AESOP Annual Congresses

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/150

Every year, usually in July, AESOP holds its Annual Congress, hosted by one of member universities. Congresses are a wide platform of exchange in the fields of research, education and practice in planning. They usually run around 20 thematic tracks and host outstanding invited speakers.

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Open Access
Research on the Renewal Strategy of New and Old Intersection Communities in Metropolis Based on the Concept of Landscape Urbanism - Taking a Practice in Shanghai Tianlin Community as an Example
(AESOP, 2019) Hu, Shufen
With the development of the economy and the progress of society, people's demand for the quality of human habitat is increasingly urgent. However, the urban development strategy adopted by China's rapid urbanization process in the past few decades has brought problems such as high-rise buildings, dark corners, and lack of quality public spaces. Especially the new and old intersection communities have become the accumulation of problems in various periods. The Tianlin Community in Xuhui District, Shanghai is close to the inner ring road of the city, integrating a new community with high-rise buildings and a dilapidated old community. A large number of people and so rich elements such as iron orbits, hospitals, parks, slums, modern residential areas and so on, in stark contrast to the closed space, rare public activities and lack of vitality. Landscape urbanism uses landscape instead of architecture to become the basic medium in the new round of urban development. Practice has proved that landscape is the only model that has the ability to propose effective solutions to the rapid development of today's society and the problems of urban transformation from gradual adaptation and alternate evolution. This paper takes the landscape urbanism as the guiding ideology, regards the landscape as the most basic element determining the shape and experience of the city, In response to the problems of low spatial quality and lack of vitality caused by the isolation between functional zones and within functional zones in Shanghai Tianlin community, the community update strategy of connecting urban fabrics, integrating natural and engineering systems, creating synergy of shared spaces was proposed. Reorganizing the area through "landscape infrastructure", creating new urban Spaces that meet the needs of the people and finally re-establishing physical and social connections.
Open Access
Assessing the Transition From Traditional To Participatory Heritage Management In Turkey
(AESOP, 2019) Aydin, Gizem; Bleil De Souza; Clarice Cerutti, Federico
Turkey is in a unique geographical position with 18 nominated World Heritage Sites. Since 2005, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee requires a management system through participatory means to guarantee the protection of these sites. In this same year, Turkey enacted the associated legislation by proposing a new actor named site manager who has both local and professional knowledge with the main role of coordination of the site management system to ensure protection of the nominated property through participation. Public participation is therefore mandatory in the site management processes in Turkey. The aim of this research is to examine current site management practices in Turkey to understand how they address public participation inferring how the site manager scrutinises public participation during the development of the management plan. A combination of qualitative analyses is proposed to assess information contained in the documentation available for the development of management plans, including the management plans themselves. The focus is on understanding how knowledge from public participation is transferred, from focus group meetings to management plans, considering the actors, actions and outputs involved in the process. This case-based proof of concept provides a set of indicators to model public participation in site management processes to resolve the mistrust issues between authorities and communities and to gauge the level of knowledge transfer by the site manager.
Open Access
Transitions towards landscape- and heritage-centred local development strategies: A Multi-Level Perspective
(AESOP, 2019) Barbanente, Angela; Grassini, Laura
At the beginning of the new century, the European Landscape Convention (ELC) marked a paradigm shift in the conception of landscape, which is now conceived of as a common good and of crucial importance to people’s every day lives. A challenge is thus to find new approaches and tools to make the new concept translated into practice. The paper employs the Multi Level Perspective (MLP) to analyse transition pathways towards innovative forms of landscape management. In contrast with a linear conception of innovation, the use of this framework enables the authors to show nested and bidirectional dynamics of change across multiple levels and the interactions between different sectors/actors: governance and policy, professionals and public administration, grassroots organizations, citizens, market, industry. The paper focuses on the way new concepts and tools for landscape protection and improvement have been spread into planning practice in the Apulia region through the development of the new Territorial Landscape Plan (TLP). In the analysis, a particular attention is paid to the way innovative forms of management of landscape are actually mobilized, supported and given long-term perspectives, while resistance to change is lowered throughout the development and the implementation of the plan.
