacheloretteseason sparked weeks of headlines about domestic violence, the betrayal ofSummer House’s Ciara Miller launched a thousand takes on the white men who date Black women, andThe Traitors’s Rob Rausch kicked up novel thoughts on contemporary masculinity. In 2026, reality television is the last bastion of must-see weekly entertainment. Even former faces of prestige TV likeJon HammandLena Dunhampublicly profess their devotion toSouthern CharmandVanderpump Rules. For Vulture’s debut Reality TV Masterminds list, we wanted to understand the forces shaping this golden age of the genre. In a world without writers’ rooms or conventional showrunners, it can be difficult to know who exactly is responsible for the moments that keepThe Real HousewivesorDancing With the Starsat the forefront of so many people’s minds. Sowe asked dozens of industry insiders — from EPs, development directors, and network presidents to onscreen talent, publicists, and agents — to help us winnow the field, focusing specifically on achievements from the past year but taking into account people’s trajectories to those points. The resulting list is a cross section of how diffuse power looks in an industry now defined as much by what happens off-screen as on. The people with the most influence aren’t necessarily whoever wins a season ofTop Chefor the most enduring couple on this season ofThe Ultimatum(though they could be). Power in the reality space is about the ability to control a narrative, to take today’s scandal and successes and translate them into the longer-term ability to dictate one’s own fate. The dating-show participant who leaves with a podcast idea instead of a spouse? That’s a mastermind. The person who stares blankly at a co-star, says “Mommy? Mamacita?,” and becomes an inescapable clip? They’re a mastermind too. Together, the entries on this list demonstrate how far reality television has evolved, from a frivolous launchpad that wannabe performers and producers use to catapult themselves into more legitimate sectors to one where people make and sustain careers,nepo babiesand all. Jump to:The Hosts|The Gameplayers|The Archetypes|The Breakthroughs|The Franchises|The Podcasters|The Executives|The Disruptors|The Rising Masterminds Every competition needs a presenter, but only some are indispensable. . After years in the mines ofVanderpump Rules, Ariana Madix’s fame exploded with a season-ten story line that followed the collapse of her relationship in 2023. Out of those depths, Madix has emerged as a battle-hardened icon. She starred on Broadway asChicago’s Roxie Hart in 2024 and landed a scripted role on the mockumentarySt. Denis Medicalin 2025. When she joinedLove Island USAas host of Peacock’s megahit summer dating show, it cemented her as a one-woman symbol of resilience and near-untouchable hotness, allowing her a stage where she can show up and be worshipped every time she sets foot in the villa. Madix was an avid viewer even before appearing as a surprise guest in Fiji in 2023, bringing upLove IslandinVanderpump Rulesscenes and on her socials. According to NBC exec Sharon Vuong, it’s a core reason Madix was hired. “She was a real fan.” She is an effective host: sly, delighted, styled, and smirking, but never actually snide or biting, and always ready with a shocked or disgusted reaction as the occasion demands. She proved so adept that in 2025, on top of her regularIslandduties, she hosted the season-seven reunion alongside Andy Cohen. On that set, Madix stared down the barrel of a camera while Cohen appeared like a “Get you a man that looks at you” meme brought to life. The significant damage control she did during the show, appearing in PSAs asking fans to stop harassing cast members’ families (“Please be nice, or I’ll come find you”) solidified her place in the new pantheon of reality-TV presenters. ➼Read Madix’s answers to our Maria Bamford Questionnaire, 25 queries designed by the beloved comedian to unearth surprising truths about respondents. . Depending on how you look at it, Alan Cumming is either wildly overqualified to host and produce a show likeThe Traitorsor the only person who could possibly sell a Dutch version ofMafiato an American audience. Cumming was labeled a mastermind by nearly a third of the industry insiders we spoke to; as one head of creative put it, he “owns” the role. WhileThe Traitorscontestants — plucked from across the reality universe as well as other pockets of Hollywood and sports — are doing plenty to make appointment television, it’s Cumming as emcee who provides the show’s load-bearing stylistic elements, combining baroque line delivery with Scotsploitation charm (just listen to the way he pronouncesbanished). As the gamers and the Housewives battle, Cumming provides the outré fashion moments and oversize roundtable reactions that elevated the series to eight Emmys over three years (including two consecutive wins for Outstanding Reality Host, breaking RuPaul’s eight-year stranglehold on the category). “He showed you can do great scripted work and you can also doThe Traitors,” says Rob Mills, who hired Parker Posey to host Hulu’s take on the format,The Mob. “That opened the door to so many people who five years ago would have been unthinkable.” Peacock’s confidence in Cumming’s star power — or its realization that every third TikTok this winter was about Cumming sending Yam Yam into the shadow realm — was certainly part of its calculus to go forward with an all-normie season as opposed to reality-TV alumni. It’s a bold move for a show that just last season turned two cast members,Love Island’s Rob Rausch and Maura Higgins, into household names and held the title of No. 1 streaming original reality title in the process. “When you step back and zoom out,Traitorsis a vehicle for all of the other businesses of NBC,” one reality showrunner explains. “It’s innovative, it’s smart, it’s fucking brilliant.” WithThe Traitorsviewership onlygoing up, Cumming istheface (and the kilt, and the cape, and the beret, and the bridal veil) of America’s buzziest competition. ➼In our 2024 encounter,Cumming discusses how he perfected his unbending performance as the mad king ofThe Traitors. . Taking over asTop Chefhost after Padma Lakshmi had held the position for 19 of 20 seasons was never going to be easy. But for years after Kristen Kish’s season-tenTop Chefwin, she showed an authoritative, chic, and punny presenting ability in stints on an array of reality series, including travel shows36 HoursandRestaurants at the End of the Worldand celebrity-chat-drivenFast Foodies. By the time she returned toTop Chefin 2024, Kish had honed her persona — a mix of no-nonsense calm and goofy dad humor — into a model for how a competitor could go from sprinting around theTop Chefkitchen to center placement at the judges’ table. A year into the gig, on 2025’sTop Chef: Destination Canada, Kish was locked in, providing empathetic advice to struggling contestants and sharing her critiques with incisive plainness. Like Andy Cohen, RuPaul, and so many of the genre’s founding hosts, Kish knew how to use gossip to connect with co-stars, allowing the audience to shoot the shit by proxy. Then Kish went back into gameplay mode withThe Traitorsin early 2026. During challenges, roundtables, and downtime in the castle, she held a certain expression longtimeTop Cheffans could recognize: not quite a poker face but far from the histrionic mien that has made so many reality personalities famous. When Kish isn’t smiling onscreen, she’s thinking — taking time to absorb and process information before sharing her determinations. Kish is without fail the most reasonable person in any room she occupies, and the fluid way she has moved between competing and hosting reality series is a reflection of her savviness. ➼Read Kish’s confessional interview, where she discusses spending herTop Chefwinnings, her obsession withRHOA’s Porsha Williams, and the best on-set catering she ever ate. . Judges’ panels come and go; hagship is forever. In the 17 years since RuPaul launchedDrag Race, Michelle Visage has outlasted all other judges as Ru’s perma-plus-one, bringing her brassy Jersey-broad perspective, headmistresslike standards, and hatred of the color green to the show’s runway. Visage is encoded inDrag Race’s DNA as much as lip-syncing for your life, suggestive punning, and Ru herself. Possibly no judge on any other competition series has done more to shape an entire art form than Visage.American Idolwinners no longer become chart-topping pop acts, andProject Runwaywinners don’t end up as the most coveted brands at Fashion Week. But RuGirls genuinely are the most famous and influential drag queens on the planet. And whoever winsDrag Racedoes so by winning over Michelle Visage, shaping themselves to her tastes, critiques, withering insults, and firm but encouraging advice. Unlike the elusive Ru, who retreats to the fracking fields of Wyoming between seasons, Visage is the unofficial den mother to RuGirls, touring with them as an emcee and staying involved in their careers as a friend and mentor. She is also a credited writer onDrag Race,has won four Emmys for producing the series, and has sprung out from behind the judges’ table to act as Ru’s emissary on international seasons of the show such asDrag Race: Down Under,where in 2024 she assumed a full-time host position. In 2025, the franchise announced she would be hostingDrag Race Down Under vs. The Worldas well, a sign that Visage, like the production companies that licenseSurvivorand the Netflix executives responsible forLove on the Spectrum, sees high value in Australia as a future venue for English-language unscripted TV. ➼Read Visage’s confessional interview, where she discusses her relationships with theHousewivesandDrag Raceall-time villains. These competitors don't have to win their seasons. Their strategies are just as cunning after elimination. . It’s not that Parvati Shallow makes the hard work of winningSurvivorlook easy; it’s that she makes it look eternally possible. She’s not part of the currently airing 50th season — a slight that did not go unnoticed bytastemakersandqueer fans— yet it’s difficult to argue that Shallow isn’t the current standard-bearer for the franchise. After she won the Micronesia season in 2008 and finished second in the “Heroes vs. Villains” season in 2010, her signature game style of deception with a smile has been emulated by a generation of modern-day reality-competition stars. Male Survivors still shake in their boots at the prospect of all-female alliances solely because of how formidable Shallow’s “Black Widow Brigade” performed. Some 15 years later, while AmericanSurvivoris flop-sweating its way through Billie Eilish immunity idols and Zac Brown deep-sea-fishing segments, AustralianSurvivoris now the show of choice for real heads, and Shallow is also the reigning queen Down Under, having won in 2025. “She is someone who understands gameplay like nobody’s business,” says casting director Jazzy Collins, who worked on the first season ofThe Traitorsin 2024. “And because of that, she can literally go on any competition show and just destroy.” OnTraitors, she was banished after eight episodes of cunning gameplay, a feat when you consider the Black Widow–size target affixed to her back the moment she entered the castle. She