Abstract
In the river contract process, an ever more widespread participatory policy in Europe, the first step never enough considered is the construction of an appropriate knowledge and a streamlined planning process. The main challenge to face is the collection of multidisciplinary requirements coming from the different domains that can contribute to the analysis of the river basin, thus overcoming shortfalls and problems that can arise in the process and stimulating change management scenarios. In this complex setting, the planner’s perspective seems to be the most appropriate to call sciences to offer their contributions for the aims of the program because they must fit in a multi-actorial decision process aimed to pragmatic actions. According to this perspective, some other questions are added to the consolidated knowledge on the river basin: from the study of the hydrographic network and reports on soil quality to the analysis of urban and social systems, a focus on connections and interactions, and a study on economic activities. This knowledge comes from heterogeneous sources, such as information officially produced by government bodies, found in the scientific literature, or resulting from oral stories and interviews.
From the sharing of this framework by public and private actors, the river contract starts and develops with an action plan that participants commit to carry out signing an agreement. With exercises in a wide list of cases, many recovery potentials are identified and strategic redevelopment paths indicated.
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Notes
- 1.
In particular, examples come from the third studio on “The Regional and Landscape Plan ,” instructor: Francesco Domenico Moccia, Fall semester 2013 and 2014, Urban Landscape and Environmental Planning Program, and several master thesis on the same themes, together with the course “The image of river landscapes. Survey on the management of riverfront territories,” instructor: Gilda Berruti, Fall semester 2014. Examples concern: Sarno River and its tributaries Cavaiola and Solofrana, Tanagro, Alento, Irno, Sebeto, Calore Irpino, and Sabato in the Campania region of Italy, Tordino River in the Abruzzo region, Fibreno and Aniene Rivers in the Lazio region, a section of the Po River in the Emilia-Romagna region, Biferno and Basento Rivers in the Molise region, and Virginio stream in the Toscana region.
- 2.
In France, where the Contracts de rivière were experimented for the first time in the 1980s, the turning point between first-generation and second-generation river contracts, respectively, oriented to a sectorial management of the water course and an integrated one, is defined by the law n. 92 of January, 3, 1992 (Cfr. Bobbio and Saroglia 2008).
- 3.
Italy has eight river basin districts: Eastern Alps, Po Basin, Northern Apennines, Serchio, Middle Apennines, Southern Apennines, Sardinia, and Sicily.
- 4.
The National River Contract Table was born in 2007 as an Italian Agenda 21 working group, with the aim to consolidate a community able to exchange experiences and promote river contracts in Italy. Regions, provinces, towns, entrepreneurs, and organizations working to launch strategies to recover rivers, lakes and coasts with inclusive processes contribute to the table.
- 5.
The document dwells on the concept that river contracts do not constitute a new level of planning.
- 6.
The verb “to reclaim” comes from the Latin “reclamare” that means “to recover” and “to claim back.”
- 7.
On the effects of an action-oriented approach to research in order to orient community -based natural resource management , see Saija 2014.
- 8.
It is evident that issues are intertwining and not separate. The choice to distinguish them according to the predominance of one issue on the others is a rhetorical device.
- 9.
In this framework, an interesting example is given by some sections of the Sarno River in the Campania region of Italy, especially in the area bordering its delta and along the coast where the Conte di Sarno drainage channel is located.
- 10.
It is the case of the river contract of a section of the basin of the Po River in Emilia-Romagna that focuses on the ecological restoration of the quarry known as “Lanca dei Francesi,” in the town of Roccabianca (Parma).
- 11.
This strategy is adopted in the territory around Scafati in the Sarno plain and by the northern Tordino valley river contract.
- 12.
A simulation of river contract focuses on the restoration of the Toppolo district, in the territory of Solofra, where a tributary of the Sarno River called Solofrana flows, completely abandoned after the earthquake of 1980, when the tanneries that constituted the heart of the economic and social life of the town were delocalized in the industrial area downstream.
- 13.
For instance, from an archeological point of view, the Sarno river basin is very rich, both in the area of the springs and of the delta. It is the case of Longola prehistoric settlement (Albore Livadie et al. 2010), in the town of Poggiomarino where it is possible to experiment a not taken for granted vision between archeology and monument to the incomplete, as the works to realize a purification plant started in the area and then were blocked for the presence of archeological excavations. Also Pompeii – destination of composite pilgrimages directed to the ancient Roman city excavations (Maiuri 1975) and to the shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary – is not far from the Sarno River and constituted its fluvial port.