Open Access
Influence of Creative Activities on the Residents and Conservation of Culture, History and Landscape in Setouchi Islands, Japan
(AESOP, 2019) Asai, Yuka; Miyake, Saki; Abe, Hirokazu; Otsuka, Noriko
Due to worldwide changes in economic conditions and industrial infrastructures, many coastal industrial areas are now suffering from the outflows of industry and population. In recent years, efforts aimed at halting such declines and revitalizing those areas have often been led by cultural and artistic activities. One such effort is the “Setouchi Art Festival” on islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. On Inujima, one of them, the Inujima Seirensho Art Museum was built on the ruins of an old copper refinery as a tribute to the island’s industrial heritage. A number of other art projects were created on the island and old houses were renovated as part of the art festival. This paper aims to identify the influence of these creative activities on the island’s residents and learn how they reflect the conservation of culture, history, and the natural landscape of Inujima Island. To accomplish this, we conducted a field survey and interviews with local residents and learned that many of them feel positive about interacting with the young people who visit the art festival, including foreign tourists, while other local residents have developed a sense of separation from the old refinery since it was transformed into an art museum.
Open Access
Invisible projects: imagined nearness as a tool to explore long-term transitions of landscape/heritage. The case of the river Tiber in Rome
(AESOP, 2019) Avellini, Elisa
How to deal with landscapes (and heritage) whose transformation has only been imagined by built environment disciplines for more than a century? How can long-term transitions of landscapes/heritage be explored to better understand a territory? This paper focuses on invisible projects: imagined transformations that have been developed for the Tiber riverbanks, in the historic centre of the city of Rome. The “massive change” determined by the construction of the riverbanks, at the end of the Nineteenth century, is here taken as a starting point for a process of long-term transition for the landscape/heritage of the Tiber, in its relationship with Rome historic centre. Such a change has physically modified the perception of the river in the city, with the construction of two embankment walls along the river. Because of this change, planners and designers have had difficulties in rethinking a role for the Tiber riverbanks. This can be linked to a lack of effective analytical tools to address the (sometimes invisible) existing dynamics that occur in and towards the area. The concept of nearness will be introduced to investigate a number of narratives, representations and collective memories partaking on the construction of positions/points of view of who practices a place.
Open Access
The slow line as an opportunity to regenerate heritage in the fragile areas: the case of VENTO project
(AESOP, 2019) Dezio, Catherine; Giambruno, Maria Cristina; Oppio, Alessandra; Pileri, Paolo
The topic dealt with is the tangible and intangible widespread heritage located in the fragile areas of the northern Italy, crossed by the river Po. Here the idea of the line is defined through its thickness, that is the heritage that we want to discover and evaluate, and for which the line represents an opportunity to become a hinge, an anchor and a flywheel, in order to regenerate fragile territories. To undertake this investigation, we will use the VENTO cycle route as case study for applying this analytical approach. VENTO is a territorial project, designed by Politecnico di Milano and part of a network of paths on a national scale decided by the Italian Ministry, that uses a cycle route along the river Po as an opportunity to regenerate fragile areas from Venice to Turin. In this research VENTO proposes itself as an experimental laboratory which provides the possibility of reversing the work perspective on territory. This research, by identifying, mapping and trying to evaluate the heritage along VENTO, will investigate ontologically the relationship between fragility and heritage and how it can change according to this new perspective of the line.
Open Access
Towards a Historical Urban Landscape: Principles and approaches in recent built heritage and landscape regeneration projects in the Yorkshire region of England
(AESOP, 2019) Huang, Yong; Ren, Xiang
There is a recent shift in focus in the design preservation and transformation of the built heritage from building objects to historical urban landscape in the Yorkshire region of U.K. The paper will discuss the conservation policies, design regeneration principles, approaches, and socioeconomic impacts of two up-to-dated exemplar projects -- ‘Albert Works’ in Sheffield in 2017, and ‘Square Chapel’ in Halifax in 2017. The paper points to a more culturally and socially-sensitive way of architectural design involving built heritage and historical urban landscape, which works with the as-found conditions of historical fabric and monuments, strategic design branding, economic returns in preserving and transforming the built heritage and landscape in the Yorkshire.