then appeared on NBC’sDeal or No Deal Island, where she achieved a nine-week immunity streak despite ending her run on a bad deal. “The beauty of it is, for some reason, people still underestimate her,” Collins adds. “And she can consistently use that to her advantage.” ➼Read Shallow’s Quality Time interview, where she discusses the pop culture she and her kids enjoy together. . Summer 2025 was the seasonLove Island USAbecame undeniable. Clips from season seven were such viral sensations that, for a few weeks in June and July, there was a higher percentage of ambientLove Islandcontent than there was relative humidity in Manhattan. The king of those clips was Nic Vansteenberghe, the baffled mind behind the inescapable “Mommy? Mamacita?” meme stemming from his utter inability to process the idea that his co-star Huda Mustafa is the mother of a child. But the real key to Vansteenberghe’s success was his ability to pivot. He could tell which way the island wind was blowing and consequently adapt from ladies’ man to yearning, twerking boy next door as early couple turnover called for it. By the middle of the season, the fandom had coalesced around pairing him with co-star Olandria Carthen. Never mind that they didn’t seem to be more than friendly colleagues at first; Vansteenberghe leaned into the role of “person in love with Olandria” with comfort and poise. Though they were not technically the season’s winners, Nicolandria, who are still together, were the runaway victors in all the ways that actually count: fan fondness and sponsorship deals. Vansteenberghe is now pursuing that most tried-and-true reality side hustle, DJ for hire. The season’s real winner was its other enormous success story: Amaya Espinal, a.k.a. Amaya Papaya. Bubbly and bright, so cheerful and openhearted that her relationship status seemed almost beside the point, Espinal arrived on the island and shifted the game. Her season became a buoyant fun factory girded by her sincere, upbeat hope for love. Even better, she grounded those positive feelings with some of reality TV’s best retorts. “I know my worth,plusthe tax,” she told contestant Ace Greene. “Guess what: I’m just not your cup of tea to be drinking, so don’t fucking drink it.” In her post–Love Islandcareer, Espinal has retained much of her authenticity, popping up on socials to get out ahead of news about her breakup withLove Islandco-star Bryan Arenales in typically poetic language: “You don’t have to drink the whole sea to know it’s salty.” She launched a Poppi drink and will soon release rap music, but her most impressive postshow act has been sustaining her “hot girl watching gooses” energy not just on theLove IslandsequelBeyond the Villabut in a tsunami of podcast appearances, red-carpet clips, and vacation photos. ➼Read Espinal’s confessional interview, where she discusses her one-liners, Lisa Rinna, and lovingJersey Shorefeuds, andVansteenberghe’s confessional interview, where he discusses life after the villa, dates in Greece, and wanting to switch places with Pauly D. . If one mastermind can follow the Kristen Kish path from winning to hosting a reality-competition series, it’sBig Brother’s Taylor Hale. “She’s so polished I’m surprised that it hasn’t happened yet,” saysSurvivoralumnus Rob Cesternino, on whose podcast network Hale has been a frequent commentator. In the summer of 2022, she overcame weeks of mean-girl bullying and racist assumptions to become the first Black female winner in the show’s long history. Her ability to keep a level head onscreen, giving her adversaries just enough rope to hang themselves with, was so popular with fans that she also became the firstBBplayer to win both the main season and the fan-voted “America’s Favorite Player.” Since then, Hale’s position in the reality-TV universe has grown. She finished second on the most recentAmazing Racein 2025 — partnered with her then-boyfriend (BBalum Kyland Young) against her ex-boyfriend (herBBco-star Joseph Abdin) — projecting the kind of star power that spells a futureTraitorscasting. In the meantime, CBS has capitalized on Hale’s appeal as both a fan of reality TV and one of its most outstanding participants, hiring her to moderate theBig BrotherJury House deliberations and to co-host last summer’s prime-time recap showBig Brother: Unlocked. It wouldn’t be a stretch to read this as an audition to host a show that, 27 seasons in, is experiencing its most engaged audience ever (by multiple standards) but has yet to reveal anysuccession plansfor Julie Chen Moonves. ➼Read Hale’s confessional interview, where she discusses Ciara Miller, Olandria, and her dream for an all-women season ofThe Traitors. . A Birkin is nothing to slouch at, but Maura Higgins’s tragicomicThe Traitorsloss turned retail win is not the end of her story. She got to the recent season’s heartbreaking final minutes only to watch Alabamian snake wrangler Rob Rausch admit treachery and later promise to repent by using his prize money to buy her a Birkin. Higgins made gullibility look good, overdressing for every breakfast and roundtable, so much so that a stylist had to send her a second case of looks when she outlasted the majority of the players. Just as she did during her original run onLove Island U.K., Higgins let fans adore her for what they perceived as her clueless love of clothes, innocent eagerness, and willingness to trust others, but her wigs obscured a sharper mentality. Rausch might have been scheming his way to a pile of gold, but Higgins’s strategy had a differentend of the proverbial rainbowin sight. In the months since theTraitorsfinale, Higgins has appeared at Fashion Week after Fashion Week, hinting at a return to reality television without naming any names. She kept her lips sealed just long enough to see the collapse of a beloved franchise, and it earned her a potentially high-yield rumor: that she could bethe woman to saveThe Bachelorette. Even though she’s presently following the path of other Mormon Wives by opting for aDancing With the Starsstint instead, few stars are capable of building genuine reality-TV anticipation quite like Higgins. ➼Read Higgins’s confessional interview, where she discusses rolexes, Rob, having zero dance skills ahead ofDancing With the Stars, and whether or not she’ll ever return to the villa. They’re not just characters. They are the models for aspiring reality stars today. . In 2020, Bravo fans faced the unimaginable: a reality-TV landscape that didn’t feature actress, entrepreneur, designer, author, and former stripper Linnethia “Nene” Leakes. TheReal Housewives of Atlantalead quit the show after storming out of a COVID-era reunion (so storming out looked more like slamming shut her laptop screen). A reunion walk-off is not surprising, but what happened two years later was: Leakes became a persona non grata at the network she helped define when she filed (and later dropped) a lawsuit against Bravo and executive producer Andy Cohen among others, claiming they created a hostile and racist work environment,and specifically citing the racist remarks of her friend turned nemesis Kim Zolciak-Biermann as reason for her departure. Leakes wasn’t just the breakout star ofRHOA;she helped launch the thirdHousewivesinstallment, reportedly aiding with casting before its 2008 pilot aired. Her instantly memorable season-one quips and riotous reads of castmates were primary reasons a series about affluent white women on the coasts proliferated into a global franchise that spits out reality stars to this day. In the years after her departure, Leakes made an appearance on theBad Girls Clubdescendant,Baddies East, but more important, her reaction GIFs — Leakes shouting “I said what I said!” or disparaging white refrigerators — remained the lingua franca of the internet. OneRHOAscene from 2012 produced three all-time classic quotesin under 30 seconds(“Okay … whatever that means,” “It’s getting weird,” “Bling, bling, bling. Bitches is mad”) and still getslip-syncedto this day. Omnipresence even in exile: That is the power of Leakes and why fans were clamoring for her Bravo return, which Cohen finally announced on his radio show. This year, Leakes started filming theUltimate Girls Trip,a state-spanning road trip celebrating the 20th anniversary ofHousewives. Neither Cohen nor Leakes have provided details on what kind of reconciliation happened over the past five-plus years, but the Bravo calculation is clear — it’s better to make amends with the legends you help create than to let some other network or streaming platform with an all-star series scoop them up. ➼Read our profile of Leakes, where she discusses her return to Bravo withUltimate Girls Trip, memories of filmingRHOA, and how she really feels about all those memes. . What often happens when Tiffany Pollard is cast in a show is what happened on her recent viralZiweappearance: She ends up breaking the entire conceit. Ziwe Fumudoh is known for her performatively aggressive interview style and no-holds-barred approach to getting guests to answer her questions, but in the presence of Pollard, the comedian was deferential, giggly even, and promised to censor Pollard’s most potentially cancelable comments. (The episode is full of bleeps.) Pollard has never known restraint, so she happily went on tirades about celebrities who can choke on “cosmopollagens” as if she were in a confessional rather than an interrogation. It wasn’t unlike the time Flavor Flav brought her back to help him eliminateFlavor of Loveseason-two contestants and Pollard put herself back in the competition, making it to the season finale. She didn’t win the first season ofHouse of Villains(she came in ninth out of ten), but she was the only contestant to be cast in the second season in 2024 and to return again this year. Now, she’s hosting aTraitors-esque competition show, OUTtv’sSlayers: Wheel of Fate, on which all the contestants are queer and she’s the levelheaded Alan Cumming. This is the woman who told a fellowFlavor of Lovecontestant she looked less like Beyoncé and more like Luther Vandross, who called Omarosa a “cocksucking, come-guzzling Republican cunt,” and who told Teresa Giudice, “I always respected your hairline on television.” It’s hard to describe her performances over the past two decades on nearly a dozen reality shows as truly villainous because that would imply she’s operating on the same plane as her peers. She invented the concept of HBIC (head bitch in charge) and has been running reality TV and much of the internet ever since. ➼Read Pollard’s confessional interview, where she discusses the spit heard around the world, meeting Paris Hilton, and whether or not she’ll show up onTraitors. After years of sticking it out in their respective industries, they finally achieved main character status. . If Susan Sontag were alive today, she would be aHousewivesfan and she would have written 17 essays aboutPotomaccastmate Stacey Rusch. Rusch is only two seasons into her Bravo tenure,but her performance to this point has been nothing if not camp — all beauty-pageant imperturbability, even while caught up in extreme mess. At her first reunion episode in 2025, her castmates (with an assist from a husband) claimed she faked a seasonlong romantic relationship. Lesser women would have crumbled under the pressure and embarrassment, but