AA Landscape Urbanism 2013--14 The Riparian Land-Shaping Machine

THE RIPARIAN LAND-SHAPING MACHINE

EUGENIO DA RIN & JOSINE LAMBERT LANDSCAPE URBANISM 2013 - 2014 ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION LONDON

CONTENT INTRODUCTION EUROPE

European Landscape Convention

European Atlas

Riparian landscapes

Hydro power in Europe Policies

Climate change

Conflicts in transnational rivers

Essay - Landscape as remedy for Europe’s borderline

Pan-European Atlas

River restoration projects ALPS

The Alpine territory

Territorial formations Guidelines

Essay - The mountain of sublime - from static to dynamic, towards?

VALLEMAGGIA

Introduction Overview

Hydroelectric production

Geomorphological processes , transport of sediments

and natural risks, alteration of the water course

Support for recreational activities

A natural habitat for plants and animals

Support for gravel quarries

Conflicts

Territorial formations - Vallemaggia Geomorphology

Braided rivers

Dam effects on geomorphology

Maggia Valley

Geomorphology - Vallemaggia

Riparian vegetation Climate

Streamflow and fluvial morphology Aquifer

Geomorphology – Someo

Simulations

Braiding river model

Landform simulations braided river

Landform simulations Vallemaggia

Essay - Machining riparian landscapes in mountain rivers

Essay – Transforming riparian landscapes Cartogenesis

The Vallemaggia

Cartogenesis Vallemaggia

Catalogue of interventions Guidelines

3 4-16 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 10 14 15 17-24 18 19 20 22 25-54 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 27 28 29 29 29 30 32 33 34 34 34 35 36 36 37 39 40 46 50 50 51 52 54

MAGGIA-GORDEVIO

55-78

Flooding definition

Projective simulations

Cartogenesis detail Guidelines

Tectonic intersections

Proposal zone 1

Proposal zone 4

Generic model Spring Summer Autumn Winter

Construction of the island

Composition of the island

Tectonic structure

Land development

Winter scenario

Summer scenario Impressions

55 56 56 58 60 62 66 66 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

CONCLUSIONS

79

APPENDIX I _ ENERGY LANDSCAPES

80-84

APPENDIX II_ESSAYS

New Babylon – a virtual reality

The use of humour in critical cartography

85-92 86 90

LIST OF IMAGES

93-94

BIBLIOGRAPHY

95-96

Figure 1. Hydropower reservoir Lago Di Resia, Italy.

2 T H E R I PA R I A N L A N D-S H A P I N G M AC H I N E

INTRODUCTION Mountain landscapes have been subjected to a relentless conflict between conservativepicturesque attitudes and economic exploitation approaches. The project proposes a strategy that understands the river as a water-sediment management machine that choreographs newly manufactured riparian landscapes in order to put forward a decision-making mechanism to face the conflicting perspectives with existing social formations.

Mountain rivers constitute the core of European water resource. In the last century, in order to exploit that, many human interventions transformed these territories. One of the most radical and controversial is the implementation of hydropower networks throughout Europe, with the largest ones located in mountain areas.

The Pan-European Atlas of water source emphasizes two critical features that need to be taken in account in this proceeding. Firstly, the future climate change represents a remarkable challenge whose effects will radically turn the entire hydropower notion and enforcement, secondly, the role of national boundaries drastically limits a common European engagement.

More than others, the Alpine territory clearly states a conflictual condition in which seven different national policies read and deal with one single system.

In fact many initiatives and projects on mountain river restorations in the European context have already been experimented, but their purposes is limited just to the implementation of the ecological resource by the current rigid structure and concept about land expropriation and fixed uses. Accordingly the local populations in terms of residents, farmers and corporations are not encouraged to give up their productive lands. The ongoing Ahr river restoration project in South Tyrol (Italy) represents an emblematic case study.

An alternative is needed that comprises a diverse territorial configuration through which social, economical and environmental benefits can be achieved.

Therefore from a landscape urbanism perspective the project advances possible guidelines which from the valley scale to the Alpine one engage the ordinary layout in order to deal with the consistent challenges mountain territories are passively suffering.

From a more local perspective the water management also deals with complex specific conditions. The primary security requirement against flooding hazards, the conservation of the traditional economical and social organizations within an infrastructural urbanization tendency, with the related consistent shifts in the amount of population, and the claims of mass tourism as the dominant economy portray the fascinating complexity of mountain territories. Furthermore these conflicts are inscribed in a framework whereas aesthetic categories of sublime and picturesque on one hand and techno-infrastructural efficiency on the other enhance opposite approaches to the territory.

The intent of the project is to provide a model through which the mentioned changes both in geomorphological and social processes could be faced. The establishment of a dynamic and temporary management of land uses and ownerships is the main effect produced by a river landform capable, as sediments machine, to engage the dynamical variation within seasonal and long term time frames. Moreover the project proposes a series of small punctual interventions whose substantial consequences along the river don’t rely on a mere ecological value restoration but widely involve the various human activities, from agricultural and industrial production to tourism processes.

Figure 2. Emosson reservoir, Switzerland.

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EUROPE

- EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION LACKS MEANINGFUL SPATIAL DESIGN STRATEGIES - RIPARIAN AREAS IMPORTANT FOR EUROPEAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE - RIPARIAN AREAS IN MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE RIGOROUSLY ALTERED BY HUMAN INTERVENTIONS - ECONOMICAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES IN RIPARIAN ZONES OFTEN IN CONFLICT WITH ECOLOGICAL VALUES

EUROPE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION In 2000, the European Landscape Convention was adopted in Florence, set up to “promote the protection, management and planning of European landscapes and organize European cooperation on landscape issues.”(www.coe.int, Council of Europe) It is the first Pan-European treaty concerned with all dimensions of the European landscape.

It promised to comprise a collective approach to the territory, identifying landscapes through research by professionals in conjunction with local inhabitants.

However, the European Landscape Convention turns out to be a treaty comprised of policies, which haven’t been translated into meaningful spatial design strategies.

EUROPEAN ATLAS The lack of a spatial strategy in the European Landscape Convention which could be used by designers, planners and policy makers gives rise to another approach of this Pan-European project, which could complement the Convention in its shortcoming.

The aim is to create a European Atlas based on specific landscape-and territorial conditions. (see drawing Atlas) Sites with similar conflicts and dynamics can be identified within Europe.

Consequently, strategies could be developed to deal with these different sites.

These strategies and guidelines could complement the bureaucratic European policies and offer a more meaningful tool for planners and designers.

Figure 3. Schematic representation of a riparian zone and its zone of influence (land and water).

Main functions and processes are also reported.

RIPARIAN LANDSCAPES Riparian landscapes are transitional areas between land and freshwater systems, characterized by unique soil, hydrology and great habitat diversity, strongly influenced by the stream water.

(Naiman et al., 2005; Verry et al., 2000) These landscapes are among the more important ecological systems in terms of natural, societal and ecosystem services. (Naiman and Decamps, 1997) Various definitions of the concept of riparian area can be found in literature; based on different scales, distinctive soil conditions, vegetation types and amounts of present water. One aspect these different definitions have in common concerns the importance of these environments for the natural and societal functions they provide.

These functions include: - Habitats; riparian landscapes comprise highly valuable natural habitats with a large biodiversity.

- Infrastructure; they provide for a network to maintain biological connections for animals and plants in fragmented territories.

- Filtering; riparian zones function as filter to prevent freshwater systems of being polluted by – for example – agricultural activities.

- Stabilizing riverbanks; the roots of riparian vegetation offer resistance to runoff during floods.

The Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) of the European Commission carried out a Biodiversity strategy for the EU with the purpose to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020. One of the main topics of this strategy is the strengthening of a Green Infrastructure, which aims at “strengthening ecosystems resilience, it addresses their capacity to provide ecosystem services and conserve biodiversity, while contributing to climate change mitigation and reduction of natural disaster risks.” (www.ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu).

Riparian zones are of great importance in IES’ strategy for a European Green Infrastructure.

IES’ scientific and technical report “Riparian zones: where green and blue networks meet” proposes a new riparian zonation model for continental Europe. (www.ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu).

In this study, approximately 2% of Europe’s continental area, 90.415 km2, has been identified as riparian zones. These zones play an important role in the landscape connectivity, not only from an ecological point of view but also in socio-economical and political perspective.

Figure 4. Pan-European distribution of riparian zones, including both river-floodplain and stream-riparian systems (percentage in 10-km cells.

Figure 5. Riparian landscape Maggia river near Bignasco, Vallemaggia, Switzerland.

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EUROPE HYDROPOWER IN EUROPE An important source of Europe’s riparian landscape are the mountain rivers. At the same time, these rivers provide for the major part of Europe’s hydro-power network.

By exploiting mountain rivers for hydro-power purposes and intervening in the natural behavior of these landforms, these rivers and their riparian landscapes are heavily affected.

Two main types of hydro-power can be distinguished in Europe; run-off-river facilities and dammed facilities. The first type is mainly used downstream and in general smaller than the dammed hydro-power facilities upstream.

The power generated by dammed hydro-power facilities depends on the volume and the height difference between the source and the water’s outflow. Therefore, these large hydropower dams are built where the height differences are significant; in the mountains.

Sometimes existing natural lakes are converted into reservoirs, but in most cases completely new reservoirs are created by damming natural existing streams. Some of the reservoirs are also used as pumped storage reservoirs, which means that water can be pumped up into the reservoir when energy costs are low and used to generate energy when the profits are high.

Although every case has its unique conditions, in general hydro-power dams affect the river and riparian landscape downstream by decreasing the amount of water and the irregularity of floods and by holding back sediments.

About 17% of European electricity output is generated by hydropower facilities, which makes it the major renewable energy source. (Eurelectris, 2011). Hydropower energy is the backbone of an integrated European renewable system, being the most stable and having the highest conversion efficiency of all electricity generation technologies. With its ability to store energy and to ease imbalance between demand and supply, it is a very reliable energy source and can complement shortages in other renewable energy sources.

In the EU-27, hydropower provides for a capacity of 136 GW and an electricity generation of 338 TWh. Hydropower accounts for almost 70% of Europe’s renewable energy.

The main part of Europe’s hydropower storage capacity is concentrated in Scandinavia, the Alps and the Pyrenees. Eastern European countries like Albania and Romania still have large potential to expand their hydropower networks.

Most big hydropower dams in Europe are built in the 1950s-60s. At that time there wasn’t much consciousness about the impact these structures had on the landscape and territories.

Often, streams completely dried up, and the riparian landscape changed. This didn’t only cause decrease of the ecological value but also for example degradation of soil quality. Besides this, the construction of large hydropower dams has forced settlements to relocate. Several dams in Europe have caused enormous disasters, like the flood caused by a landslide into the reservoir of the Vajont dam in Italy, which killed more than 200 people in 1963.

Figure 6. Share of renewable energy to final energy consumption with normalised for hydro, EU 27. In 2009 the European Commssion adopted a new directive on renewable energy (2009/28/EC). The new Directive on renewable energy sets an ambitious target for the EU 27 of 20% share of energy from renewable sources in final energy consumption by 2020 and a 10% share of renewable energy in the transport sector (in each Member State. The 2008 data update will include revised methodology.

Figure 8. European hydropower dependence. Percentage of total installed capacity dedicated to hydropower.

Figure 9. Gross theoretical hydraulic energy potential, related to the country areas.

Figure 7. Palagnedra dam, Centovalli, Switzerland.

Figure 10. Reservoir and run-of-river hydropower stations in Europe.

6 T H E R I PA R I A N L A N D-S H A P I N G M AC H I N E

EUROPE POLICIES Policies regarding renewable energy generation and how to deal with landscapes and territories are set up on a European scale by the European Commission and its sub-organizations.

The European Landscape Convention (2000) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (2011) are examples of Pan European policies concerning the landscape and its territories.

In the late 1990s , the creation of a single European electricity market started to develop. This meant the construction of key infrastructure projects, like the expansion of the high voltage grid and the extension of interconnection points at the national borders. One of the research topics of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission concerns hydropower and its possibilities. This research resulted in several reports and recommendations, for example the reports “Assessment of the European potential for pumped hydropower energy storage” and “Eurelectric (2011): Hydro in Europe: Powering renewables”.

These policies and reports are not interrelated, although in practice hydropower networks and the landscape and surrounding territories are very much connected. This disconnection causes conflicting situations between hydropower interests and spatial landscape values.

Besides this, national and even provincial policies sometimes differ a lot from each other, although they are being applied on the same geographical entity.

A more geomorphological based policy – surpassing political boundaries - could provide for a meaningful approach to the issue of hydropower networks and their effects on the European mountain landscape.

Apart from an integrated landscape strategy, this could also result in economic benefits.

CLIMATE CHANGE High mountain water resource systems are sensitive to climate change effects. The hydrological regime of these systems depend very much on snow and ice and their melting processes. In the near future, a large amount of melting water from glaciers is expected due to temperature increase. This will be a benefit for stakeholders in hydropower, but a concern for the population downstream.

The total glacier-covered surface area in the Alps decreased from some roughly estimated 4.500 km2 around 1850 to slightly more than 2900 km2 in the 1970s. The corresponding area loss rate of about 10 to 15 km2 per year sharply increased after 1985 to about 40 to 45 km2 per year, when the total glacier surface area was reduced to slightly more than 1.800 km2 in 2010. It is difficult to estimate future melting, but the expection is that the glaciers in the Alps will be vanished within 30 to 50 years. (W. Haeberli, et al, 2013).

The hydropower dams situated high in the mountains are likely to be most affected by the vanishing glaciers.

Altering precipitation patterns will have a larger impact on hydropower generation, rivers and riparian landscapes. It is impossible to give precise predictions for future climate change effects, but one can count with a decrease of precipitation in the Alps around 5-10% of the current precipitation within the next 50 years. In Northern Europe, Scandinavia, a precipitation increase of about 10-15% can be expected.

These different future climate change effects should be taken into account when dealing with hydropower networks and riparian landscapes.

Figure 13. Relative change in annual river flow.

Figure 14. Temperature: change in mean annual temperature (°C).

Figure 11. Melting Griesglacier, Maggia Valley, Switzerland.

Figure 12. Dams and reservoirs in the Alps, by purpose and lake volume.

Figure 15. Precipitation change in annual amount (%).

7 T H E R I PA R I A N L A N D-S H A P I N G M AC H I N E

EUROPE CONFLICTS IN TRANSNATIONAL RIVERS DIGA ALDEADAVILA_PORTUGUESE-SPANISH MOUNTAINS Portugal and Spain share five rivers – Minho, Lima, Douro, Tejo and Guadiana, the Portuguese part representing 21%, Spanish part 79%.

In 1864, Portugal and Spain signed the “Treaty of Limits” (ratified in 1866), which established the present international boundaries of the two nations. The treaty specifies that, although the bordering rivers belong to each of the nations by half of their streams, they shall be of common use by both countries. A complementary agreement on transboundary rivers clarifying issues regarding the use of such rivers was signed and affirmed in 1912. “Both nations have the same rights on those river stretches and, in consequence, each one can make use of half of the corresponding flows, at any time.” A treaty regulating the development of hydroelectric facilities on the Douro River was signed in 1927. The international stretch was divided in two parts with the same hydropower potential.

In 1968, Spain and Portugal signed the same principles included in the International River Convention, in order to rule on the sharing of water and hydroelectric potential production of bordering river stretches.

The Aldeadávila Dam was built by Spain pursuant to these treaties, and was the final dam to be built by Spain on the section of river alloted to that country. The dam is one of the largest in Spain and has a capacity of 1200 MW. 1km

The transnational management of hydropower is carefully regulated, but the effect these interventions cause on the surrounding landscape is not part of these conventions. The Spanish Aldeadavila dam has (negative) impact on Portuguese riparian zones, but there is no strategy how to deal with these issues.

Figure 16. Aldeadavila dam.

LAC LANOUX_PYRENEES Although there is cross-border cooperation developed on certain territories, mostly ecologically and environmentally focused, the Pyrenees lack an all-encompassing treaty like the Alpine Convention.

This lack of transnational policies causes issues, for example in the field of water management.

Although there are only a few international rivers/streams in the Pyrenees, some of them are subject to discussion between France and Spain.

