Speech at the ‘International Conference. The rural system. A challenge for planning between preservation, sustainability and governance of transformations’. Milan 13/14 October 2004

Framed in the area’s Strategic Plan, Ippolito Ostellino’s speech, starting from the ‘Charter for Turin’s metropolitan ecological network’, develops three main themes: the parks-agriculture pair, the management of urban green spaces and the impact of infrastructures.

Ostellino’s reading highlights the fragmentation of the peri-urban landscape and the need to enhance the agricultural, natural and historical heritage. Environmental degradation, due to urban sprawl and infrastructural pressure, has reduced the area’s naturalness and identity, making intervention for ecological and landscape redevelopment urgent.

Within this framework, the author proposes an integrated approach that includes the implementation of an ecological network with connections between aquatic ecosystems, green corridors and agricultural areas, as well as the promotion of multifunctional agriculture. In addition, he suggests planning and management tools, including the creation of a regulatory code for the peri-urban, participatory governance models and pilot actions for the protection and development of agricultural compartments with high landscape value.

Ippolito Ostellino, former Director of the Po River Park, he was the promoter of the Corona Verde project in the Turin metropolitan area for the Piedmont Region. He promoted the ‘CollinaPo’ territorial enhancement brand on the Po River and Turin hills area and led the territory to UNESCO Mab recognition.