Economic estimative, juridical and urbanistic evaluations in the preservation and change of rural landscape

Abstract

The European Convention on the landscape, signed in Florence on the 20th of October 2000 and recently converted into law marks a moment of profound change in the conception of the landscape in European politics. Indeed, the Convention was founded at the initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, established after the second war with the aim of safeguarding the fundamental rights of European citizens. In relation to this the Convention introduces the main purpose of the action planning the conservation of the landscape as a local resource. Therefore the right of people to identify with their own landscape, recognizing to the landscapes a dual economic and social role, is accentuated. Indeed on the one hand the landscape plays an important activity of public interest, at cultural, ecological, environmental and social scale, on the other hand it is recognized that it constitutes a resource in favor of economic activity and, if maintained, operated and planned properly, can contribute to job creation. In this report, after having highlighted the multifunctional nature of the landscape, which includes an integrated multidisciplinary approach to the problems associated with it, we will propose an overview of the main methods for the identification of the landscape and especially to evaluate it.