resilience and cultural landscapes

Current climatc, social and fnancial phenomena have triggered deep modifcatons in cultural landscapes, threatening their fragile territories and the communites that live in them. Nevertheless, they also represent a challenge to fnd a renewed link between forms of human actvity and the producton of landscape in order to understand its future evolutons. This paper deals with this feld of investgaton in the context of the Cinque Terre Natonal Park, in Italy, through scenario planning criteria with the goal of rethinking the heritagelisted system of traditonal terraced agriculture systems as an infrastructural element for a resilient territory. Startng from the Universal Soil Loss Equaton (USLE), it identfes the main territorial factors of uncertainty and accordingly suggests possible interventon categories on the wider scale of the so-called slope units, through 2x2 matrixes. Defning a resilient transformaton program for the environmental system of the Cinque Terre Natonal Park over a twenty-year tme frame means considering adaptability as a key aspect in diferent scenarios that might be generated in the near future.

Forest Area Changes in Cinque Terre National Park in the Last 80 Years. Consequences on Landslides and Forest Fire Risks

Cinque Terre, one of the most important Italian cultural landscapes, has not been spared from depopulation and agricultural abandonment processes, that involved many rural areas in Europe, as a consequence of socio-economic transformations that occurred after WWII. Depopulation of rural areas, especially in mountains or in terraced areas, caused significant environmental consequences, such as the decrease of biodiversity, the landscape homogenization, the increase of hydrogeological and forest fires risks. Cinque Terre National Park (5TNP) was established in 1999, and, differently from other Italian National Parks, not just for protecting natural habitats, but mainly to preserve, restore and valorize the historical terraced landscape. Moreover, the area is a UNESCO cultural landscape site and it is partly protected by three Sites of Community Importance. The research intended to investigate the transformations that have affected forested areas inside the 5TNP in the period 1936–2018, also highlighting the connections with hydrogeological and forest fires risks, as a support for the Park planning strategies and the conservation of the UNESCO site. Results highlighted that 37% of the current forests are the consequence of dry stones terraces abandonment that occurred in the twentieth century, with negative effects on the stability of steep slopes, hydrogeological risk, forest fires and on the conservation of a unique cultural landscape. This confirms the current national trend showing no deforestation occurring, but rather a continuous increase of forests on abandoned land. While 5TNP policies and actions are effectively aimed at pursuing an equilibrium between cultivated areas and forests, the Sites of Community Importance located inside the Park mainly focuses on the conservation of “natural habitats”, even if the current vegetation is also the result of secondary successions on former cultivated land. The research highlighted the need to valorize “cultural values” in forest planning as well as the importance of forest history for an accurate planning of forest resources in protected areas.

Geo-environmental analysis of terraced slopes and dry-stone walls in Can Grau area (Garraf Park, Catalunya, Spain): preliminary results from the Stonewalls4life project.

<p>Stonewalls4life is an E.U. Life project started in the second half of 2019 involving many subjects, both public bodies and privates, in a multidisciplinary working group. The main objective of the project is to demonstrate how an ancient technology for land use, drystone walling, can be effectively considered to improve the resilience of the territory to climate change by adopting a socially and technically innovative approach.</p><p>The project actions are being performed at Manarola, within the Cinque Terre National Park (eastern Liguria, north-western Italy). The pilot site is a narrow strip of land close to the seaside and characterized by small valleys with steep terraced slopes. This anthropogenic landscape represents a high-value peculiarity attracting more than three million tourists every year.</p><p>Three replication sites were identified in order to demonstrate the transferability and replicability of the project actions: two are located within the Cinque Terre Natural Park territory and one is in the Can Grau area (Garraf Park, Catalunya, Spain).</p><p>The Spanish site is currently under evaluation. An extensive geological, geomorphological, and land-use-land-cover (LULC) analysis is now being carried out in the Can Grau area to define its environmental features, especially concerning geological aspects and land use, and focusing on terraced areas and their state of conservation. This study aims to identify a specific suitable site for the replication of the project actions that will be carried out in Manarola, namely for dry-stone walls recovery, and is based on a multitemporal analysis of aerial images performed in a GIS environment and a wide collection and review of bibliographic data.</p><p>This contribution illustrates the preliminary results of the Can Grau area analysis, focusing in particular on the distribution of terraced areas and the variation of LULC from the 1950s to the present day. From this study emerges a progressive abandonment of terraced areas used for cultivation, although, according to historical sources, this process mostly occurred after the phylloxera appeared in the late 19th century, seriously affecting the most important agricultural activity in the Garraf, namely the viticulture.</p><p>The outcomes from this study will be useful in terms of both Stonewalls4life project implementation and overall land management, particularly aiming to restore a man-made geomorphological heritage and mitigate geo-hydrological risk.</p>

