Extreme Terres of Anthropocene

The contribution of this thesis aims to investigate the current state of vulnerability of Italian Innerlands, crossed by continuous phenomena and by discrete or sudden phenomena, to represent the tangible and intangible space to fully understand the performativity of these territories. The methodology used lies in an intermediate space between the values process of landscape ecology, which sees as its starting point the investigation of tangible land effects, and the quantitative-qualitative approach of mapping. A scale of values is assigned using GIS-assisted multi-criteria evaluation. The proposed methodology is set and applied in the case of Val di Sole, Trentino, to spatialise the relationship between risk and resources in Italian Innerlands. Extreme Terres of Anthropocene In the world of town planning, architecture, and landscape, searching for a new phenomenology is a way of interpreting and explaining how the great environmental, social, and economic changes the entire Earth System is undergoing are manifested in borderline contexts. Therefore, most ordinary human landscapes cannot be attributed to a single person. No one can be labelled for the responsibility of creating most ordinary landscapes, and there is rarely an identifiable person we can ask about the significance of these changes (Lewis 2003). Within the literature review of this research, a new phenomenology is constructed from the need to describe how reality presents itself and manifests itself in territories subject to constant change, the Extreme Terres. For these reasons, Part 1 focuses on the social, political, ecological, and environmental conditions that remained rather unquestioned as the concept of Extreme Terres. The aim is to understand the causes and consequences of ongoing transformations, with a focus on human impact on the soil. In today’s context, where the impact of man has led to a severe crisis experience the need arises to give a new meaning to the concept of Nature, which can no longer be considered mechanical, simple and above all objectively observable (Morin 2017;p.15), but Extreme. Today the difficulty of deciphering the meaning of extreme in ordinary landscapes is more complex than interpreting other types of historical documents. Looking outside the large population centres allows us to investigate urbanisation from the perspective of its supposed ‘outsiders’, the areas commonly represented as rural, remote, wild and/or untouched by human impact. In these places, described between literature and geography, morphologically isolated from the city, man exploits their land, which is the primary resource, choosing it as the raw material for production processes (Lefebvre 1974). The raw material, that is, the resource extracted, such as a mineral or water, has been exploited for years without giving it value in the production process; or even more simply, man has never bothered to give back what he received from the “terre”. Thus, these lands, which contain precious minerals, water sources, fertile soils, forests, and many other resources on the edge of the maximum risk, are named here as Extreme Terres. To understand the Extreme Terres, it is necessary to think of the boundary between the space of maximum urban expansion and what is uninhabitable for humans: the lands of production. These lands are fragile, and highly productive because they are rich in resources and subject to great instability. Inland or isolated lands in Italy, predominantly mountainous and hilly, are characterised by recurring geographical conditions and social-ecological processes. Common trends, such as depopulation and accelerated ageing of local communities, and divergent trends between abandonment or overexploitation of local resources are observed in these inner areas. In general, their relative geographic isolation makes them highly sensitive to discontinuities or disruptive events such as natural disasters (landslides, floods, flows disrupting connections) or the construction of large infrastructures (suddenly opening new flows). Where these territories are endowed with significant local resources and at the same time are extremely sensitive to discontinuities and changes, we call them ‘Extreme Terres’: where ‘great resources and great risks can evolve rapidly. In these territories, the condition of relative isolation with respect to more densely populated areas has an ambivalent or ambiguous value: the distance from urban centres and services exposes them to a greater risk of demographic decline, and the same distance limits exogenous pressures towards economic overexploitation of local resources and motivates their maintenance. Places in the extreme exist on the margins of the built world: they are found almost everywhere on the margins and in the interstices of residual and ambiguous cities (Barron and Mariani 2013). In this regard, Italy consists of a very long spine that is increasingly marginal and abandoned. People choose to live in cities and, when they choose towns, they always make sure they are comfortable and flat. Nobody wants to be in the most extreme place: the Apennines (Fig. 15-16). Part of the Italian territory of radiations and places that are in danger of being lost. In the extreme points of the territory, the Italian population has lived for millennia consuming what little was sufficient to sustain itself, and there are even areas where the landscape is still unspoilt. Moreover, the pandemic