Rusch responded with a straight face, “But still I rise.” This is the center of her unique charm: that the former Washington, D.C., local-news fixture can apply the most grandiose thoughts to the silliest of circumstances, as in the clips of her time as a QVC presenter that went viral after her casting, in which she describes the cheapest-looking autumnal appliqués in language so rapturous it sounds like a Shakespeare sonnet. It drives her co-stars absolutely bonkers because no matter what kinds of lies she gets caught in, no matter how wrong she is, andno matter how stupid it all sounds, fans andcriticsgobble up her every word and bray for more. Andy Cohen went onCall Her Daddyand declared Rusch the product of the bestHousewivescasting in recent memory. Add that endorsement to the launch of her cannabis line, Shayo, which co-star Wendy Osefo claims is a copycat of her husband’s cannabis line, and you have a stalwart whom all her castmates are gunning for. IfHousewivespast was defined by the extravagances of Jill Zarin and Jen Shah, its future will be defined by the comedic and dramatic persistence of Rusch. ➼Read Rusch’s confessional interview, where she discusses Maya Angelou, Gizelle Bryant, andThe Real Housewives of Atlanta. . After the sudden success ofSelling Sunset, it was only a matter of time before some ambitious real-estate broker developed an East Coast equivalent for Netflix. ButOwning Manhattan, starring the silver-haired Ryan Serhant, is no copycat. Long before former soap star Chrishell Stause found her second act selling houses, once-aspiring actor Serhant rose to unscripted fame in the early 2010s as one of the stars of Bravo’sMillion Dollar ListingNew York, which ran for nine seasons. Serhant had a certain reality-TV je ne sais quoi — the undeniable rizz, gleaming grin, and permanently swept-back hair of someone who can sell you the world while convincing you he’s not selling anything at all.Million Dollar Listinglanded Serhant a one-season spinoff,Sell It Like Serhant, and specials revolving around his wedding and a 7,900-square-foot property renovation. It made sense that, asMillion Dollar Listingwas wrapping up in 2021 andSelling Sunsetwas reaching its peak (earning its first Emmy nomination and a nearly permanent spot on Netflix’s most-watched charts), the streamer would look to Serhant to carry its burgeoning house-hunting reality subgenre.Owning Manhattanpremiered in 2024 and made it to the streamer’s top-ten most-watched shows globally. One fan took to Reddit to confess: “owning manhattan is 1000x better than sunset or OC but ryan serhant’s hair freaks me out.” WhileSelling Sunsetis the more established Realtor-reality program (and launched its ownshort-livedNYC spinoff,Selling the City,in 2025), its cast is in as muchdisarrayas the California housing market. Meanwhile, Serhant is poised to outlive the cockroaches that haunt his city, projecting a perfect mix of cockiness and awareness that will serve him well on Netflix’s attempt at aTraitorscompetitor,Squid Game: The VIP Challenge. ➼Read Serhant’s confessional interview, where he discusses his feud with Fredrik Eklund, starring in a new show with Dylan Efron, and being “the straight Andy Cohen.” . Dancing With the Starsis a misleading title. The hook of the show is seeing which grab bag of celebrities (Sean Spicer! Anna Delvey!) will cha-cha for the audience’s approval, but the real stars — the main characters, the heroes — are the dance pros. This cast of championship-level competitive ballroom and Latin dancers shapes each season’s arc by drawing actors, athletes, and politicians out of their shells, training them to whisk and waltz at acceptable levels, and building the chemistry necessary to sell their performances to viewers and judges. To the year-after-year fans who have carriedDWTSinto its 35th season, the pros are who they actually follow and root for. Many of them, like Ezra Sosa, Britt Stewart (the first Black female professional dancer on the show), and the 2025 season’s winner, Witney Carson, got their start in the troupe that dances for studio audiences between the main performances before ascending to the actual competition. Last summer, the show introduced a new pro, Jan Ravnik, plucked not from the troupe but directly from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. And the best content of the season wasn’t actually on ABC — it was the creative, goofy weeklyTikToks and Reelsposted by the ever-growing cluster of eliminated dancers. The show has already produced two of the most successful dancer–to–generally famous crossover stories: Derek and Julianne Hough, Emmy winners who, since starring onDWTS,have infiltrated nearly every corner of the culture. Sosa and season-34 runner-up Val Chmerkovskiy will appear onProject Runwaythis summer; this year, longtime pro (and Emmy nominee) Mark Ballas competed onThe Traitorsand is currently playing Billy Flynn oppositeDWTSpartner Whitney Leavitt inChicago. In July, he’ll judge the search for the franchise’s newest star onDancing With the Stars: The Next Pro. That’s the ascension narrative that will keep the show going for another 20 years. ➼Read Carson, Chmerkovskiy, and Sosa’s confessional interview, where they discuss Danielle Fishel’s jewelry expertise, Anna Delvey’s ankle monitor, and their future co-star Maura Higgins. Reality’s next era will be built from the spinoffs they generate. . Something about the strange alchemy of Utah — that heady mix of Mormonism, dirty-soda highs, and oxygen deprivation — has conspired to make it the Holy Land of reality television. In its fifth and sixth seasons,The Real Housewives of Salt Lake Citycontinues to be the most culturally relevant of all the modernHousewives. At Utah’s final Sundance in January 2026, the cast were the main characters; Charli XCX seemed more excited to meet Meredith Marks and Lisa Barlow than promote her own films. AndRHOSLCwas no fluke. It’s viaThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wivesthat Hulu and Disney finally found a reality show to compete with Netflix’s and Peacock’s biggest offerings, using TikTok-mom drama to blow up reality TV’s episodic format and producing a universe of characters that could stretch across spinoffs and network relatives alike.SLOMWseasons one through four featured a young, volatile cast that quite literally could not be contained. Erstwhile breakout star Taylor Frankie Paul single-handedly dismantled theBachelorfranchise three days before its latest season premiere. Jessi Draper detonated her marriagefollowing a triptoVanderpump Villa. Whitney Leavitt pirouetted fromDancing With the Stars(where she outlasted fellow Mormon Wife Jen Affleck) into the time-honored reality-star tradition of playing Roxie Hart on Broadway, achieving the highest-grossing six-week span in theChicagorevival’s 29-year history. NBCU and Disney invited elite influencers and scammers to join their ranks, and television will never be the same. ➼Read Draper’s confessional interview, where she discusses affairs, crying on-camera, and the genius of Kris Jenner. . Lindsay Hubbard, one of the original randy New Yorkers to share a Hamptons house starting in 2017, was the kindling for this slow burn of a show; it took several seasons and more than a few hookups and blowups for it to catch on in season three. Hubbard played by the old rules of reality TV, fighting with the other women over boys and their place in the house. Then Ciara Miller arrived in season five with a calm, cool-girl charisma. She preferred spending time in bed and gossiping with her female friends over how much boys suck, instead of chasing them. After Hubbard’s messy breakup from castmate Carl Radke, Miller won her over, and both the women became fan favorites in a brave new reality space that adheres to girl code. Just asSummer Houseratings were surging in 2024 and 2025, Hubbard was starting a family and maturing out of the hard-partying world she’d created. Rather than abandon a bankable star, Bravo promoted Hubbard, Kyle Cooke, and Amanda Batula to a show calledIn the City, about what happens when summer ends and life goes on for these New Yorkers, leaving the future of the house in Miller’s hands. Enter a franchise-elevating scandal: In March, rumors swirled that Miller’s co-star and ex-boyfriend West Wilson was sleeping with her best friend Batula behind her back. Miller experienced the kind of fan-hoisted martyrdom that had propelled Ariana Madix to superstardom following Scandoval and within weeks had secured a spot on the next season ofDancing With the Stars. The show’s code was broken off-screen, but even without the cameras, Hubbard was the perfect sorority upperclasswoman, unfollowing West on Instagram and posting a wordless reaction shot of her own face contorted in disgust. The girls’ girls have transformedSummer Housefrom a chronicle of seasonally amusing drama to another always-on reality experience. ➼Read Hubbard’s confessional interview, where she discussesIn the City, girls’ girls, and being activated for a month. Who actually has narrative control? In today’s world, it’s the former stars with a mic. . Who would have thought the next Andy Cohen would be a two-timeBachelorreject? Out of all the podcasts launched by former reality stars,The Viall Filesmay be the most unlikely success. Viewers complained Nick Viall was arrogant and condescending when he first appeared onThe Bachelorette(and some redditors still do), but over its seven-year lifespan,The Viall Fileshas booked theVanderpumpcast post-Scandoval, Taylor Frankie Paul the same week season one ofThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wivesdebuted,and all the most-talked-aboutLove Islanders as soon as they leave Fiji. Viall’s reputation for getting the goods has secured him prime hosting gigs as the custodian of theMormon Wivesseason-two reunion and, more recently, onAge of Attraction,the Netflix dating show about age-gap relationships, which he co-hosts with his wife, Natalie Joy (their own age gap: 18 years). Listening toThe Viall Filesfeels a little bit like gossiping about reality TV with your girlfriends while one of their boyfriends happens to be in the room — you wonder why he’s there and then suddenly he lobs an insightful question. Cohen parlayed his interrogation skills into an executive-producing role and a late-night talk show, and Viall’s contemporaries see potential in his ability to carve out a similarly assertive position. “He is one of those people that understood where pop culture was going,” says casting director Jazzy Collins. “He went along for the ride and made his own lane.” ➼Read his confessional interview. . Bob the Drag Queen and Boston Rob were both alphas on their breakout reality shows. Rob, a straight man in more ways than one, first appeared onSurvivor’s fourth season back in 2002 and has since competed a total of five times — winning once, in season 22. Bob, known for her big reactions and bigger confidence level, dominatedRuPaul’s Drag Raceseason eight, winning easily and leveraging that success into multiple comedy specials and a tour spot with Madonna. The two contestants met while filming season three ofThe Traitors, both as Traitors, and that collaboration didn’t go well. Bob said something shady about Rob, then Rob mounted a sneak attack that led to