3D MAPPING FOR URBAN REGENERATION AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: THE ASTINO VALLEY AND MONASTERY IN BERGAMO
Elisa Consolandi, Alessandra Ghisalberti1
Abstract
Urban regeneration projects constitute new opportunities for landscape enhancement and environmental conservation as a basis for promoting sustainable forms of tourism. This essay presents a regeneration process underway in the Astino Valley and Monastery in Bergamo, an area that, after the National Landscape Award of the Italian Ministry of Culture, in 2021 was granted the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe. During the last fifteen years, the Astino Valley and Monastery area were interested in an important urban regeneration action based on a strict interaction between the public and private actors, with the support of the university and the involvement of local inhabitants. This action underlined its landscape value and environmental richness coming from a traditionally respectful relationship between local communities and natural resources within the area that became protected in the 1970s as the Bergamo Hills Regional Park (Parco Regionale dei Colli di Bergamo). Today this valley is an excellent urban periphery and an interesting place to experiment sustainable tourism approaches based on the respect for the inhabitants’ cultural identity and social values. In this context a three-dimensional mapping system is a challenging tool for the promotion of sustainable tourism practices as it can render the precious landscape and environmental richness of the area, and it can be a realistic georeferenced virtual platform for the interaction among tourists and the other local stakeholders – contributing to a more conscious and shared place-fruition.
Keywords: mapping, urban regeneration, landscape enhancement, sustainable tourism.
1. Introduction
The Astino Valley and the Monastery within it are located in a peripheral area in the western part of the middle-sized town of Bergamo, in Lombardy, within the Bergamo Hills Regional Park (Parco Regionale dei Colli di Bergamo) (Fig. 1). The Monastery, founded by the Vallombrosian monks in the Middle Ages at the beginning of the XII Century, was next to the Santo Sepolcro church, the farmhouse mill (Cascina Mulino) and the farmhouse convent (Cascina Convento), and it was surrounded by agricultural land between the Allegrezza wood with the ruins of its ancient tower (Torre dell’Allegrezza) in the western area and the Astino wood2, and the Benaglia hill in the eastern area. The whole complex conducted for some centuries highly integrated social, cultural, religious and economic functions, but in 1797 it dismissed its main religious and socio-economic functions, becoming a hospital – precisely the “Ospedale Maggiore”.
Figure 1: The Astino Valley and Monastery with their surrounding lands and woods
At the end of the XIX Century this socio-sanitary function, concentrated in the psychiatric domain, was abandoned and in the 1920s the Astino Valley and Monastery were sold to private actors becoming a disused area in the Municipal perimeter of Bergamo. Until the beginning of the Third Century the ruined Astino Monastery complex remained abandoned, protected by the surrounding hills and only interested in some agricultural activities in the neighbouring lands, therefore hiding centuries of important history for the town of Bergamo3.
In 2007, another private actor (Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore Bergamo-MIA Foundation) bought the whole valley and – sharing the renewal project with the public Institutions – started a regeneration action4. In a few years, the Astino Valley acquired a new cultural, social, and economic life: on the one hand, the Monastery complex was restored and could promote some temporary cultural initiatives and educational activities; on the other hand, the valley was interested by new biological-agricultural practices with the implication of local communities and inhabitants’ associations through the creation of the Association of Organic Agricultural Producers (APAB – Associazione dei Produttori Agricoli Biologici) of the Astino Valley5; on the other hand, again, a botanical garden was created by the Municipality of Bergamo and named the Valley of Biodiversity (La Valle della Biodiversità) as the local section of the main Botanical Garden of Bergamo located in the ancient Upper town6; on the other again, the Superintendence of Archaeology, Art and Landscape (Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio) of the Provinces of Bergamo and Brescia began a conservation and enhancement activity. Moreover, with the support of the University of Bergamo7, this urban regeneration project created new opportunities for landscape enhancement and environmental conservation: indeed, after the National Landscape Award of the Italian Ministry of Culture, in 2021 this area was granted the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe, which is the basis for promoting sustainable forms of tourism. Furthermore, some didactic experiments take place in the Astino Valley and Monastery, promoted by the University of Bergamo8.
