The urban pressure on Italian river areas

Rivers have been the hub of economic and social development in the human evolution, because they are essential resources for: agricultural development, infrastructure networks and development of the first urban strategies. Territory has had a radical transformation that led to a national average urbanization of about 10%; but this development has happened with different degrees of awareness and without uniform models and criteria. One of the main causes of this is due to an extreme fragmentation of planning, because the municipalities’ plans are a binding power modality, in force in Italy, but they don’t have significant and strategic references at regional and territorial scale. In particular, the Italian river areas have undergone a real siege by urban growth, outlining a critical scenario in terms of risks for the population and for the natural system. Some disciplines such as landscape ecology have contributed substantially to the integration of some environmental issues that have led into greater consideration for the protection of the landscape. In the same way the concept of Ecosystem Services combines knowledge, techniques and legislation to achieve the goal of sustainable planning. So, it is necessary that these scientific disciplines, which deal with environmental planning in various ways, find the right devices to guarantee a multi-criteria approach to the problem of consumption of the Natural Capital.