The Preservation of Rural Landscapes for Building Resilience in Small Towns: Insights from North Italy

In small towns, rural landscape historically has been closely linked to its urban dimension in shaping relationships, local history, local identities and senses of belonging. Furthermore, landscape can be fully considered as heritage, to the extent to which it refers to the tangible and intangible heritage of rural areas. Nonetheless, rural landscapes hitherto have been considered less as a driver of resilience to recover from or react to disturbances, although the values and relationships incorporated in them can contribute to addressing local communities’ needs in different terms. For these reasons, in this chapter, the potential of rural landscape in terms of promoting resilience against urban and subsequent landscape changes has been tackled. The study site chosen was the area of the Ticino Park (Parco del Ticino) in north Italy, where water systems and rural landscapes still play an important socio-cultural and economic role and where, at the same time, a traditional agricultural production technique, the marcita meadows, is now at risk of disappearing. Over-industrialisation, overbuilding and a recent project for the construction of a new highway are at present the latest threats. A qualitative research method was adopted to analyse how institutions and local actors’ represent and engage in the construction and preservation of the historical rural landscape, in face of the potential loss of tangible and intangible heritage linked to the highway project. The chapter demonstrates how the rural landscape, when acknowledged as component of a landscape system, can be a resilience resource for the local population if understood and valued in terms of local knowledge, as part of the historical and social system.