This essay presents the recently regenerated Astino Valley underlining its traditionally respectful relationship between local communities and natural resources as a basis for sustainable tourism approaches. In this context a three-dimensional mapping system is proposed as a challenging tool for the promotion of sustainable tourism practices as it can render the precious landscape and the environmental richness of the area, based on the different altimetry. At the same time, it can be a realistic georeferenced virtual platform for the interaction among inhabitants, tourists and other local stakeholders, contributing to a more conscious and shared place-fruition, based on the respect for the cultural identity and the inhabitants’ social values.
2. The Astino Valley and Monastery Between Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Tourism
The Astino Valley and its Monastery constitute an interesting example of fruitful actions of urban regeneration that can become the basis for activating some sustainable tourism practices. Indeed, this place was regenerated through a slow process of restoration addressed both to the religious complex and its agricultural and environmental surrounding lands, and it acquired a new life with new functions shared with local inhabitants9. This regenerating intervention was respectful of its traditional function of meditation as well as cultural and agricultural production, and it was activated through a strict collaboration among different private and public actors, with the support of the University of Bergamo and the implication of local inhabitants.
Among the private actors – that also were the stockholders – there is the Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore Bergamo-MIA Foundation, that in 2007 bought the Astino Monastery complex and its surrounding lands, and during the following years funded and directed the valley restoration. They gave economic support for inclusive and sustainable actions of urban regeneration, as well as a strict connection with the economic market trends and the commercial aspect of the real estate sector. In particular, they first restored the Santo Sepolcro church, and then they completed the renovation of the farmhouse mill and the Astino Monastery, by bringing to light the beauty of many rooms of the religious foundation and of frescoes, hidden for centuries. After that, they launched and supported some recreational actions and now, during summer, the Monastery complex is home to events, exhibitions, and cultural initiatives, as well as to some seasonal restauration activities. Moreover, they allowed the reuse of the restored ancient Santo Sepolcro church for religious ceremonies. Then, they supported the creation of agricultural activities in a biological perspective eliminating the monocultural corn production: they promoted the constitution of the A.P.A.B. association for the surrounding lands, which are now full of agrobiodiversity practices. Now, they are completing the restoration of the farmhouse convent (Cascina Convento) building, which will be fully renovated in March 2024, and they are exploring the best way to enhance the ruins of the Allegrezza tower.
Then, the public governors and administrators give the institutional framework to the regenerating actions, creating rules, laws, and plans for the intervention regulation and contributing to create public goods. In the Astino Valley and Monastery context, the Municipality of Bergamo, the Province of Bergamo, the Lombardy Region and the Ministry of Culture play a strategic and integrated role: they support all the MIA Foundation regenerating actions; but they also guarantee the environmental protection through the Bergamo Hills Regional Park; they promote the biodiversity valorisation through the Valley of Biodiversity as part of the Botanic Garden “Lorenzo Rota” of the Municipality of Bergamo; they ensure a positive dynamic between the cultural heritage conservation and promotion framework, through the Service for Landscape conservation of the Ministry of Culture and the Superintendence of Archaeology, Art and Landscape (Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio) of the Provinces of Bergamo and Brescia.
A third significant role is played by the universities, perceived as open actors with strategic interactions with institutions and stockholders, which bring innovation and experiment creative approaches. In this context, the University of Bergamo not only can produce high-level knowledge, human capital, or technology transfer, but it contributes to creating public goods and, therefore, landscape enhancement for sustainable forms of tourism. In particular, the University of Bergamo first conducted some interdisciplinary studies in an urbanistic-architectural perspective (Adobati, Lorenzi, 1997) and in a wider landscape perspective (Mencaroni Zoppetti, 2014). Then it supported the Astino candidacies, first to the Italian landscape award (Ministero della Cultura, 2021, pp. 14-19), and then to the European landscapes award (Council of Europe, 2022, pp. 15-26), helping the MIA Foundation in the project thinking, designing and writing. And now the University of Bergamo – as mentioned – is experimenting with some actions of collaborative learning in order to give this precious urban site back to its inhabitants10. At the same time, these teaching practices are based on a strong network perspective as students consider the Astino Valley and Monastery not only as a local point to be explored, but in its strong connections with the regional, national and international contexts today and in the past11.