Lake Lanoux is situated in southern France near the border of Spain. The lake is fed by several streams that all originate in France. Water flows out of the lake in a single stream that joins the Carol River before crossing into Spain. In the 1950’s, France began developing a plan to divert water from Lake Lanoux over a 789 meter drop to generate hydroelectric energy. Even though France promised to return the diverted water to the Carol River, Spain pressed France to arbitrate the dispute because Spain believed the plan would violate its water rights under a series of treaties signed in 1866. The arbitration tribunal issued an award in 1957, which rejected Spain’s arguments because the French plan promised not to alter the volume of water entering Spain through the Carol River. Although France would not have been allowed to unilaterally promote its legitimate interests at the expense or injury of neighboring states, the tribunal did not identify a foreseeable injury to Spain. Further, the Tribunal stated that the 1866 treaties did not constitute a reason to subjugate the general rule that standing and flowing waters are subject to the sovereignty of the state where they are located. (International water law project)

5km

Figure 17. Lac Lanoux.

As glaciers in the Pyrenees will disappear within the next 50 years and precipitation will decrease, the amounts of water will change. But how much water should France then redirect to Spain?

LAGO DI LEI_ALPS In the Alps, transnational issues concerning for example water management and landscape, are dealt with in the Alpine Convention, an international treaty between the Alpine countries.

Although this treaty comprises policies for transnational issues, the landscape, which doesn’t take into account political boundaries, brings up some interesting cross-boundary cases.

The Lago di Lei is a reservoir in the Valle di Lei. The lake is almost entirely located in Italy, but the dam was built on territory later assigned to Switzerland in a territorial exchange in 1962-63. An equivalent territory north of the lake was assigned to Italy. The dam is operated by Kraftwerke Hinterrhein. The waters of the lake are the only waters in Italian territory which end up in the North Sea, being part of the Rhine’s drainage basin.

The dam was built to provide electricity to Switzerland. Italy imposed four conditions. It had to be built by Italians, designed by Italians, use Italian materials, and Italy had to own 20% of the production. This was all fine, but when the Swiss army was consulted they pointed out that any breach in the dam would flood Switzerland, wiping out towns and raising the level of Lake Constance. The dam must be on Swiss territory for the Swiss army to defend it. So land was exchanged, square meter for square meter.

Because of a decrease in (future) precipitation and the disappearing of glaciers, a delta of sediments is forming in the lake. Italian landscape is transformed by a Swiss intervention. An Italian (artificial) lake, controlled by a Swiss dam; both countries will affect each other when one intervenes in the system.

2km

Figure 18. Lago di Lei.

PERUCA DAM_DINARIC ALPS Lake Peruća or Peruča (Croatian: Jezero Peruča) is the second artificial lake in Croatia after Lake Dubrava. It is located in the Split-Dalmatia County, close to the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Lake is fed by water from the Cetina River, and drains an area of 3,700 km², while the total catchment area of the Cetina is around 12,000 km2. The annual discharge is around 105 m3 s−1 as a consequence of a mean annual rainfall of 1380 mm. This is why the artificial lake was created by building a dam on Cetina River in 1958, some 25 km downstream. The Peruća lake was the first large reservoir created in karst and the first remote reservoir in the Cetina Hydropower System. Building the dam on the Cetina and creating the lake, has limited flooding downstream.

Before it was built, the State of SFRY nationalised land which belonged to the inhabitants of neighbouring settlements. In the middle of the lake, there was an old Orthodox Dragović Monastery. Before the artificial lake for the hydroelectric power station at Peruća was created, the Dragović monastery was moved to a hill not far from the old fortress at Gradina.

The dam has been “used” as potential “destruction-tool” during the Croatian War of Independence.The Peruća Dam was gravely damaged during the war, when on January 28, 1993, in the aftermath of Operation Maslenica, at 10:48 a.m., the dam was blown up in an intentional effort to destroy it by Serbian/Yugoslav army forces. They mined it with 30 tons of explosive and detonated the charges with the intention of harming thousands of Croatian civilians downstream. The explosion caused heavy damage, but ultimately failed to demolish the dam. The Croatian communities in the Cetina valley (from Sinj to Omiš) were nevertheless in great danger of being flooded by water from Peruća lake.

In the end, a total collapse of the dam could be prevented and the dam was recovered.

5km

Figure 19. Peruca dam.

ALTA KRAFTVERK_SCANDINAVIAN MOUNTAINS Alta power station (Norwegian: Alta kraftverk) is a hydroelectric power station located on the Alta-Kautokeino River in Finnmark county, Norway. The power station is located in Alta Municipality, just north of the border with Kautokeino Municipality. It is operated by Statkraft, a Norwegian state-owned electric company, and it opened in 1987.

This hydropower project, which also raised the issue of Lappish minority rights, created one of the most dramatic political conflicts in Norway since World War II, also on the national level. The survey was done in the winter 1980/81. This was just before one of the dramatic high points of the conflict: the large police action involving about 10% of the total Norwegian police force.

The Alta case had developed into a symbol for conflicts over conservation that had developed since the late 1960s. The location of the project, in one of the core areas of Lappish settlement, created additional complications. It resulted in a strongly polarized society. The parties to the conflict not only disagreed on the local issue. The intensity and escalation of the conflict led a large number of people to doubt the ability of national authorities to make right and just decisions. They also developed very different “world pictures”, cutting across traditional political cleavages. (Conflict and Local Mobilization: The Alta Hydropower Project, Svein S. Andersen, Alte Midttun, p.317, Acta Sociologica 1985 (28), Oslo) 5km

Figure 20. Alta Kraftverk.

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EUROPE MAP CONFLICTS IN TRANSNATIONAL RIVERS national boundaries hydropower facilities transnational rivers and their direction

ALTA KRAFTVERK_SCANDINAVIAN MOUNTAINS

LAC LANOUX_PYRENEES

PERUCA DAM_DINARIC ALPS

DIGA ALDEADAVILA_PORTUGUESE-SPANISH MOUNTAINS FR SP PT

SP

LAGO DI LEI_ALPS

Figure 21. Transnational conflicts concerning hydropower generation.

precipitation

nr of dams

capacity

hydroelectricity as % of total installed capacity

growth (2011)

PT-SP MOUNTAINS PORTUGAL SPAIN

+20%

50

4000

PYRENEES FRANCE

100%

90% +15%

80%

40 +10%

3000

0,70%

FRANCE +5%

0,60%

2500 60%

30

ITALY

0,50%

SLOVENIA SWITZERLAND

0,80%

70%

AUSTRIA

GERMANY

0,90%

3500

SPAIN

ALPS

1,00%

0%

2000

50% 0,40%

DINARIC ALPS BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

-5%

20

40% 1500

MACEDONIA SERBIA

30% -10%

0,20%

1000 20%

10

CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS ROMANIA

0,30%

-15%

0,10%

500 10%

0,00%

0%

-1,00%

SCANDINAVIAN MOUNTAINS NORWAY

-20%

0

0

Figure 22. Data concerning hydropower and climate change in Europe.

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EUROPE

LANDSCAPE AS REMEDY FOR EUROPE’S BORDERLINE JOSINE LAMBERT MODELS, METHODS AND HISTORIES, DECEMBER 2013 Europe has an extensive history of shifting, expanding and decreasing (internal) territories, which resulted in a complex territorial structure nowadays. Territory intersects power, nature and culture; it is an assembly of human organization, from social and cultural to political.

Often, nation member territories clash with European territory and preclude necessary developments.

In order to cope with present and future demands, a communal European identity, which is directly related to its territory, is needed.

Collective issues and international policies are capable of inducing territorial transformation through the practice of landscape and urbanism. This way, the practice of landscape urbanism can play an important role in the development of European territorial cohesion, and contribute to a stronger European identity.

was Asian, African or European. But under Napoleon, Europe lost its own identity: we are French, English, Italian, Greek, Russian, etc., no Europeans.” (Larousse Grande Dictionnaire 1870, Holden, 2006) The European landscape reflects society and society’s history. Traces of former territories are still present. Patterns of Celtic fields can be found in the mountainous West, from Bretagne until Cornwall. Traces of the Romans can be found through entire Europe and the French coastal landscape near Bordeaux is the result of Dutch engineers draining the marshes in the 17th century.

Over time, the identity of Europe and its internal territories changed a lot.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF EUROPE

After the Second World War, the European Union was established to encourage the reconstruction of Europe. A union should prevent future conflicts and accelerate economical recovery. (D. Evers, 2006) Founded by six countries in 1958 (Belgium, France, Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and West Germany), the EU has grown over time by admitting new member states (currently the EU comprises 28 countries) and expanding its power.

The EU doesn’t demand sovereignty over a territory or people, but facilitates the creation and maintaining of agreements among the member states.

“The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. Institutions of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the Court of Auditors, and the European Parliament. The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens.

The EU’s de facto capital is Brussels.” (Wikipedia, 2013) Besides encouraging the economy, political stability was an important reason for establishing the EU. Early 2000, a start was made to establish the European Constitution. In the resulting document, former treaties were further elaborated, with a focus on democracy, transparency and effectiveness.

In several member states, referenda were organized to vote about this treaty. The Netherlands and France rejected the treaty; other countries didn’t even organize a referendum, because they feared for rejection. Finally the Constitution wasn’t accepted. This was a clear signal for politicians and policy makers; people were afraid of losing their country’s identity to an overlapping European identity.

According to some people, Europe is renamed after the Greek mythological princess Europa, who was abducted to Kreta by god Zeus. Others say the name Europe was the name for the mainland of Greece and the meaning was expanded to regions in the north in 500 BC. The term Europe is generally derived from the Greek words eurys (wide) and ops (sight). A minority believes in an Accadic origin, derived from the word ereba, which means “sunset”.

From a point of view of the Middle East, the sun sets in Europe; the land in the West.

With its ten million km2, Europe is the second smallest continent, but at the same time the third most populated continent, after Asia and Africa. About 11% of the world population, 739 million people, lives in Europe.

Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean in the North, the Atlantic Ocean in the West, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea in the South and in the East by the Oeral, the Caspic Sea and the river Emba. Yet the borders of Europe are not always very clear. Cyprus, for example, belongs culturally considered to Europe, but is geographically clearly part of Asia.

Europe has a rich cultural history, based on music, arts of painting, writing, architecture and urbanism. Within Europe, there is a large variety of traditions and different cultures. These characteristics – related to its rich history - are what make Europe a unique continent, popular by tourists. Europe also aims to be a continent of innovative development, with a strong knowledge based economy.

Democracy principles were developed in Greece, while the economy and culture of entire Europe are influenced by the Romans.

Cultural ideas about a communal European identity were encouraged by the use of the Latin language – until the 19th century - for cultural and scientific exchange.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon unified Europe as Emperor and implemented Roman Constitution. But his European Empire encountered opposition and this strengthened the emergence of the nation-state in the 19th century.

“Under the Roman Emperors and under Charlemagne, Europe yet had its own identity; one

EUROPEAN UNION

EUROPEAN TERRITORIES European countries collaborate extensively, but don’t lose their sovereignty. This form of collaboration is unique in the world. At the same time the complex relation between the European territory and its member states’ territories results in identity conflicts like the rejection of the European Constitution as mentioned earlier.

Figure 23. A territorial battle between a Dutch VOC fleet and a British fleet, 1781. Painter: Thomas Luny (1759-1837).

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EUROPE

Figure 24. Map of the territory of the Roman Empire, until 31BC.

To understand the relation between the overall European territory and its identity to the member states’ territories and identities, one should take a closer look at the concept of territory.

According to the Oxford Dictionary 2013, the definition of “territory” is: “an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state”. This definition doesn’t cover the entire concept of territory and how it emerged.

Territory used to be a designated space that mainly concerned corporations and institutions.

These organizations expanded their territory for example by constructing infrastructural networks like trade routes. Circulation and mobility played a major role in the idea of territory in the 18th century. In many European countries, the emergence of territory was closely related to the genesis of the modern nation-state and economic market. Territory was inseparable from the practice of cartography; by mapping their territories, countries could index the potential of their colonies. (Picon, 2010).

Stuart Elden states that territory must be approached in relation to land (property), and terrain (power). (Elden, 2010) This approach is clearly associated with the emergence of the modern nation-state.

Nowadays, European spaces have become more complex; borders have undergone dramatic changes, transnational European networks have developed; territories are blurred.

In the past few years, European studies have made up a whole new vocabulary to analyze and describe new spatial configurations and relations within Europe; polycentricity, network Europe, territorial cohesion, multi-level governance. (Rumford, 2006) In today’s context, the social, cultural and cognitive dimensions of territory become more visible, as they sometimes clash with the political dimension of territory. To intervene or work within today’s concept of territory it is important to consider these four dimensions.

“Territory is social because, independent of scale, persons inhabit it collectively; political because groups fight to preserve as well as to enlarge their space; and cultural because it contains the collective memories of inhabitants. Territory is cognitive as well as physical, and its capacity to subjectify social, political and cultural boundaries makes it the core of public and private identity projects.” (Mabel Berezin, Martin Schain, 2003, 7) Territory is the physical representation of identity related to social, political, cultural and cognitive dimensions. Identities can be seen on different scales and categories and can overlap each other. For example, religious identity can cross borders of ethnic or lifestyle identities. This would mean that European identity could comprise different national identities. The difficulty is the strength of identities of individual Europeans nations and it territories. Inhabitants of each nation share their unique history, emotional attachment and even conquered territories of neighboring nations. Compulsory participation in institutions strengthens the relation among citizens of a country; the military, schools and collective language create a shared culture of participation. (Mabel Berezin, Martin Schain, 2003)

EUROPEAN IDENTITY The challenge for Europe is to generate a frame in which its member states can find shared emotions, similarities and, maybe most importantly, potential developments which are only possible within the transnational network of Europe. A European identity would unite French, Dutch, Italians, Germans, etc. without them losing their national identity.

“European integration challenges the prerogatives of territoriality and by extension disequilibrates the existing mix of national culture and legal norms. By threatening to make the national space unfamiliar to many citizens, it opens a space for contestation as well as positive change.” (Mabel Berezin, Martin Schain, 2003, 15) National languages and currencies attach persons to their territories. An important step towards European economical integration was made by introducing a collective currency; the euro. Implemented between January 2000 and January 2002, the euro was promoted as a medium of European identity. When, in July 2002, the euro outpaced the American dollar for the first time, a collective pride and sense of European identity arose.

This is a good example of united forces achieving a result, stronger and more profitable than all forces would achieve individually.

Reconfiguration of the political-economical territory leads to a change in the emotional dimension of this territory, the European identity.

LANDSCAPE URBANISM AS A TOOL FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION Landscape and territory, in their traditional meanings, used to represent two complementary perspectives; territory associated with rational and planning and landscape with sensitive and aesthetic dimensions. But nowadays we live in a techno-nature in which everything interacts with everything. “Traditional frontiers such as the distinction between human and non-human or the opposition between nature and artificial entities are blurred.” (Picon, 2010, 98) In this aspect, the European landscape distinguishes itself from the landscapes of other continents. A large part of it is culture landscape; formed and maintained by man. Many landscapes reflect a cumulation of historical forms of landuse, thus resulting in a large variety of culture landscapes. Original nature landscapes have intersected with artificial entities throughout entire Europe.

As landscape has become part of territory, but at the same time often ignores national borders, it can and should play a significant role in the European integration. In this sense, the practice of landscape urbanism could be a powerful tool to strengthen the European identity.

“For designers, the collapse of the distinction between territory and landscape is perhaps among the most intriguing aspects of the present situation. It forces them to associate intimately the rational and the sensitive, the planning and the aesthetic dimensions.” (Picon, 2010, 98)

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EUROPE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION In order to promote the protection, management and planning of European landscapes, the Council of Europe initiated the European Landscape Convention in 1994. The Convention was adopted in 2000 and came into force in 2004.

The European Landscape Convention is a Treaty devoted to all aspects of the European landscape, not just the outstanding ones. It raises awareness about the value of living landscapes.

Each participating party (38 member states in total) needs to identify the landscapes in its territory and define landscape quality objectives for these identified landscapes.

Collaboration among the parties is of great importance; chapter 3 “European Co-operation” demands mutual assistance, exchange of information and transfrontier cooperation among parties. (European Landscape Convention, 2004) The European Landscape Convention complements the Council of Europe’s conventions, such as the Treaty of Lisbon.

Territorial cohesion is one of the main goals as stated in the Treaty of Lisbon, December 2009.

Consequently, this term is extensively used in the background document for the Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020: The Territorial State and Perspectives of the European Union, 2011.

“According to the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion – turning territorial diversity into strength the main function of territorial cohesion is to work for the harmonious development of all types of places, and to make sure that the citizens of these places are able to make the most of the inherent features of their territories. Territorial cohesion is an approach that aims at transforming diversity into an asset.”

ROADMAP 2050 – EUROPEAN INTEGRATION THROUGH A COMMUNAL ENERGY NETWORK A concrete elaboration of these policies which aims at territorial cohesion is the project “Roadmap 2050”.

