Environmental Networks for Smart Territories - Urban Landscapes: Environmental Networks and Quality of Life - page 73

networks, recovering the overall biunivocal relationship that exists between
ecological and human systems [19]. This corresponds to an essential contact
that brings into play the role of nature in increasing the quality of urban life.
Examinations regarding the use of greenery as an element of landscape requal-
ification of urban and metropolitan areas have been developed starting from
the second half of the 20th century [20]. A group of scholars from Harvard
University in the USA, among them Charles Waldheim and Mohsen Mostafavi,
created the first plans for large interventions on linear systems that intersect,
interconnect, or limit portions of the urban city. This means greenbelts, green-
ways, parkways , and the recovery of maritime or river waterfronts.
The efforts that so many European cities, starting with London, are making
to rethink and focus on the idea of greenbelts in new perspectives of the retic-
ular city branching out into the territory, testify to the difficulty of identifying
new organizational logic capable of integrating open and closed spaces, urban
and rural landscapes, settlement and environmental dynamics 5 . In other cases,
the creation of urban parks redefines the system of relationships between the
parts. This is the case with the Ruhr Valley in Germany, where the recovery
of existing industrial structures has favored the formation of spaces for collec-
tive activities, improving the environmental quality of the ex-industrial area
and the entire surrounding urban area. In this new perspective, “natural” and
“artificial” tend to become virtually indistinguishable. “ Nature is no longer
conceived as the eternal background of human actions, but as fundamental
material for the project; no longer an opportunity for contemplation, but evo-
lutionary value that generates dialogue between project and context ” [21].
Several Italian experiences also deal with these questions 6 . The Corona
Verde project , extended to provide an organic proposal for the territorial
requalification of the Turin metropolitan area, was launched in 1997 by the
Piedmont Region 7 . The focus of this proposal was the improvement of places
and systems of open space, of landscape, and ecological quality that still char-
acterize the settlement context, through the creation of bicycle/pedestrian con-
nections and the precise arrangement of green areas on the urban borders. The
scheme, presented at the end of 2007, proposes an integrated strategy of reor-
ganization and requalification for the Turin area , which has two joint aims:
ecological rebalancing (with the active conservation of natural spaces and con-
5 In France, in 2012, with the “Grannelle II” law, the concept of “Trame verte et bleu” (TVB) was
introduced in urban planning (SCot and PLU) to halt the loss of biodiversity and to re-establish
the ecological continuity between natural environments and urban environments. The government
of The Netherlands, in 2004, adopted the National Spatial Strategy (Nota Riumte), which connects
national ecological policies to strategies for territorial development.
6 Some provincial Territorial Coordination Plans favor the discontinuity of the local settlement
system in order to ensure the functioning of the ecological network: Modena, Milan, Reggio
Emilia, Bologna, Rome.
7 A detailed presentation of the Corona Verde project can be found on the “For Landscape/Landscape
For” website (http://www.landscapefor.eu) edited by Paolo Castelnovi.