ENHANCING WATER LANDSCAPES AT RISK OF INNER TERRITORIES IN THE ALPINE CONTEXT OF VAL DI SOLE (ITALY)

The circumstances that we are experiencing have activated many reflections about the relation among natural and urban environments. In Italy, Inner Areas (SNAI 2014) are often lacking successful regional policies and systemic territorial approaches to achieve effective transformations. These issues are addressed by the project “B4R Branding4Resilience”(Ferretti et al., 2021) and this contribution aims to present and discuss the first results of the research in Trentino-Alto Adige region. Studies have often focused on economic, services, and infrastructure marginality, supporting the classification of the “inner areas’’ on quantitative indicators. The value of natural resources and the innovative practices to manage landscape and building heritage in extreme alpine contexts have never been taken into account as indicators of quality of life. In accordance with B4R topics, the main goal of the University of Trento’s research unit is to pursue leadership in “innovating with nature” through locally implementable co-design actions in small thermal villages, specifically focusing on the Val di Sole pilot area. The aim is to create a territorial strategy on the value of water resources by promoting the enhancement of the territorial capital through spatial transformations. The interdisciplinary methodology is based on landscape ecology, territorial metabolism, cultural resilience, mapping, and circular economy as integrated systems. An in-depth data collecting process is used to explore the identity of the Val di Sole. The contribution illustrates the “Val di Sole Blueprint”as a tool to imagine sustainable development scenarios that connect places, humans and earth others for a better quality of life. Three specific themes were addressed offering strategies and project proposals to support local stakeholders in Val di Peio and Val di Rabbi: territories of proximity, co-creative communities, and new forms of living. The research approach proposes a territorial brand that promotes adaptive resilience whose change’s processes and subsequent benefits are to be assessed in space and time through community’s inclusion, in order to preserve the local unicity. To increase resilience, the development of nature-based activities is promoted to valorize the natural identity of the territory: a system of ecological, physical, and intangible features, qualities, and needs of local communities.