Open Access
Emerging New Model of Urban Residential Historical Built-up Area Renewal in China：Five Practice of Urban Renewal in Shenzhen,Guangzhou and Shanghai
(AESOP, 2019) Jiayu, Long; Gang, Liu
China's urban development need to seek a new path, with the putting forward of inventory planning and the deepening understanding of heritage. In this context, a number of cities begin to explore new models of urban development based on the requirements of heritage protection and the demand of old district transformation. The problem is, are these new models balanced, harmonized and sustainable？ Shenzhen,Guangzhou and Shanghai are all in the transition after the rapid urban development. "Urban village" in Shenzhen is a kind of old residential area derive from village bypassed by urbanization due to high cost. "The historic and cultural blocks" in Guangzhou face the dilemma stem from the original demolition model. "Lilong house block" shaped up in modernization as a type of grouped residential buildings in Shanghai, facing the high-intensity use. These three kinds of residential historical built-up areas are in urgent need of a new round of urban renewal. Based on this background, Shuiwei village and Yutian village in Shenzhen, Yongqing Lane in Guangzhou, Chunyangli and Chengxingli in Shanghai, these five historic residential built-up areas renewal project , with the goal of heritage protection, livelihood improvement and urban development, take the new models with multi-subject participation, urban space restoration, construction retention, and new functions placement. However, its occurrence mechanism, participants, and results are different due to its own characteristics and local urban renewal laws. This paper analyzes the advantages and limitations of these five models by comparing the background, the characteristics of the objects, the target positioning, the mechanism of occurrence, the operation mode, the results and follow-up works. Then study its rationality and adaptability, hope to provide a basis for the exploration of the future renewal mode of better residential historical blocks.
Open Access
Umbrellas, Incubators, Mothers and Killers: Four typologies of relationship between cultural mega-events and small and micro events in Heritage-rich European cities
(AESOP, 2019) Jones, Zachary; Ponzini, Davide
This paper explores the relationship and impact between cultural mega-events and the subsequent production of other small and micro events held within heritage spaces. As with other types of mega-events, cities often turn to cultural mega-events for their perceived positive externalities and with a desired legacy that leaves a long-term impact on the city. These events generally build up and establish a strong reputation for associated network of actors that, in most cases, keep promoting smaller-scale events in subsequent years. In other cases, larger events crowd out small ones. Yet how do these cultural mega-events and all of their ‘infrastructure’ relate to and impact newly created or existing local smaller events? Additionally, what are the key impacts of continuous festivalization of heritage spaces in cities? This paper presents and analyzes four found typologies of this interaction between megaevents and small localized existing or newly created events: “Umbrellas,” “Incubators,” “Mothers” and “Killers.” We will consider in depth the European Capital of Culture program – since it has become an important cultural policy implemented across Europe for more than 30 years. “Umbrella” events encompass and include many pre-existing smaller events within the cultural mega-event. “Incubator” events also utilize pre-existing micro events, but come to enhance and grow them through the increased cultural capital, means and knowledge the mega-event brings. “Mother” events lead to the creation of new small and micro events in the city that did not previously exist, while “Killer” events have a negative impact on previously existing small and micro events. Finally, the paper theorizes on the mechanisms responsible for these typologies and their significance for urban heritage.
Open Access
Alpine Industrial Landscapes in Transition. Towards a transferable strategy for brownfield transformation in mountain regions
(AESOP, 2019) Modica, Marcello; Weilacher, Udo
Since a few decades in many European mountain regions a process of economic restructuring is leading to the decline of traditional heavy and manufacturing industry. The issue of brownfield transformation is therefore becoming a crucial topic in the sustainable development of peripheral and rural areas too, although not yet officially recognized. The complex environmental, economic and social challenges posed by brownfield transformation in mountain areas, added to the structural limitations of marginal contexts as such, require the development of a context-specific, transferable strategy. In this perspective, the Alps, as the most developed mountain region in Europe, can play a key role as a laboratory for brownfields conversion. The first results of this research, which include a comparative analysis of the most representative industrial brownfield typologies found in mountain areas, suggest that an effective and transferable transformation strategy can be successfully developed only if a “landscape approach” based on structuralist planning principles is used. Through the development of an according strategy, the research wants to show that industrial brownfield sites can be positively and constructively interpreted, in the Alpine context and possibly in other mountain regions, as a valuable territorial infrastructure to be reactivated rather than simply a vacant land to be redeveloped.
