Landscape change in the European Mountain Areas. Settlement of the Alps: evolution and trajectories

Abstract

The increasingly fast pace of urban conversion of land over the past fifty years in Italy is a phenomenon that has caused serious damage to the national landscape. The problem concerns the whole Italy but is most serious in those areas that produce important savings thanks to the quality of their landscape. In this sense, many references in the European Landscape Convention are recognizable in the Alps that are undoubtedly one of Italy's most iconic landscapes in international perception, along with the cities of art. This paper describes the results of a research on the features of urbanization in the fifties in the Italian Alps, based on uniform historical maps of the entire country. Geostatistical surveys were conducted to determine the distribution changes of urban concentration over time and analyses were developed to point out what landscape and morphological elements have emerged, and are basically confirming greater sensitivity to land artificialization. A number of comparisons based on specific indicators were produced that show the typological and geographic variations of development taking place in the time period studied. Important information has emerged on the different territorial policies implemented by the regions over the long-term.