One of the urgent issues European countries have to deal with is the use of fossil fuels, which will deplete at a certain moment and also will increase in price. European countries need to meet (inter)national energy regulations, emission restrictions and reductions. One of the objectives set by the European Union in 2009, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. This was the starting point for the European Climate Foundation (ECF) to develop the project “Roadmap 2050” “The mission of Roadmap 2050 project is to provide a practical, independent and objective analysis of pathways to achieve a low-carbon economy in Europe, in line with the energy security, environmental and economic goals of the European Union. The Roadmap 2050 project is an initiative of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and has been developed by a consortium of experts funded by the ECF.” (www.roadmap2050.eu) Roadmap 2050 is developed in detail in collaboration with many parties; consultancy firms, research centres, NGO’s, including the internationally known architecture firm Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). All relevant aspects are extensively analyzed; from methodology to technical solutions, costs and implications on the economy to feasibility.

In the report, importing renewable energy from neighboring regions like North Africa, is considered a possibility. This would even expand the territory of the energy network to another continent and might be a handle for Africa to trade one of its valuable (energy) resources to Europe.

OMA was involved in the production of a graphic narrative about the geographical, political and cultural implications of a zero carbon power sector.

“The graphic narrative shows how through the complete integration and synchronization of the EU’s energy infrastructure, Europe can take advantage of its geographical diversity: if the Roadmap is followed, by 2050, the simultaneous presence of various renewable energy sources within the EU will create a complementary system of energy provision ensuring energy security for future generations.” (www.oma.eu)

Figure 25. Different European landscapes.

Figure 26. New European energy grid.

Roadmap 2050 addresses one of the issues all European countries have to deal with, and by collaborating, a more efficient and profitable solution can be generated.

The project could not only reduce the use of fossil fuel and increase the use of renewable energy sources, it could also generate a collective pride among Europeans. It shows that collaboration among member states leads to a powerful transnational system, which is physically represented by the European territory.

An awareness of a collective territory and even dependence on other state member territories (wind energy in the North, solar energy in the South) would contribute to a European identity.

The international landscape will be a generator of our common need; energy. The physical representation of the European territory, its landscape, becomes a binding factor for Europeans.

The project hasn’t been implemented yet and it will probably take a while to realize considering all the (inter)national policies and regulations it has to pass.

We know from experience that people tend to stick with the known and existing, but changes need to be made inevitably, so let’s not be afraid of new ambitious plans from which in the end we will all benefit.

Figure 27. The reordered territories of “Eneropa”.

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EUROPE BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF IMAGES

Mabel Berezin, Martin Schain, Europe without Borders; Remapping Territory, Citizenship, and Identity in a Transnational Age, 2003.

23. www.hetopenboek.nl 24. Prof. Dr. Hans-Erich Stier, Westermanns Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, 1963.

Council of Europe, Spatial Planning and Landscape Division Directorate of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage, European Landscape Convention – Florence Convention - , 2000.

Stuart Elden, Land, terrain, territory, Progress in Human Geography, 2010.

Members of the drafting team set up for the update of the Territorial State and Perspectives of the EU with the contribution of the European Environment Agency, The Territorial State and Perspectives of the European Union; background document for the Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020, 2011 update.

25. Ruimtelijk Planbureau, 2006 26. OMA, European Climate Foundation, Roadmap 2050; A practical guide to a prosperous, low-carbon Europe, 2010.

27. OMA, European Climate Foundation, Roadmap 2050; A practical guide to a prosperous, low-carbon Europe, 2010.

European Climate Foundation, Roadmap 2050; A practical guide to a prosperous, low-carbon Europe, 2010.

David Evers, Anton van Hoorn, Joost Tennekes, Aldert de Vries, Arjan Harbers, Sander Klaver, Ruimtelijk Planbureau, Atlas Europa, 2006. (Dutch) ESPON project 3.2, Scenarios on the territorial future of Europe, 2007.

Robert Holden, Identiteit in kaart brengen, Fieldwork; Landschapsarchitectuur in Europa, Stichting Landscape Architecture Europe, 2006. (Dutch) Leonie Janssen-Jansen, Bas Waterhout, Grenzeloze ruimte; Regionale gebeidsgerichte ontwikkelingsplanologie in Europees perspectief, 2006. (Dutch) Silvia Minichino, Landscape and Renewable Energy Policies toward Territorial Transformation, Planum, The Journal of Urbanism n. 27, vol. 2-2013, 2012.

Nico Nelissen, Flip ten Cate, Mooi Europa; Ruimtelijke kwaliteitszorg in Europa, 2009. (Dutch) Antoine Picon, What has happened to territory?, Architectural Design; Territory – Architecture beyond Environment, 2010.

Chris Rumford, Rethinking European Spaces: Territory, Borders, Governance, Comparative European Politics, 4 (127-140), 2006.

Reinier de Graaf (OMA), TEDx presentation Roadmap 2050, 2010. www.oma.eu www.roadmap2050.eu www.wikipedia.org www.coe.int www.landscapeinstitute.org

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PAN-EUROPEAN ATLAS

Figure 28. Pan-European atlas

EUROPE RIVER RESTORATION PROJECTS Throughout Europe, several river restoration projects are being carried out. The main purpose of practically all these projects is to restore ecological values. Besides that, some projects also pay attention to improving and developing recreational areas. In general, these projects are complidated to carry out because of difficulties in dealing with landowners alongside the rivers.

To get a good understanding of how these projects are implemented and how they work, we visited two river restoration project, the Cassarate river project in Lugano, Switzerland and the Ahr river project in Bolzano, Italy.

AHR RIVER At present, the river presents a single-thread, sinuous to meandering channel fixed by bank protections, with former floodplain areas no longer inundated even for 30-50 yr recurrence interval events. Such dramatic variations have most likely occurred in response to the combination of both intense sediment mining in the reach from the 1970s to the 1980s, and to the reduced sediment supply from the upstream basin determined by a hydropower dam (trapping roughly a basin area of 100 km2) and by hundreds of control works (retention checkdams and grade-control structures) along the tributaries. Starting in 2003, the Department of Hydraulic Engineering of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano has undertaken a program of river restoration, mainly aimed at re-establishing adequate conditions of soil moisture for the remnants of the riparian woodlands present on the valley bottom.

Restoration actions included channel widening by removal of ripraps coupled to channel bed filling and raising, mid-channel bar creation and bed stabilization by ramps (D. Campana, F. Comiti, 2012)

Figure 32. Impact of human interventions on the Adige River, Italy.

Marion Aschbacher, landscape architect at the province of Bolzano and Peter Hecher, ecologist and flood management at the province of Bolzano explained the project and took us to the sites.

Figure 29. The Ahr river in the analyzed reach: anastomosed conditions in 1858 (left) and the present (2006) artificially fixed meandering pattern (right).

Figure 33. River restoration project of the Mareta river, Italy. (left; before the intervention, 2005, right; after the intervention, 2012).

Figure 30. Ahr river restoration project, Bolzano, Italy. By building ramps in the river, the groundwater level will be heightened to revive the woodland alongside the river.

Figure 34. Ahr river restoration project, Bolzano, Italy. Ecological values are restored and the amount of fish increases.

Figure 31. Ahr river restoration project, Bolzano, Italy. Next to settlements recreational areas are developed.

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EUROPE CASSARATE RIVER The Cassarate is a river in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It rises in the upper part of the Val Colla, on the slopes of Monte Gazzirola and the San Lucio Pass. It flows into Lake Lugano at Lugano.

Historically, the lower reaches of the Cassarate river formed the boundary between the communities of Lugano (to the west) and Cassarate (to the east), but both communities now form part of the city.

The river has been heavily embanked in the past, mainly with the purpose of flood protection.

This didn’t only cause ecological values to decrease, but also induced a disconnection between the river and the territory it flows through. Due to floods over the past 15 years, the embankments and flood protection interventions were weakened and needed to be improved.

A design was developed to not only strengthen existing embankments and flood protection barriers, but also to reconnect urban activities to the river. Construction works started in November 2011 and the project was officially opened in June 2014.

Maurizio Pozzoni and Christian Ambrosi, researchers at the Faculty of Earth Sciences of SUPSI (Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana) extensively explained the project and its intentions and took us to the sites.

Figure 35. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland. Floating wood retention measures.

Figure 38. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland.

Figure 36. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland. Foot - and bicycle paths alongside the river.

Figure 39. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland. Recreational area where the river flows into Lago Lugano.

Figure 37. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland. Footpaths along the river are only accesible when the water is low.

Figure 40. Cassarate river restoration project, Lugano, Switzerland. Recreational area where the river flows into Lago Lugano.

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ALPS

- MOUNTAIN RIVERS IN THE ALPS ARE ONE OF EUROPE’S MOST IMPORTANT WATER SOURCES - SEVEN NATIONAL POLICIES DEAL WITH ONE MOUNTAIN RANGE - EXTENSIVE HYDROPOWER NETWORK HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED IN THE ALPS - RIPARIAN AREAS IN THE ALPS ARE HEAVILY AFFECTED BY HUMAN INTERVENTIONS

ALPS THE ALPINE TERRITORY The research arguments introduced in the first chapter will be transferred into an actual territory by zooming into the Alps and investigating social formations at an Alpine scale.

The Alps constitute a territory whose exceptionality depends on a particular relation between unique natural processes and human activities. Nonetheless what should be considered as a coherent whole system is managed in as several ways as the number of countries which include the Alps in their national borders.

Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Lichtenstein and France apply their seven different policies to the last extension of their terrains and while some could reflect a shared strategy, many others don’t allow any common reflection. Accordingly, in diverse fields of interest rather clear differences and contrasts emerge, whereas a coherent operative landscape strategy can not anymore be postponed.

As the Alps represent the most beneficial hydropower source of the entire continent, hundreds of interventions started to appear since the beginning of the last century in order to exploit the hydropower potential. While now some countries, such as Switzerland and Italy, have already taken advantage of most of the possible suitable sites, countries like Slovenia and Austria are planning to increase their hydropower capacity.

Moreover the current state of preservation and efficiency is considerably different in each country and while a long term strategy is lacking in some of them (i.e. Italy), others have already experienced diverse solutions (i.e. Dam Decomissioning program in France from 1999 on).

National borders then are not capable to read the territory from a different point of view than a political one.

In order to make a European landscape agenda operative, the current concept of borders needs to be overcome. From a landscape urbanism dimension dynamical transformation within the territory preveals on any individual point of view. On the contrary the main aim is to reveal and challenge these conflicts.

The drawing “territorial formations - alps” (page 19) clarifies and conveys that hydropower systems shouldn’t be considered as punctual interventions which affect just a limited area, but rather their effects extensively extend downstream. The water management upstream indeed influences all the downstream territorial formations in terms of structure, organization and strategy.

Then according to the different impacts of the single project, it shows how many settlements and amount of population are affected by it.

Figure 41. Map of the Alps.

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TERRITORIAL FORMATIONS - ALPS

Figure 42. Territorial formations Alps

ALPS GUIDELINES

VAL D’ISERE

There is an endless variety of different types of mountain valleys in Europe. They have not only their own geomorphological characteristics, but also depend on different types of economies, social formations etc. For example Val d’Isere in France which depends on tourism, mainly in winter. The reservoir in Val d’Isere is even used in winter for the creation of artificial snow. The Adige Valley in Italy is largely exploited by agriculture, mainly consisting of vineyards and fruit production. The Adige is connected through artificial underground canals to Lago di Garda for flood prevention. The Kaunertal in Austria is characterized by it’s unique protected nature reserve, which is now threatened by construction plans to expand the hydropower network.

Guidelines are developed in order to identify the valleys which are suitable to apply the strategy of the riparian land-shaping machine to. The guidelines on this scale of entire valleys are based on a few different characteristics. First of all geographical characteristics are analyzed; valley widt, steepness, availability of sediments, runoff flow rate and soil resistence.

Secondly social and economical formations are identified; various activities in the valley, amount and density of settlements, hydropower networks, embankments, industries, agricultural land etc.

Then areas are sorted in three different categories, where to put focus on ecology, where on cultivated land (for example existing industries that can’t be integrated in the newly generated landscape) and which areas and activities can be integrated in this new landscape.

Ultimately these different analyzes are added together and lead to a result provides an overall guideline about where to implement the strategy and which types of interventions, related to the categories in the catalogue of interventions, can be implemented.

Figure 43. Application of the guidelines on Val d’Isere.

geomorphologic characteristics

Three categories related to the catalogue of interventions.

social and economic characteristics

result of various characteristics

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ALPS

VALLE D’ISERE - TOURISM (SKI AREA)

VALLE ADIGE - AGRICULTURE (VINEYARDS)

Figure 44. Val d’Isere.

Figure 48. Vineyards in Adige valley.

Figure 45. Dam of Tignes.

Figure 49. San Michele all’Adige.

Figure 46. Isere river.

Figure 50. THE ALPS

KAUNERTAL - ECOLOGY (NATURE RESERVE)

Figure 47. Waterfall from Kauner glacier.

Figure 51. Kaunersee.

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ALPS

THE MOUNTAIN OF SUBLIME: FROM STATIC TO DYNAMIC, TOWARDS? EUGENIO DA RIN MODELS, METHODS AND HISTORIES, DECEMBER 2013 INTRODUCTION Since we refer to it as the place where natural and human processes meet, join and overlap, then we must consider landscape the reign of complexity.

For its special environmental features on one hand, in terms of climate, biology, ecology and geology, and peculiar local societies on the other, in terms of cultural, social and economical configurations, mountain landscapes could be easily assumed as the paradigms of complexity.

Moreover, the interpretations given to these landscapes through the centuries by poets, intellectuals, scientists, philosophers, represent a crucial point in the history of perception and aesthetic.

Finally the deep and quick transformations happened to these territories since the mass tourism boom begun in the late 19th century and developed in the 20th. This phase, which is still going on, has completely altered not only the physical appearance of them, but especially their invisible economical and social processes.

Therefore the actual scenario in most of the places in the Alps still appears as a dichotomic fracture between the “pure and genuine” mountain traditions and identities and the “evil and disfiguring” urbanization that’s bringing and spreading its models in territories where they don’t belong to.

How could designers nowadays deal with this intricacy of values and issues in the mountain territories? What’s future for them?

In order to come through the present impasse I firmly believe that a serious meditation has to be done. One of the first points is to generate an awareness and understanding about the perception of mountain landscape complexity from a perceptive and aesthetic point of view.

Thus in this essay I’m going briefly through its evolution to finally summarize the contemporary state of the art and conclude explaining why it has to be overcome.

main point is that for the first time someone decided to reach and prove nature just for the sake to feel through viewing.

In this way the italian poet is certainly a precursor of the Renaissance sensibility which later, through the contributes of Josua Simler and Leonardo da Vinci above others, would have found its highest dimension. Although a very different fields of interests and applications, these two personalities totally express a modern attitude toward mountain environment. The first on one hand, through his treatise De Alpibus [1574], represent one of the first detailed attempt to describe mountain features in terms of natural, geographical, topological, ethnographical points of view, with parallel suggestions to avoid and come through the mount’s hostilities.

Through his lines we can clearly distinguish an unfriendly and lethal nature that could still annihilate humans.

On the other hand the italian genius is the first to explore and study in deep mountain features from a more scientific position. As a result of his geological and morphological analyses, conducted as the most popular ones about human body, he defined a new mounts conception through his paintings where landscapes and natural shapes are scrupulously drawn.

Masterpieces like The Virgin of the Rocks [1483-1486], Sant’Anna, la Vergine e il Bambino con l’agnellino [1510-1513] manifest Leonardo’s ability to connect arts and sciences in a typical Renaissance sensibility.

The period in which mountain landscape becomes a more popular field of interest is the seventieth century: in this phase, due to an extensive scientific revolution begun in England and then spread into the rest of Europe, a large amount of intellectuals started to travel and visit the Alps - especially Switzerland - to explore and investigate this new strange world.

The achievement of new technologies and instruments on one hand and the new scientific modern theories developed by many high personalities like Descartes, Galilei, Newton, Leibniz among many on the other, contributed to the formation of a new sensibility toward natural world and mounts.

In spite of this new tendency, still several intellectuals involved in a religious conception of human and world creation, focusing their researches on the relations between mounts formation and biblical events which could connect these inexplicable and irrational features to a divine will or biblical event. In this sense the works of Athanasius Kircher, Thomas Burnet represent the last residues of a particular approach which found its origins in the ancient ages.

Since this moment modernity prevailed and a new aesthetic emerged.