Landscape Perception and Public Participation for the Conservation and Valorization of Cultural Landscapes: The Case of the Cinque Terre and Porto Venere UNESCO Site

Europe retains a great variety of cultural landscapes that constitute a significant part of the European cultural heritage. In the last decades, these high-quality landscapes are facing several challenges due to socio-economic transformations that often compromise their integrity. This situation is even worse for terraced landscapes, as in the case of the Porto Venere and Cinque Terre UNESCO World Heritage List site. The Management Plan developed for this area needs to deal with different issues: abandonment of terraced cultivations and growth of secondary forests, hydrogeological risk and high touristic pressure. Public participation is increasingly important in the process of decision-making, for incorporating the ideas and the needs of the local communities, helping to find effective solutions for the valorization of historic landscapes and for improving the quality of life. This research has investigated the perception of the local community regarding the current landscape dynamics and other critical issues studying the opinions of two social groups: farmers and residents. The purpose was to identify the best management strategies for the Management Plan and to actively involve the population in the decisions. The involvement of the local community turned out to be a very effective tool for the development of the Management Plan, suggesting a focus on the conservation of dry-stone terraces and the reduction of reforestation processes, as the strongest perceived threat is the abandonment of cultivated terraces and the resulting risk of landslides. The methodology applied in this study can be reproduced in other cultural landscapes characterized by high quality, complexity and fragility, while an active involvement of the population turned out to be important also for increasing the feeling that institutions take care of its issues.

Application of Bioengineering Techniques as Geo-Hydrological Risk Mitigation Measures in a Highly Valuable Cultural Landscape: Experiences from the Cinque Terre National Park (Italy)

In this work, experiences from the use of bioengineering techniques as geo-hydrological risk mitigation measures within the territory of Cinque Terre National Park (Eastern Liguria, Italy) after an extreme rainfall event that occurred on 25 October 2011 are described. This rainstorm was responsible for intense erosive processes and triggered numerous shallow landslides, causing severe structural and economic damage. After this disastrous event, many bioengineering interventions were planned to stabilize the most unstable slopes and the most problematic streams. Based on multidisciplinary studies and field surveys, an inventory of the executed bioengineering works was compiled. Subsequently, on the basis of expert judgement, both the efficiency and effectiveness of the works three years after their construction were examined. Furthermore, the compliance of the executed works with the design requirements was analysed. This study revealed that some of the investigated works lack post-intervention maintenance and require the adoption of remedial measures aimed at improving the biotechnical functions of live materials, which are often ineffective. This case study highlights the importance of technical aspects that should be considered during the design phase of bioengineering works, especially when implemented within protected areas. Specifically, it would be greatly helpful to define instructions for post-intervention maintenance and monitoring and to perform vegetational studies. Considering the great cultural and natural heritage of the study area, the obtained results are expected to provide useful information for the definition of guidelines for the best practices to be adopted when future bioengineering works are planned for geo-hydrological risk management purposes.

