Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico | Dipartimento per le Politiche di Sviluppo e Coesione Regione Siciliana Comune di Lampedusa e Linosa UniversitĂ IUAV Venezia | Dipartimento di Urbanistica
Strategic Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Pelagian Islands Pilot Project for the Sicily Smaller Islands
Strategic Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Pelagian Islands Navigating and Mapping Implementing Human Resources Optimising Physical Resources Safeguarding Natural Resources Safeguarding Future Generations Planning a Sustainable Strategy
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Interactive sustainable development learning map, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, accessibile via < http://www.wbcsd.org/templates/TemplateWBCSD5/layout.asp?MenuID=1> consultato il 10-05-2007.
For the Sustainable Development Italy’s human, artistic and naturalistic patrimony lies in its diversity – it is therefore a combination of many different types of heritage, all of which go to make up a whole: they are unique, unquantifiable and irreproducible. Any sustainable development strategy for our country must, therefore, take the ability to get to grips with the Italian factor in all its innumerable declensions for granted. Only in this way can a vision be formulated and, consequently, growth strategies drawn up, that are capable of adequately responding first to the numerous social and environmental demands, and second to the economic and financial ones. We need to create concrete support tool models for regional planning and for mapping out the way forward. The Strategic Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Pelagian Islands, promoted by the Department for Development Policies at the Ministry for Economic Development in collaboration with the Sicilian Region and the Municipality of Lampedusa e Linosa and with scientific input from the IUAV Venice University, is just such a tool. The Pelagian Islands’ experiment has set a significant precedent, in that it is confirmation of the close link between planning and economic programming, which underlies the Sensi Contemporanei
programme for taking the Southern Italian Regions through the process of institutional evolution, underpinning and promoting innovatory strategies and experimental courses of action. The Strategic Plan is an example of this sort of model, and its replicability – within territorial, not necessarily island contexts, as well – was the premise underlying its realisation. It is now down to the local communities, buttressed by the support and backing of the Department for Development Policy, to put theory into practice, translating planning into action. There is much that can be achieved: the model put forward by the Plan is open to countless operational declensions. It will provide local and regional governments with the tools that will enable them to take up clear positions and set up a dialogue with the innumerable interested parties that make up the territorial humus. These parties need to be appraised of the key developmental themes, so that the conditions that form the basis of concrete initiative implementation can be shared and agreed. The Italian experience has shown that the best solution is not a “non solution”, i.e. leaving things well alone in an endeavour not to make things worse. Because worse equates to neglect, which leads to impromptu and unregulated initiatives: it is non-intervention that fosters dere-
liction, and non-recognition of the fact that the landscape is subject to pressures that would have been unimaginable only fifty years ago, and in relation to which we are now equipped with urbanistic and territorial management tools that will help us achieve a balanced combination of protection and innovation. The Pelagian Islands represent a tremendous patrimony that must be protected at all costs, and they are an example of just what can still be achieved in terms of local development, in line with international recommendations for general qualitative standard guidelines applicable to each particular local case. What is now needed is a final push, which will enable us to transform the obvious natural geographical Mediterranean centrality of the Pelagian Islands from mere rhetoric into an opportunity to be grasped with both hands and developed. The Strategic Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Pelagian Islands is a step in this direction. Alberto Versace Director General Department of Development Policy Ministry of Economic Development
English summary Introduction Method Shipping and mapping Human resources Physical resources Natural resources Protecting future generations A sustainable strategy
Introduction The Pelagie islands are two small islands, Lampedusa and Linosa, lost in the centre of the Sicily Channel, inhabited by 5,000 people; at present they are invaded every year by a migratory flow composed by dozens of thousands of people coming from the African coasts, who believe in the hospitality of wealthy Europe. In order to tackle this situation, the Department for Development and Cohesion Policies of the Ministry for Economic Development has promoted, in cooperation with Sicily Region and Lampedusa & Linosa Municipality, the Sustainable Strategic Plan of Pelagie Islands, managed by the Urban Planning Department of the IUAV Venice University. The plan is based on a vision of the development which is coherent with the definition of sustainability, by finding out creative organizing instruments, which will support the dealing with the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future as well as with the responsibility towards the new generations and the growing migratory flow. The Pelagie islands Strategic Plan has an holistic structure and considers the metabolism of the ecosystem (natural, urban and social) as a unitary system. The Strategic Pelagie Plan operates for a community who: tries to maintain and enrich the value of its economic, social and natural heritage; develops its strategies according to the carrying capacity of the territory; increases the value of intangible goods, such as culture, education, environment, health, safety, quality of life. The Strategic Plan wants to weave a network of cultures, in order to welcome many diversities, transforming these small lands in world-islands. The welcoming network breaks up the traditional isolation of the islands, projecting them into new scenarios, identities, alliances, similitudes, common routes. This is an effective antidote against the small dimension, combined with the substantial marginal character, which distinguishes historically the islandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; context. The Strategic Plan brings the Pelagie Islands to work in a network, opened to citizens, tourists and migrants who are dragged here by the uncertain flows of globalization. Giuseppe Longhi Responsabile scientifico DU-UniversitĂ IUAV Venezia