situation of recent years has influenced people’s values and priorities, allowing us to reconsider the value of lands outside urban centres. In Italy, overcoming a contrasting vision between cities and inland areas brings out a relationship of interdependence between territories, a fragile balance to be investigated and reconnected. In this context, this thesis proposes a reflection on the need to rethink the design of soil. This moves beyond the concept of urban or rural soil as opposed to nature and moves to a more inclusive definition that finds similarities with the word terre (Brenner.; Elden 2010). A fragmentation of multiple meanings around the concept of terre has appeared in the Italian landscape, by urbanism itself, as if it were “something taken for granted or having already included it in its genetic code without the need to return to it, to know well what it was” (Pileri, 2018). In order to respond to contemporary challenges, it is deemed appropriate to broaden the gaze beyond the modern city to a trans-scalar vision that includes the transformation dynamics of the marginal territories (Brenner, Schmid, 2014). Today we need to reverse the vision: no longer starting from the “centres” to the “peripheries,” but from the “margins” themselves. A new central idea is needed: that these are not places of consumption (of nature, traditions, etc.), but first and foremost territories of production, comprising new cultures, social innovations, techno-rural knowledge and practices, renewed ways of exercising welfare and interacting with the environment. The territories of the Italian inner areas, predominantly mountainous and hilly, are characterised by recurring geographical conditions and social-ecological processes. These inner areas have observed common trends, such as depopulation, accelerated ageing of local communities, and divergent trends between abandonment or overexploitation of local resources. In general, their relative geographic isolation makes them highly susceptible to discontinuities or disruptive events, such as natural disasters (landslides, floods, mudslides that disrupt connections) or the construction of large infrastructure (which suddenly opens new flows). In these territories, the condition of relative isolation from more densely populated areas has an ambivalent or ambiguous value: the distance from urban centres and services exposes them to a greater risk of demographic decline; the same distance limits exogenous pressures toward economic overexploitation of the local resources, and it motivates their maintenance. Research Question and Objective Why does man today still aspire to reach and exploit isolated lands when he is contributing to their disappearance?
This is the central question posed by the research “Extreme Terres of the Anthropocene” to understand the relationship between risk and resources in marginal lands. Specifically, in the Italian context, this contribution is supposed to understand the relationship between the risk and the resource of the territory in the Italian Innerlands and the effect that man has on these territories. Moreover, it also exists to ask what effect the flows of temporary or permanent inhabitants have onthese lands. This research hypothesizes that the existing condition of Extreme Terres has a potential value demonstrable through spatialization and design methodology. Research Aims and Objectives
The main aims of this contribution are to explain the condition of the Extreme Terres in the Anthropocene era; to explore and analyse the complexity of the Extreme Terres and to understand their value.
Therefore, this methodological research sets, as the main objective, mapping the condition of the Extreme Terres through a critical analysis of a selected application case in the Italian Innerlands. Methodological Approach The analytical reading of the Italian Innerlands proposed is based on the social, cultural, and natural geographical conditions of the terre. Therefore, the experimental model applied by Carlotta Olivari and Margherita Pasquali illustrated in the project “Yuxtaposiciòn Extrema” (Maggioli 2019) is taken up. Concerning the Italian inner areas’ spatialization, it becomes necessary to talk about Espace: “the attempt Extreme Terres of Anthropocene is to introduce spatial categories into social criticism.” (Olivari, Pasquali 2019; p.47). In the “Production of Space”, the architectural and urban space does not consider natural and social opacity. Within the proposed process, it is necessary to think about “the representations of space as imbued with the knowledge that is always relative and in transformation.” (Olivari, Pasquali 2019). In this contribution, geography and mapping are understood as tools for representing space and for understanding formation and development of the reference context. The effort is to include a multiscale analysis of the inner areas context through the mapping process. Methods of Investigation: Mapping as a Design Tool