Open Access
Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability
(AESOP, 2019) Pellegrini, Paola; Micelli, Ezio
The paper presents the analysis of the statistical data on population and real estate in 20 small-to-medium-sized cities in Northern Italy and shows a high rate of vacancy of housing and significant shrinkage of businesses and institutions in the historic centres, where urban heritage is concentrated. Given these findings, the paper analyses the official city plans of the cities with the worst underutilisation conditions, to understand how the plans have reacted to the decline of the centre. The result shows the extensive planning and regulation activity has very limitedly registered the phenomenon and failed to propose the empty inner cores as resources to reduce land consumption and recycle valuable assets in a circular economic vision. Combining the statistical data and the findings from the city plans, the paper concludes that Italian historic centres are living paradoxes—a collection of beauty, icon of well-being, model of sustainability, but abandoned—and therefore, the dense regulatory mechanisms that were necessary to conserve urban heritage during the decades of economic and demographic growth must be reframed to implement a circular economy and adapt to new requirements for living conditions.
Open Access
Reflections on Individual Memory in the Transformation of Cultural Heritage Cognitive Context
(AESOP, 2019) Li, Cong; Li, Jiaying
From the perspective of heritage protection, world heritage and national heritage are undoubtedly the carriers of significant historical memory. compare to them our individual memory seems to be small and humble. The material and non-materials that condense human and national memory can be used as cultural heritage. Can the memory be re-recognized from the perspective of heritage protection? Everyone's life should be awed in the long river of history. This article attempts to explore the following three levels of content: First, The wild goose leads to stay a voice, the person leads to stay trace. The Importance of Individual Memory Presentation and Cognition; Second, The context of cultural heritage cognition and its transformation. Thirdly, with the change of cognitive context of cultural heritage, we juxtapose individual memory and major historical memory, and analyze and interpret them as objects. Based on this, supplement the relevant ideas, methods and principles in heritage protection and exhibition. While the historical heritage is recognized, the individual memory is superimposed thus the historical memories with human life.
Open Access
The Production of Heritage
(AESOP, 2019) Pace, Michela; Chandler, Alan
Urban regeneration is one of the operations through which global cities are tackling the increasing need of housing. Since 2008 redevelopment concentrated on selected urban districts, the reliance on private sector funding favouring 'luxury' developments and a systematic change in property patterns. The most interesting dynamic within this new field of urban exclusivity is the linkage of culture and history to the regeneration process. Heritage is a dominant new rhetoric employed in the marketing of these operations, the use of which engages and usurps political and administrative authorities able to facilitate urban development. The inclusion of the Heritage agenda concerns the restitution of urban legacies, becoming a selective concept which supports exclusive occupation, opening issues of accessibility and spatial democracy. The recurrence and extension of this phenomenon requires us to reflect on political and economic deviations that the promotion of urban legacy generates, both in terms of its spatial consequences but also in the cultural redefinition of who inherits the city. London and Shanghai are observed as case studies of what is now a global phenomenon, and reveal how the ‘production of Heritage’ becomes a regeneration driver supporting the market economy.
Open Access
Built heritage and landscape role in the Rome metropolitan plan
(AESOP, 2019) Nucci, Lucia
Built Heritage and landscape are long-term cultural and material memories costantly reinterpreted by the contemporaries. Both are considered as fundamental level for local and regional development in the Rome’s Metropolitan Plan (Piano Territoriale Provinciale Generale PTPG). The Plan interpret nature, built heritage and landscape as key value that characterize the metropolitan identities. Settlement’s transformations in the plan arise from the physical and historical form of the territory and encourage a double polycentrism (Rome and 120 municipalities). One of the general objective of the plan is to reorganize present settlement in made the most of existing patterns rules and peculiarities by using principles of the compact city. The paper would like to point out how built heritage and landscape development have to re-shapes the territories of our dispersal contemporary city.