Bob’s departure, and the combined antics amounted to Rob’s elimination a few episodes later. Even as enemies, they had chemistry; in postgame interviews, both took the position of “game recognizes game.” Now, the two are hosting Peacock’sofficialTraitorspodcast, a popular meeting point for allTraitorsfans that provides commentary as well as interviews with recently eliminated contestants. For both B/Robs, the podcast is helping define their rank in the increasingly dominant galaxy of Peacock reality TV after they were poached from the Paramount-verse. Together, they have an odd-couple kind of charm and represent the best of whatTraitorscan do: making reality stars feel as if they’re part of a grander world, one where a football-commentating bro can talk fashion with a purse-first queen. ➼Read Bob and Rob’s confessional interview, where they discuss their onscreen reputations, the greatest reality-tv villains, and returning to theTraitorsturret. . No on-camera personality has navigated the Netflix Reality Universe as wisely as Amber Desiree “AD” Smith, who turned instant fan-favorite status onLove Is Blindseason six into a powerful podcast career. OnLIB,she mastered the art of cutting yet constructive commentary, weaving her way through countless awkward social situations (rememberBean Dip Gate?) with both righteousness and a sense of humor and playing the role of a one-woman Greek chorus in her confessional interviews. It was often tough to know whose side she was on when conflict broke out, but her inscrutability read as sensible rather than deceitful. After her trip down the aisle ended in a tearful breakup, she swam onto Netflix’sPerfect Match,where she andLIB: U.K.alum Ollie Sutherland locked in immediately. There, too, Smith gave an effortless hero’s performance when she witnessed boys being naughty and reported it back to their girlfriends. Unlike most of Netflix’s breakout reality-TV personalities, Smith has extended her reach beyond the streamer. Following in the footsteps of fellow dating-show stars like Nick Viall and Rachel Lindsay, she launchedWhat’s the Reality?,on which her diplomatic approach to disputes has turned the pod into a first stop for outgoing Netflix stars and, every now and then, friendly personalities from other franchises includingThe Bachelor, The Real Housewives,andMarried at First Sight.Smith gets to extend the knowing persona she projected onLIB, offering office hours for reality stars to declassify their experiences while she gently asserts authority and provides intel. She is openly campaigning for reality-TV tenure and using her demonstrated drama-management skills to make it happen. ➼Read Smith’s confessional interview, where she discusses saying “yes” at the altar, the boys of reality TV, and therapy. . He may have finished 21st out of 23 players on the most recent season ofThe Traitors, but if you’re a reality-TV devotee — especially of the social-strategy competitions likeSurvivorandBig Brother— you know how much his Rob Has a Podcast network has helped shape the way fans watch (and increasingly compete on) these shows for the past 15 years. As the third-place finisher onSurvivor: The Amazonin 2003, Rob Cesternino was one of the first to unlock how to play the game as an endlessly nimble alliance shifter; host Jeff Probst once called him the smartest player never to win the game, and Cesternino has literally written the book on gamer strategy (The Tribe and I Have Spoken). So it’s no surprise that his podcasting venture, which launched in 2010, has attracted a massive audience of astute armchair strategists, producing a recap shows, post-elimination interviews, tactical breakdowns, and much more. RHAP operates as a cultural hub for fans, former players, players who started out as fans, and fans who dream of being contestants. IfSurvivorfandom has an epicenter, RHAP is it. And with the dominant mode of modern-daySurvivorcontestant being “superfan” — Aysha Welch, an RHAP recapper, competed onSurvivor 47— RHAP’s influence can be seen more and more in the televised product. ➼Read Cesternino’s confessional interview, where he discusses Mike White, chocolate and peanut butter, andSurvivor 50promises. They’re the stewards of yesterday’s greatest shows and responsible for green-lighting tomorrow’s. . There are countless streaming services, but for reality-TV obsessives, only one matters: Peacock. The streamer is home to all of Bravo’s archives and a number of Zeitgeist-defining hits, and its success is thanks in part to two women. Sharon Vuong is the executive vice-president who manages unscripted NBC content such asThe VoiceandAmerica’s Got Talent.She also played a key role in bringingLove Island USAto the platform, and helped make the bold choice to castThe Traitorsas a celebrity-driven reality series, motivating genre fans to trust a new show by ensuring they could use it to check in on their favorite Bravolebrities. (Now she’s helping overseethe forthcoming civilians version ofThe Traitors.) Rachel Smith, also an executive vice-president, oversees unscripted content across Bravo and Peacock, and is tasked with safeguarding the existing pipelines for reality stars as well as recruiting new unscripted talent. She’s overseeing the reboot ofLadies of Londonand the launch ofThe Real Housewives of Rhode Island, which produced instant icons like Martha Sitwell and Liz McGraw, ensuring Bravo’s dominance in the docusoap arena won’t be halted anytime soon. “These are buyers who know nonfiction inside and out, having cut their teeth in the trenches of the trade for decades,” a reality-TV producer says of the duo. “They know what works, which producers get it, and how to navigate what is always a bumpy ride. They have consistently gambled big and minted hits.” ➼Read more from Vuong and Smith on the future of Peacock and the new normies season ofTraitors: “It’ll be a very different game.” . The Kardashians,Vanderpump Villa, andThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wiveshave turned Hulu into a robust Bravoverse alternative featuring cross-promotional story lines and self-imploding, headline-generating talent. Rob Mills has been an executive at ABC for years, but in his role as head of Walt Disney Television Alternative, he has become proficient at translating unscripted formats beyond the typical family-friendly ABC brand, permitting shows likeLove Overboardto solidify Hulu’s more adult (read messier) programming division. At the same time, Mills has made sure not to leave the older ABC franchises behind.Dancing With the Stars,a show now old enough to buy its own wine coolers, has gotten a new burst of energy thanks to smart casting, with the TikTok fandom tuning in for Alix Earle and Dylan Efron finding themselves going all in on unexpected success stories like Andy Richter’s. And those who tune in for Richter don’t seem to mind the influx of internet personalities: “Anybody who’s older wants to watch what the kids are watching,” says Mills. It’s not yet clear what he’ll do with the fallout from Taylor Frankie Paul’s canceledBacheloretteseason, but as Millssaid in 2025, “One thing we’ve learned about withThe Bacheloris that you’re always just a season or two away from roaring right back.” ➼Read more about Rob Mills and his role in the future of reality TV at Disney, including the fate ofThe Bachelorettefranchise andDancing with the Stars’next twirl. . Brandon Riegg joined Netflix in 2016 with a résumé that included collaborations withThe Apprenticecreator Mark Burnett and stints overseeingDancing With the StarsandAmerica’s Got Talent. Within a decade, he’d built a portfolio spanningLove Is Blind,Selling Sunset,and their many spinoffs and international adaptations as well asQueer Eye,Love on the Spectrum, and so on. These shows mint stars (Chrishell Stause, Christine Quinn, Jonathan Van Ness), and as Netflix increasingly crosses talent between them (seePerfect Match), their dream of rivaling the Bravoverse is clear. But Riegg, whose official title is VP of nonfiction and sports, has also expanded what the “reality TV” label can mean. Watching obscenely wealthy Formula 1 principals lock into petty bitchfests onDrive to Surviveevokes the storytelling language of aReal Housewives, pulling viewers into an insular world packed with outsize personalities and pure soap opera. These docs too can mint stars (Daniel Ricciardo was an early beneficiary of theDTSbump), and they now mirror conventional reality television as brand-building platforms. Much asVanderpump Rulesdrove new patrons into Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurants,Full Swingdrives new fansto PGA Tour coverage. The ripple effects can be felt well beyond Netflix; you don’t getWelcome to WrexhamwithoutDrive to Survive. More of Riegg’s recent focus has shifted toward live programming: boxing matches, one-off NFL broadcasts, the WWE, and major events like the BTS reunion concert. It’s not hard to see how the live events and Netflix’s reality foothold may one day coalesce into whatever comes next for the genre. ➼Read why Riegg thinks the future of sports is reality television. . Stephen Lambert is the kingmaker of reality TV. He runs the production hub Studio Lambert, which helms both the U.K. and U.S. versions ofThe Traitors. Last season, the already-popular show soared to 3.2 billion viewing minutes in the U.S. — 66 percent over the previous season, while in the U.K., the recent celebrity season averaged 15 million viewers, making it the most successful show of 2025, scripted or unscripted. We could explain Lambert’s inclusion on this list by that success alone. “It has infiltrated pop culture like nothing we’ve seen,” one senior publicist says ofThe Traitors, and according to multiple sources, it’s the show every network is attempting to imitate. But Studio Lambert, which its eponym launched after 15 years in the documentary department at the BBC, has produced other worldwide phenomena, too:Squid Game: The ChallengeandThe Circlefor Netflix, multiple versions ofUndercover Boss,andthe recent spate of wildly popular British shows includingGogglebox, Race Across the World,andFour in a Bed. “Behind the scenes in unscripted right now, there’s no one doing it better than Stephen Lambert,” says former NBCU reality chief and current Beast Industries Studios president Corie Henson. ➼Read more about Studio Lambert and the origin ofThe Traitors. . South Korea has been fostering its own reality-TV tradition for decades, one grown out of the variety-show subgenre popular across East Asia and dense with talent searches and “survival” programming (competition formats but more hard-core). To an extent, its successes have long crossed over, though usually via format licensing adapted for local tastes; Fox’sThe Masked Singer, for example, is a re-skin of a Korean original. What’s distinct about Netflix’s K-reality run is the scale at which its audiences enjoy these shows in their original form. As director of nonfiction at Netflix Korea, Kihwan Yoo shepherded 2021’sSingle’s Inferno— a dating show that dumps contestants on an island campground where they must couple up to earn nights at a luxury resort — into the first K-reality title to crack the platform’s global non-English top ten. He has since built one of the more varied unscripted slates packed with distinct local flavors: interpersonally restrained (theSingle’s Infernocontestants barely touch), unabashedly complex (The Devil’s Plantakes ten minutes to explain each of its strategic games), and epically scaled (Physical: 100andCulinary Class Wars). None of this is without precedent. Japan’sTerrace Housewas a mid-2010s Netflix crossover hit, tapping an American appetite for reality TV paced unlike anything made domestically. What Yoo’s tenure has underlined is how these formats don’t need to be sanded down to travel.Culinary Class Warsreturned in 2025 for a second season thatspiked food tourismacross Korea.Physical: 100has spawnedPhysical: Asia, a travel spinoff, and a forthcoming American version.Single’s Infernowas renewed for a sixth season, making it the platform’s longest-running K-reality franchise. ➼Read how Yoo turned Netflix Korea into an unstoppable force. In an ever-expanding genre, these are the people inventing new forms. . Jazzy Collins describes casting directors as the “architects” of the reality-television genre. “We create what you see onscreen,” she says correctly. In a world with no scripts, the individuals who choose the talent dictate the ultimate tone and success of a series. The Emmy Award–winning casting director is the mind behind some of the most legendary reality stars in recent memory. She helped castBachelorettecontestants Tyler Cameron, Colton Underwood, and Peter Weber; found the civilians who would go up against celebs on the first American season ofThe Traitors;and unearthed such scene-stealers as DeLeesa St. Agathe fromThe Circleand Krystal Nielson fromThe Bachelor.In 2024, Collins became the first casting director of unscripted shows to be elected to the Casting Society. She is now helping to build an entirely new type of unscripted television with Dropout, the profit-sharing, subscription-based comedy platform where she scouts improvisers and storytellers and books talent for a growing stable of game shows, talk shows, and uncategorizable comedic shenanigans. “Everyone’s performing a little bit, amping up their personality, but authenticity is key,” she explains. The age-old reality-TV casting mandate —be yourself— is working for the new platform. Between 2024,when Collins was hired by Dropout,to 2025, the streaming service’s audience grew by 31 percent, surpassing the 1 million subscriber mark. In 2025, she oversaw casting of the streamer’s popular seriesGame Changerfor season seven, and the premiere was the most-watched single episode in Dropout history. ➼Read more about Jazzy Collins and her strategies for scouting the next great reality stars at the Whole Foods in downtown L.A. . All reality TV is voyeuristic, but Australian producer Cian O’Clery saw a market for a dating show that didn’t rely on conflict and vulgarity. O’Clery and co-producer Karina Holden brought the idea of a series about singles on the autism spectrum to Australia’s public broadcaster. After a successful first season in 2019, Netflix came knocking, and soon the world was introduced to breakout stars from the American spinoff,Love on the Spectrum, such as Abbey, James, Dani, Connor, Madison, Pari, and Tanner, whom viewers have watched experience the indignities of modern dating (James’s awkward speed dates, Dani’s oft-foiled quest to get laid). The show’s tone is almost always lighthearted and wholesome thanks to its twinkly soundtrack and tendency to film in gardens. Throughout it all, O’Clery’s voice from behind the camera acts as an audience surrogate, sometimes probing, sometimes consoling, and other times simply a straight man for the cast to play off. Like all great reality stars, some cast members have shrewdly channeled their now-enormous social-media followings into business ventures like jewelry lines and music careers. And its original spirit is contagious. Netflix’s Kihwan Yoo says, “A show like that, done in Korea … that would feel very meaningful.” (Netflix declined to comment on whether the streamer was developing international versions.) One of the most romantic moments on TV last year was Connor and Georgie’s first kiss in the rain under an umbrella, after which the sun bursts out from behind the clouds. “It did feel good, didn’t it?” a giggling Georgie says after they separate. ➼Read how O’Clery made the nicest show on reality TV. . For nearly 25 years, Corie Henson has worked in almost every corner of the realityverse, from ABC to Fox to Warner Bros. Discovery and finally to NBCUniversal, where she contributed to Peacock smash hits likeThe TraitorsandLove Islandand green-lit the gone-too-soonDeal or No Deal Island. But rather than continue to move through the ranks of traditional media, Henson became the president of Beast Industries Studios, MrBeast’s entertainment company, which includes both his YouTube channels andBeast Games,the Amazon Prime series launched in late 2024 in which a thousand contestants competed for $5 million, thought to be the biggest prize in game-show history (production for the first season reportedly cost $100 million). “Beast Gamesbrilliantly took Beast’s YouTube tone, mashed it up withSquid Game, and minted a reality double shot of espresso that found its mark,” says one reality-TV producer. For the past decade-plus, Jimmy Donaldson, the 27-year-old better known as MrBeast, has been on a Sisyphean quest to make people watch his videos. He is generally considered to embody the future of entertainment, in which every aspect of production can be A/B tested and improved with data in real time,for better or worse. (The company’s production arm is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit alleging discrimination and harassment, which it has denied.) Henson’s role is to apply the narrative aspects of reality TV to Donaldson’s expanding empire, guiding him and his team toward compelling characters and resonant plot arcs rather than one-off bits. “Storytelling is something that, quite frankly, they didn’t need to pay too much attention to before,” she says. “But as the guys get older, their audience is getting older with them, and there’s only so much spectacle that will keep people engaged.” ➼Read more about Henson’s approach to the “white space” in the survival show subgenre, and why she thinksDeal or No Deal Islandhad a lot more life in it. . Love Is Blindcould have been a pandemic-era fluke, but every year, this messy juggernaut just gets bigger. In 2025,LIBset aNielsen recordas the top unscripted streaming show of all time, and ten seasons in, it has continued to prove there’s a special kind of pleasure in watching two people connect through a wall and then combust in the real world. Its creator, Chris Coelen, started out as an agent booking talent, including a young Ryan Seacrest, before foundingtheUnited Talent Agency’s unscripted division. In 2010, Coelen launched Kinetic Content, which adaptedMarried at First Sightfrom a Danish format four years later.MAFSplaces participants in arranged marriages before setting them loose to test out married life and, ultimately, to decide if they want to stick it out. As withLIB,audiences ate it up:MAFSis now an international hit with eight American spinoffs alone.It will return for season 20 on Peacock later this year. Coelen kept going: In 2022, he debutedThe Ultimatumon Netflix,a social experiment that bravely asks, “What happens if couples agree to emotionally cheat for three straight weeks?” Then came the light, summeryPerfect Match, which plops some of Netflix’s shiniest unscripted stars into a villa. Coelen’s legacy has been to shift the reality-dating subgenre from a rigid competition format toward something resembling loose social research. A fellow reality-TV showrunner describes Coelen as having a “holographic view of the industry from multiple sides,” while other peers call him a genius or a mad scientist. “Love Is Blindwas the first thing that everybody was like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” says a publicist for a rival show. “That was the most innovative thing we had seen in a really long time.” ➼Read why Coelen wants to make 40 more seasons ofLove Is Blind. . Reality TV is now a vast, complex genre, and Nathan Fielder’s work — obsessed as it is with artifice, performance, how we edit ourselves around others, and how we reflect what we’ve seen on TV to craft the social status quo — has always been a part of it. His four-season Comedy Central series,Nathan for You,and its follow-up, HBO’sThe Rehearsal, both cast real people in unscripted scenarios he carefully designed. The Television Critics Association nominated the first season ofThe Rehearsalfor Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming, separating it from the “docu” descriptor usually attached to Fielder’s work. When asked if the show was simply the prestige version of contemporary reality TV, HBO’s head of comedy series, Amy Gravitt, replied, “If ‘prestige’ connotes a certain rigor and point of view, then yes. He’s re-creating reality and then stepping inside it. But at a certain point, his true gift is getting the audience to the place where they stop looking for the seams.” In season two ofThe Rehearsal, Fielder staged a labyrinthine metanarrative about the failure of commercial-airline pilots. Like all of Fielder’s previous work, the Peabody-winning season explored the difference between figurative and literal reality, advancing an obvious but revolutionary idea: We can create our own world, one that corrects flaws we’ve otherwise normalized. After season two’s finale aired, Fielder insulted the Federal Aviation Administration, went on a press tour about his findings, and demanded he and his collaborators be recognized for the amount of research that went into their investigation. It was the kind of post-finale media blitz Lisa Rinna would appreciate. ➼Read how Fielder channeled a longtime personal obsession into his most ambitious project yet in this 2025 interview about season two ofThe Rehearsal. They’re still genre rookies, but they’ve learned from the best. . From the Osbournes to the Kardashians, reality television has always been a household enterprise. But now on Bravo we’re seeing fame inherited.Next Gen NYCcenters largely on the children of Bravolebrities taking over the reality reins from their parents as they navigate Manhattan. The show at times feels like a sociological trial, monitoring the impact of growing up around reality cameras by way of various test subjects. And Riley Burruss (daughter ofRHOA’s Kandi Burruss) and Brooks Marks (son ofRHOSLC’s Meredith Marks) are compelling subjects. Marks claims he’s conflict averse, and Burruss’s youth was defined by her being the quiet kid, but those modifiers are relative when it comes to unscripted TV and young adulthood. Marks may not yell or scream, yet no one weaponizes vocal fry like Utah’s first son. And Riley’s lack of commotion makes her the necessary grounded one on a show overflowing with intensely privileged offspring. They’re both still growing up on-camera, but TheNext Genstars don’t need to know who they are today, because audiences understand them generationally. That banked knowledge creates an inherent investment that any new reality show, or character, would kill for. ➼Read Marks and Burruss’s confessional interview, where they discuss moms, microaggressions, and what’s next forNext Gen NYC.