Once the conceptual framework is stated, the methods of investigation need to be clarified. The goal is not to propose predefined solutions to the Italian Innerlands but rather to re-imagine fragmented and Extreme Terres via methodology to manage territorial uncertainty. The research methodology aims to respond to the endemic problems given by the conditions of risk, instability, and sudden changes to which different inner areas are subjected. Thus, the proposed methodology is structured on Italian Extreme Terres’ natural and anthropogenic conditions: the desire is to create a methodological approach to estimate the vulnerable marginal areas through a multi-scale and multi-level approach looking at fragmented territory. The aim is to underline the critical issues, potentiality, and sustainability of the Italian Innerlands space concerning the morphological conformation of the territory. Mapping is critically understood as an active and planning tool; the reading of these data can be used to highlight one or the other form, opening them up to narrative speculation. It is, therefore, a matter of critically reading geographical data and images and understanding what generates influences and composes them. Despite the attempt at mapping construction—dictated by incredible technical and logistical effort—the globe is more readable as an ongoing process of change than as an absolute, unchallenged object. By identifying the map as an active investigation tool, the cartographic inquiry is seen as a process of selection and as a potential and central tool in reading and interpreting the transformation of the land. For this reason, it is essential to work with “cognitive maps that can more effectively grasp the rapidly changing geographies of our planetary-urban existence” (Katsikis, Brenner 2013) to reach the capacity to reformulate what already exists (Corner 1999). More precisely, digital data processing is used, through the Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, the use of evaluating criteria and the classification of data and the zenith representation: the map. The Italian Innerlands, as a “geography of possibility”, are therefore semiotic and cognitive, as defined by Almo Farina, and not disconnected from the cultural context (Olivari, Pasquali, 2022) Results From the critical and theoretical reading of the context, Italian Innerlands appear a place at risk of depopulation and hydrogeological risk where tourism is used as an economic engine to exploit parts of the local landscape resources in places that were characterised by extractive processes for raw materials for production processes (energy, marble, minerals,water). Based on the parameters defined during the terre mapping methodology described at the beginning of the process, the mapping and data collection phase was characterised by in-depth research of information necessary to configure maps expressing the strong relationship between risk and resource in the Italian Innerlands. Through the mapping process, it is possible to highlight criticalities in a selected specific case, that of the Val di Sole and the smaller Val di Rabbi focus area: its existing resources and the presence of risk. The mapping process demonstrated and tested the interpretation of the potential of Extreme Terres in the marginal and alpine territory of Trentino, the one chosen as an ap- plication case. The description of the results obtained for the tangible mapping process of the Extreme Terres is the starting point for the subsequent phases of the doctoral research project that the “Extreme Terres of Anthropocene” thesis is pursuing. Discussion and Perspectives The conditions of environmental degradation and social vulnerability of the Italian Innerlands, especially the Val di Sole, are considered in this contribution as new opportunities: the slopes of the ravines become the perfect condition to recover and preserve the terre. Italian Innerlands must deal with instability, as they are situated in risky areas. As local populations live precariously and in continuous movement depending on the fickleness of nature in these areas, so the Italian Innerlands carry in them an awareness of their local knowledge as a “cultural landscape” (Farina 2000). Moreover, in these unstable conditions, “authorities managing risk could improve their strategic objectives if they could access and integrate” (Marten; Abrassart; Boano) Italian Innerlands in urban planning information. “Furthermore, a collaborative hazard governance can provide equity to multiple urban actors that are usually left out of institutional DRM, including nongovernmental organisations, academia, and community groups.” (Marten ; Abrassart ; Boano ). Thus, understanding the mixing of both nature and culture and ecology, territorial planning, and economic science allows us to create a model as a paradigm for ecological surveys and innovative management methods. Alternative models, such as cultural landscapes, should be integrated to address the contemporary overexploitation of resources and ongoing social imbalances. At the same time, a processual methodology is proposed to put these frameworks into a systemic approach that integrates economy with ecology and culture with nature. It is essential to consider the feasibility and eventual fallibility of the developed process (Olivari, Pasquali, 2022). From the point of view of the applicability of the proposed mapping methodology, we observe the necessity of understanding where the possible unbalances and richness of the territories involved come from. The capability of dialogue with the territorial planners, residents and workers using maps is essential to leave a tool to understand where and which ecological strategies should be proposed in such territories. Moreover, the proposed methodology is considered a process that cannot be replicated with actual results. Still, the conditions for establishing, each time, a new complex and endogenous thought are repeatable.