These three players can develop together an enlarged “triple helix approach” sharing models of actions in order to bring innovation through the interaction of their needs, knowledge, expertise, and capitals (Etzkowitz, Leydesdorff, 2000). The continuous collaboration between public institutions and the University of Bergamo can generate an institutional framework and a driving force for the production, the transfer, and the application of knowledge to contemporary new needs coming from the inhabitants (Lazzeroni, Piccaluga, 2015). Thus, the University can be strategic for the implication of a fourth player: the inhabitants. Through field methodologies and collaborative mapping systems, universities can help institutions and stockholders to co-design actions with the inhabitants in order to promote a vision of cultural heritage as well as to find future use or reuse of urban spaces in a sustainable perspective.
In the Astino area, the urban regeneration action was based on a strict interaction between the public and private actors, with the support of the University and the involvement of local inhabitants in order to enhance the landscape’s richness. This richness comes from the local environmental value related to the natural resources as we are in an area surrounded eastward, northward, and westward by wooden hills, crossed by an articulated hydraulic system, and covered with a solid pedologic layer – strategic for agricultural practices. The natural resources were used and preserved by their inhabitants because of a respectful relationship between local communities and nature based on traditional production and conservation knowledge.
Moreover, in 1977 the Astino Valley was included in the most important protected area of Bergamo, the Bergamo Hills Regional Park (Parco Regionale dei Colli di Bergamo). This urban park guaranteed the conservation of natural and cultural resources in the north-western area of the city – including the historical constructions of the ancient Upper Town – and the surrounding municipalities, as it limited the creation of new buildings in a strongly industrialised and urbanised area, such as the Lombard region.
Then, through the regeneration action promoted by the MIA Foundation, it was possible to recover the traditional cultivation using organic methods and the water network, as well as the establishment of a separate site for the “Lorenzo Rota” Botanical Garden of Bergamo, called La Valle della Biodiversità (The Valley of Biodiversity). This project also included actions aimed at recovering the farmsteads in the Astino area, as well as the castle located in the Allegrezza wood and the related paths and trails dedicated to sustainable use of the territory. In addition, numerous cultural and educational initiatives have been launched to encourage the participation of inhabitants and raise awareness among civil society, private organisations, and public authorities of the value of landscapes, their role, and their transformation. At the same time, the automotive accessibility of the area was strongly limited through the consolidation of the cycle paths and pedestrian trails, and the creation of an external parking area. Today this valley is an excellent urban periphery and an interesting place to experiment sustainable tourism practices based on the respect for the cultural identity and the inhabitants’ social values.
3. Biodiversity in The City for Sustainable Tourism Practices: The National Landscape Award of the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe
The Astino Valley, as previously mentioned, is located a short distance from the centre of Bergamo and is now constituted as a valuable suburb since it is enhanced by the presence of a Vallombrosian monastery of mediaeval origin, and a landscape characterised by high biodiversity. The ongoing project – which includes the recovery and networking of natural and anthropic resources in the area under consideration – was expanded and further enhanced when the Astino Valley was nominated for the 2020-2021 edition of the Italian National Landscape Award (Premio Nazionale per il Paesaggio)12.
This initiative consists in the formal recognition and implementation of a policy or measures undertaken by local or regional authorities for the preservation, management, and sustainable planning of landscapes or of particularly relevant contributions made by third sector entities. Indeed, the proposal of the Astino Valley was forwarded precisely because it was considered as an exemplary action of territorial recovery and sustainable development from a shared perspective with local populations, fostering the affirmation of identity cultures.
Overall, a total of 93 projects were advanced for the 2020-2021 edition of the award, of which 35 were located in Northern Italy, while 23 were proposed by areas pertaining to the Centre and 35 were implemented in the Italian islands and in the South of the peninsula. The wide participation and the distinct locations of the areas targeted (Fig. 3) affirm the prestige of the award and its importance at the national level, setting itself as an example for the activation and affirmation of good regeneration practices aimed at the revitalization of territories (Barca, 2009). The map on the dedicated website13 showed widespread participation throughout Italy: 18 out of 20 Italian regions submitted proposals, which came in particular from Puglia, Tuscany, Piedmont, and Lombardy.
