Strumenti urbanistici e governo del territorio rurale: il caso dell’Umbria

Rural territory planning was born in aid to urban areas planning. During the years many step forward have been made toward a better differentiation between rural territory protection, valorization and development policies and those related to urban areas, but it is still frequent to observe a “real estate” approach in urban planning tools. The burden of these distorted policies have been loaded mainly on the areas surrounding the cities, frequently considered only as expansion areas for further developments, in a mislead urban development rights equalization logic, for the realization of new shopping centres or other great structures planned with a “mass production” setting and completely out of the territorial context. Big cities outskirts are usually characterized by a strong alteration of their components and their level of deterioration could open the way for the design of completely new landscapes. In Umbria the settlement fabric is polycentric, limited and based on a well defined historical texture. This situation has brought, in rural areas, to the conservation of the identity-producing qualities that cohabit with the compromising elements. The research has analyzed the evolution of the regional urban-planning tools, placing them within the European and national regulatory framework, with a view to the activation of policies and tools for the protection and valorisation of the rural territory, with a particular attention for the cities surrounding areas. The results of this work have shown that, although the policies adopted at different scales (regional, provincial, municipal) are moving toward a better understanding of the importance of the rural territories inherent values, those dynamics considering soil only as a medium of exchange are not disappeared. Even though are often concealed behind huge projects developed for “public interest”.