Open Access
Developing transformation strategies for Alpine industrial landscapes shown by the Styrian Iron Route in Austria
(AESOP, 2019) Pechhacker, Julia; Forster, Julia
The Alpine Space is one of the most important industrial regions in Europe. The transformation from manufacturing to service industry in the last decades and the decrease of traditional heavy and manufacturing industry are leaving impressive former productive landscapes of relevant size and complexity, so-called Alpine industrial landscapes behind. The potential value of these landscapes is linked closely to ecological, economical and social challenges in the development of these regions. No significant strategies or programmes for a transformation of industrial brownfields exist currently. The INTERREG project “trAILs " deals with the topic of industrial brownfields and aims to generate knowledge about Alpine industrial landscapes. It shows how future development paths for these sites can be developed and visualised and thus serve as a basis for discussion, decisionmaking and planning for the definition of concrete planning recommendations for municipalities. The overall objective of the project is to discuss and develop ways of raising awareness of the strategic development of brownfield sites, a topic that will continue to gain in importance in future. The following contribution focuses on the first project phase, in which a process for developing a transformation strategy was elaborated and tested in one of four pilot regions.
Open Access
Let's Talk About Change : Experiences from a video exhibition confronting the public with urban and landscape transition bz revisiting the original sites of relocated historical museums buildings to view these sites in their current state
(AESOP, 2019) Schretzenmayr, Martina; Casaulta - Meyer, Simona
Between 1985 and 2015, settlement areas in the densely populated parts of Switzerland increased by almost one third. Whereas Switzerland still perceives itself as "Heidland" (referring to Johanna Spyri's novel), expected to attract tourists with its beautiful landscapes and charming small towns, the country has been transformed into an urban landscape dominated by conurbations. In the 2010s, several ground-braking (direct democratic) popular initiatives linked to landscape issues were launched and received the majority of the vote. The will to control further expansion of settlement areas exists and the transformation of built heritage and landscapes is present on the national political stage, but the perception of change is still difficult to express. However, dealing with landscape transition and developing local planning concepts accepted by people requires talking about change more site-specific. In 2016, the authors organised an exhibition at the Swiss open-air museum Ballenberg. It presents more than 100 historical farm buildings from all over Switzerald, which had been relocated from their original sites for various reasons, from construction of new residential or commercial buildings to infrastructure projects and original sites today cover urban, suburban and peripheral locations. Videos of the original sites of 14 selected Ballenberg buildings were produced in order to present these sites of origin as they appear today. The videos, which were presented in the respective museum buildings, confronted the visitors with historical buildings - still in existence, but relocated - and the current condition of their former sites. A special visitor's centre provided an opportunity to find out more and to discuss the topic of change with volunteers. Experience gathered from this exhibition will be presented, giving an insight into the quality of the visitors' debate initiated by the videos and reflecting on the impact of these findings in dealing with landscape transition future.
Open Access
How do We Pave a Right? – Thinking Right to Mobility from Women’s Displacements in Rio De Janeiro
(AESOP, 2022) Albuquerque, Mariana
Cecília wakes up at five every morning. Some minutes later, she wakes her daughter, Rosa, up so they can catch the six-five train. Then, they ride a bus to Rosa's school. Cecília follows her way towards another neighborhood where she works and studies. After school, Rosa attends her mom’s college classes and they both go home at night at a quarter to nine. If they manage to catch the last direct train, they get home at half past ten. However, if they ride the multiple-stop train, they only get home after eleven pm. Conceição wakes up at half past five, gets dressed, and then wakes her children up. After her teenage children leave, she tends to her house, feeds the cats, and at eight in the morning she is at the bus stop to catch the first bus on her journey. Conceição rides two buses to and fro work every day. She gets back home around nine pm. By then, her children are bound to go to bed. Cecília and Conceição live in cities belonging to the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area, which is the second largest metropolitan region in terms of population density in Brazil. They both spend three to four hours a day commuting. These hours make up their routine, and options for work, study, management of family life. Cecília and Conceição are two of the participants of an ethnographic research conducted between March and August 2018. The research is targeted at reflecting upon what the right to mobility would be based on women’s mobility. Considering mobility in large cities as an unavoidable component of the relationship with the city, the right to mobility becomes a fundamental right to fully exercise the right to the city. But neither city nor mobility are neutral elements. To the contrary, they are organized (or limited) by markers of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, among other markers. To question the spatial project itself, which, under the aegis of an alleged neutrality, reiterates the excluding urban planning. Therefore, highlighting these markers is essential.
