A Return to Terzolle: A Vision for the Recovery of "River Memory"

Alexander Palummo

University of Florence, Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Abstract: The aim of this article is to promote new dynamics of organization and territorial planning in areas strongly affected by problems of hydrogeological instability and hydraulic risk. This is because public opinion often becomes aware of the problem of the risk factor only as a result of direct exposure to the problem, asking the political decision makers for definitive and above all immediate answers that are structurally impossible to find in a secondary prevention perspective (namely, solving a problem and, at the same time, preventing any relapses). The River Restoration approach, proposed here as a method with a lower impact and maximum yield in the cost/benefit ratio, may not be easily explained to a citizenship driven by the emotional response of urgency. In order to create the right conditions for sharing and discussing this approach, it is therefore proposed to design a broad-based information campaign, which includes precise references to the territory and therefore enables people “to imagine it” in its possible future transformations, thereby promoting a new “territorial” aspect of the notion of “active citizenship”.