Figure 2: Overview of the Italian National Landscape Award projects
A total of 17 projects were awarded in the third edition of the Italian National Landscape Award14. These emerge strongly in the representation thanks to the use of different chromatism attributed to the icons, which allow for geo-referencing (without, however, recovering the morphological-landscape characteristics)15 of the winning project – namely The Biodiversity within the City: the Val d’Astino of Bergamo – the special mention (given to the Tuscan project for the revitalization of the mountain landscape of the Monti Rognosi Park and the Sovara Valley), 10 additional mentions, and 5 indications of projects carried out in favour of landscape protection and enhancement. The projects awarded were judged and selected by an Evaluation Committee according to four criteria (the same as those set out in the Council of Europe Landscape Award regulations), namely: i) sustainable spatial development; ii) exemplarity; iii) public participation; iv) awareness raising. These principles are considered of significant importance because – through their identification and application – make it possible to lastingly ensure the preservation, management and/or sustainable planning of the landscape under consideration, in compliance with the European Landscape Convention16.
In this perspective, the Astino Valley regeneration project was considered worthy of representing Italy at the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe 2020-2021 precisely because of the restitution to public enjoyment of a degraded landscape at risk of building speculation, possible thanks to a public-private collaboration17 that allowed the conservative restoration of the monastic complex and the enhancement of the biodiversity. In addition, the project has seen the social and cultural integration of inhabitants; in fact, many proposals put forward by local authorities have stimulated the active participation of communities and the associative fabric, demonstrating how the enhancement of the landscape is also a tool for social cohesion and the involvement of the most fragile people (Cattedra, 2011). Indeed, the project “a réussi à mettre en valeur un paysage historique pour créer un paysage tourné vers l’avenir. Alliant tradition et nouveauté, celui-ci a promu un développement territorial durable considéré tout à la fois dans ses dimensions environnementale, culturelle, sociale et économique” (Conseil de l’Europe, 2021, p. 69).
Figure 3: A network of candidate projects for the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe 2020-2021
For this reason, the Astino Valley constitutes an internationally known area because – after being prized on an Italian scale – it was distinguished for its valuable landscape features during the Seventh Session of the European award18. This recognition was given by the jury and the Council of Europe’s Award Committee, which acknowledged the Italian proposal against the high quality of twelve projects (Fig. 4) submitted by member states to the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe.
The enhancement on an international scale of the Astino site could also be envisaged through the activation of networking development processes of places that have present a candidate project based on a valuable landscape heritage to the Council of Europe. This network – through improved knowledge of the environment and the recovery of local expertise – could foster the sustainable development of exemplary locations from an integrated perspective. Moreover, the dissemination and educational activities promoted for the sustainable enhancement of the area can be considered as practices aimed at the activation of new forms of tourism and as means of knowledge of the landscape, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.
4. Mapping Systems for a Sustainable Tourism in the Astino Valley and Monastery
Through the experimentation of field methodologies and collaborative mapping systems, Universities can support a fruitful dialogue among the public institutions, the private actors, and the inhabitants in order to find new shared touristic practices in a sustainable perspective; but it is important to have some communicative tools able to show the specificities of local territories such as mapping systems. In this context, the use of a three-dimensional mapping representation is strategic for tourism enhancement both for rendering the precious landscape and the environmental richness of the area, as the interactive mapping system allows the user to virtually fly within the three-dimensional spatial representation giving a perception of the territorial heritage, and for a realistic georeferenced visualisation as a basis for the interaction among tourists and the other local stakeholders, as this platform can be the basis for a collaborative mapping – contributing to a more conscious and shared place-fruition.
In this context, therefore, a webGIS-based mapping system has been developed in order to show all the networked resources offered by territory, with a particular attention to the georeferentiation of the natural and cultural heritage of the Astino area and of the sustainable mobility of the town of Bergamo. To this end, from an operational point of view, useful technical tools – such as geo-tracking for resource detection and actor analysis for understanding the dynamics of the analysed territory – have been adopted aimed at the elaboration of a mapping system capable of promoting knowledge of the Astino Valley and dynamically querying socio-territorial data related to the area of interest.
In particular, the different altimetry of the Astino Valley within Bergamo municipality (Fig. 4) is rendered through the use of a three-dimensional mapping system as it allows to view the spatial data19, as well as the natural and cultural resources of the Astino Valley. The innovativeness of this 3D visualisation lies in the landscape rendering through the perspective as this view allows each single user to create his own point of view on territory. So, the 3D mapping can underline the individual view of each social and territorial actor producing culture in his places of life and sharing his point of view. At the same time, each user can virtually fly within territory producing his personal perspective, tracing his own path and creating a virtual appropriation of territory. The goal is to shift the focus from the material qualities of the territorial elements to the characteristics connected with social complexity, assuming a landscape logic able to restore the cultural substance of territory, coming from each individual fruition of territory.