Method The thinking behind this sustainable strategic plan is holistic; and its methodology therefore operates on the principle of circularity, in which the input creates the output which then, in turn, becomes the input of a new cycle. Every facet of this model interacts to some degree. Thus the traditional planning method derived from the concept of a machine, which is geared to mechanical solutions, is superseded by a plan that is biologically-based, geared to the circularity of the process. The reference metaphor therefore becomes the territory as a living organism; which involves focusing on harmony, interdependence and interactivity, within a sustainable whole. The concept of planning as a capsule system, the overriding scope of which is to rigidly dictate the functions and sizes of areas on the basis of causes and effects that are quantifiable and controllable, in which people have only a limited role to play and which assumes that there will always be someone around to operate the machine is thus abandoned, in favour of a joined-up, dynamic planning system based on three principles: • compatibility of the projects with the “loading capacity” of the territory. Because the amount of energy used to bring about the physical transformation of the ground on the islands cannot exceed what is available on the Pelagian islands. From this perspective, we are proposing a project with a positive energy balance; • increased equity level. The organic metaphor brings with it a more joined-up vocabulary for clarifying the problems that relate to the community ethic: a vocabulary that brings the original values of the plan, such as health and hygiene, back into play and reinterprets them. The organic metaphor implies studying and developing the territory in terms of diagnosis, prescription and cure, with a view to increasing equity, particularly through new access levels of knowledge and the implementation of policies destined to favour new forms of projectuality, achieved by the setting up of Forums open to all interested parties; • safeguarding for future generations. The sustainable project is intended to safeguard the heritage for future generations and thus cannot but be long-term. It involves confronting the impact of current changes and developing scenarios for forecasting the direction they will take in the future. Operating by means of scenarios inspires a return to planning based on imagination, which is the only common denominator between man and nature, the only power capable of conjugating spiritual and material transformation. This is the route to a strategic plan in which the satisfaction from practical operations is fed by the creative concepts capable of linking the revaluation of the environment with the needs of man. A project channelled by the rediscovery of the human habitat, a rediscovery intended to stimulate social imagination.
Shipping and Mapping A picture of the islands was obtained in two different ways: the first was an attempt to trace a ‘navigation’ route through the physical reality of the islands along a trajectory going from the real to the virtual, the second consisted of ‘mapping’ the morphologies of the islands deriving from the relationship between biosphere and technosphere. The ‘navigation’ process enabled us to put together a complete cartographic atlas, a photographic survey of the islands and to create a three-dimensional digital map. The cartographic atlas consists of a collection in historical series form provided on the attached CD grouped into: geographical, topographical, technical numerical, thematic and aerial view maps. This was integral to the “sail-fly” programme, which consisted of a photographic survey carried out by circumnavigating the two islands by boat and flying over them by helicopter. This enabled us to get a high definition picture of both the coast and the hinterland. A second phase of photographic documentation of the islands consisted of themed overland itineraries, which bear witness to their history, the urban and territorial changes and the salient naturalistic characteristics. In tandem with this crucial ‘passive’ documentation, we have provided interactive three-dimensional cartography which, thanks to the construction of a “mapped” model of the islands, enables the latter to be virtually explored by means of “photorealistic” visits or films, and a simulation of their transformation as a result of the new projects observed. The ‘mapping’ process led to a representation of the interations between biosphere and technosphere, through the reconstruction of the ecological networks of the islands (which also evidences the morphological diversity of the natural resources), and the environmental and social metabolism, intended to illustrate the system of flows of energy and matter passing through the various territorial ecosystems of the islands, where the inputs of materials are turned into useful energy, physical structures and waste. The final part of the ‘mapping’ consisted of the drawing up of a critical gauge, the ecological footprint, which gives an idea of the consumer pressure from the resident population and from tourists on the loading capacities of the environment surface, conferred by its ecological productivity. The particular features of the tools employed in this chapter enabled us to conjugate historical reflection with creativity - thanks in part to being able to incorporate an infinite number of new projects into the cartographical system, with measurability - thanks to being able to compare the new developments in relation to the potentialities of the ecological network and the interdependencies that characterise the environmental and social metabolism, with sensitivity - thanks to the heightened critical awareness of the population, generated by sensitivity towards consumer impact on the loading capacity of the territory.