PERCEPTION IN THE PAST

The first time mountain landscape perception becomes a senses experience is in the fourteenth century: Petrarch’s letter about the ascent of the Mont Ventoux establishes a new modern sensibility through which experiment wild nature. As a matter of fact the italian poet described his walk through that inhospitable peak and his spirit sensations while experiencing it. The

The Grand Tour established a paradigm through which experience italian cities and landscapes: the Alps represent an essential and unmissable stage of this tour.

The descriptive writings of these journeys initiated a new phase about perception which later would culminate in the romanticism.

Even though in the writs of the british Jospeh Addison pre-romantic echoes are not traceable, his experience among Alps and Apennines constitute an important passage in which beauty criteria shift from a symmetry and proportion to imagination and evocative power.

The scenario considerably changed once Edmund Burke defined the new perception of Sublime. The Irish philosopher established a real aesthetic category through which define the sensations originated by landscape. As a matter of fact the concept is deeply connected to a pessimistic view of human condition: the sublime alters our perception upsetting our existence through feelings like dread, hazard and even pain. Moreover a sense of instability and threat disconcerts our perception of reality, making the observer feel what Burke defined an “agreeable kind of horror” . In this sense the huge dimensions and the non-human scale play a decisive role to activate this process: if the more than popular drawings by Piranesi constitute the artistic architectural space translation of that, the mountain landscapes represent on the other hand the natural scenario.

Eventually Kant went deeper in this reflection in his The Critique of Judgment in which he defined the sublime as a shaking capable to contemporary repel and attract the perceiver.

The Sublime then came into our day by day dictionary. To sum up the cultural movement of romanticism established and clearly defined one of the modern aesthetic categories we’ve been using to define our sensibility toward nature: as a matter of fact while the picturesque has represented the aesthetic criteria through which express the sensibility of beauty, relaxing contemplation, the sublime one inaugurated an age where the perception assumed a role of dramatic interior experience.

Figure 52. The Alpine range.

Figure 53. Mont Ventoux view from the top.

To briefly synthesize the history of aesthetic about mountain landscapes means to fix some key points in which a different approach and tendency have been developed according to a wider cultural framework. As a matter of fact we can associate all the described phases to a specific crucial passage in human civilization in terms of cultural movement, social-economical changes, technological inventions or discoveries. The personalities involved in this on going process have been hundreds among intellectuals, explorers, artists, professors, scientists from many dissimilar background and disciplines. Even though just some of them are here quoted, the whole mountain universe owe them its gratitude.

The early civilizations identified mountains as an accidental irrational shape of the world. Since the tendency among ancient greeks and romans was to consider wild nature as an external entity toward which no human activity could refer to, the inaccessible mountains obtained the role of sacred divine residence in many mythologies.

Without any aesthetic and cognitive value these landscapes represented what Latin called locus horridus, in juxtaposition to locus amoenus, the safe and well managed and controlled natural environment of fields where they used to spend their leisure time apart from the city. Poets and philosophers like Virgil, Lucretius, Pliny the Elder, Aristotle expressed clearly this position through their writings, emphasizing on the other hand the dark, mysterious strangeness of a natural feature they couldn’t explain and systematize.

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ALPS

Figure 54. Leonardo da Vinci [1510-13] Sant’Anna, la Vergine e il Bambino con l’agnellino, detail.

THE 20TH CENTURY’S REVOLUTION Yet these days the framework has dramatically changed for social, economical, cultural revolution happened in the last few decades. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, thanks to an increasing improvement in the infrastructural networks, facilities and technologies, a new phenomenon started to spread within the societies: the mass tourism.

More precisely this costume inaugurated a new season in the perception and the living of the mountain landscapes. As a matter of fact progressively all the remote and isolated places that just a small amount of people could afford to reach and visit in the past centuries begun to be accessible to a very large amount of population.

The more evident consequences of this tendency appeared especially after the second world war when in Italy for instance the economic boom completely break into the mountain landscapes. In fact int the early fifties entire villages in the Dolomites saw their seasonal tourist amount more than doubled.

To understand seriously this scenario and the dramatic impetuous consequences it involved some details have to be added. Remaining in the Dolomites area, although generally this framework could be applied and transferred to the entire Alps range, an entire revolution in the social, economical and cultural assets was accomplished.

These territories were historically characterized by small isolated communities which conducted their lives in a very consolidated model in terms of economy, customs and traditions that hardly confronted or get in touch with contemporary urban environments and models. Though the grand tours brought their temporary presences and the first isolated facilities started to appear, like external observers they didn’t modify the configuration of the local societies.

What the mass tourism did is exactly that: while a large amount of people begun to reside more permanently, in the mountain settlements entered a series of urban models in terms of social behavior, relations, architecture, economical models they didn’t belong there. The local population tended to welcome these transformations which could bring continuously occupation and richness. Thus within a couple of decades a shocking conversion of a whole secular system was realized.

The perception made no exception from that point of view: from an individual interior experience the mountain landscaped has been altered in a collective moment. The sublime then cannot anymore be considered with the classical criteria Burke defined two centuries ago. As Claudia Bell and John Lyall have correctly interpreted in their The Accelerated Sublime , the aesthetic category has been altered by the mass tourism. Two main characteristics are relevant to understand and analyze deeper this phenomenon, both of them deeply connected to the globalization device: the speed and the multitasking have become the new models through which experiment and perceive the mountain landscape sublime.

activities are still common and presents, the aesthetic experimentation of sublime is not so easily achievable as centuries ago. In fact for the sublime has always been associated with a personal solitary experience, these days this type of sensibility could be lived just in sensibly less places and moments.

The perception sublime should now be considered and handled for its new significance: the tendency and approach of the perceiver is deeply connected to a temporary type of practice.

As a matter of fact the rapidity allows to accumulate more feelings, experiences and tests. The travel capitalism consumers wants to prove and collect as much activities and experiences as they could in the less amount of time. The speed then becomes an essential invisible characteristic we should consider while we’re dealing with mountain landscapes as much as multitasking.

THE SUBLIME OF MULTITASKING Often seen as a kind of antidote to the daily urban life, the tourism experience these days ought to offer as much amenities as possible and the mountain landscapes equipped themselves for that purpose. The people who experiment mounts environments are not explorers, intellectuals, artists anymore and the leisure time took the primacy over any other dimensions. The mountain settlements now should provide a large amount of offers if the local economy depends just on tourism incomes. Accordingly the main fields in which the sublime could now be experienced in mountain landscapes are sport activities, relaxing and health, local traditions events: in every of them to the tourist is guaranteed the pleasure to be involved in a unique experience. Collecting, catalogue theme become the reason of his permanence: skiing down famous and amazing slopes, cycling between valleys and meadows, relaxing in typical spa environments, eating typical local foods and assisting to peculiar costumes and traditions events are just the main popular opportunities which most of the mountain landscape settlements offer. Nonetheless the tourist perceive an authenticity in terms of sublime experience: he could experiment the same in a different place or in the season after, but still the eagerness to try and test has shifted the core of perception from a slow aesthetic individual interior trip to collective fast dynamic and plural experiences. Though consuming, accumulating and storing of them has become the contemporary sublime, often a sense of disappointment appears: the many representations in terms advertisements on one hand and the possibility to easily share and show the experiences through pictures or movies on the other, generate and nourish high expectations to the new possible tourists who, once their turn is running over, frequently sense this negative side of the sublime experience.

THE SUBLIME OF SPEED The speed constitutes an important factor to evaluate the landscape perception: since human history started all the considerations have assumed the walking pace as the only possible way to perceive, although horse riding was already accessible and popular it didn’t represent a device as prevalent as human velocity in terms of contemplation and aesthetic. Thus since the industrial revolution spread and railways and highways started to appear and connect even remote places, this aspect radically transformed.

In addition the new mass tourism devices and activities such as skiing, chair lifts and cableways, bicycles, paragliding and so on altered the rapidities through which now mountain landscapes are lived and experienced. Even though walking, trekking, climbing and other human pace

Figure 55. A. von Humboldt [1807] , Tropics plant geography.

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ALPS CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The main point of this brief synthesis is that we astonishingly assisted to the entire process of radical transformations without a genuine awareness. The numerous debates regarding these alterations have always been limited in dichotomous clashes between two different models, mentalities, cultures. Exactly like a deadly fight between good and evil forces, this process has been regulated with a superficial sensibility in the sense that a long term comprehension of the whole phenomenon has lacked.

What is now needed is serious reflection about how to deal with this new model that has been created. We’re not dealing anymore with two different strange universes and patterns but a new one has been created from the mixture of them. We should stop to merely judge whether a single component might be suitable to be interest in it and on the other hand start to construct a vision and objectives for this new mountain landscapes.

How these contradictions and complexity factors could be transformed in valuable resources?

The sublime of speed and multitasking are two faces of the same medal: these days related to a specific economical tourism model they contribute to form our contemporary mountain landscapes. Design, and landscape urbanism above other disciplines, ought to make the most of their influence on territories to create new opportunities and scenarios.

BELL,C.(2002) The Accelerated Sublime, Westport, Praeger Publishers; COSGROVE,D., DELLA DORA,V.(2008) High Places_Cultural Geographies of Mountains, Ice and Sciences London, I.B. Tauris; DA RIN,E.(2012) Paesaggio Montano e Complessità: strumenti per un ecomuseo in Alta Val Pusteria, MArch, Politecnico di Milano; SCAGLIONE,P., FRANCESCHINI,A., FARINELLI,F., CECCHETTO,A., GAUSA,M., CLEMENTI,A., RICCI,M., THUN,M., DEMTZ,T.(2009) High_Scapes Alps, Trento,List; URRY,J.(1990) Tourist gaze: leisure and travel in contemporary societies, London, Sage.

Figure 56. Arnold Fanck [1929], Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü.

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VALLEMAGGIA

- THEVALLEMAGGIA HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY HYDROPOWER INTERVENTIONS AND CHANNELIZATION - THE VALLEY CONTAINS A VARIETY OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES - EXTENSIVE RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON THE GEOMORPHOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR ON A LONG TIMESCALE, MAINLY CARRIED OUT BY THE ETH ZURICH

VA L L E M A G G I A INTRODUCTION In order to set operative guidelines able to deal with mountain river landscapes, a zoom in specific local conditions is necessary.

The choice was conducted on the Valmaggia for several reasons. First of all the territory includes one of the densest systems in the entire alpine range in terms of hydropower interventions, representing a challenging complexity to analyse and design; moreover some parts of the basin location are in between the Italy and Switzerland, whose different policies influence a single natural system.

Furthermore the conformation of the Maggia river is such special that the complete geomorphological process could be observed from the peak of the glaciers down to the outlet in the Lake Maggiore. Finally the peculiarity of the area involved many research activities in diverse fields of interest, from geomorphological and ecological aspects to social and cultural ones. The available material to consult is rather detailed as well as data are various and accurate.

Thus which social formations are present in the Valmaggia territory? What relationship develops between the several actors? Which are the connections between the river flow and the human activities along it?

To understand the intention behind the drawings, a synthetic description of the main features and conflicts within the valley is indispensable.

several samplings (it has 35 catch points in total) and runs six power plants. The total output is put at 607 MW and annual production totals approximately 1.2 billion kWh (Meier 1999: 25). OFIMA releases the waters tapped in the upper part of the Valmaggia directly into Lake Maggiore. This causes a significant drop in residual water flows over the whole course of the river. Since the advent of hydroelectric power production here, the Maggia has lost about three quarters of its initial volume of water (Meier 1999: 21). In the Riveo region, the averages for the months of June, July and August are now lower than the absolute daily minimum levels measured in the twenty-five years prior to hydroelectric production (Ufficio arginatura ed estrazioni 1999).

GEOMORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES, TRANSPORT OF SEDIMENTS AND NATURAL RISKS, ALTERATION OF THE WATER COURSE Since time immemorial, the floods have regularly wreaked their destruction on the cultivated lands and infrastructures of the region and taken victims in the valley. Today, despite the production of hydroelectric power, which has left only an extremely low residual flow rate in certain areas, summer rains can cause dramatic increases in water levels. In a matter of a few hours the river can become the most powerful and devastating watercourse in Switzerland.

The flood of 7 August 1978, following exceptionally violent precipitations, affected the whole region, causing catastrophic damage and costing many lives. At the time, the Maggia’s flow was estimated to be 5,000 m3 per sec. To provide protection for people and property, significant development has taken place on the final stretch since the 1980s, which had already been dyked before the disaster.

(A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002)

OVERVIEW SUPPORT FOR RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES The Valmaggia valley is the largest in Ticino, covering 1/5 of the area and incorporating 22 municipalities. The valley presents as a large funnel. The upper Valmaggia forms the upper basin and consists of three valleys spreading out in a fan: the Rovana to the west, the Bavona to the northwest and the Lavizzara to the northeast. There are a total of 12 municipalities located in the long corridor formed by the base of the lower valley from Avegno to Cavergno accounting for 4/5 of the entire population of the Valmaggia over a distance of 25 km. From Tegna, the valley ends in a vast delta plunging into Lake Maggiore at the mouth of the Maggia.

In this delta, two small towns – Locarno to the east and Ascona to the west – frame the river, as it is channelled into its final stretch. There are no significant centres in the Valmaggia itself as the population density is very low (less than 20 inhabitants per km2). Economically, the valley is endowed with natural resources: its climate and landscape, which are exploited by means of tourism; stone, which is quarried to make construction materials; and, finally, water, which is used to produce energy. The active population lives and works mainly in the Locarno region, at the mouth of the river. Finally, agriculture plays only a very minor part of the economy, as the morphology of the terrain, hemmed in by steep hills, is inhospitable to this activity.

(A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002)

The most important recreational activity is fishing, popular with the locals but also an attraction for many tourists. In 1997, the catches in the Maggia and its tributaries were assessed at approximately 28,000, i.e. 4.4 tonnes of fish. Other recreational activities include canyoning and canoeing, diving from the rocky cliffs and swimming. Finally, as one of the main elements in the Valmaggia landscape, the river in itself constitutes a tourist asset. The region is popular with hikers, who appreciate its natural beauty. Furthermore many campsites take places along the river although their relation with the riverbank seems often unexistent for flooding protection purposes.

(A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002) A NATURAL HABITAT FOR PLANTS AND ANIMALS Plants and animals are particularly important in this region. The ecological and botanical features of this sub-alpine river landscape have long been vaunted. Several zones have been listed in both cantonal and federal inventories for their ecological value.

(A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002)

HYDROELECTRIC PRODUCTION SUPPORT FOR GRAVEL QUARRIES Two hydroelectric companies operate using the waters of the Maggia. The SES (Società elettrica sopracenerina SA), a private company, currently one of the largest electrical power producers in Ticino, carries out its sampling at Avegno and Giumaglio, in the lower part of the valley and has two relatively small plants. The second much larger company is OFIMA (Officine idroelettriche della Maggia SA), a joint venture, 20% owned by the canton of Ticino. The company carries out

The Valmaggia is the site of two quarrying operations: gravel and granite. The quarries are located mainly in a limited area between Riveo and Visletto. The average amount of gravel taken from the riverbed in this sector is 75,000 m3 for the last ten years. Granite is quarried from the cliffs overhanging the Maggia. The quarries are located on the two rocky slopes on either side

Figure 57. The hydropower generation system in Valmaggia territory.

Figure 58. Footbridge near Gordevio.

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VA L L E M A G G I A

Figure 59. Naret dam.

Figure 61. 1 riparian vegetation

Figure 60. Robiei dam.

Figure 62. 2 narrow snowy upper part of the maggia

Figure 63. 3 stone and gravel quarry

2

3 4 5

Figure 64. 4 agriculture - vineyards

Figure 65. 5 Maggia river at Gordevio

of the river, however the stone-processing operations take place on the banks where the largest plants and logistical structures are located. The annual yield from the quarries on the Maggia is in the region of 70,000 m3 of natural stone. For this quantity of stone, the total waste produced is 35,000 m3. This is due to the quarrying process itself and presence of inferior quality stone.

The waste is partly used in the re-processing facilities in the quarrying area or it is dumped, in particular around the edges of the river bed, while awaiting a solution for re-use of the waste materials. Recent estimates put these granite deposits at 3-5 million m3 with annual growth in the region of 30,000 - 80,000 m3 (Ufficio Arginatura ed estrazioni 1999). The Valmaggia offers other uses for the water resource but these are of less concern to us in the present instance. Uses include the consumption of drinking water, as well as provision of the strategic reserve for fire fighting and irrigation.