Nell’incertezza delle trattative Usa-Iran, ieri il presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump ha annunciato una nuova iniziativa per aiutare le navi battenti bandiera straniera a uscire dal Golfo Persico, dove centinaia di imbarcazioni sono ancora intrappolate dal blocco iraniano in corso. La nuova iniziativa americana, denominata “Project Freedom”, fornirà assistenza alle navi mercantili di altre nazioni; a quanto pare non prevede la scorta dei convogli, ma fornirà ai comandanti informazioni su rotte sicure e sull’ubicazione delle mine navali. “Abbiamo detto a questi Paesi che guideremo le loro navi in ​​sicurezza fuori da queste acque ristrette” ha scritto Trump in una dichiarazione. “Faremo tutto il possibile per far uscire in sicurezza le loro navi e i loro equipaggi dallo stretto. Se, in qualsiasi modo, questo processo umanitario dovesse essere ostacolato, tale interferenza, purtroppo, dovrà essere contrastata con la forza.” L’operazione dovrebbe esser iniziata in queste ore. In un aggiornamento sulla navigazione, il Centro informazioni marittime congiunto del Comando Centrale ha comunicato che gli Stati Uniti hanno istituito una “zona di sicurezza rafforzata” per il transito delle navi a sud del sistema di separazione del traffico, nel settore omanita dello stretto. L’Iran ha respinto immediatamente il piano. In una dichiarazione, Ebrahim Azizi, capo della commissione per la sicurezza nazionale del parlamento iraniano, ha confermato che lo stretto rimane chiuso. “Qualsiasi interferenza americana nel nuovo regime marittimo dello Stretto di Hormuz sarà considerata una violazione del cessate il fuoco” ha affermato Azizi. “Lo Stretto di Hormuz e il Golfo Persico non saranno gestiti dai deliranti post di Trump!”. Il Wall Street Journal riporta che il “Progetto Freedom”, appena annunciato, non esporrà i marinai della Marina statunitense a pericoli: si tratta di un quadro operativo per guidare e assicurare il traffico marittimo, senza (al momento) alcun piano per fornire scorte di navi da guerra nel breve termine. Il controllo dello Stretto di Hormuz è la principale leva che Teheran ha sugli Stati Uniti nei negoziati in corso, e il Corpo delle Guardie Rivoluzionarie Islamiche afferma di ricavare entrate da un nuovo sistema di permessi a pedaggio per il passaggio sicuro. Se avesse successo, e se venisse esteso su larga scala, un sistema di pedaggio fornirebbe all’Iran una nuova fonte di reddito di cui ha un disperato bisogno, una fonte che il Paese ha sottolineato di voler mantenere. Non ci si aspetta che l’Iran ceda il controllo della via navigabile senza incentivi significativi, sotto forma di un accordo negoziato o di un’operazione militare su vasta scala. Per gli armatori, non è chiaro quale protezione immediata potrebbe essere disponibile nell’ambito del “Progetto Freedom” in caso di attacco iraniano. Il Comando Centrale degli Stati Uniti ha dichiarato in un comunicato che l’operazione sarebbe supportata da “cacciatorpediniere lanciamissili, oltre 100 velivoli terrestri e navali, piattaforme senza pilota multidominio e 15.000 militari”. L’opposizione iraniana potrebbe già manifestarsi con una ripresa degli attacchi. Dopo l’annuncio del Progetto Freedom, una petroliera ha segnalato di essere stata colpita da proiettili non identificati in una posizione sul lato sud del canale navigabile, nell’area generale della zona di sicurezza dichiarata. Domenica, una nave portarinfuse sul lato iraniano del canale ha invertito la rotta dopo essere stata attaccata da piccole imbarcazioni, una pratica tipica delle operazioni delle Guardie Rivoluzionarie. ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER QUOTIDIANA GRATUITA DI SHIPPING ITALY SHIPPING ITALY E’ ANCHE SU WHATSAPP: BASTA CLICCARE QUI PER ISCRIVERSI AL CANALE ED ESSERE SEMPRE AGGIORNATI

Ministry of Defence of Ukraine 4 May, 2026, 10:10 AM EEST April 2026 marked another month of a systematic deep strike campaign by the Defence Forces of Ukraine against russia's military-economic infrastructure. Deep strike capabilities hit targets ranging from temporarily occupied Crimea to Perm, Ufa, Orsk, and Chelyabinsk — that is, the Urals, which has historically been considered russia's deep rear. As noted by the President of Ukraine, since the beginning of the year, the aggressor state has lost at least $7 billion directly as a result of Ukrainian "targeted sanctions" against russia's oil industry and refining sector. "Following the results of April this year, our long-range sanctions have reached a new level across three components: reducing russia's oil revenues, the range, and the intensity. Importantly, it is not only about hitting the target, as defined by the combat mission, but also about extending downtime of the targeted facilities or at least significantly reducing their operations," the President of Ukraine emphasized. The Ministry of Defence outlines which refineries, port terminals, Black Sea Fleet warships, drone-manufacturing facilities, and aircraft were targeted by Ukrainian defenders last month, as well as other russian losses. During the April campaign, the Defence Forces of Ukraine struck at least 14 such facilities, ranging from refineries in the Volga region and the Urals to port terminals in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. A strike on the facility was confirmed, resulting in a fire. The strike range was approximately 1,400 kilometers from the border. Bashneft-Novoil is among the largest producers of high-quality lubricants in russia, including marine, hydraulic, and motor oils. Crude distillation capacity is 7 million tons of crude oil per year. The facility supplies the needs of russia's army and navy. A large-scale fire was reported following a strike on the LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery. Elements of the AVT-6 and AVT-1 crude distillation units were damaged, along with unit 19/6, used in petroleum bitumen production. The AVT-2 crude distillation unit and the LCh-24-7 diesel hydrotreating unit were put out of operation. With a capacity of 17 million tons per year, the refinery supplies nearly 30% of russia's gasoline consumption and provides aviation and diesel fuel to the army and the moscow region. The Tuapse oil refinery was struck on April 16, 20, and 28 — the month's most frequently targeted facility. During the first strike, the AVT-12 crude distillation unit and RVS-10000 storage tanks were damaged, resulting in a fire. Following the second strike, 24 storage tanks were confirmed destroyed and 4 damaged. Following the third strike, a fire broke out again. The refinery has a capacity of 12 million tons per year, accounting for 4.4% of russia's total refining capacity. The refinery produces a wide range of Euro 5-standard petroleum products, including fuel supplied to the army. The Defence Forces of Ukraine struck the Novokuibyshevsk refinery at a range of approximately 1,000 km. At this strategic facility, with a capacity of 8.8 million tons per year, explosions were reported, followed by a fire. The refinery produces more than 20 types of petroleum products and covers a significant share of the army's requirements. Details of the strike are being clarified. The Syzran oil refinery was struck as part of a coordinated large-scale attack. A fire was reported at the facility. This refinery is directly involved in supporting russia's armed forces. A fire was reported at the facility following the strike. A vacuum distillation unit was confirmed damaged. The refinery is one of the key facilities in russia's oil sector, with a capacity of 15 million tons per year. It produces gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, all essential to military logistics. A fire broke out at the Orsknefteorgsintez refinery following the strike. The refinery has a capacity of 6.6 million tons per year and produces more than 30 types of petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel. It is directly involved in supplying the occupying army. The strike on the LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez refinery was conducted using drones operated by the SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center. The AVT-4 crude distillation unit was damaged — a key component of crude oil processing. The vacuum and atmospheric distillation columns caught fire, effectively putting the unit out of operation. The Perm line production dispatch station, which supplies crude oil to the same refinery, was also struck again. The refinery, with a capacity of 13 million tons per year, is one of the largest in russia and supplies fuel to both the civilian sector and the army. Key russian oil hubs came under attack — facilities that generate export revenues for the aggressor state's budget and directly meet the needs of the occupying forces. Strikes were conducted against the following port terminals and transport infrastructure: Furthermore, oil depots in Feodosia and Hvardiiske, along with oil pumping stations in Crimea and Krasnodar Krai, were targeted as components of the tactical fuel supply system supporting russian forces. On April 10, the Defence Forces of Ukraine conducted their first strike against offshore oil infrastructure. The ice-resistant fixed platforms LSP-2 at the Grayfer Field and LSP-1 at the Yuri Korchagin field were damaged. The facilities are located approximately 1,000 kilometers from the front line. On April 29, a Ukrainian Navy unit struck the sanctioned vessel MARQUISE in the Black Sea, 210 kilometers from Tuapse. Two kamikaze unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) struck the stern, near the propeller and rudder assembly and the engine room. The tanker, with a cargo capacity of more than 37,000 tons and registered under the flag of Cameroon, is subject to sanctions imposed by Ukraine, the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada, and was used for the illegal transportation of petroleum products as part of the shadow fleet. In April, the Defence Forces of Ukraine struck two industrial facilities on the territory of the aggressor state. The facility was struck on April 1. The plant produces components for cruise missiles and has executed over 120 state contracts for russia's military-industrial complex. It is subject to Ukrainian sanctions. On April 19, a unit of the Ukrainian Navy executed a precision strike using Neptune missiles against a production facility of Atlant Aero. The plant carries out the full cycle of design, manufacturing, and testing of Molniya strike-reconnaissance UAVs. Also, it produces components for the Orion UAV — a multi-purpose drone weighing around one ton, capable of carrying up to 250 kg of payload, including KAB-20 guided aerial bombs and Kh-50 missiles. April was marked by the consistent neutralization of russian Black Sea Fleet vessels in Sevastopol and the Kerch Strait. On April 19, a unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence — Prymary — disabled two large landing ships in Sevastopol Bay. The large landing ships Yamal (Project 775, built in 1988, cargo capacity 500 tons, estimated value over $80 million) and Nikolay Filchenkov (Project 1171, built in 1975, cargo capacity 1,000 tons, value over $70 million) are critical assets enabling amphibious landings and sustainment of russian forces in Crimea. Both vessels were put out of action. Total losses exceed $150 million. Follow-on strikes against the same vessels were carried out on April 20 and 26 by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On April 5, two strike UAVs hit a Project 11356R Burevestnik-class frigate — a Kalibr cruise missile carrier. The extent of the damage is being assessed. On April 26, as part of Operation Alpha, the Security Service of Ukraine simultaneously struck an intelligence collection ship, a Black Sea Fleet training center, and a signals intelligence (SIGINT) headquarters of the air defense forces. A MiG-31 at Belbek airfield (a potential carrier of the hypersonic Kinzhal missile) was also struck, along with the airfield's maintenance and engineering facilities. On April 22, damage to the bridge of an FSB Border Service vessel in Sevastopol was confirmed. On April 30, a unit of the Ukrainian Navy destroyed an FSB Sobol-class patrol boat and a Grachonok-class anti-saboteur boat in the Kerch Strait area. The enemy sustained both killed and wounded personnel. Both boats were guarding the Kerch Bridge and performing anti-sabotage tasks. On April 25, at Shagol airfield in Chelyabinsk Oblast, russia, the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck two Su-57 fighters, one Su-34 fighter-bomber, and one additional aircraft of unknown type. This was one of the longest-range Ukrainian deep strike operations — the targets were located approximately 1,700 km from the state border of Ukraine. Moreover, the Urals have long been regarded as a deep and secure rear area of russia. Ukraine has debunked this myth. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Defence Forces of Ukrainehave expanded the range of deep strike operations into russia's deep rear by more than 2.5 times.

