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Italian Terraced Landscapes: The Shapes and the Trends

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World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life

Part of the book series: Environmental History ((ENVHIS,volume 9))

Abstract

Since the 1980s, Italian terraced landscapes have become the object of scientific attention, with a significant increase in systematic studies only in the last twenty years. However, the state of knowledge is still fragmentary. The studies were initially concentrated in limited areas considered particularly significant from an environmental or historical point of view. Even today, a detailed, national map of terraced landscapes is still lacking. Starting from this “state of the art” formed by extremely differentiated knowledge levels, the project “Mapping Terraced Landscapes in Italy” (MAPTER) began, thanks to the collaboration of several research centers at the third Meeting of the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance (ITLA) (October 6–15, 2016). MAPTER collected and attempted to harmonize, for the first time, the available data on both local and regional scales, integrating them with further surveys for uncovered areas, to produce an initial estimate of national terraced systems. This contribution delineates, first, the project’s outcomes, presenting the initial data concerning the extent and geographical distribution of Italian terraced systems. The second part of the contribution includes observations on the new processes of returning to abandoned terraced lands. These observations have emerged from a survey (the Livingstones Project) promoted by the Italian Alpine Club, and they are used here to identify practices of a virtuous “third way” for managing rural mountain areas, far from marginality, abandonment, and productive intensification.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Nevertheless Agnoletti et al. (2015): 4572 estimate over 102,000 ha of terraced lands in Tuscany (about 4.5% of the regional surface), mostly occupied by olive trees.

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Acknowledgements

A heartfelt thanks goes to all the collaborators of the MAPTER project , of the Livingstones Project carried out by the “Terre Alte” Group of the Italian Alpine Club , and to the friends of the Italian section of the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance for their support and active collaboration in these years of ambitious goals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Mauro Varotto, Francesco Ferrarese & Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo

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  1. Mauro Varotto
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  2. Francesco Ferrarese
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  3. Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo
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Correspondence to Mauro Varotto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Mauro Varotto

  2. Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Luca Bonardi

  3. Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy

    Paolo Tarolli

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Varotto, M., Ferrarese, F., Pappalardo, S.E. (2019). Italian Terraced Landscapes: The Shapes and the Trends. In: Varotto, M., Bonardi, L., Tarolli, P. (eds) World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life. Environmental History, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96815-5_3

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