Figure 4: Localisation and sustainable networks of the Astino Valley in Bergamo
In particular, the mapping system uses the multiple potential of three-dimensional GIS that allows the user to view the area through a zoom in/out function producing a more detailed view, from very close, or a detached view from above, as well as to virtually perform a bird’s flight in the proximity of any building within the territory20. By simulating an air navigation, the 3D mapping displays, at the same time, an overview of the territorial context and a detailed information for the creation of a specific identikit for each of these territorial artefacts (surface, volume, position, etc.). It is a mapping devoted to the collection, analysis, and capitalization of research data, which – far from constituting only a technical device based on the most advanced programs – becomes a real tool to facilitate communication between the actors involved in the development project of the territory and in urban regeneration processes21. This shift in perspective occurs through a depiction of a datum that is not simply shown through a multimedia tool that returns its geolocation alone, but becomes information, thanks to the relevance of cartographic representation that recovers its socio-cultural aspects. The one proposed, in fact, is a platform for activating inclusive decision-making practices with the participation of local actors but based on the idea that participatory cartography intervenes in communication between actors22. In this perspective, 3D mapping platforms can be integrated with further information relating to the territorial organisation of the community that lives within the context and represented in order to highlight its potential and critical issues, based on the specific dynamics of the place. Finally, once published online for the capitalization of the study, it becomes an easy and updated tool, which makes accessible information on urban regeneration and sustainable tourism actions within the Astino Valley.
Figure 5: 3D mapping system for the Astino monastery
3D mapping systems are aimed both at professionals (administrators, private individuals, entrepreneurs, etc.) – who can use the information collected for the design and definition of interventions – and at inhabitants, since the research aims to recover the spatial capital, i.e., the self-organising capacity of individuals and their planning skills (Lévy, 2003, pp. 124-126). Furthermore, once published in a website, this 3D representation system meets the triple objective of: i) providing an easily accessible mapping within a web page to be consulted directly online, without applying specific plug-ins; ii) be user-friendly from a communicative point of view, or of immediate use even for non-professional users of digital mapping; iii) be responsive, namely viewable via different mobile devices (PC, tablet, and smartphone). Overall, these mapping systems make research products accessible as a basis for the activation of new territorial development projects, facilitating the meeting between researchers, institutional representatives, new entrepreneurs, and local stakeholders (Ghisalberti, 2021).
Therefore, the dissemination of such an interactive mapping system will allow each user to be able to take advantage of an integrated network of information with respect to the area of interest, capable of satisfying the personal and professional needs of individuals by achieving a customized level of information but still capable of maintaining a unified overview of the area.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, it is possible to envisage disused public spaces and assets within urban contexts (especially if located in peripheral areas) as potential resources on which to focus the construction of links between communities, inhabitants, and territories in a reticular and sustainable perspective. In fact, such places can be understood as engines of urban experimentation and creativity, capable of intercepting and promoting the cultural and socio-economic processes of territorial regeneration. In this process, the University assumes importance because it is perceived as a laboratory for experimenting with digital mapping systems and a driver of cultural innovation. Actually, the University (through its research, didactic and third mission activities) can make a strong contribution to the development of peripheral urban spaces, promoting territorial projects that – with the recovery of abandoned agricultural practices and the renovation of ancient buildings – promote forms of sustainable tourism that can lead to the enhancement of the resources of the investigated area.
The networking and tourist enhancement of cultural and landscape heritage can be conceived as a concrete opportunity for territorial regeneration, capable of promoting its value. Among these spaces is certainly the Astino Valley, which – through the re-functioning of the former monastery and the biodiversity characterising the area – constitutes an element of value within an urbanised context such as the city of Bergamo.