(A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002) CONFLICTS Since we refer to it as the place where natural and human processes meet, join and overlap, then we must consider landscape as the reign of complexity. For its special geomorphological processes on one hand, in terms of climate, hydrology, ecology and geology, and peculiar local societies on the other, in terms of cultural, social and economical configurations, mountain landscape could be easily assumed as the paradigm of complexity.

Within this framework several rivalries can easily develop, but in the Valmaggia territory the main ones to be taken in account involve the water management. The source of water doesn’t provoke a rivalry in itself, for the agricultural activity is very marginal in the area and irrigation purpose is not significant, however the flow regulation represents a delicate issue.

The most relevant rivalry concerns the hydropower generation, whose activity sensibly decreases the river runoff. This anomaly provokes a serious threat to the river riparian landscape: as a

1

Figure 66. Maggia valley

matter of fact all those bio-processes in terms of cyclic flooding have disappeared in many areas, altering and diminishing the water habitat in terms of both vegetation and fauna. Although it has never constituted a profitable business, fishing activity was seriously affected by hydropower interventions and stray protests are still manifested by fishermen.

This conflict in particular was rather crucial for the water management in the last decades. Since the flow was so significantly reduced in the summer period, due to the dam presence, to not let fishes accomodate, the open fishermen’s protests between 1969-’73 brought an agreement between Canton of Ticino and OFIMA - which is the company in charge for the energy production but controlled by several public Swiss actors- to release continuously a minium vital flow.

Another conflict is associated with the quarrying operations in the Riveo area. The extraction of gravel and granite from both the sides of the river banks have consistent effects on the ecological value of the riparian landscape along the river, also on the hydraulic and geologic safety of the valley. The excavation process is indeed affecting the equilbrium of the riverbed, also because of materials which are temporary stored and collected in the very proximity of the water .

Finally another relevant issue is related to the interest to protect settlements and people, and guarantee the safety of private lands from flooding events. To achieve that, in many sections along the river huge dykes have been built, transforming the dynamic riverbank into an hard border.

The consequences of these actions seriously threaten the natural flow of geomorphological processes and the riparian landscape related.

All in all the social formations within Valmaggia are several and heterogeneous. Every single activity has influence on others, in terms of advantages and drawbacks. The landscape urbanism intent is therefore to tackle these conflicts, considering the primary role of the river landform as the device to negotiate with them.

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TERRITORIAL FORMATIONS - VALLEMAGGIA

Figure 67. Territorial formations - Vallemaggia

VA L L E M A G G I A GEOMORPHOLOGY BRAIDED RIVERS Braided rivers are characterized by their network of small channels, separated from each other by braid bars. Two essential conditions for braided rivers to develop are a large amount of sediments, a high slope and rapid and frequent variations in water discharge.

Meandering streams will turns into braided streams when the slope increases. As the slope will increase when the amount of carried sediments increases, a meandering river will turn into a braided river when a certain saturation of sediments is reached.

Another determining factor is the proportion of suspended load sediment to bed load sediment. An increase in suspended sediment allowed for the deposition of fine erosionresistant material on the inside of a curve, which accentuated the curve and in some instances caused a river to shift from a braided to a meandering profile (S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972) Braided rivers change frequently, most significantly during floods.

DAM EFFECTS ON GEOMORPHOLOGY In Europe, rivers have been influenced by human interventions for many years. It is now nearly impossible to find rivers that are still unaffected natural streams.

Dams are major human interventions that often cause big changes in the natural hydrologic regime. The main effects of large dams on rivers are caused by the change in flow pattern, which usually decreases significantly and also loses its variations in water discharge and the holding back of sediments. These changes cause the river downstream to erode and to lose its braided pattern; the river becomes a more linear and regular stream. Besides this the groundwater level lowers, which causes alterations in the riparian vegetation and soil.

Figure 68. Evolution of the fluvial environments of the Piano di Magadino since the middle of the 19th century.

The river flow and its surrounding landscape have been affected by several human interventions; construction of dykes and dams.

Figure 69. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy.

Figure 70. Evolution of fluvial model in the downstream Buech Valley near Laragne (up) and near Ribiers (bottom). Reduction of braiding, stabilisation of landforms, rising of riparian woods.

1854: cartography based on the LevĂŠ originel de la Carte Dufour.

1910: cartography based on the first edition of the Sheet 515 / Bellinzona of the Siegfried Map, 1910.

2006: cartography based on the vectorial edition of the Sheet 1313 / Bellinzona of the Swiss National Map, 2006.

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VA L L E M A G G I A MAGGIA VALLEY The Maggia Valley is the Valley of the river Maggia and lies in Ticino, the Italian canton of Switzerland. The river Maggia has been altered by the hydropower network managed by Swiss company OFIMA. This hydropower network comprises various valleys; the Lavizzara Valley, the Bavona Valley and the Maggia Valley lie in one watershed, the Rovana Valley lies in another watershed, but is part of the hydropower network via artificial connections.

In 1992 the Maggia Valley was declared alluvial zone of national importance. Although the Maggia river is still one of the most natural rivers of Switzerland, the implementation of hydropower facilities has definitely changed the hydrological regime of the river and its riparian landscape. The dams regulate the water flow and decrease the amount and intensity of floods; besides this they hold back sediments which are essential for a braided river to exist.

Although the dams affect the flow of the river, the flow rate of the Maggia river depends largely on precipitation, therefore the river still remains its floods and irregular flow pattern.

So the dams have altered the behavior of the river, but it still has parts with natural braiding and shows a very dynamic hydrologic regime.

This, together with the fact that the ETH Zurich and SUPSI Lugano univeristies carry out a research project on the river, makes this river a very interesting case to study.

The surface of the basin area of the Maggia river in the Maggia Valley is 930 km2. The entire length of the river from its source the Naret lakes at +2.240m to its outflow Lago Maggiore +193m measures 50km.

The main tributaries are the Bavona, Lavizzara and the Rovana flowing into the Maggia in the upper part of the valley. Two other tributaries, the Melezza and the Isorno flow into the Maggia river just before it ends into Lago Maggiore.

The largest altitude difference can be found in the 10 km upper part of the river. From Bignasco downstream on the river flows very gently, with a slope average of 1%. The last section of the Maggia river is diked, to protect the cities Locarno and Ascona from flooding. After the destructive flood of 7th August 1978, which costed many lives, the river has been diked even more heavily. The flow at the time of this flood was about 5.000 m3/second, while the average rate flow of the river is 24 m3/second.

In April and May the snowmelt provides for the highest flow rates, values are also high in October. The Maggia river can be subject to extreme flooding from time to time, due to heavy precipitation and the steep character of the upper part of the river. In terms of quality the river is amongst the cleanest in Switzerland. (A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002)

Figures 71. Maggia river close to Someo.

Figure 72. Alteration in vegetation cover and type in the braided area of the Maggia Valley between 1933 and 2001, delineated from aerial photographs.

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VA L L E M A G G I A

Figure 73. Alluvial Deposits (Quaternary geology) Area Bignasco (top) - Giumaglio (bottom)

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GEOMORPHOLOGY - VALLEMAGGIA

Figure 74. Geomorphology - Vallemaggia

VA L L E M A G G I A RIPARIAN VEGETATION Nearly half the flora of Switzerland can be found in riparian zones (Gallandat et al., 1993).

This richness is generated by large dynamics in flood plains. Dynamics is due to floods events that rejuvenate riparian vegetation. When water level heightens, non-adapted species are eliminated and a population of pioneer species comes instead to colonize the area. (V. Favre, 2004) After the construction of the dams in the Maggia watershed in the 1950s, the Maggia river almost completely dried up. In 1969, the Ticino province decided that a minimal flow rate of 750 l/min had to be released, measured in Bignasco. In 1982 they increased this minimal flow rate to 1.200 l/min from October to 14th June and 1.800 l/min from 15th June to November (Pfammater and Zanetta 2003) Still, the hydro-electrical exploitation has led to an important reduction of the flow rate of the Maggia. Moreover, flood barriers created by the OFIMA retain sediments, thus preventing their release downstream. The ground water level has thus decreased, while the composition of soils and vegetal formations has been deeply affected by the hydro-electrical exploitation (SocietĂ Ticinese di Scienze Naturali, 1993). (V. Favre, 2004) Lowering of the ground water level and decrease of floods affect the riparian vegetation and soil quality. In a natural state, riparian vegetation is very young and dynamic due to floods, but as these floods are less intensive and frequent, riparian vegetation gets the chance to develop into mature forests. These mature forests are not original riparian vegetation, but can now be found in many riparian zones affected by dams.

Top; Figures75/76. Riparian forest between Aurigeno and Gordevio. Vegetation hasn’t been flooded regularly, so this forest got the chance to growth more mature than it would have been in an unaffected riparian area.

Bottom; Figure 77. Riparian vegetation along the Maggia river.

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VA L L E M A G G I A CLIMATE The climate in the Maggia Valley can be described as Mediterranean. Precipitation is very high in autumn, when the area is under influence of subpolar circulation. The combination of warm and humid air masses from the Mediterranean Sea with the deep pressure cyclones can create long-lasting heavy rainfall in this period. The summers are usually relatively dry under the subtropical influence. Winter precipitation is low. Because of the high elevation, most of the precipitation in winter falls as snow.

STREAMFLOW AND FLUVIAL MORPHOLOGY The streamflow of the Maggia river is mainly dependent on precipitation and snowmelt.

Because of the steep character of valley and thin soil layers with a bedrock of granite and gneiss, the catchment has a very fast response to precipitation. This leads to a very variable streamflow. The streamflow can very from 1m3/sec in very dry periods to hundreds of m3/sec during floods.

Figure 79. Change in the hydrological flow regime of the Maggia river due to hydropower operation (annual flow volume is shown). The red lines separate time periods with different environmental regulation. Data are from the station in Bignasco. (based on a diagram of the Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 2008)

The main tributary of the Maggia river is the Rovana, which drains about 21% of the watershed.

The Maggia river itself drains 52% of the watershed, the rest is drained by other small tributaries.

A lot of the tributaries are currently diverted and therefore contain very little water. Because of this, the water often doesn’t even reach the Maggia river, but enters small side rivers through little waterfalls. The water infiltrates in the alluvial area of the Maggia before even reaching the Maggia river itself.

Because of low turbidity, the Maggia river is very clear. Also, the amount of fine sediments in the Maggia river is relatively low, the floodplain in the main valley consists of coarse material.

The Rovana river carries more sediments, but because it is cut off for hydropower purposes most of the year, these sediments don’t reach the Maggia river. Only in times of floods, the Rovana delivers large amounts of sediments into the Maggia river. (W. Ruf, 2007) AQUIFER The entire valley was formed by a glacier. The aquifer depth goes up to 150m and contains coarse material, sand and gravel in the upper 30m. The aquifer is less deep at the outlet of the watershed in Ponte Brolla, where granite and gneiss come to the surface and form a geological barrier. In the upper part of the main valley, infiltration to the aquifer from the river dominates, whilst in the lower part groundwater upwelling occurs due to the in-situ bedrock at the surface. In the central part both of these conditions can occur. (W. Ruf, 2007) Figure 80. Monthly flow discharge. (based on a drawing from W. Ruf, 2007)

High hydraulic conductivity aquifer Low hydraulic conductivity confining unit Very low hydraulic conductivity bedrock Direction of ground-waterflow Figure 78. Aquifer.

temperature (°C)

Figure 81. Mean monthly precipitation and mean monthly temperature during the period 1929-2003 in Cevio, located in the main valley at 418 m.a.s.l. (based on a diagram of the Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 2008)

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GEOMORPHOLOGY - SOMEO

Figure 82. Geomorphology - Someo

VA L L E M A G G I A SIMULATIONS The simulation tool played a fundamental role in the design process. Different models might generate various knowledge and be used for diverse purposes.

First of all, through an abstract Excel model, it was possible to obtain basic knowledge about our design material, the mountain rivers landform and its features such as braiding configuration, water and sediments movement, islands and pools formations (page 37-38).

Moreover different overall site specific conditions have been tested, in order to transfer the knowledge from general to particular.

On one hand Caesar software provided the actual state of Maggia river flooding behaviour, then on the other, through a Grasshopper definition, potential overflow scenarios have been conceived (page 39).

Finally in a very local scale some possible interventions to design within a dynamic natural process have been experimented. The alteration of the topography in terms of removal of hard borders, creations of channels, islands and pools is primary to let the river establish and consolidate its ecological value and riparian landscape. The combination Rhino, Python and Caesar softwares guaranteed the possibility to use the simulation tool in a more propositive and projective way (page 48).

BRAIDING RIVER MODEL The intention behind this particular kind of simulation is to understand the general natural behaviour of the braided river landform.

Which are the parameters that influence the conduct of the water? How does the braiding happen? Might different topography and slope conditions affect this process? Which is the role of sediment movement within this geomorphological course? What is the relevance of the time scale and in which way does it transform the landform?

The Excel definition could give a generic but incisive answer to all of them. As a matter of fact the braiding formation is physically affected by the configuration of the land in terms topography, slope, width of the braidplain and the initial breadth of the several streams.

The generated outputs might be easily compared and through an animation, more than a static paper, they can powerfully convey these kinds of information.

On the contrary the limits of this model are relative to the impossibility to manipulate and use in a continuos loop the output results.

In addition the data which could be input don’t allow explorations on site specific conditions and they remain at a rather general level.

Another drawback is related to the time range: in this model the time factor is associated to the number of iterations run and not to a defined time scale. The different step outputs are then evaluated and temporalized through reasonable assumptions, comparing this model with the results developed by Caesar software.

Figure 83. Braidings of the Tagliamento river, Italy.

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LANDFORM SIMULATIONS BRAIDED RIVER

Figure 84. How landforms could represent the primary design material in terms of manipulation and control of geomorphological processes. Accretion and distance measurements of diverse braiding formations.

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LANDFORM SIMULATIONS BRAIDED RIVER

Figure 85. Landform simulations braided river.

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LANDFORM SIMULATIONS VALLEMAGGIA

Figure 86. Landform simulations Vallemaggia.

VA L L E M A G G I A

MACHINING RIPARIAN LANDSCAPES IN MOUNTAIN RIVERS EUGENIO DA RIN MACHINING LANDSCAPES, APRIL 2014 INTRODUCTION

LANDFORM SPATIAL STRUCTURE

Water is the primary element in human lives. Since ancient ages the first civilizations have developed and expanded, influenced and shaped territorial formations along rivers.

For mountain territories represent the origin of this source, the water management in these special environments has sensible effects on the entire downstream systems.

The water purposes are many and diverse in terms of irrigation, industry, water consumption supply, fishing, leisure activities, hydrogeological control and navigation. However, what most characterizes and affects mountain territories is another activity: the hydropower generation.

As a matter of fact one of the main geomorphological transformation on rivers is caused by the change in flow pattern, which usually decreases significantly and also loses its variations in water discharge and the holding back of sediments. These changes cause the river downstream to erode and to lose not only its natural pattern, but especially those bio-chemical processes which are fundamental for the environment to develop an ecological habitat through cyclic flooding events.

On the other hand human activities along the rivers course influence the spatial structures in terms of accessibility, fruition, ecological and social sustainability.

How then could design intervene in order to establish a diverse landscape management in terms of both geomorphological dynamics and territorial formations?

General considerations In general braided rivers are characterized by a dense network of small channels, separated from each other by braid bars. Two essential conditions for braided rivers to develop are on one hand a large amount of sediments, on the other a high slope and rapid and frequent variations in water discharge.

Meandering streams will turns into braided streams when the slope increases. As the slope will increase when the amount of carried sediments increases, a meandering river will turn into a braided river when a certain saturation of sediments is reached.

Another determining factor is the proportion of suspended load sediments with the river bed course. In fact a growth in suspended sediment allows for the deposition of fine erosionresistant material on the inside of a curve, which provokes its accentuation and in some instances causes a river to shift from a braided to a meandering profile.

(S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972)

Figure 87. Evolution of the fluvial environments of the Piano di Magadino since the middle of the 19th century.

The river flow and its surrounding landscape have been affected by several human interventions; construction of dykes and dams.

Figure 89. The Valmaggia activities and their relations with the river in terms of connectivity, borders consistency and population distribution.

1854: cartography based on the LevĂŠ originel de la Carte Dufour.

1910: cartography based on the first edition of the Sheet 515 / Bellinzona of the Siegfried Map, 1910.

2006: cartography based on the vectorial edition of the Sheet 1313 / Bellinzona of the Swiss National Map, 2006.

Figure 88. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy.

Figure 90. Evolution of fluvial model in the downstream Buech Valley near Laragne (left) and near Ribiers (right).