Cinque Terre, Italy - a case of place branding: from opportunity to problem for tourism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is the development of the Cinque Terre, a rural and marginal area until the 1960s, to a famous tourism destination and eventually to a place brand that is attracting tourists worldwide. Since the growth of this small area which winds between the see and the mountain has happened in only 50 years, the place has not been able to prevent the tourism crowd, hence, what was a great tourism opportunity has gradually transformed into a problem. The paper explores how this has happened and the initiatives that have been put in place to manage overtourism. Design/methodology/approach The case history was examined using economic statistics and territorial marketing methodology, as well as the evolution of the social and economic context. The approach aims to provide a new development perspective with respect to the evolution of the past (past 50 years). Findings The great development of Cinque Terre as international tourism destination has created a lot of economic benefits to the local economy but, at the same time, has revealed the other side of the coin. Cinque Terre has reached such a saturation level that risks the transformation of its heritage. Once a rural and shy area between sea and mountain, it has become a mass destination with too many visitors. Actions are under consideration not only to simply cool down tourism flows but also to re-address them, to educate tourism organizations to manage tourism in alternative ways and to better appreciate the beauty of the place. Originality/value Over-crowding in tourism, or over-tourism, is a new phenomenon caused by the increased flow of tourists worldwide and by their augmented concentration in locations that are not ready or able to host large numbers of visitors. Cinque Terre represents a topical situation in this respect.

STONEWALLS4LIFE - using Dry-Stone Walls as a Multi-purpose Climate Change Adaptation tool: preliminary results in terms of geological and geomorphological quantitative analysis.

<p>Due to its rugged morphology and a general lack of flat areas suitable for cultivation, Liguria region is widely characterized by slope terracing, carried out by its inhabitants for centuries. Slope terraces are usually retained by dry-stone walls; secondly, by retaining walls made of stones bounded by lime mortar or by grassy edges, in this case characterized by the absence of retaining structures.</p><p>The widespread abandonment of rural areas that occurred in the second half of the last century resulted in a diffuse lack of dry-stone walls maintenance, which is a fundamental activity in order to keep the function of dry-stone structures. Such aspect, together with an increasing occurrence of extreme hydro-meteorological events over the last years, accelerates the dry-stone walls decay and collapse, as well as the instability of single terraces and consequently of the whole terraced slope.</p><p>This is the case in which the Cinque Terre National Park (eastern Liguria, north-western Italy) is involved, a narrow strip of land close to the seaside and characterized by small valleys and terraced slopes showing high steepness values. This anthropogenic landscape represents a high-value peculiarity attracting more than three million tourists every year.</p><p>The main objective of the project is to demonstrate how an ancient technology, drystone walling, can be effectively used to improve the resilience of the territory to climate change by adopting a socially and technically innovative approach. Stonewalls4life started in the second half of 2019 involving many subjects, both public bodies and privates, in a multidisciplinary workgroup.</p><p>More into details, it will be demonstrated on a specific site measuring 6 hectares (Manarola, Cinque Terre) the climate change adaptation effectiveness of the approach by restoring abandoned drystone terraces, making them more resilient with innovative techniques; at the same time, three additional sites were identified in order to test the approach under different circumstances (two within the same territory, one in Catalonia – Parc del Garraf – with dissimilar conditions). Furthermore, from a scientific point of view, the project will allow to carry out a quantitative and objective assessment of the dry-stone walls effectiveness against extreme rainfall events, through the installation of several multiparameter stations that will record in continuous a set of geo-hydrological parameters associated to walls.</p><p>An extensive and detailed geological and geomorphological survey activity along with GIS analysis and bibliographical research has been carried out in order to create a geological-structural model of the aforementioned site and to identify its geomorphological features. Moreover, an accurate mapping and analysis of dry-stone walls has been performed employing an innovative approach developed in the frame of the project and based on field-surveyed and remotely-sensed data.</p><p>The outcomes represent a solid base for the implementation of the future phases of the project, in particular to understand the relationship among the geological, geomorphological and anthropic features of the area with the terraced-slopes stability in order to develop an accurate management plan concerning the dry-stone walls recovery activity.</p>