Reinventare un paesaggio. La riqualificazione degli spazi fluviali come strategia per un progetto locale

The thesis is developed from an analysis of how the territorial systems can revitalize their economy and development through the instrument of strategic planning and territorial governance concerning the landscape. In particular it will be considered situations in which the strategic tools of economic, social and cultural redevelopment involving the city – river system. It will be studied the dynamics, evaluated the policies and the processes to understand the outcomes and to work out a local development strategy with an application on a real case study: the Alto Ferrarese. The local development strategy will be based on the assumption of the landscape as a category for the urban and territorial planning and for the cultural, social and economic sustainable development, as defined from the European Community. It will be an approach to the landscape problems in a perspective of territorial development, aware of the cultural value of the transformation process, starting with: - the recognition of local identity values and their development; - the identification of the dynamics of the historical evolution of the landscape, considered as rules for the transformation, to placed as a foundation for future development strategies; - the involvement of all stakeholders, first of all the population , and of all disciplinary fields necessary to the definition of the development strategy, in order to ensure an improved quality of life and of the environment; - the creation of a system of connections and collaborations between all the resources (environmental, social and economic) in order to enhance the overall territorial system. The theme of thesis, carried out into the Economics PhD ("Urban e territorial development” curriculum) arises from some reflections on the territory of Ferrara, paying special attention to its distinctive river system. The rivers, more than any other territorial element, play a fundamental role in the processes of urban and territorial development through relationships that encourage through: - linear connections, - cross-connections, - net connections. It is note the tendency in recent decades to promote green paths within the territory: greenways, greenstructure, green corridors and ecological networks etc. not only as a guarantee for the biodiversity, but also as a landscape structures able to regulare the tendency to an uncontrolled expansion of urban peripheries that led, among others, the phenomenon of the urban sprawl. The cities benefit from the river, which flowing along the territory connects spaces, situations, sometimes becoming the space for events, identifying itself with the structure of the territory. The waterways can in fact be understood as axles: - structuring axes: able to articulate and connect the territory; - development axes: getting in the planning processes and economic development dynamics, - discovery: encouraging a structured and sustainable land use. The rivers are the bearers of cultural and landscape values and opportunities for economic development. The transformation and regeneration dynamics organized on ecological networks structures, and then aimed at enhancing the environment, imply the need for a more sustainable use of the territory. The promotion of responsible tourism, aimed at the knowledge of the area and the rediscovery of the environment, becomes a central element of the development of the local economy, according to the idea of sustainable development of the landscape. The methodology of work is organized on three levels: a) critical reading and in-depth study of thematic literature to identify and define the basic aspects of the dynamics and strategy for development and territorial transformation in order to acquire a knowledge of the theoretical aspects and legislation on the subject; b) analytical reading of case studies. Each case study proposed coincides with an urban redevelopment project realized on a territorial system "city-water" c) development of a strategy for the Alto Ferrarese: after the analyses of the different context, and on the base of the results obtained, the objective is to define "guidelines" for a regeneration and redevelopment strategy through a process of territorial development and sustainable economic, for a specific territory : the Alto Ferrarese.