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Will the COVID-19 pandemic interrupt the recent European urbanization trends – and if so – what is the magnitude of this sudden shock, and how deaths, births, and net migration contribute to this disruption? Until now, most discussions on the topic have circled either around the anecdotal evidence of city center decline, or contrarian speculations about residential inertia and the forthcoming business-as-usual. Bringing clarity to the uncertainty and confusion surrounding COVID-19, this paper seeks to detect overarching patterns in and the magnitude of its sudden shock to long-term urban trajectories, understood as a reversal of the pre-pandemic population development trend, across European cities in the early 2020s. It reveals that during the first year of COVID-19, population growth in European cities significantly slowed down to −0.3 % per annum, with 28 % of all European cities having experienced a U-turn from population growth to loss. Out-migration was the main driver of such rapid urban shrinkage, while excess mortality associated with COVID-19 has also contributed to population loss in several European city-regions; some, especially, smaller cities suffered from a significant drop in birth rates. Based on the factorial, hierarchical, and temporal dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis, the paper provides a plausible forecast about the future of Europe's post-coronavirus city. • Analyses sudden COVID-19-shock to long-term urban trajectories for European cities • For the first time detection of overarching patterns in and the magnitude of this shock • Population growth in European cities significantly slowed down in 2020. • 28 % of all cities experienced a U-turn in population trends from growth to loss. • Share of shrinking cities post-COVID-19 has reached 63 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 outbreak has mostly affected people in the second half of their lives, at risk of isolation and loneliness; in fact, the impact of the pandemic was even more severe for the well-being of the elderly. Such a recent event has to be framed within the challenge of the demographic increase of people aged 65 years or older, which is particularly relevant in the European context. This paper explores which gaps have to be filled up in order to make cities a suitable place for the elderly to live in, particularly after any emergence of dysfunction and fragility in health, employment, transportation and welfare systems due to the pandemic. We assess the relative contribution of each regressor to the explained variance, that may advise policy makers about which urban features are perceived to be the most relevant for the elderly, even before the pandemic, and must be implemented. Our results have several policy implications. The assessment should provide a contribution to European decision-making processes headed to improve the perception of age-friendliness in urban environments, implementing a paradigm for reference, given the great heterogeneity of features characterizing European cities. • It is important to understand suitability of urban environments for the elderly. • The analysis covers 83 cities in Europe and the perceptions of their citizens. • The age-friendly city environment was associated with an elder-friendly city. • The R-squared decomposition identifies the most relevant features of cities. • Our results contribute to improve policies for cities after Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the scientific debate on territorial competitiveness has gone through different phases due to the various events that have occurred such as uncontrolled urbanisation, globalisation and digitalisation. Initially linked to competition between companies and, subsequently, to the productivity of countries, today, competitiveness is played out between territories and, above all, between cities. For this reason, competitiveness has become a characteristic of the city and can therefore be considered multidimensional from a systemic perspective typical of urban studies. Researchers agree in defining it as the ability to attract investments, business, creativity, talents and visitors, which is possible by enhancing various urban dimensions. The review presented in this paper analyses the foremost definitions and paradigms, investigates quantitative approaches and identifies the main trends and research gaps concerning the topic of urban competitiveness, through a bibliometric analysis. We have selected almost 1600 documents published between 1967 and 2020 from the Scopus database and we have examined them using bibliometric tools such as VOSiewer and ScientoPy. The aim is to analyse the diachronic and geographical evolution of research, to define future development and directions. The result is that the approach to the research depends on a wide variety of factors, including the time of publication, the scientific framework, the models and, lastly, the region the study comes from. We found that the ability to cope with future challenges has gradually taken on an essential role in defining how competitive a city is on an international scale, especially following the 2008 global financial crisis and the more recent COVID-19 crisis. • Competitiveness is an attribute of metropolitan areas with rising concern to local scale. • Urban sustainability may favour competitiveness of urban areas. • China, the USA and Europe are the geographical units most focused on urban competitiveness. • The study of competitiveness presupposes a multidimensional and systemic approach. • The ability to face future challenges is becoming essential for urban competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]