Al via i lavori da 1,2 miliardi per il nuovo hub logistico multimodale del Maryland Annapolis – Nel contesto del rafforzamento delle infrastrutture portuali statunitensi, nuovi progetti mirano a migliorare capacità, intermodalità e competitività delle catene logistiche. In questa direzione si inserisce lo sviluppo del nuovo terminal di Sparrows Point Container Terminal. Il 1° maggio Tradepoint Atlantic e Terminal Investment Limited (Til del gruppo Msc) hanno avviato i lavori per la realizzazione del terminal, che si estenderà su 68 ettari e includerà un nodo ferroviario. Il progetto, finanziato con circa 1,2 miliardi di dollari privati, prevede una capacità annua superiore a 1 milione di teu e la possibilità di gestire contemporaneamente due navi di grandi dimensioni. L’iniziativa è stata supportata anche dal United States Department of Transportation e dalla Maritime Administration (Marad), attraverso un contributo di quasi 40 milioni di dollari. Il progetto si inserisce nella riqualificazione dell’area industriale avviata nel 2018, trasformando un ex sito siderurgico in un hub logistico multimodale. Un ruolo centrale sarà svolto da Msc (Mediterranean Shipping Company) di Gianluigi Aponte, principale azionista di Til, che grazie alla propria rete globale potrà convogliare maggiori volumi di traffico verso il Midwest, migliorando l’accesso ai mercati per importatori ed esportatori. Il terminal includerà una banchina di oltre 900 metri, piazzali container, strutture intermodali e collegamenti ferroviari diretti, oltre a interventi infrastrutturali sul canale di accesso per adeguarne la profondità. Dal punto di vista ambientale, il progetto prevede l’elettrificazione di gran parte delle attrezzature e l’introduzione dell’alimentazione elettrica da terra per le navi, riducendo emissioni e impatto acustico. Sparrows Point rappresenta uno dei più rilevanti investimenti privati nel settore portuale statunitense, orientato a rafforzare capacità, efficienza e sostenibilità della logistica sulla costa orientale.

La negoziazione fra vettori marittimi e spedizionieri beneficia di una stabilizzazione delle catene logistiche e delle vie alternative anche verso il Golfo Persico “L’impatto del conflitto in Medio Oriente sta rendendo la vita sempre più complicata per gli spedizionieri perché, mentre cercano di far fronte alle interruzioni della catena di approvvigionamento e all’aumento delle tariffe spot per i trasporti marittimi dei commerci globali, devono giocare d’astuzia quando partecipano alle gare d’appalto per nuovi contratti a lungo termine, altrimenti rischiano di perdere potenziali guadagni”. La riflessione è firmata Peter Sand, analista di Xeneta, nell’ultimo report sull’andamento dei noli per le spedizioni merci via mare. Sand sottolinea che “le catene di approvvigionamento che i vettori marittimi hanno creato per far fronte alle interruzioni in Medio Oriente, reindirizzando i percorsi attraverso corridoi terrestri, porti alternativi e nuove reti di servizi, ora funzionano con sufficiente regolarità da far sì che le tariffe spot inizino a riflettere un contesto operativo più stabile, seppur ancora elevato”. Le tariffe per i trasporti dall’Estremo Oriente alla costa occidentale degli Stati Uniti sono rimaste sostanzialmente invariate a 2.864 dollari per Feu (container da 40 piedi), pur rimanendo superiori del 52% rispetto ai livelli pre-crisi di fine febbraio. Per quanto riguarda la costa orientale degli Stati Uniti, le tariffe spot sono ancora in aumento del 46% rispetto al periodo pre-crisi, attestandosi a 3.873 dollari per Feu. Queste tariffe hanno raggiunto un livello elevato, sostenuto dalla continua congestione negli hub di trasbordo del sud-est asiatico e dalle ripercussioni dei tempi di transito più lunghi lungo tutto il network. “Le rotte verso l’Europa stanno rallentando in misura maggiore. La capacità verso il Nord Europa è aumentata del 7,6% rispetto a una settimana fa e questa combinazione di adattamento delle compagnie di navigazione su questi corridoi e il rallentamento stagionale della domanda nel secondo trimestre sta consentendo ai noli di scendere dai picchi in modo più significativo rispetto alle rotte verso gli Stati Uniti” spiegano da Xeneta. L’analisi prosegue dicendo: “Le tariffe spot dall’Estremo Oriente al Nord Europa sono diminuite del 10% rispetto a un mese fa, attestandosi a 2.528 dollari per Feu. Nello stesso periodo, le tariffe dall’Estremo Oriente al Mediterraneo sono diminuite del 15%, raggiungendo i 3.567 dollari per Feu”. Guardando al lungo termine le negoziazioni, nonostante le criticità imposte dal conflitto in Medio Oriente, continuano a basarsi sul confronto fra domanda e offerta di capacità di stiva. “I clienti di Xeneta che parteciperanno alle gare d’appalto (per trasporti marittimi, ndr) nel 2026 hanno segnalato, nella maggior parte dei casi, offerte inferiori alla media di mercato a lungo termine nella prima fase, nonostante noli spot elevati sulle principali rotte. Nella terza fase, questi spedizionieri si assicurano sconti ancora maggiori, poiché i vettori si contendono i volumi per i prossimi 12 mesi”. Secondo gli analisti “questo indica che il mercato a lungo termine è guidato dai fondamentali di domanda e offerta, piuttosto che dal sentimento di crisi che sostiene il mercato spot. I vettori marittimi hanno avviato le negoziazioni con prezzi ambiziosi, ma gli spedizionieri hanno giocato bene le loro carte reagendo efficacemente. Con i contratti in fase di finalizzazione per l’entrata in vigore a maggio e giugno, questo segnale indica che il mercato si aspetta che l’attuale livello di perturbazione sia temporaneo, anche se il mercato spot non ha ancora scontato tale aspettativa”. Dall’Estremo Oriente al Mediterraneo i noli marittimi si attestano attualmente in media sui 3.567 dollari per Feu e nell’ultimo mese sono calati del -15% (da 4.221 dollari per Feu). N.C. ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER QUOTIDIANA GRATUITA DI SHIPPING ITALY SHIPPING ITALY E’ ANCHE SU WHATSAPP: BASTA CLICCARE QUI PER ISCRIVERSI AL CANALE ED ESSERE SEMPRE AGGIORNATI

Dal 21 al 23 maggio il porto diventa spazio di confronto tra istituzioni, imprese e cittadini Bologna – La nuova centralità geopolitica del Mediterraneo, il ruolo dei porti nella sicurezza nazionale ed europea, l’integrazione tra infrastrutture, logistica e sistema produttivo, la transizione energetica, l’innovazione tecnologica, l’intelligenza artificiale applicata alle infrastrutture, il rapporto tra porti, città e territori, il turismo crocieristico e le nuove competenze del lavoro portuale. Sono solo alcuni dei temi che verranno affrontati e discussi da istituzioni, esperti, professionisti e associazioni di categoria in occasione di “Deportibus – Il Festival dei porti che collegano il mondo”, il primo evento internazionale interamente dedicato ai grandi temi della portualità, che ha scelto Ravenna per la sua seconda edizione e che si terrà, dal 21 al 23 maggio prossimi, nella città diventata da poco la prima Capitale italiana del Mare. Tutte le informazioni e il programma completo sono disponibili su deportibus.it. Deportibus – promosso dall’Adsp del Mare Adriatico centro-settentrionale in collaborazione con Regione Emilia-Romagna, Provincia di Ravenna, Comune di Ravenna e organizzato da Italian Blue Growth – sarà anche l’occasione di confronto sulla bozza del disegno di legge di riforma del sistema portuale. Al Festival se ne parlerà in una tavola rotonda dedicata con il Vice Ministro delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti Edoardo Rixi. L’ inaugurazione del Festival e il taglio del nastro si terranno giovedì 21 maggio a partire dalle ore 9.30 presso le Artificerie Almagià. Nell’arco delle tre giornate, il Festival ospiterà oltre 30 appuntamenti tra tavole rotonde, conferenze, interviste, incontri, momenti di co-working, spettacoli e presentazioni di libri, dedicati a questioni decisive per il futuro del settore. Per l’occasione, Ravenna, il suo porto e la Darsena, insieme ad alcuni dei luoghi più significativi della città, si trasformeranno in un laboratorio diffuso di idee, relazioni e visioni. Il programma si articolerà in due macro-aree tematiche. La prima, ‘Connessioni’, sarà dedicata al confronto tecnico, politico e istituzionale: uno spazio pensato per approfondire strategie, innovazione, portualità e sviluppo territoriale attraverso il contributo di esperti, amministratori, imprese e ricercatori. La seconda, ‘Impronte’, rappresenterà invece la dimensione più divulgativa e accessibile del Festival, con incontri, talk, visite guidate, dimostrazioni e performance pensati per raccontare a un pubblico ampio i temi del mare, dei porti, dell’ambiente, del lavoro e dell’innovazione. Tra i focus previsti, figurano anche i progetti energetici e ambientali legati al porto di Ravenna, la decarbonizzazione dei sistemi portuali, le politiche di destinazione per il traffico crocieristico, la sicurezza del Mediterraneo, l’intermodalità mare-terra e il contributo della logistica alla competitività del Made in Italy.