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Human Resources Future generations are at the core of sustainability. It is from this perspective that the human resources of the Pelagian island’s were considered, in an endeavour to grasp the potentialities and opportunities for the island community to grow in culture, creativity, resourcefulness, well-being and to better connect with larger communities. This led to a reading of the human capital on the islands, and a portrayal of its complexity through a description of the strategic factors that defined the current state of the community: living conditions and financial welfare, culture, education and learning, health, tourism and institutional order. The income growth recorded in the Council of Lampedusa and Linosa over the last twenty years is the most striking social phenomenon and was generated by the growth of tourism. The building of new houses (each family owns at least two homes) is a sign of the financial well-being, as is the increase in consumer goods (on average, each family has a car, a telephone line, a computer with internet access) and by the production of waste, which is constantly on the increase. Tourism is the islands’ main financial activity, but this generates an influx of culture as well as wealth, due to rapid comparison with a system of values foreign to the residents. If tourists represent the “influx” of wealth, the group of fishermen and those involved in activities related to fishing represent the “heritage” value, from both a financial and an ethical point of view. It is hardly surprising that here, as in the wider society in which we live, the values laid down by the “heritage” are being eroded by the showy uncertainty of income; we therefore need to dig beneath the facade of recent well-being in order to assess such structural aspects as: employment instability, the lack of capital combined with little inclination for reinvestment, the low profitability in fishing. The recent economic growth has triggered a series of reflections on the equity of the new processes: equity in relation to the accessibility of services, to the use of the natural heritage, intergenerational equity in relation to the appropriation of those resources in short supply, such as water, and intergenerational equity, insofar as the appropriation and consumption of resources today can only be to the detriment of future generations. There is a correlation between problems of economic and social growth and levels of education: nowadays the latter tends to be of a generally lower standard and the drop-out rate is high. This calls for: diversifying the higher education on offer, possibly resorting to distance learning, promoting university masters modules on the subject of environmental, tourist and economic development, which are likely to involve the Mediterranean universities, endorsing training and support programmes for economic activities, encouraging new centres of cultural aggregation, consolidating a policy of support for the disadvantaged.
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Physical Resources There were two reasons for carrying out a morphological analysis of Lampedusa and Linosa: to discover how the form of the settlements evolved and to gauge the compatibility of the settlement process with the loading capacity of the context. Reading the settlement evolution of Lampedusa currently consists of comparing the disorder of recent urban development with the geometric order of the historic nucleus as defined by the urban plan during the second half of the C19th. The morphological layout of Lampedusa in particular is, however, much more rewarding, as a result of various very different and temporally distant settlement moments, still visible within the narrow insular space. The main stages in the forms of settlement have been reconstructed with a view to enriching the historical memory of the local community and to constructing an urban design that combines the value of encouraging the new cultural influxes, represented by the comings and goings of tourists, with the fixed values of the natural and archaeological environments. Analysing the current state of various settlement systems entailed paying particular attention to the pressure of the settlements and their quality level. The settlement pressure was assessed from the point of view of anthropical pressure and the relationship between built environment and natural surface. This carries on from the ecological imprint, giving a more thorough overall assessment, which in turn provides further detail about the settlement natures of each urban and perurban space. The quality of the built environment was analysed by means of an indicator system in order to measure its degree of compatibility with the loading capacity of the natural system. The survey process was as follows: after carrying out a morphological analysis, we proceeded to assess the level of urban and periurban bioticity, the quality level of which was defined by a system of indicators. This information showed that management of the physical resources could be deployed as follows: • by activating Lampedusa and Linosa’s municipal land register and making it available online; • by defining clear rules for access to the Commune State Property Office; • by providing online access to planning tools, providing definitions of the territorial loading capacity of various areas; • by providing online access to the materials data bank; • by providing online access to the calculations of building energy consumption; • by providing online access to ways of reducing the level of waste; • by providing online access to best practices in construction as applicable to the islands’ context.