Reduction of braiding, stabilisation of landforms, rising of riparian woods.

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VA L L E M A G G I A Valmaggia territory The course of the Maggia river is mainly dependent on precipitation and snowmelt. Because of the steep character of valley and thin soil layers with a bedrock of granite and gneiss, the catchment has a very fast response to precipitation contribution. This leads to a very variable streamflow, which can vary from 1m3/sec in very dry periods to hundreds of m3/sec during floods.

The precipitation amount is very high in autumn, when the area is under influence of subpolar circulation. As a matter of fact the combination of warm and humid air masses from the Mediterranean Sea with the deep pressure cyclones can create long-lasting heavy rainfall in this period. On the other hand summer seasons are usually relatively dry under the subtropical influence. Finally, during winters, precipitation amount is rather scarce because of the territory’s elevated altitudes in which snowfalls are dominant.

The Maggia river itself drains 52% of the watershed, while the rest is drained by many other small tributaries, among which Rovana drains about 21% of the entire basin.

A lot of the tributaries are currently diverted and therefore they contain very little water amounts.

Because of this management, the water often doesn’t even reach the Maggia river, but enters small side rivers through little waterfalls.

Due to low turbidity, the Maggia river is very clear. Also, the amount of fine sediments in the Maggia river is relatively low, for the floodplain in the main valley is constituted by coarse material. The Rovana river carries more sediments, but because it is cut off for hydropower purposes most of the year, these sediments are not capable to reach the Maggia river. Only during some remarkable flooding events, the Rovana substantially contributes to the sediment transports of the basin system. (W. Ruf, 2007) Figure 91. The hydropower generation system in Valmaggia territory.

Once the first hydropower interventions was built in the Valmaggia watershed during the 1950s, the Maggia river almost completely dried up. The, in 1969, the Ticino province decided that a minimal flow rate of 750 l/min had to be released, through consistent measurements made in Bignasco. In 1982 they increased this minimal flow rate to 1.200 l/min from October to 14th June and 1.800 l/min from 15th June to November (Pfammater and Zanetta 2003) Still, the hydro-electrical exploitations have led to an important reduction of the flow rate of the Maggia. Moreover, flood barriers created by the OFIMA retain sediments, thus preventing their release downstream. The ground water level has thus decreased, while the composition of soils and vegetal formations has been deeply affected by the hydropower generation process (SocietĂ Ticinese di Scienze Naturali, 1993).

The riparian vegetation dynamics Nearly half the flora of Switzerland can be found in riparian zones (Gallandat et al., 1993). This richness is generated by large dynamics in flood plains, whose dynamics keep riparian river landscapes active. In fact when water level heightens, non-adapted species are eliminated and a population of pioneer species comes instead to colonize the area. (V. Favre, 2004)

Figure 92.

The action of lowering of the ground water level and decrease of floods affects the ecological value of the landscape in terms of vegetation species and soil quality.

In a natural state, riparian vegetation is very young and dynamic due to floods, but as these floods are less intensive and frequent, riparian vegetation gets the chance to develop into mature forests. These mature forests are not original riparian vegetation, but can now be found in many riparian zones affected by dams.

In terms of acquifer, since the entire valley was formed by a glacier, its depth goes up to 150m and contains coarse material, sand and gravel in the upper 30m. The aquifer is less deep at the outlet of the watershed in Ponte Brolla, where granite and gneiss come to the surface and form a geological barrier. In the upper part of the main valley, infiltration to the aquifer from the river dominates, whilst in the lower part groundwater upwelling occurs due to the in-situ bedrock at the surface. Finally, in the central part both of these conditions can occur. (W. Ruf, 2007)

Figure 93.

Figure 95. A cross section of a river corridor. The three main components of the river corridor can be subdivided by structural features and plants communities. (vertical scale and channel width are greatly exaggerated.

Figure 94.

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VA L L E M A G G I A WHY TO INTERVENE? Many initiatives have already been started regarding river restorations. The main purpose of most of these projects relies on the improving or re-establishment of lost ecological values along the river course.

The approach consists mainly in the mechanical removal of hard barriers, walls and dykes which constrain the river course, with other supportive actions to give to the river more freedom in the establishment of geomorphological processes.

If the river starts to get more room, some lands alongside will obviously be affected and reduced.

The current compensations measures adopted from the public administrations to deal with private owners is limited to money refunds or land property exchanges (Switzerland, Italy).

Is this the only possible solution? Does the design direction depend on whether we choose to privilege nature or rather human interests?

The intent of this project is to investigate and challenge the possibility of a third way. In fact both the standpoints represent two sides of the same landscape coin, and from a landscape urbanism perspective a different engagement of these relations could bring new benefits to the territory as a system.

PHYSICAL INTERVENTIONS The catalogue of the possible techniques which could be used in this approach is quite large and consolidate. However it’s relevant to clarify that all of them represent punctual isolated interventions whose individual meaning and efficiency need to be evaluate in a wider comprehensive framework and strategy.

These operations might be distinguished in instream practices, streambanks treatments, channel reconstructions and stream corridor measures.

Moreover, a general diverse management of the watershed should be parallel run in terms of water level and sediments control, flow regime enhancement and streamflow temperature management. Finally, forest and agricultural land uses within river’s territory need to be revised according to these interventions.

Figure 96. View of the former lateral channel along Ahr braided system, with dying riparian vegetation.

Figure 97. Critical ecosystem functions. Six functions can be summarized as a set of basic common themes recurring in a variety of settings.

Figure 98. Management cycle for river restoration works.

Figure 99-105. All the selected techniques refer to The Federal Interagency Stream Restorian Working Group, 2001. Stream Corridor Restoration - Principles, Processes, Practices,Appendix A.

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VA L L E M A G G I A CASE STUDIES During the very recent field trip in the Alpine range it has been possible to observe and contextualize in specific local conditions several of these technical solutions. Especially two projects are remarkable since some similarities with Valmaggia conditions emerged.

The Ahr river restoration The Ahr river management plan is an ongoing project started in 2001 by the provincial administration of Bolzano (Italy). The aim is to deal with the ecological deficit generated in the last century by hydraulic consolidation works and especially material extraction from the river bed. While the first cause is limited to some marginal sections along the river, yet much more effective in the tributaries’ system, the excavation activity considerably affected the river flow, with digging almost 4 meters deep. This modification prevent periodical flooding events to happen and ecological processes to maintain riparian vegetation. Therefore alder woods which used to be vivid and common were disappearing, while soil composition has become drier allowing agricultural activities to shift and occur close to the riverbanks.

In order to restore the previous conditions of the river system, several interventions have taken places. The first important one was conducted in 2003 nearby Campo Tures, along a 390m section where terrains were all owned by the public administration and immediately suitable to run this first experiment. There the river channel was enlarged from a 30m width to the current 60m. The perishing residues of riparian vegetation were removed, preparing the terrain for the new expansions. Some small islands were created to set a lateral channel where the current is lower . Therefore the new areas could be flooded during the snow melting spring period or extreme unexpected events.

A second relevant intervention was conducted first in 2005 and then in 2009 a bit downstream in the municipality of Gais. This operation involved a larger surface with a 35m enlargement of the river bed and a more than 25˙000mc terrain movement. Moreover the insertion of both anchored woods and stumps rather than huge boulders contributed to the creation of small pools suitable to let live and improve aquatic fauna. In addition, the alternation of areas where the water can flow in different velocities has been further explored and texted in order to diversify habitats and implement biodiversity.

Furthermore an important aspect which is common to Valmaggia context is the presence of an important quarry industry, whose presence in the very buffer area is seriously threatening the success of these interventions. Meantime to tackle this social conflict within different actors and interests, another intervention, which consists in a diversion lateral channel of the river, has been made. There the water flow is guaranteed by a sort of rocks threshold, while the island in between is mainly characterized by gravel surfaces and pockets of organic and sand materials.

Figure 106. View of the new enlargement intervention along the Ahr river nearby Gais(BZ-Italy).

The Cassarate river restoration Another relevant project is located in the city of Lugano (Switzerland) along the river Cassarate.

Since the river’s course is completely diverse - the flowing is in fact in the very proximity of urban areas - the interventions engaged with different conditions from the ones described in the case above. However the similarities the Maggia river rely on this lack of space to let the river to enlarge, such as in the municipalities of Bignasco and Aurigeno and Maggia industrial area. Therefore the techniques are limited to decrease the level of pollution and reach a good accessibility to both the banks. A small waterfall replaced an underground discharge pipe and rocks have been placed into the river bed in order to create water diversions and the accordingly appearance of small pockets of sand.

Moreover along the river mouth a discussed intervention have been recently aaproved and currently almost completed.

The waterfront which used to be constituted by old walls have been opened and expanded, with the purpose to transform the area in a more lively park.

While the previous management of the lakeside didn’t allow a sufficient fruition because of the protective dykes, now flooding events have been taken in account and some areas are likely to be flooded during the critical seasons, activating those biological processes necessary for the river to establish its ecological value.

BEYOND THE ECOLOGICAL VALUE The projects described with many others ongoing initiatives have the primary intention to deal with a green restoration from an ecological perspective. Techniques of subtraction and addition of material to the current geomorphological flow of the river landform have been explored and tested. From a landscape urbanism perspective this approach should be pushed forward in order to include a different management of human activities and territorial formations according to the new landform configuration. As a matter of fact the dynamical transformations of the river flow, in terms of seasonal flooding and long term accretion/ erosion process, influence the land organization.

What is common to many mountain valleys is a progressive disappearance and shift from very traditional productive methodologies, in terms of agriculture but also small industries and handicraft, to a more contemporary and globalized mechanic production process. As a consequence many lands which used to be intensively productive have now been abandoned or used for diverse purposes.

As concern the Valmaggia in particular, in several sections along the river many forsaken agricultural pattern are clearly recognizable in correspondence of important protection

Figure 109. View of the Maggia’s riparian landscape near Giumaglio.

Figure 107-108. Cassarate restoration project (Lugano-Switzerland). Intervention along an industrial area (left) and in the outfall in the Lugano Lake.

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VA L L E M A G G I A dyke structures. Therefore an hypothetical removal would involve a design intention for the surrounding woodland and fields. In order to overcome the approach limited to the ecological and leisure aspect, the project along the Maggia river tries to engage a re-activation of production through alternative activities. Aquaculture and aquaponics represent indeed the opportunity to progressively understand at a basin scale the water management. Such systems in fact might consist of small-area intensive ponds providing both high yield of cultured animals and large-area extensive ponds. On the other hand this solution might provide adapted areas for recreation and recreational fishing. These kind of activities could easily fit in an ecological river network in which ecology and productive processes intersect, although a compromise between reasonable amount of production and minimal impact on environment is hard to achieve.

As flexibility and temporality represent two strategic aspects of the ongoing project, these assets are appropriate to challenge the actual zoning management of the territory into a more dynamical and mixed use All in all the project aim in this very last stage is to focus on this approach as a device to deal with the landform not only from an ecological friendly strategy, but especially to emphasise how natural processes could provide a different organization and management for urban settlements and territories.

Figure 110. Schematic picture of a pond aquaculture facility with areas covered by sedimentation ponds and constructed wetlands.

Figure 111. Schematic diagram of an integrated pond aquaculture facility.

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VA L L E M A G G I A BIBLIOGRAPHY Alpine Convention, 2011 - Platform water management in the Alps, Situation on hydropower generation in the alpine region focusing on small hydropower.

Swiss Alps: quantification of potential impacts and related modeling uncertainties, Hydrology Earth System Science, 11(3), pp.1191-1205.

S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972. Experimental study of channel patterns, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 83: 1755-1770, Colorado.

American Rivers, 2002. Exploring dam removal, A decision-making guide, Washington.

Società Ticinese di Scienze Naturali, 1993. Ecologia dell’Insubria e del Ticino, Ticino.

M.Beniston, M.Stoffel and M.Hill, 2011. Impacts of climatic change on water and natural hazards in the Alps: can current water governance cope with future challenges? Examples from the European ACQWA project, Environmental Science & Policy no. 871.

B. Blackshear, T. Crocker et al., 2011. Hydropower Vulnerability and Climate Change – A framework for modeling the future of global Hydroelectric Resources, Middlebury College Environmental Studies Senior Seminar.

S. Terrier, F. Jordan et al.,2011. Optimized and adapted hydropower management considering glacier shrinkage scenarios in the Swiss Alps, Taylor & Francis Group, London.

The Federal Interagency Stream Restorian Working Group, 2001. Stream Corridor Restoration - Principles, Processes, Practices.

A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002. Case study 1: Maggia Valley, Euwareness, Lausanne.

P. Burlando, P. Molnar, W. Ruf, L. Foglia, P. Perona, 2004. A modelling framework to assess the impact of streamflow regulation on floodplain vegetation ecosystem, 1st EGU General Assembly, Nice.

D.Campana, F.Comiti et al.,2012. Historical channel adjustment in the Ahr river (Italian Alps) and ecological effects on restoration, IS. Rivers 2012.

M. Childs, University of Hull, 2010. Literature survey: the impacts of dams on river channel geomorphology.

K. Tockner, A. Paetzold, U. Karaus, C. Claret, J. Zettel, 2009. Ecology of braided rivers.

E.S. Verry, J.W. Hornbeck, C.A. Dolloff (eds), 2000. Riparian management in forests of the continental Eastern United States. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton.

G.L. William, 2012. Downstream hydrologic and geomorphic effects of large dams on American rivers, n.79 Geomorphology 2006 (pp.336-370). www.coe.int, Council of Europe

N. Clerici, C. Weissteiner, L. Paracchini, P. Strobl, Riparian zones: where green and blue networks meet; Pan-European zonation modeling based on remote sensing and GIS, European Commission JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability.

www.ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu

H. Decamps, 2001. How a riparian landscape finds form and comes alive, Landscape and Urban Planning 57.

EEA, 2009. Regional climate change and adaption – The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources, 2009, EEA Report No. 8/2009.

Eurelectris, 2011. Hydro in Europe: Powering renewables, Brussels.

Eurelectric, 2013. Hydropower for a sustainable Europe, 2013, Eurelectric Fact Sheets 02/13.

V. Favre, 2004. Evolution of the Maggia floodplain; Analysis of an aerial photographs time series from 1962 to 2001, Diploma thesis, University of Lausanne.

J.D. Gallandat, J.M. Gobat, C. Roulier, 1993. Cartographie des zones alluviales d’importance nationale. Cahier de l’environnement no 199, OFEFP, Bern.

W. Haeberli, F. Paul, M. Zemp, 2013. Vanishing glaciers in the European Alps, Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Scripta Varia 118.

G.R.Koboltschnig and W.Schoner, 2011. The relevance of glacier melt in the water cycle of the Alps: the example of Austria, Hydrology Earth System Science, 15, pp.2039-2048.

B.Maiolini and M.C.Bruno, 2007. The river continuum concept revisited: lessons from the alps, Alpine space-man & environment, vol 3: The water balance of the Alps.

M.A. Mimikou, E.A. Baltas, 1997. Climate change impacts on the riability of hydroelectric energy production, Hydrological Sciences-Journal-des Sciences Hydrologiques, 42(5).

P. Molnar, M.V. Birsan, V. Favre, P. Perona, P. Burlando, C. Randin, 2008. Floodplain forest dynamics in a hydrologically altered mountain river, ETH Zurich - University of Lausanne, Zurich and Lausanne.

R.J. Naiman, H. Decamps, 1997. The ecology of interfaces ¬ riparian zones, Annual review of Ecology and Systematics.

R.J. Naiman, H. Decamps, and M.E. McClain, 2005. Riparian Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Streamside Communities, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

OFIMA, 1999. Ofima, una sfida elettrizzante, Locarno.

Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, 2010. The Alps – People and pressures in the mountains, the facts at a glance.

Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, 2009. Water and Water management issues – Report on the state of the Alps.

S. Pfammatter, P. Zanetta, 2003. Hydrogéologie de la plaine alluviale du Valmaggia entre Bignasco et Giumaglio, Diploma thesis, University of Lausanne.

W. Ruf, 2007. Numerical Modelling of Distributed River - Aquifer Coupling in an Alpine Floodplain, dissertation ETH Zurich, Zurich.

B.Schaefli, B.Hingray and A.Musy, 2007. Climate change and hydropower production in the

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VA L L E M A G G I A

TRANSFORMING RIPARIAN LANDSCAPES JOSINE LAMBERT MACHINING LANDSCAPES, APRIL 2014

EXPLOITING LANDSCAPES The relation of human with nature often involves conflicts, particularly in wealthy countries where the carbon footprint continues to grow.