Ottenuto l’appoggio dei caricatori (che si sono mostrati disponibili a pagare un extra per godere di questa opportunità), Cma Cgm raddoppierà da questa settimana i transiti delle sue linee transoceaniche nel Mar Rosso, al posto della rotta per il Capo di Buona Speranza che ha preso piede negli ultimi anni dopo l’escalation degli attacchi degli Houthi. Lo riporta la testata britannica Loadstar. Nelle scorse ore L’Autorità del Canale di Suez ha anche celebrato il passaggio della nave Cma Cgm Grand Palais da quasi 24.000 Teu, la più grande portacontainer due fuel Lng al mondo. Nel dettaglio, a effettuare i viaggi passando da Suez saranno le navi impegnate sui collegamenti Ocr ed Epic del liner francese, il primo che mette in relazione Giappone e Cina meridionale con il Nord Europa, il secondo che unisce il subcontinente indiano alla stessa area. Altri due collegamenti Asia – Mediterraneo della compagnia marsigliese già erano tornati nei mesi scorsi a servirsi di questa via. Ocr, in particolare, nella nuova configurazione scalerà anche il porto saudita di Jeddah impiegando 84 giorni (anziché i precedenti 96), servendosi di navi con capacità di 8.400-10.000 Teu. Il primo transito sta vedendo impiegata la nave Cma Cgm Tosca, da 8.488 Teu di capacità, ora in direzione di Rotterdam. Ha inoltre già effettuato il passaggio (e si sta ora dirigendo verso Tanger Med) la Cma Cgm Gemini, da 11.388 Teu, impiegata sul servizio Epic, su cui però in direzione eastbound le navi continueranno a seguire la rotta per il Sudafrica. Nella versione originaria Epic toccava anche i porti di Abu Dhabi e Jebel Ali, negli Emirati, e Sohar, in Oman, ora rimossi. I potenziali vantaggi di iniziative simili potrebbero essere colti anche da altri operatori, spiegava Linerlytica: “Con i costi del bunker e i noli charter che restano elevati, i risparmi sui costi, insieme alle redditizie opportunità di carico nel Mar Rosso, potrebbero spingere alcuni dei suoi competitor a riconsiderare un ritorno anticipato nel Canale di Suez, preparando il terreno per una nuova guerra dei noli.” Il Mar Rosso sta inoltre attirando l’attenzione di China United Lines, che recentemente si è alleata con l’operatore connazionale Zhonggu Logistics allo scopo di rafforzare il servizio China Express di quest’ultimo. Lanciato nel 2025 con tre navi e una frequenza irregolare, il collegamento da questo mese di maggio assumerà frequenza settimanale toccando nell’ordine i porti di Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Jeddah, Aqaba, Sokhna, Shanghai nell’arco di 56 giorni, impiegando navi tra i 1.700 e i 2.500 Teu di capacità. Cu Lines si unirà inserendo nella rotazione la sua nave Zhong Ghu Zhu Hai da 2.518 Teu. L’espansione di CuLines nell’area è direttamente collegata al progressivo abbandono della stessa da parte di Sea Lead, dato che la compagnia cinese è subentrata in alcuni dei contratti di noleggio nave che erano stati siglati da questa. Sulla compagnia container singaporiana si è recentemente abbattuta la scure del governo statunitense, che l’ha accusata di operare al servizio logistico di un network di distribuzione illecita di petrolio iraniano. In particolare l’Ofac (Office of Foreign Assets Control) aveva inserito nella sua lista di entità sanzionate 16 portacontainer che erano state noleggiate da Sea Lead, cosa che ha spinto i partner verso l’interruzione i contratti, portandola inoltre alla chiusura di diversi uffici esteri. ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER QUOTIDIANA GRATUITA DI SHIPPING ITALY SHIPPING ITALY E’ ANCHE SU WHATSAPP: BASTA CLICCARE QUI PER ISCRIVERSI AL CANALE ED ESSERE SEMPRE AGGIORNATI

Il nuovo terminal per crociere fluviali, in realizzazione a Chioggia, non piace a Vtp, Venezia Terminal Passeggeri, titolare della gestione dei servizi ai passeggeri (marittimi) negli scali dell’Autorità di sistema portuale del Mar Adriatico Settentrionale. La preoccupazione per l’interferenza – apparentemente per quella fisica, anche se, considerate le circostanze, potrebbe trattarsi di un ‘fastidio’ di natura commerciale – emerge da un contenzioso avviato al Tar del Veneto dal terminalista contro il diniego dell’Adsp a fornirgli gli atti che hanno portato al rilascio, nell’ottobre scorso, dell’autorizzazione a Sviluppo Laguna a realizzare le infrastrutture per cui aveva fatto domanda. Come raccontato da SHIPPING ITALY, la joint venture fra le agenzie marittime Bassani e Iss Tositti vuole realizzare un terminal per navi fluviali presso il Molo Testata Sud dell’Isola dei Saloni, nel Porto di Chioggia. L’ok è arrivato dall’Adsp a valle di un’istruttoria e una conferenza dei servizi, imperniato sulle valutazioni della Direzione Tecnica dell’ente e in particolare sulla prescrizione di non precludere l’accesso al Molo gestito da Vtp e di non incidere sui relativi flussi di passeggeri. L’ente ha opposto diniego al rilascio degli atti, sostenendo che “Vtp sarebbe affidataria del servizio di gestione della stazione marittima limitatamente al Porto di Venezia e che lo svolgimento di attività presso Chioggia sarebbe circoscritto ad un unico ormeggio temporaneo; che il terminal fluviale di Sviluppo Laguna non inciderebbe sull’equilibrio economico-finanziario né sull’operatività del Terminal Vtp; che la fase concorsuale del procedimento demaniale si sarebbe esaurita (…) senza presentazione di domande concorrenti da parte di Vtp; che sarebbe indimostrato il nesso di strumentalità tra i documenti richiesti e la situazione giuridica da tutelare”. Inoltre “Vtp intenderebbe verificare documenti futuri o attività di controllo non ancora svolte”. Il Tar ha però rigettato tutti questi argomenti, riconoscendo il diritto di Vtp all’ostensione dei documenti “per verificare il contenuto delle prescrizioni tecniche, l’istruttoria sottesa alla determinazione conclusiva e la concreta idoneità delle opere assentite a non pregiudicare l’accesso al Terminal Vtp e i flussi dell’utenza”. A.M. ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER QUOTIDIANA GRATUITA DI SHIPPING ITALY SHIPPING ITALY E’ ANCHE SU WHATSAPP: BASTA CLICCARE QUI PER ISCRIVERSI AL CANALE ED ESSERE SEMPRE AGGIORNATI

Due mesi dopo il varo della prima unità della serie, una nuova nave cisterna methanol ready della Fratelli Cosulich ha toccato l’acqua. Più precisamente si tratta Lucia Cosulich, secondo passo concreto nel percorso della unit marine energy del gruppo genovese verso combustibili marini alternativi e soluzioni di bunkering più sostenibili. La cerimonia si è svolta presso il cantiere Taizhou Maple Leaf Shipyard in Cina, riunendo team di progetto, partner e stakeholder per celebrare il passaggio della nave dal cantiere al mare. Era presente al varo anche Lucia Cosulich, madrina della nave, che nel proprio discorso ha espresso il proprio ringraziamento a tutte le persone coinvolte, sottolineando il valore della collaborazione che ha reso possibile questo progetto, a supporto del percorso dell’industria verso il net zero. Con il tradizionale taglio del nastro, Lucia Cosulich è stata ufficialmente varata ed è entrata nelle fasi finali di allestimento che precedono il completamento e la consegna. Seconda di quattro unità gemelle methanol-ready Imo II, Lucia Cosulich fa parte della più ampia strategia di F.lli Cosulich volta a costruire una flotta capace di rispondere sia alle esigenze attuali sia a quelle emergenti legate al trasporto e alla fornitura di combustibili navali. Una nota dell’azienda spiega che, grazie a caratteristiche progettuali chiave, tra cui il rivestimento delle cisterne cargo in epossifenolico e sistemi predisposti per la futura integrazione di nuovi combustibili, Lucia Cosulich è stata costruita per rispondere all’evoluzione delle esigenze operative e normative, mantenendo elevati standard di sicurezza e prestazioni. ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER QUOTIDIANA GRATUITA DI SHIPPING ITALY SHIPPING ITALY E’ ANCHE SU WHATSAPP: BASTA CLICCARE QUI PER ISCRIVERSI AL CANALE ED ESSERE SEMPRE AGGIORNATI

La prima partenza è prevista il 10 maggio dal porto di Anversa Ginevra – Msc rafforza la propria rete globale con il lancio del nuovo servizio Europe–Red Sea–Middle East Express, un collegamento che unisce Nord e Sud Europa con Arabia Saudita e Giordania, integrando soluzioni marittime e terrestri. La prima partenza è prevista il 10 maggio dal porto di Anversa. La rotazione eastbound toccherà Gdansk, Klaipeda, Bremerhaven, quindi nuovamente Anversa, per proseguire verso Valencia, Barcelona e Gioia Tauro, fino agli scali del Mar Rosso e del Medio Oriente: Abu Kir, King Abdullah, Jeddah e Aqaba. Il servizio nasce per rispondere alla crescente domanda in uno scenario definito “sfidante” per il Medio Oriente, introducendo un modello operativo che sposta i flussi destinati al Golfo su gateway nel Mar Rosso. I container vengono sbarcati nei porti sauditi ed egiziani e successivamente trasportati via terra attraverso l’Arabia Saudita, sfruttando il cosiddetto land bridge, per poi essere inoltrati verso i mercati del Golfo tramite servizi feeder.

Cor 4 maggio 2026 Boatness Alghero protagonista a Porto Rotondo Boatness, l’azienda dei fratelli Gianfranco e Davide Falchi con sede ad Alghero, sarà tra i protagonisti della quinta edizione della Fiera Nautica di Sardegna, in programma dal 7 al 10 maggio 2026 al Marina di Porto Rotondo PORTO ROTONDO - La manifestazione si prepara a ospitare quattro giornate dedicate all’industria nautica, con esposizioni, momenti di approfondimento e confronto sui temi dello sviluppo, dell’innovazione e della sostenibilità. In questo contesto, la partecipazione di Boatness rappresenta un segnale significativo della vitalità imprenditoriale del territorio e della capacità di alcune realtà locali di affermarsi su scala regionale e non solo. Per l’edizione 2026, i fratelli Falchi porteranno in esposizione una selezione di modelli del marchio Beneteau, tra cui l’Antares 11 OB, l’Antares 9 V1, il Flyer 9 Spacedeck e il Flyer 7 Spacedeck, imbarcazioni che coprono diverse tipologie di utilizzo, dalla crociera al diporto più dinamico. Accanto alle barche, spazio anche alle soluzioni di motorizzazione Mercury Marine, marchio di cui l’azienda algherese è rivenditore autorizzato. Presenza ormai consolidata alla Fiera, Boatness arriva all’edizione 2026 in una fase di ulteriore crescita. Nell’ultimo anno, infatti, l’azienda ha ampliato il proprio raggio d’azione con l’ingresso del marchio Wellcraft per la Sardegna e con l’apertura al segmento delle barche a vela e dei catamarani. Un’evoluzione che testimonia come il settore nautico sia in continua espansione, in cui le aziende sono chiamate a innovare per rispondere a una domanda sempre più articolata. La presenza a Porto Rotondo sarà dunque non solo un’occasione espositiva, ma anche un momento di confronto con clienti, operatori, istituzioni e pubblico, all’interno di una manifestazione che ha ormai consolidato il proprio ruolo strategico per il futuro della nautica in Sardegna.