For this reason, in order to promote the activation of sustainable tourism for Astino, it is necessary to activate a new vision that focuses on digital humanities, understood as digital systems and computational procedures in the humanities. In this perspective, the construction of 3D mapping tools capable of actively acting in the creation of knowledge and the transmission of information concerning the landscape emerges as a decisive element in the formation of dialogue and shared decision-making between inhabitants, private individuals, and institutions. In addition to this, these elements constitute tools capable of determining the actions to be implemented in a sustainable tourism perspective for a networked valorisation of the landscape and cultural resources of the territories. As a matter of fact, 3D mapping is strategic for collecting data on inhabitants’ territorial knowledge and cultural values in order to legitimise urban spaces transformations and new tourism practices, to guarantee a sustainable development through slow tourism using (or reusing) cultural heritage sites, and to return urban spaces to the inhabitants even through innovative forms of tourism that are environmentally conscious and related to landscape maintenance.
References
Adobati F. & Lorenzi M. (1997), Astino e la sua valle, Clusone: Ferrari editrice.
Barbanente A. (2021), Rigenerazione urbana e produzione di qualità paesaggistica, in M. Frank & M. Pilutti Namer (eds.), La Convenzione Europea del Paesaggio vent’anni dopo (2000-2020). Ricezione, criticità, prospettive, Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, pp. 323-338.
Barca F. (2009), An Agenda for a Reformed Cohesion Policy, Brussels: European Commission.
Bianchi A. & Placidi B. (2022), Rigenerare il Bel Paese. La cura di un patrimonio dismesso e sconosciuto, Rome: Rubettino.
Burini F. (2019), Landscape Analysis and Spatial Capital for Cultural Heritage Management in a Networked Perspective, in W. Gronau, R. Bonadei, E. Kastenholz & A. Pashkevich (eds.), E-Cul-Tours. Enhancing Networks in Heritage Tourism, Rome: Tab Edizioni, pp. 123-148.
Burini F. (2022), Mapping and Participation in the Topos and Chora Test, in B. Debarbieux & I. Hirt (eds), The Politics of Mapping, London: Wiley, pp. 69-90.
Casti E. (2015), Reflexive Cartography. A New Perspective on Mapping, Elsevier: Amsterdam.
Cattedra R. (2011), Metamorfosi urbane. Progetti, pratiche e ri-usi della città contemporanea, Rome: Carocci Editore.
Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore di Bergamo (eds) (2015), Astino. Monastero della città, Bergamo: Bolis Edizioni.
Conseil de l’Europe (eds.) (2021), Convention européenne du paysage. L’Alliance du Prix du paysage du Conseil de l’Europe. Volume 2 2018-2021, https://rm.coe.int/convention-europeenne-du-paysage-alliance-du-prix-du-paysage-du-consei/16809ce3d5.
Council of Europe (2022), 26th Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention, Proceedings, European Spatial Planning and Landscape Series, 124, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Egizi D. (2014), Astino: un rilancio da Expo 2015, Bergamo Economica, Camera di Commercio, LIX(2), pp. 1-9.
Etzkowitz H. & Leydesdorff L. (2000), The Dynamics of Innovation: from National Systems and ‘Mode 2’ to a Triple Helix of University–Industry–Government Relations, Research Policy, 29(2), pp. 109-123.
Ferlinghetti R. (2021), Astino gemma della città, La Rivista di Bergamo, 107, pp. 34-41.
Font X. & Tribe J. (2001), Promoting Green Tourism: The Future of Environmental Awards, International Journal of Tourism Research, 3, pp. 9-21.
Ghisalberti A. (2018), Rigenerazione urbana e restituzione di territorio. Metodi e mapping di intervento in Lombardia, Milan: Mimesis.
Ghisalberti A. (2021), The Rifo Research: Mappings for Urban Regeneration and Soil Restitution, Modern Environmental Science and Engineering, 7(1), pp. 1-8.
Lazzeroni M. & Piccaluga A. (2015), Beyond ‘Town and Gown’: the Role of the University in Small and Medium-Sized Cities, Industry & Higher Education, 29(1), pp. 11-23.
Lévy J. (2003), Capital spatial, in J. Lévy & M. Lussault (eds.), Dictionnaire de la géographie e de l’espace des sociétés, Paris: Belin, pp. 124-126.
Lévy J. & Lussault M. (2003), Habiter, in J. Lévy & M. Lussault (eds.), Dictionnaire de la géographie e de l’espace des sociétés. Paris: Belin, pp. 440-442.