The denser the population, the larger the impact on the natural landscape. The Netherlands for example, with a population density of almost 500 people/km2, has been turned into a completely artificial landscape.

Most of Europe’s original natural landscape has to some extent been affected by human interventions. Only the last decades – when significant damage has already been done – a consciousness about the importance of natural landscapes and their value for ecology grows.

Fossil fuels get to an end some day and people start to exploit renewable natural sources.

Networks for “green energy” are being developed in different landscapes in Europe; o.a. solar energy in Southern countries and wind energy in the North. Renewable energy might sound as a “nature-friendly” alternative to the polluting fossil energy sources, but it has its drawbacks too.

Renewable energy networks can have a negative impact on local ecologies and social territories.

These networks can completely alter the landscape with many consequences.

RIPARIAN ZONES Mountain rivers are the source of Europe’s water and hydro-energy networks. Over time human interventions, in order to control and benefit from them, dramatically transformed these landscapes. One of the most significant interventions is the construction of hydropower dams, which contributes to a sustainable energy network, but at the same time physically, economically and socially affects the local territory. Which interventions can be justified, considering the impact they have on the riparian landscapes? Could a new transformation take place in order to integrate the various conflicting territories within one new landscape?

Dams seriously influence the behavior of streams and consequently cause the transformation of the riparian landscapes: they hold back sediments, which causes erosion downstream and the braiding of the river to disappear while provoking problems in its deposition in the reservoir. They also reduce the frequency of floods and their intensity in the valley, which is essential for riparian landscapes. These territories are gaining an increasingly significant role within the implementation of the new European Green Infrastructure. (European Commission, 2013) The importance of riparian landscapes as infrastructural and productive areas asks for a careful approach of the water and sediment management, especially considering the effects of climate change; altering precipitation patterns and melting of glaciers influence the amount and the seasonal flow of water both in the short and long term.

Reactivation of the riparian landscape is needed, not only to strengthen the ecological values of a green infrastructure, but also to generate possibilities and opportunities for surrounding territories within this green infrastructure.

BRAIDED RIVERS The natural course of mountain rivers is often braided, due to the relatively steep character of the valleys they stream through.

Braided rivers are characterized by their network of small channels, separated from each other by braid bars. Three essential conditions for braided rivers to develop are a large amount of

sediments, a high slope and rapid and frequent variations in water discharge.

Meandering streams will turn into braided streams when the slope increases. As the slope will increase when the amount of carried sediments increases, a meandering river will turn into a braided river when a certain saturation of sediments is reached.

Another determining factor is the proportion of suspended load sediment to bed load sediment. An increase in suspended sediment allowed for the deposition of fine erosionresistant material on the inside of a curve, which accentuated the curve and in some instances caused a river to shift from a braided to a meandering profile. (S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972) Braided rivers change frequently, most significantly during floods.

EFFECTS DAMS ON GEOMORPHOLOGY In Europe, rivers have been influenced by human interventions for many years. It is now nearly impossible to find rivers that are still unaffected natural streams.

Dams are major human interventions that often cause big changes in the natural hydrologic regime. The main effects of large dams on rivers are caused by the change in flow pattern, which usually decreases significantly and also loses its variations in water discharge and the holding back of sediments. These changes cause the river downstream to erode and to lose its braided pattern; the river becomes a more linear and regular stream. Besides this the groundwater level lowers, which causes alterations in the riparian vegetation and soil. Consequently, this has large effects on fauna and can cause entire ecosystems to change.

MAGGIA VALLEY The Maggia Valley is the Valley of the river Maggia and lies in Ticino, the Italian canton of Switzerland. The river Maggia has been altered by the hydropower network managed by Swiss company OFIMA. This hydropower network comprises various valleys; the Lavizzara Valley, the Bavona Valley and the Maggia Valley lie in one watershed, the Rovana Valley lies in another watershed, but is part of the hydropower network via artificial connections.

In 1992 the Maggia Valley was declared alluvial zone of national importance. Although the Maggia river is still one of the most natural rivers of Switzerland, the implementation of hydropower facilities has definitely changed the hydrological regime of the river and its riparian landscape. The dams regulate the water flow and decrease the amount and intensity of floods; besides this they hold back sediments which are essential for a braided river to exist.

Although the dams affect the flow of the river, the flow rate of the Maggia river depends largely on precipitation, therefore the river still remains its floods and irregular flow pattern.

So the dams have altered the behavior of the river, but it still has parts with natural braiding and shows a very dynamic hydrologic regime. This, together with the fact that the ETH Zurich and SUPSI Lugano universities carry out a research project on the river, makes this river a very interesting case to study.

The surface of the basin area of the Maggia river in the Maggia Valley is 930 km2. The entire length of the river from its source the Naret lakes at +2.240m to its outflow Lago Maggiore +193m measures 50km.

The main tributaries are the Bavona, Lavizzara and the Rovana flowing into the Maggia in the upper part of the valley. Two other tributaries, the Melezza and the Isorno flow into the Maggia river just before it ends into Lago Maggiore.

The largest altitude difference can be found in the 10 km upper part of the river. From Bignasco downstream on the river flows very gently, with a slope average of 1%. The last section of the Maggia river is diked, to protect the cities Locarno and Ascona from flooding. After the

Figure 112. Schematic representation of a riparian zone and its zone of influence (land and water). Main functions and processes are also reported.

Figure 113. Morphological response to river engineering and management in allu- vial channels in Italy.

Figure 114. Alteration in vegetation cover and type in the braided area of the Maggia Valley between 1933 and 2001, delineated from aerial photographs.

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VA L L E M A G G I A destructive flood of 7th August 1978, which costed many lives, the river has been diked even more heavily. The flow at the time of this flood was about 5.000 m3/second, while the average rate flow of the river is 24 m3/second.

In April and May the snowmelt provides for the highest flow rates, values are also high in October. The Maggia river can be subject to extreme flooding from time to time, due to heavy precipitation and the steep character of the upper part of the river. In terms of quality the river is amongst the cleanest in Switzerland. (A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002) RIPARIAN VEGETATION Nearly half the flora of Switzerland can be found in riparian zones (Gallandat et al., 1993). This richness is generated by large dynamics in flood plains. These dynamics are caused by floods events that rejuvenate riparian vegetation. When water level heightens, non-adapted species are eliminated and a population of pioneer species comes instead to colonize the area. (V. Favre, 2004) After the construction of the dams in the Maggia watershed in the 1950s, the Maggia river almost completely dried up. In 1969, the Ticino province decided that a minimal flow rate of 750 l/min had to be released, measured in Bignasco. In 1982 they increased this minimal flow rate to 1.200 l/min from October to 14th June and 1.800 l/min from 15th June to November (Pfammater, Zanetta, 2003) Still, the hydro-electrical exploitation has led to an important reduction of the flow rate of the Maggia river. The hydropower dams managed by OFIMA retain sediments, thus preventing their release downstream.

Lowering of the ground water level and decrease of floods affect the riparian vegetation and soil quality. In a natural state, riparian vegetation is very young and dynamic due to floods, but as these floods are less intensive and frequent, riparian vegetation gets the chance to develop into mature forests. These mature forests are not original riparian vegetation, but can now be found in many riparian zones affected by dams.

Paola (A. Murray, C. Paola, 1994) This model gives a better understanding of how a braided river develops and which are the factors that play a role in this development. It offers the possibility to insert and change various parameters, like; topography, amount of water input, sediment input and hydraulic conductivity factor.

The outcomes can be clearly visualized through short animations, this gives an a clear impression of the different scenarios.

One of the drawbacks of this model is that the outcomes cannot be manipulated and inserted again in a continuous loop. Moreover, the model limits the user to general simulations, very site specific research is not possible.

Also, the model runs simulations in several iterations, which are not related to a particular time lapse. Analyzing the outputs one needs to make assumptions about the tested period.

MANIPULATING THE RIVER Through a Grasshopper definition which offers the possibility to define flooding zones in a Rhino model, we could generate various flooding scenarios.

Input of different amounts of water, released at the dam, shows the areas which will be flooded, where lakes and (temporary) islands and channels would develop. We tested the

CLIMATE The climate in the Maggia Valley can be described as Mediterranean. Precipitation is very high in autumn, when the area is under influence of subpolar circulation. The combination of warm and humid air masses from the Mediterranean Sea with the deep pressure cyclones can create long-lasting heavy rainfall in this period. The summers are usually relatively dry under the subtropical influence. Winter precipitation is low. Because of the high elevation, most of the precipitation in winter falls as snow.

STREAMFLOW AND FLUVIAL MORPHOLOGY The streamflow of the Maggia river is mainly dependent on precipitation and snowmelt.

Because of the steep character of valley and thin soil layers with a bedrock of granite and gneiss, the catchment has a very fast response to precipitation. This leads to a very variable streamflow. The streamflow can very from 1m3/sec in very dry periods to hundreds of m3/sec during floods.

Figure 115-116. Maggia river close to Someo.

low flow scenario; 4 m3/sec partially based on simulations and information

by MaVal Research group, ETH Zurich.

The main tributary of the Maggia river is the Rovana, which drains about 21% of the watershed.

The Maggia river itself drains 52% of the watershed, the rest is drained by other small tributaries.

A lot of the tributaries are currently diverted and therefore contain very little water. Because of this, the water often doesn’t even reach the Maggia river, but enters small side rivers through little waterfalls. The water infiltrates in the alluvial area of the Maggia before even reaching the Maggia river itself.

Because of low turbidity, the Maggia river is very clear. Also, the amount of fine sediments in the Maggia river is relatively low, the floodplain in the main valley consists of coarse material.

The Rovana river carries more sediments, but because it is cut off for hydropower purposes most of the year, these sediments don’t reach the Maggia river. Only in times of floods, the Rovana delivers large amounts of sediments into the Maggia river.

possible flood scenario; 1.000 m3/sec partially based on simulations and information

by MaVal Research group, ETH Zurich.

AQUIFER The entire valley was formed by a glacier. The aquifer depth goes up to 150m and contains coarse material, sand and gravel in the upper 30m. The aquifer is less deep at the outlet of the watershed in Ponte Brolla, where granite and gneiss come to the surface and form a geological barrier. In the upper part of the main valley, infiltration to the aquifer from the river dominates, whilst in the lower part groundwater upwelling occurs due to the in-situ bedrock at the surface. In the central part both of these conditions can occur.

INTERVENTION To research possible transformations in mountain rivers and riparian landscapes affected by human interventions, we used both software simulation tools as well as research (MaVal project) done by professors and students of the ETH Zurich.

BRAIDING RIVERS BEHAVIOR To understand the behavior of a braided river, the configuration of streams and braid bars and the movement of water and sediment, we did several general tests through an Excel file (P&Mv4b.xls) This braided river model was coded by Dr Stuart McLelland of the University of Hull, United Kingdom. The model is based on a cellular model of braided rivers coded by A. Murray and C.

Figure 117. The central stretch of the Maggia valley close to Someo is a braided area over a length of 7-8 km.

This braided area consists of many alternating sidestreams, braid bars with typical original riparian vegetation.

This part of the river is very dynamic, changed a lot over time. Floods cause the vegetation to juvenile frequently, which gives the area its typical riparian character.

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braidplain width 84 lenght 100 slope 2% input channel width 40

sediments movement water discharge

steps

sediments movement water discharge

braidplain width 84 lenght 100 slope 14% input channel width 5

sediments movement water discharge

braidplain width 84 lenght 100 slope 20% input channel width 1

Figure 118. The braiding model gives important outcomes to understand how water flow and sediments movement naturally behave. According to different topographical features and time frames the model reacts and interventions can eventually be implemented.

0 river level

above river level

underneath river level

extreme event above river level

extreme event underneath river level

Figure 120. Different flooding scenarios in the Valmaggia territory.

Figure 121: Single frame of Caesar modelling in the area between Gordevio and Aurigeno and possible flooding landscapes within seasonal and long term cycles.

Figure 119. How a landform could represent the primary design material in terms of manipulation and control of geomorphological processes. Accretion and distance measurements of diverse braiding formations.

model on moderate and critical events.

This definition will be used to get an overall outcome for possible flooded areas in the entire valley. Then areas of intersection with various territories within the riparian landscape can be identified.

Consequently, the use of a more detailed simulation tool, Caesar (Cellular Automaton Evolutionary Slope and River), is used to analyze and manipulate particular stretches along the river.

Caesar is a two dimensional flow and sediment transport model. It can simulate morphological changes in river catchments or reaches, on a flood by flood basis, over periods up to several thousands of years. It was initially designed to simulate the geomorphic response of river catchments to changes in climate and/or land cover. (T. Coulthard, M. van de Wiel, 2005) It allows the user to input a DEM of a river catchment or reach and enter water and sediment fluxes, or rainfall data as a basis for simulations. CAESAR represents a landscape with a mesh of grid cells. For each cell, further values are stored representing hydrological parameters, grainsize, water discharge, vegetation levels etc. Then for every model iteration, these are altered according to a set of rules, loosely grouped into 1) hydraulic routing, 2) fluvial erosion and deposition and 3) slope processes. (http://www.environment.gov.au/node/23756) Caesar is used to understand the site specific situation of the Maggia river (zoomed into the river stretch between Gordevio and Aurigeno). Different amounts of water as input are tested, as well as removal and construction of hard barriers and dredging and implementation of soil and sediment.

These interventions affect the course of the river and can be used as tools to direct the river where it needs to be directed. When giving more space to the river, allowing floods to happen in order to reactivate the riparian landscape, one might not want to flood settlements.

Other territories, which are now protected by hard barriers, might be flooded and transformed into a dynamic landscape in which different (temporary) activities can take place.

These simulations will be used as a design tool to generate a strategy to transform territorial formations through the control of geomorphological dynamics.

Actual physical interventions will involve (frequent) release of water and sediments, excavation of channels, construction and removal of hard borders, construction of ramps to heighten ground water levels, etc. Hard barriers and ramps can be constructed with granite and rocks from the quarries which are present in the Valley. The release of water and sediments can be regulated with the bypasses in the dams, in some cases these might need to be constructed. Excavation of channels will be done with small excavators.

The aim is not only to strengthen the ecological value of the riparian landscape, but to integrate involved territories within this landscape.

Thus the project is not about restoration of natural processes, but about the generation of a new dynamic landscape. As the landscape is dynamic, the design strategy should adapt to developments; time will play an important role in this strategy.

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VA L L E M A G G I A BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF IMAGES

P. Burlando, P. Molnar, W. Ruf, L. Foglia, P. Perona, 2004. A modelling framework to assess the impact of streamflow regulation on floodplain vegetation ecosystem, 1st EGU General Assembly, Nice.

112. National Research Council – NRC, 2002. Riparian Areas. Functions and Strategies for Management. Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning and Strategies for Management, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, p.428.

M. Childs, University of Hull, 2010. Literature survey: the impacts of dams on river channel geomorphology.

N. Clerici, C. Weissteiner, L. Paracchini, P. Strobl, Riparian zones: where green and blue networks meet; Pan-European zonation modeling based on remote sensing and GIS, European Commission JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability.

T. Coulthard, M. van de Wiel, 2005. The Cellular Automaton Evolutionary Slope And River model (CAESAR), London (Canada) / Hull (United Kingdom)

113. N. Surian, M. Rinaldi, 2003. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy, Geomorphology 50, Elsevier.

114. W. Ruf, 2007. Numerical Modelling of Distributed River - Aquifer Coupling in an Alpine Floodplain, dissertation ETH Zurich, p.5.

115. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014. Maggia Valley.

116. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014. Maggia Valley.

European Commission, 2013. Communication from the commission of the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Green Infrastructure – Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital, Brussels.

117. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, panel Detail Geomorphology, AALU Graduation Project, based on simulations by ETH Zurich.

P. Molnar, M.V. Birsan, V. Favre, P. Perona, P. Burlando, C. Randin, 2008. Floodplain forest dynamics in a hydrologically altered mountain river, ETH Zurich - University of Lausanne, Zurich and Lausanne.

118. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, detail panel Simulations, AALU Graduation Project.

A.Murray, C. Paola, 1994. A cellular model of braided rivers, Nature 371, 54 – 57

120. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, detail panel Simulations, AALU Graduation Project.

S. Pfammatter, P. Zanetta, 2003. Hydrogéologie de la plaine alluviale du Valmaggia entre Bignasco et Giumaglio, Diploma thesis, University of Lausanne.

121. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, detail panel Simulations, AALU Graduation Project.

119. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, detail panel Simulations, AALU Graduation Project.

W. Ruf, 2007. Numerical Modelling of Distributed River - Aquifer Coupling in an Alpine Floodplain, dissertation ETH Zurich, Zurich.

