Abstract
Since the 1980s, land take and, later, its ecological concerns have become an integral part of European planning and design debates. Due mainly to the acknowledgement that the world population is estimated to be above all urban, the literature is still passionate, recognising a place of honour to the rapid urbanisation process. Currently, the urbanisation process is associated with global urban challenges (climate change, biodiversity preservation and soil artificialisation). In this regard, this chapter lays the groundwork for the overall argument, discussing some key points: the evidence of a changed status of traditional historical cities, caused by the rapid urbanisation process, and the continuous emergence and mainstreaming of ecological paradigms, as one of the main challenges for current planning and design approaches. To this end, the book aims to develop a new approach to land take, proposing a turnabout: cities are still central to deal with global challenges, but the starting point of planning and design is represented by natural, ecological and landscape elements. In the end, the book proposes some potential perspectives that are substantial to sustainable and resilient cities.
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Notes
- 1.
For example the “million trees NYC” promoted in the framework of the PLANYC by the city of New York City. In 2020, the Italian Ministry for the Environment launched a national call for the presentation of urban reforestation projects.
- 2.
In relation to resources availability, every year the “Earth Overshoot Day” is established when ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Every year this date is anticipated with respect to the previous year. For example, in 2016, the date was the 8th August, while in 2017 the 2nd August, in 2018 and 2019, the 29th July. The “Earth Overshoot Day” is an initiative of Global Footprint Network.
- 3.
- 4.
In Italy, some popular initiatives arose in favour of land take containment (e.g. the experience of the forum “Salviamo il paesaggio”).
- 5.
This concept is resumed from the 2006 SCoT of Montpellier (see Sect. 3.3).
- 6.
This approach could principally favour the Italian planning system, since it is strictly bounded to municipal boundaries and urban plans are mainly developed at the municipal scale.
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Giudice, B. (2021). Introduction: Innovative Reflections on Land Take. In: Planning and Design Perspectives for Land Take Containment. SpringerBriefs in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91066-2_1
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