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Natural resources The natural resources of the islands of Lampedusa and Linosa were evaluated with particular regard to terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Lampedusa’s terrestrial areas comprise: nature reserves and inlets, calcareous table-land, marine and coastal reserves and rururban spaces; and those on Linosa of: nature reserves and reforestation areas, agricultural land and coastline. In each area, every component that goes to make up biodiversity was assessed by applying the DPSIR model, as well as its level of criticity and its ability to form biotic knots. Our survey of natural and physical resources, enabled us to proceed with: a representation of their morphology, through a reconstruction of the ecological network; a survey of the utilisation flow of natural resources, by employing input/output matrices which reconstructed the entire metabolism, from uptake to clearance in the form of waste; to the calculation of the ecological footprint, which determines the weight of inhabitant and tourist consumption on the loading capacity of the islands. This set of tools is essential, both with regard to optimising the use of the resources, and with regard to carrying out an informed projection, characterised by the synergy between man’s intervention and the revaluation of natural resources. With regard to optimising the use of resources, the tools available will enable the principle of “more with less” to be put into practice, in that the reconstruction of the metabolism of the natural and social resources, in planning practice, will enable the consumption of natural resources to remain contained and positive action to be taken with regard to their production and service functions, manufactured goods which contribute to the production of energy to be considered, and interventions planned in which the production of waste tends to zero. Equally, the ecological footprint, which on one hand raises resident and tourist awareness of the impact of consumption on the loading capacities of the islands, on the other enables the most opportune interventions to be evidenced with regard to containing consumption and the production of waste, thus bringing together the upgrading carried out through physical interventions with the upgrading of citizen behaviour. In this regard, the project proposes a series of educational actions, in schools and in families, aimed at instilling better behaviours, with respect to both natural resources and individual health. Lastly, the ecological network represents the morphology of the natural and physical resources, and comprises the most useful cartographical basis for the sustainable project, in that it will enable us to operate in perfect cohesion with the biotic knots and corridors, and thus overcome the historic dichotomy between physical project and environmental project, in that this is nothing more than the mitigation of the negative effects of ill-considered physical planning. Thus a project characterised by the harmony between the knots and corridors of the biosphere and the technosphere.
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Protecting Future Generations The plan aims to bring about shared choices, in the interests of both current and future generations, by meeting and involving the local community and its interested parties in a civic Forum, the object of which is to represent the interests of the entire community during the various stages of the planning process. To this end, we have endeavoured to present the main guiding forces, difficulties and expectations of the Pelagian community, after consultation with the residents and the drawing up of new development scenarios. The community is clearly concerned about its own future, and attaches great importance to the involvement of the young and to the question of education. The young are seen as the main potential in terms of the reactivation of occasions for aggregation and participation at citizen level. The family is the basic social unit on the island, albeit displaying signs of crisis generated by rapid financial growth. With regard to the environment, the importance of the environmental protection activities carried out by the non profit organisations operating on the island is recognised and it is hoped that these will be further consolidated. Tourist activities seem to take up most of the attention and energies of the islanders today, in counterpoint to the gradual cessation of traditional activities linked to fishing. One of the key themes of community opinion is concern over health and the quality of the hospital structure. The prevailing characteristic of the culture of the Pelagian community is a sense of isolation, despite the fact that the airport has made for easier communications, added to which there is a lack of cooperative feeling; this was the opinion most commonly voiced by those who live there and it also applied to the difficulties of dialogue between the administration and the operators, which translates into a demand for greater transparency in administrative choices. The attitude is generally passive, there is a feeling of victimisation and a propensity for destructive criticism. The absence of any sense of cooperation is bound up with the projectuality crisis. But, when prompted, the community reacted positively with suggestions for exploiting and developing the islands. These took three main directions: environment and nature, history and tradition, opportunities for aggregation and participation. With regard to the environment, the community is in favour of the use of clean energy resources and sensitive to pollution damage, seen as an obstacle to more appropriate forms of development. They are hoping for the upgrading of the most precious naturalistic spaces, and the exploitation of history is viewed positively. Overcoming the lack of cooperative feeling seems to be the greatest challenge for the future, in tandem with the desire for effective structures for aggregation and participation, through which choices and new projects affecting the community at large can be discussed, together with the setting in motion of a process of creative awareness, destined to actively involve the younger members of the community in particular.