Lussault M. (2003), Urbanité, in J. Lévy & M. Lussault (eds.), Dictionnaire de la Géographie et de l’espace des sociétés, Paris: Belin, pp. 966-967.
Mencaroni Zoppetti M. (eds.) (2014), Futuro BG, Attraverso i paesaggi della storia, Bergamo: Officina dell’Ateneo.
Ministero della Cultura (eds.) (2021), Selezione della candidatura italiana VII Edizione del Premio del paesaggio del Consiglio d’Europa. Premio Nazionale del Paesaggio III Edizione 2020-2021, https://www.premiopaesaggio.beniculturali.it/premio-paesaggio/pubblicazione-della-selezione-dei-progetti-candidati/
Salvestrini F. (2011), I Vallombrosani in Lombardia (XI-XVIII secolo), Milan: ERSAF.
Taylor D.R.F. (2019), Some Recent Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography, in D.R. Fraser Taylor, E. Anonby & K. Murasugi (eds.), Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography, Elsevier: Amsterdam, pp. 55-68.
Vallega A. (1994), Geopolitica e sviluppo sostenibile. Il sistema mondo del secolo XXI, Milan: Mursia.
Elisa Consolandi, Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Bergamo, E-mail address: elisa.consolandi@unibg.it; Alessandra Ghisalberti, Department of Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Bergamo, E-mail address: alessandra.ghisalberti@unibg.it. The chapter is the result of joint research conducted by the two authors. More specifically, Elisa Consolandi compiled Sections 3 and 5; Alessandra Ghisalberti wrote Sections 1, 2 and 4. Figures and maps were elaborated by Elisa Consolandi.
Both the Allegrezza and the Astino woods are protected areas classified as Zone of Special Conservation (ZSC-Zona di Coservazione Speciale) and included in the Bergamo Hills Regional Park, as specified by the Province of Bergamo at the following link: https://www.provincia.bergamo.it/cnvpbgrm/zf/index.php/servizi-aggiuntivi/index/index/idtesto/1419 (last access: October 2022); for more details, see: Adobati, Lorenzi, 1997.
The ruins of the Astino Monastery complex before the recent regeneration action carried out by the current owner, Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore Bergamo-MIA Foundation, can be seen in a TV report by the local broadcaster Bergamo TV at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJDz_gVdCQs (last access: October 2022).
This project was made possible thanks to the activation of a network of collaborations between public institutions with farms and cooperatives, based on a shared Ethic Chart and perfected in 2017 with the signature of a Programme Agreement between the MIA Foundation, the Val d’Astino Society S.r.l., the Municipality of Bergamo, the Lombardy Region, the Province of Bergamo, and the Bergamo Hills Regional Park (Parco Regionale dei Colli di Bergamo), aimed at acting on several levels to affirm a sustainable interaction in order to safeguard, manage and plan the Astino Valley. This agreement can be consulted at the following link: https://www.comune.bergamo.it/sites/default/files/2019-01/Accordo%20di%20Programma%20Astino_1.pdf (last access: October 2022).
The APAB Association was born in 2016 and directed the agricultural activities in the Astino Valley toward biological production against monoculture corn production.
During Expo 2015 taking place in Milan, the Valley of Biodiversity of Astino was inaugurated – after the restoration of the Monastery – with a permanent exposition of botanical and agricultural practices attesting a traditional relationship between man and biosphere (Egizi, 2014).
For instance, in 2020 Riccardo Rao, an historian of the University of Bergamo, supported the Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore Bergamo-MIA Foundation in the formalisation of the candidacy of the Astino Valley and its Monastery for the National Landscape Award of the Italian Ministry of Culture and, after this grant, for the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe.
The Master’s course in Geo-urban planning (Geourbanistica. Analisi e pianificazione territoriale, urbana, ambientale e valorizzazione del paesaggio) of the University of Bergamo is experimenting some practices of “collaborative learning” through some student-oriented project works implying international experts, territorial referents, and University teachers, as well as itinerant educational excursions, workshops, internships and summer schools. These activities are based on a strong interdisciplinary approach through the implementation of the digital humanities. For details, see: https://ls-geou.unibg.it/it (last access: October 2022).
Urban regeneration actions can give a new birth, that is a second life to abandoned or obsolete places. For a deeper reflection on regenerating actions for brownfields, abandoned sites and obsolete public buildings, see: Ghisalberti, 2018.