Open Access
Translating the Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Groups into Space : An Alternative Review Through Print and social media
(AESOP, 2022) Akarsu, Basak; Ozmen, Cansu; Akcakaya Waite, Imge
Democracy, whose precise meaning depends on whether an observer focuses on the individual or the collective, is a form of political control in its simplest expression. In representative democracies, the most prevalent form of government today, the equality between citizens before the law and the sovereignty of the people are essential. In democratic forms of government, political control and direction is either in the hands of the people or provided by representatives elected by them. The idea of the sovereignty of the people brings together concepts such as equality, justice, freedom, independence, which together define and complement democracy in ways that transcend mere representation. Individuals in modern democracies, in addition to their normal civic responsibilities, are also candidates for leadership. Aristotle (1999), who in his Politics developed his definition of democracy from the perspective of the individual citizen, associated the conditions of being a good citizen in society with both being governed and having the political ability to govern. Another discourse that prioritizes the responsibilities of the individual in democracy comes from Popper (1947), who emphasized that individuals, i.e. citizens of the democratic state, should be blamed rather than democracy for political inadequacies in the state. Democracy not only shapes individuals and therefore society with the responsibilities it imposes, but also takes its shape from the society in which it functions. The knowledge, abilities, and good citizenship of the members of a given community shape a society and thus its democracy. Although many philosophers have emphasized the uniqueness of the social aspects of human existence, whether in terms of individuality or collectivity, Aristotle and Plato did not consider the inability to live outside of a community a human-specific behavior; on the contrary, they argued that human life shares this collective nature with animal life, and that our social nature is thus far from peculiar (Arendt, 1998). Whether unique to our species or not, however, communal existence requires existence in a concrete place. The relationship that democracy establishes with space, which is the focus of this study, emerges at this point. The spatial counterpart to the search for social and collective rights that accompanies democracy has inspired the debates around the right to the city in contemporary societies. Lefebvre (1991), who defined space as a product of history, described the right to the city as a requirement of democracy and directly associated it with humanism. Harvey (1993) highlighted the dynamic relationship of space with society in his exploration of the subject, touching upon the dynamics of societal and spatial relationships and claiming that spatial form is at society's discretion. He thus emphasized different human behaviors and experiences and suggested that instead of asking what space is, we should instead investigate how it is that different human practices create and make use of distinctive conceptualizations of space. (Harvey, 1993). Harvey additionally associated the right to the city with living in it, arguing that those living in the city directly or indirectly contribute to the production of urban space and that this contribution is associated with the claim of a right to the city one inhabits (Harvey, 1993). In this case, in addition to human practices, the practices of non-humans who are residents of and shape the city should share in the claim to the it. The comprehensiveness of the definition of the right to the city should be examined from this perspective, and the subjects of the practices that constitute that right should be taken into consideration. Democracy and its participants, which restructure and reproduce space public space in modern societies, redefine urbanization processes with the collective and organized power it requires. Harvey (2003) points out that the organized collective power necessary to claim the city through its alteration is quite beyond the capacity of individuals or individual rights: the realization of the right to the city demands claiming such a shaping power in an essential and radical way. Likewise, Lefebvre claims that the right to the city should involve a continual and active process of appropriation (in the sense of use rather than ownership) of city spaces (McCann, 2002). He also argues that “the right to the city [involves] the right to claim presence in the city, to wrest the use of the city from privileged new masters and democratize its spaces” (Lefebvre, 1996 in McCann, 2002). This definition specifically supports the fight against the privatization of public space and the maintenance of heterogeneity within metropolitan areas (Fainstein, 2006). The specific focus of this paper concerns this final point and attempts to engage in a discussion of the ways in which society can or cannot claim its collective rights and satisfy its needs in urban space while at the same time maintaining democracy within itself by allowing diversity and the inclusion of members with various needs and vulnerabilities.