- 14.
On the relationship between resilience and resistance, the reference is Bernardo Secchi’s groundbreaking essay “The conditions are no longer the same,” in which he invites us to select simple relationships: “to separate what is, in the towns and in the territory, hard from what is soft and malleable in its properties, its physical asset, its functions, and in its relation with other objects and in its overall sense. […] Hard and soft are terms which describe not only physical properties and visual relations. […] Hard and malleable are terms close to negotiable not negotiable” (Secchi 1984, 12). On the potentials of the porous city, see also Secchi (2007), Secchi and Viganò (2012).
- 15.
A striking example in river contract simulations regards, in the Sarno river basin , the critical situation of via Ripuaria in Pompeii. Rainfalls cause heavy floods that make the road network useless, causing to Torre Annunziata and Castellammare di Stabia’s inhabitants to remain isolated. The strategy, founded on a sustainable water management approach, consists in delocalizing the road network adopting an alternative solution; modifying, widening, and naturalizing river banks; and transforming via Ripuaria in a greenway.
- 16.
Wetlands work as sponges, collecting water during floods and giving it back in periods of low water; they constitute also tanks for aquifers and ideal habitat to maintain biodiversity. For a guide to wetland design, cf. France 2003.
- 17.
In the example of the partially buried Molaro channel in the Sebeto plain, at the boundaries between the towns of Massa di Somma and Pollena Trocchia, in eastern Napoli, the proposal involves bringing the part of the channel that lies underneath via Veseri back to surface. Open spaces adjacent to the channel have been destined to receive part of the water as an infiltration basin. Then, new routes suitable for vehicle and bikes are designed.
- 18.
As far as the Tanagro River is concerned, which flows for a long section in mountain area, the main problem to face is accessibility: first of all mountains, then the Napoli-Reggio Calabria highway works as barriers to reach the river. Moreover, the area lacks a local road network close to the river, and no riverfront facilities are provided. In the case of the Fibreno river contract in the Liri Garigliano basin, the aim is to reclaim riverfront territories through a green corridor respecting natural resources and enhancing a responsible tourism. In the example of the Cavaiola, the objective is to trigger “slow intensities” underlining the “pool and riffle” structure of river corridors and exploiting their porosity.
- 19.
In the Alento spring area, historical centers are destined to become the door to the other towns of the plain. Improving tourism and economic development of adjacent territories is the main strategy of the contract of the Biferno River, in the Molise region, where actions to improve slow mobility combine with the organization of several sport activities, especially in the area of the Guardialfiera Lake.
- 20.
The survey aims to identify which is the public image, or maybe which are the public images, of an urban region. We are dealing with a different scale image compared to the classical image of the city. For a survey on community resilience also inspired by Lynch’s theories, see Palestino 2013.
- 21.
An interesting survey concerns the Calore Irpino River and its tributary Sabato in the section corresponding to the town of Benevento. The perceived images of the two rivers are fragmented. Rivers are perceived mainly as places of transit, to be crossed to reach the prearranged destination. Bridges are also the borders of the lived and described districts that can be read observing how the town is used. There is an emotional bond with the river and the idea of the river goes with a kind of fear caused by the belief that it can become dangerous.
- 22.
An example is given by the simulation on the Solofrana stream, in the Sarno river basin , that today is reduced to an artificial stream nourished by the drains coming from the surrounding industrial areas and towns. It is a “ghost river,” in part buried, that lost the character of vital element for the territory, so definitively destroying the relationship with the water and also compromising the control of the stream. The restoration of the Toppolo district in Solofra involves a return to a natural tanning system, able to reuse the dross of the process (biogas, biomasses, and organic fertilizers).
- 23.
- 24.
The Sarno River could be an interesting case in which to experiment a “narrating resilience ” approach, starting from local associations and groups that are small portions of a latent network that can be linked in a shared path toward a healthy development of the river. For a close examination of the results of the survey on the images of the Sarno River as hints for action, see Berruti (2016) and on resilient river landscapes Berruti (2014).
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Berruti, G., Moccia, F.D. (2016). Planning Knowledge and Process for Strategies of Participatory River Contracts. In: Ingaramo, R., Voghera, A. (eds) Topics and Methods for Urban and Landscape Design. Urban and Landscape Perspectives, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51535-9_6
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