These didactic experimental activities promoted at the Master’s course in Geo-urban planning (Geourbanistica. Analisi e pianificazione territoriale, urbana, ambientale e valorizzazione del paesaggio) of the University of Bergamo are based on project works, where the Master’s course professors and lecturers interact with international co-teachers (of the Ecole Urbaine de Lyon, the Harvard Department of History, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the University College London) and students about concrete spatial stakes including field activities as well as meetings, speeches and interviews with local actors such as the President of the Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore Bergamo-MIA Foundation, the President of the A.P.A.B. association, a Minister of Culture Director and the Superintendence of Archaeology, Art and Landscape.
In order to give this multiscale perspective, not only students have interdisciplinary meetings and exchanges with national and international experts, but they also visit other similar sites such as the Chiaravalle Abbey located in the Milan municipal area. In this context, the monks are still present and practising some traditional agricultural and farming activities together with their religious cults. Moreover, a capillary touristic enhancement in a sustainable perspective is going on through the didactical action of the Koiné Cooperativa Sociale in the Monastery and the mill. Some details, at the following link: https://koinecoopsociale.it/attivita/attivita-culturali-e-scuole-abbazia-di-chiaravalle/ (last access: October 2022).
This recognition was established by Ministerial Decree No. 457 issued by the MiBACT-Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism on 7 October 2016, entitled Establishment of the National Landscape Day and the National Landscape Award (Istituzione della Giornata Nazionale del paesaggio e del Premio nazionale del Paesaggio). The National Landscape Award is assigned biennially and gives the winner the opportunity to present on behalf of Italy at the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe.
For further details see: https://www.premiopaesaggio.beniculturali.it/ (last access: October 2022).
In general, the projects awarded under the 2020-2021 edition of the prize present as their main area of focus the recovery of identity culture (such as, for example, encouraging the narration of living environments or the creation of ecomuseums)(35%), followed by projects aimed at the revitalization of the mountain landscape (18%) or the reconstitution of biodiversity and environmental restoration (18%), the encouragement of agricultural practices (12%) and landscape care (12%) or sustainable mobility within valuable areas (6%).
It is well known that, by faithfully representing the surface of the territory, topographic metrics enables researchers to localize a phenomenon. Actually, it is a representational system based on Cartesian principles and on the representation of Euclidean space, which are “brought together into a measuring system for distance that is not concerned with the representation of the quality of objects but with standardizing it, preserving their relationship, their size” (Casti, 2015, p. 72).
Indeed, the Council of Europe’s Landscape Award is established and regulated within Article 11, in Chapter III European Cooperation, of the European Landscape Convention, with the aim of stimulating a process that states could trigger throughout Europe to recognize exemplary landscape enhancement. See: https://www.coe.int/en/web/landscape (last access: October 2022).
In this context, the role played by the University within urban development assumes particular importance: by taking a relational and cultural perspective, the academic institution is able to produce significant transformations and facilitate interactions between actors and the territorial context. Moreover, universities “are usually present and very visible in the urban landscape and play a role in the building of new facilities (laboratories, incubators, etc.) and in restructuring existing spaces” (Lazzeroni, Piccaluga, 2015, p. 13)
Awards given to various sites of interest for issues related to landscape enhancement and preservation of living environments can help tourists to choose their destinations consciously, encouraging greater attention to the sustainability of places. In fact, international awards generally give sites of interest recognition from tourists, accurate planning of activities and their management, and credibility from an environmental point of view (Font, Tribe, 2001).
It is important to point out that this information is crucial since the area of the Regional Park of the Hills, in which the Astino Valley is located, includes within it a limited number of settlements and large portions of forest or hillside, which (on the contrary) show no traces of settlements or stable presence of inhabitants.
The map base used in the representation shows the territory from a physical point of view: the map was set up and produced using Google Earth, from which the aerial view was taken.
In particular, reference is made to the chorographic metric, which is aimed at showing the sense of place and, consequently, the multiplicity of logics and the plurality of languages of the territory (Casti, 2015; Burini, 2022).
It is emphasized that geographic studies have highlighted the importance of digital maps for data collection and processing, as well as for the transmission of research results with the involvement of local communities through cybercartography (Taylor, 2019).