Open Access
An Ecosystem Services Based Model for the Reclassification of Urban Uses in Plans : A Decision Support for the Minimisation of Soil Consumption
(AESOP, 2022) Adinolfi, Valentina; Coppola, Francesca; Grimaldi, Michele; Fasolino, Isidoro
Soil that is not artificially covered is capable of providing services with both direct and indirect benefits for humans. It is, therefore, essential to assess the impacts of different land-use and urban planning choices by estimating costs and benefits associated with different land-use scenarios and/or protection policies. The dimensioning of municipal urban plans (Puc) sets the urban load, in accordance with the regulations, with the provisions contained in the Provincial Territorial Coordination Plans (PTCP) and on the basis of a careful analysis of the community's actual and irrepressible needs. The possible transformations envisaged in the Pucs lead to two types of consequences: on the one hand, they constitute a potential income for the municipal coffers in terms of taxation on building land and buildings constructed and in terms of urbanisation charges; on the other hand, the transformation of the land entails the definitive loss of the numerous and very valuable Ecosystem Services (ES) that it is able to provide. These are defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, 2005) as the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems to humankind and are divided into four categories: life support, provisioning, regulation and cultural values. A variety of approaches to assessing the ES provided by different land covers can be found in the literature. Some of them are based on matrices that, based on the opinion of experts (such as physical geographers, forest scientists and environmental engineers), associate each land cover class with a score related to the level of performance offered by each ES (Costanza et al., 1997; De Groot, 2010; Burkhard et al., 2012; Rodriguez, Armenteras & Retana, 2015; Santolini et a., 2015). The change in land cover from its natural state to artificial cover is technically termed land consumption. Forms of consumption range from total loss of the soil resource to partial loss of ES functionality. urban densification is also a form of land consumption insofar as it involves the introduction of new artificial cover in urban areas (Munafò, 2021). Zeroing net soil consumption means, therefore, avoiding the sealing of agricultural and open areas and, for the residual component that cannot be avoided, compensating it by renaturalising an area of equal or greater extent in order to restore its capacity to provide ES (EC, 2016). When considering soil as a resource, it is necessary to distinguish between land cover and land use. The term land cover refers to the biophysical cover of the earth's surface, while land use refers to the actual biophysical state of the soil, related to its use in human activities. The latter is, therefore, defined according to the present and planned functional dimension and urban use (Directive 2007/2/CE). A change of land use (and even less a change of land use provided for by a town planning instrument) may not alter the functions of the land and its capacity to provide SE and, therefore, not represent real land consumption. «The relationship between land consumption and population dynamics confirms that the link between demography and urbanisation and infrastructural processes is not direct and there is a growth of artificial surfaces even in the presence of stabilisation, in many cases decrease, of residents» (Munafò, 2021: 45). From this, the importance of correctly sizing Pucs, carefully balancing the need for new areas for human activities with the preservation of ES, aiming to achieve settlement efficiency (Fasolino, Coppola & Grimaldi, 2020).
Open Access
Heap developmentin the Ruhr metropolis : The "Mountains of the Ruhr" as places od identify
(AESOP, 2022) Budiger, Anne; Schmit, Hanna C.; Ze, Maria; Karulska, Olivia; Wenning, Tino
For decades, the Ruhr region in Germany was shaped by the coal mining industry. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th century, industrialization and accompanying urbanization processes turned small villages into large cities. In consequence, the Ruhr region became the largest industrial agglomeration in Europe with coal mines being both the main employer and an essential identity-forming feature. As of today, the Ruhr region has undergone another set of decades of structural change. Former industrial sites were re-cultivated and renaturated and by now, the region no longer understands itself as the ‘Ruhr region’ but as the ‘Ruhr Metropolis’. Within all the change, however, there is one constant – a special kind of place that remains: the heaps. As former collection points for coal mining overburden and the collieries’ slag, they are now the ‘Mountains of the Ruhr', a vital element of Green Infrastructure (GI) of the Ruhr Metropolis and still an anchor of identity for 5.1 million people. The regional planning authority of the Ruhr region, the Ruhr Regional Association (German: ‘Regionalverband Ruhr’ short RVR), is responsible for the preservation and development of open space and GI. Currently, the RVR develops 46 slag heaps and will take over several more in the near future (cf. Website RVR, 2022). The exciting challenge for the RVR is now to make the 'Mountains of the Ruhr' usable for the region’s inhabitants, to foster the ecological value of this special GI in the overall open space system and to bring together cultural preservation and strategic development. This paper offers insights into the transformation processes of the Ruhr region (see section 2), the change in identity of its slag heaps and the planning and development of heaps as an anchor of urban GI (see section 3). Recent findings on the narrative and place-making of heaps are presented, highlighting both the storyline for the ‘Mountains of the Ruhr’ and the individual character of the heaps (see section 3.3). Thus, this paper offers an empirical example of the shift in meaning of place, which creates identity, drives ecological restoration, and is one milestone of the green transformation of the Ruhr Metropolis (cf. RVR, 2021).