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A Sustainable Strategy The plan strategy puts forward an active up grading of the environment, taking account of natural and historic resources, in an endeavour to develop synergies between the landscape and a restructured settlement system for the community. The plan proposes morphological reading channelled into three key phrases: networks, recycling, knots and corridors. Networks: the future morphology of the island will require a system that is open to a dialogue with diversity, not least because of the opportunities that being part of the international networks that encompass the Pelagian islands has to offer. Openness to the world and dematerialisation are the inputs of the physical restructuring of the territory. Recycling: recycling involves the community embarking on a new cultural, physical, economic and social cycle. An operation that will take its impetus from the rediscovery of the archaeological heritage, which will lead on to restructuring the historic part of Lampedusa. Knots and corridors: the discovery of new morphological possibilities, associated with the potentialities of the networks and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;recyclingâ&#x20AC;? of history, which will lead to the identification of new urban knots and corridors, new relationships between city and history, buildings and environment, and the achievement of a perfect symmetry between human and natural settlement systems. The guiding metaphor for the strategic plan is to be that of the park, taken to mean a new means of access to knowledge, able to foster new relationships, new social and financial opportunities, facilitating new models of exchange. The action plan includes a programme for achieving the aims of the strategic plan, with an agenda setting out all the actions designed to improve social equity, reduce the environmental load and safeguard resources for future generations. The resources of the Pelagian islands are laid out in management and project axes, subdivided into: action, subjects involved and indicators. Human resources: individual projects tend to strengthen social cohesion and encourage financial development, conjugating increased wealth with the quality of working relationships and ecoefficiency. These are aims that can be achieved by upgrading the educational system and the places where people gather together. Natural resources: the projects are geared to optimising the metabolism through increased biodiversity and the regeneration of the wonders of the territory and the sea. The ecological network forms the work base, which is why each and every intervention is slotted harmoniously into the morphological structure of the biosphere. Physical resources: the projects propose an increased ecoefficiency of the buildings and infrastructural networks lasting throughout their lifecycle, with the aim of transforming the technosphere into an active energy-producing factor.
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Network of project
22 Vision finisterrae
Desert Natural Park Sea Park
Lighthouse Capo Grecale
Taccio Vecchio Vallone Imbriacole
Cava Grande
Swimming Pool
Social Centre
Rururban System Guitgia
Rururban System Cala Creta
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Castle Valle dei pagliari
Porto Vecchio
Cala Madonna
Archaeological Areas
Urban System
Garden System
The Experimental Sustainable Strategic Plan for the Pelagian Islands, promoted by the Department for Development and Cohesion Policies of the Ministry for Economic Development, in collaboration with the Sicilian Region and the Municipality of Lampedusa and Linosa, aims to tackle the impacts of tourism and the flow of migration from the North African coasts. The Town Planning Department of the IUAV University of Venice has scientific responsibility for the project; it advocates a metabolic approach to planning in an endeavour not to compromise the natural resources and to optimise the use of physical resources, and to encourage active stakeholder participation with a view to potential joint initiatives. This project was discussed at international level with the Chair of Sustainability at UNESCO, the USA State Department Culture Section, the Asiatic and European member Universities of Culture 2000-Asia Net and the Social Sciences Academy of the Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Republic of China, because although the project concerns a particular place, it needs to be able to involve cultures in a global arena.