Ecological Airport Urbanism: Airports and Landscapes in the Italian North East

Airports have an increasingly important role in cities and in regional development. Aviation itself generates social and economic benefits to the territory it serves, but also brings with it considerable environmental and social costs. What do we mean by ‘ecological airport urbanism’? Is it possible to integrate landscape and airport infrastructure in an ecologically-‘sustainable’ way? What are the influences on the urban context? How can we accommodate airports’ current technological needs with new unexpected uses in the future? Starting from case-studies, this study seeks to address multiple issues related to urban and environmental airport impacts and to identify possible interventions to achieve an ‘eco-airport system’ – an infrastructure model with reduced landscape and environmental impact to be applied in other regional contexts. In particular, this on-going research will focus on the North-East of Italy as an experimental field investigation in order to develop a working methodology and strategic-planning proposal to guide the planning and design of an ecological airport system at the regional and urban scale.