S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972. Experimental study of channel patterns, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 83: 1755-1770, Colorado.

A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002. Case study 1: Maggia Valley, Euwareness, Lausanne.

K. Tockner, A. Paetzold, U. Karaus, C. Claret, J. Zettel, 2009. Ecology of braided rivers.

P&Mv4b.xls, http://www.coulthard.org.uk/downloads/murray_and_paola.htm http://www.environment.gov.au/node/23756

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VA L L E M A G G I A CARTOGENESIS

THE VALMAGGIA

How to deal with the territorial conflicts? How could geomorphological processes and social formations find a way to negotiate? Which spatial configuration could these new relatonships establish? Which role might design play within dynamical transformations?

In this stage of the design process, the information and analyses conducted about geomorphological processes and territorial formations start to be intersected and engaged.

The design project consists of the proposal for a green riparian landscape infrastructure.

Through a different management of the sediments flow, i.e. mechanic removal from behind the dams, creation of bypass tunnels and removal of hard borders along the river, a machinic river infrastructure can be activated.

What is important to clarify is that the machinic riparian landscape doesn’t consist of random sediment and water release, but decisions are taken in order to control design purposes. Thus the project becomes able to maintain a certain grade of control over the geomorphological processes. Through physical actions such as mechanical removal of hard borders, excavations of new channels and pools, restoration of previous or abandoned tracks, the river will be loose and free to gain the lands needed for its natural processes.

Many inititatives based on this approach have already taken places in many river restoration projects amidst various countries (Switzerland, Italy, Austria, UK, Spain), but the leading concern relies just on the retrieval of the lost ecological value in the river riparian landscape.

If the river starts to get more space, some lands alongside the river, which have become productive land, will be reclaimed by the river. The current compensation measures offered by the public administrations to private owners are limited to money refunds or land property exchanges.

Thus flooding events become fundamental: the geomorpghological course involving water and sediments flow can establish a strong ecological value in terms of biodiversity and environmental sustainibility. Moreover, and here relies the project’s challenge, it might represent the opportunity to differently interprete and engage the social conflicts previously described.

The thought behind the Cartogenesis Vallemaggia (page 51) conveys the idea of how a new water management can influence not only a riparian landscape along the river but especially all those activities whose spatial configuration currently constitutes a threat and a conflict with it.

Then, as we can see in the section in Cartogenesis Detail (page 57), temporality and dynamism assume a primary role in the strategy. Mixture and hybridization of functions, within seasonal transformations in water amounts, suggest diverse relationships among agriculture, industry, tourism and the river landforms. The clear fixed patterns and hard borders then progressively disappear in favor of a more dynamical reading of the territorial formations and social conflicts.

Is this the only possible solution? Does the design direction depend on whether we choose to privilege nature or rather human interests?

The intent of this project is to investigate and challenge the possibility of a third way. In fact both the standpoints represent two sides of the same landscape coin, and from a landscape urbanism perspective a different engagement of these relations could bring new benefits to the territory as a system.

Figure 122: Physical model of the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine.

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CARTOGENESIS VALLEMAGGIA

Figure 123. Cartogenesis Vallemaggia.

VA L L E M A G G I A CATALOGUE OF INTERVENTIONS A catalogue of interventions is set up in order to distinguish the various possible interventions and their effects. It represents a toolbox of the riparian land-shaping machine, with the various interventions sorted into different categories.

The first sorting is based on the type of landuses present in the territory. These landuses can be divided into three different categories; 1. focus is put on ecology (for example where there is abandoned land) 2. focus is put on integration of cultivated land within the new riparian landscape (for example agricultural or tourism activities) 3. focus is put on existing landuses, no integration possible (for example economically important industries or heritage villages).

Secondly, different types of interventions are possible, from hard (for example stone embankments) to medium (sediment implementation/excavation) to soft (plantation or removal of vegetation). Obviously hard interventions are often the most labor-intensive , expensive and in general meant for the longer term, while soft interventions can be relatively easily implemented and will be effective on the short term.

Figure 125. Construction of ramps in the river to heighten the groundwater level in the surrounding area, Ahr river in Bolzano.

Figure 124. Plantation of riparian vegetation to stabilize soil.

Figure 126. Former channels have dried out but could be reactivated by generating floodings and excavating some of the accumulated sediments.

Figure 127. Inflatable dams can be used to control water in - and outlet.

Figure 128. Different possible interventions as shown in the Catalogue of interventions (page 53)

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CATALOGUE OF INTERVENTIONS

Figure 129. Catalogue of interventions.

VA L L E M A G G I A GUIDELINES The drawing illustrates the different outputs which can potentially be generated by the Riparian land-Shaping Machine. As a matter of fact, starting from a particular set of conditions, in terms of availability of sediments and water flow, sandbars’ sizes and morphologies, the machine can develop diverse configurations according to the number of iterations run. Therefore transformations in economical demands and needs can adapt and be transferred into the most suitable model of land use.

Figure 130. Guidelines.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO

- THREE VILLAGES PRESENT IN THIS AREA - A VARIETY OF LAND USES; AGRICULTURAL LAND, MATURE WOODLAND, INFRASTRUCTURE - GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OFFER POSSIBILITIES TO GENERATE A NEW LANDSCAPE - THE AREA IS ECONOMICALLY LINKED TO THE LARGER TOWN OF LOCARNO

MAGGIA - GORDEVIO FLOODING DEFINITION This Grasshopper definition permitted to get an understanding of the Maggia’s valley site in terms of flooding zones.

According to different amounts of water released by the upstream hydropower system, the model returns the definition of the surfaces that will be inundated. Thus several scenarios have been tested; moderate and critical events generated different areas where flooding processes and the appearance-disappearance of temporary islands, lakes, channels and marshlands will occur and affect the human activities along the river.

How could this definition be useful in a design process?

Although this tool doesn’t describe a dynamic process, it gives back relevant information which eventually will be intersected in the design phase (see Cartogenesis). In fact only once the areas influenced by the potential geomorphological scenarios are individuated, then a decision process on the intersections between natural flows and social formations could consciously happen.

Moreover, through a Caesar simulation, the current situation has been tested in order to understand the starting point of the further potential developments.

PROJECTIVE SIMULATIONS The next question is how to transfer the knowledge achieved from the previous simulations into a more propositive one?

The Caesar software, with the support of the external Rhino and Python, offers the possibility to manipulate the river landform, establishing some fixed conditions, and removing or adding completely new braid bars.

Within this decision process the design intention starts to be revealed.

As a matter of fact this step is relevant to understand how the geomorphological courses could be controlled and in which way the design might intervene in a continuous dynamic state of transformation.

The latent potential of the riparian landscape appears in the simulation process whenever an intervention influences the actual river topography.

Physical operations such as removal of hard borders, excavation of pools, deviation in new and former channels radically change the current dynamics. Therefore, as the comparison between the two phases illustrates, radical unexplored scenarios could develop.

Thus design should be able to read the geomorphological course and interpose a decision process within it.

Figure 131: Single frame of general current behaviour of Maggia river in the lower part of the valley.

As landscape urbanists our interest is to challenge these actions in order not just to give the river back the opportunity to restore its lost ecological value, but especially to influence the social formations along the river.

CARTOGENESIS DETAIL The aim of the Cartogenesis Detail (page 57) reflects the approach of the Cartogenesis Valmaggia (page 51) into more detail. The present configuration of the territory in that particular river section is paradigmatic: river borders have been constrained and important dykes heightened in order to prevent flooding risks and exploit new lands. Although in Valmaggia this management is not so substantial, it represents the generic strategy for the mountain communities to expand. In fact due to the orographical special conditions, some activities, which require extensive surfaces, like agriculture and industrial production, might settle just at the bottom of the valley excavated by alluvial rivers. This pattern impressively engraved the river landscape transformations, as we can notice from the example of the main Ticino valley.

The time frame plays a fundamental role in the decision taking process: the sediments movement, for the general slowness of erosion and accretion courses, requires a long term strategy. The seasonal changes in the amount of water demand different temporary approaches.

The intent then is to steadily let the river invade the surrounding forests and agricultural fields in diverse periods of the year.

As a result the rigorous inflexible land management model can be dynamically stimulated and re-activated. In the area between Aurigeno and Gordevio a consistent woodland, which used to be exploited by the local population for personal purposes, has now been neglected.

Moreover, the alluvional vegetation generated by the river has disappeared and been transformed because of the artificial embankements which caused also a lowering of the groundwater level. Large areas of agricultural fields exploited for hay production and sheep farming, have lost their productive purposes. In addition, both the sides of this valley section have weak connections with the river system and with each other.

All in all then, a machinic riparian landscape can on one hand let the geomorphological river course flow, and on the other it can generate alternative agricultural activities such as agroforestry and fishfarming. This could constitute a compensation device through which can be dealt with present territorial formations and social conflicts. These kinds of activities bring benefits in terms of production within environmental dynamics.

Figure 132: Single frames of Caesar modelling in the area between Gordevio and Aurigeno and possible flooding landscapes within seasonal and long term cycles.

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CARTOGENESIS DETAIL PHASE 1 waterflow = 8m3/s INTERVENTIONS

excavation channel

excavation channel

timber extraction

timber extraction

timber extraction

PHASE 2 waterflow = 800m3/s

tuned release of 800m3/s water from Sambuco dam

implementation sediments

PHASE 3 waterflow = 200m3/s inflatable dam

inflatable dam

sediment implementation inflatable dam

excavation channel

inflatable dam inflatable dam

excavation channel

Figure 133. Strategical program through time in diagrams and sections. The intention is to achieve a more dynamic flexible territorial model from a clearly rigid and fixed pattern.

Through these actions we want to demonstrate that benefits to both ecology and human activities could be generated.

How geomorphological processes can intersect present social formations and generate potential different design scenarios through physical actions.

MAGGIA - GORDEVIO GUIDELINES

Identify present braid bars and tributaries.

Individuate the forces that regulate the river flow.

Classify the amount of available sediments.

Separate the braid bars which are suitable to activate the machine from the unsuitable ones.

Identify the areas where the machine might take space.

Clear the land from invasive vegetation.

Detect braid bars accumulation axis.

Acknowledge the weak erodible edges of the active braid bars.

Individuate the sections along the river where the inflatable dams would be most efficient.

Figure 134. These guidelines function as a manual to apply the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine to sites of this scale.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO GUIDELINES

Once the inflatable dams are placed, water can accumulate.

Water is released through controlled flooding events and new braiding forms will appear.

Sort the more permanent braid bars from the unstable temporary ones.

Secure the permanent braid bars on their critical edges by planting vegetation.

Connect the existing infrastructure to the closest fixed braid bars.

Temporary braid bars are connected by a provisional network.

The land-shaping machine provides new relations within the riparian landscape.

Connect the permanent braid bars through a stable infrastructural network.

The sediment machine shaped new islands.

Figure 135. These guidelines function as a manual to apply the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine to sites of this scale.

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TECTONIC INTERSECTIONS

Figure 136. Tectonic intersections.

Figure 137. Physical model of the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine.

MAGGIA - GORDEVIO

PROPOSAL ZONE 1

In 2004 the villages Maggia, Aurigeno, Coglio, Giumaglio, Lodano, Maggia, Moghegno and Someo were united in the municipality of Maggia (2.400 inhabitants). Zone 1 is situated in between the villages Maggia and Moghegno.

Maggia is located next to the main road, while Moghegno lies on the other side of the river and can be reached by a bridge 2 km downstreams. There is no other connection to reach the west side of the river; the two villages are poorly connected to each other and to the river landscape. To strengthen this connection, the land-shaping machine will generate a new landscape which will be mainly used for recreation activities, but will also intensify the social and economical connections between the villages.

The existing retaining walls and woodland buffers will be removed and replaced by a system of embankments that form seasonal terraces. This gives the river more space and let inhabitants and visitors experience the river and it’s seasonal changes. According to the season, the landscape can be used for different purposes (leisure, fishing, infrastructure, etc.) Pools and dry areas in the terraces are controlled by in - and outlets in the embankments.

A new pedestrian and cycling bridge is constructed on braid bars which are fixed, adjustable stairs-elements can be attached to the bridge to create temporary networks.

1

2

4

3 Figure 138. Zone 1, Moghegno - Maggia.

Figure 139. 1 Moghegno.

Figure 140. 2 View of Maggia.

Figure 141. 3 Hiking path.

Figure 142. 4 Bridge to connect Moghegno to the main road.

winter

spring

summer

autumn

Figure 143. Shifting connections and intensity of use of infrastructure over the year, concerning agricultural (pink) and leisure (yellow) activities

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PROPOSAL ZONE 1

Figure 145. Sections zone 1.

Figure 146. Sections zone 1.

Figure 147. Sections zone 1.

MAGGIA - GORDEVIO

PROPOSAL ZONE 4

GENERIC MODEL The Riparian Land-Shaping Machine constitutes a device through which geomorphological processes and social formations inform and influence each other.

The strategy allows to intensively control the riparian landscape and guarantees dynamic land use over time according to future changes and demands.

Therefore it establishes a new approach capable to deal with the complexities and conflicts provoked by the insertion of dams in mountain territories, through the establishment of guidelines that operate at a generic and strategic level but are also capable of reading specific conditions on site.

The drawing emphasises this particular aspect. From a rather static and fixed system of land use organization, in which the river takes no place, the proposal fosters relations among the current villages and the riparian landscape. The in between riverbank zone expands its influence not just in a merely natural friend way, yet it becomes the place where human activities can happen and generate economical benefits.

The relevance of this model relies on the fact that mountain territories are generally facing a remarkable change in their economical models since the beginning of the last century, when modern urbanization and mass tourism processes started to invest them. Accordingly radical transformations in the land uses have occurred and traditional activities, such as foraging, sheep-farming and handicraft processes, have been either industrialized or abandoned.

Therefore it is quite likely to find in every valley numerous amounts of lands which used to be exploited for productive purposes and nowadays they have been completely abandoned by the owners. In addition considerable shifting in population amounts during the annual seasons on one hand and migration courses from remote valleys toward the larger urban agglomerates on the other, have actively aggravated this proceeding.

Figure 148. The current campsite “Bella Riva� is situated south of Gordevio, next to the river. Despite of that it is completely disconnected from the river by a huge wall meant for flood protection.

Figure 149. View of the river between Gordevio and Ronchi.

Figure 150. View of the campsite near Gordevio.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO INTERVENTIONS IMPLEMENTED IN ZONE 4

Figure 151. Plan of interventions in zone 4.

CURRENT SITUATION ON THE SITE - no connection settlements with river landscape - poor connection between settlements on both sides of the river - invasive mature woodland in bad condition - existing tourism facilities are disconnected from river landscape

Figure 152. Plan of images in zone 4.

surrounding area

river accesibility

shore relations

Figure 153. Pictures taken in zone 4.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO SPRING

Figure 154. Plan of scenario in spring zone 4.

SPRING During both the seasons the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine deals with the transition among the two extreme configurations. The factors that might influence the machine’s schedule during this passage are related to climate conditions, snow melting course and amount of precipitation, and to the actual land demand. These transitional periods also constitute the best moment to define the longer term changes and how the machine can respond to them, therefore the interventions illustrated in the catalogue can be mainly inserted during spring and autumn.

What is available?

The scheme illustrates which amount of land will be available in the several seasons. In the highly controlled process some braid bars are managed in order to be permanent, while others are let to be flooded on a temporary base.

Figure 155.

Figure 156.

Figure 157. Control of land during spring.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO SUMMER

Figure 158. Plan of scenario in summer zone 4.

SUMMER The summer period is the busiest season in terms of tourism. The river represents the main potential economy in this sense and the local accommodation facilities correctly exploit it as the main attraction. Nonetheless the accesses to the river are rather few and as poor as the connections across it. Moreover the shorelines are currently inhospitable and just some are partially suitable to host people. The proposal then offers the possibility to actually experience and access the riparian landscape. A campsite is diffuse through different sandbars and facilities such as pier, marinas, ponds and beaches take place within them.

Though tourism represents the main economy, still permanent productive facilities related to fish farming and aquaculture continue on a low-regime base.

What is available?

The scheme illustrates which amount of land will be available in the several seasons. In the highly controlled process some braid bars are managed in order to be permanent, while others are let to be flooded on a temporary base.

Figure 159.

Figure 160.

Figure 161. Control of land during summer.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO AUTUMN

Figure 162. Plan of scenario in autumn zone 4.

AUTUMN During both the seasons the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine deals with the transition among the two extreme configurations. The factors that might influence the machine’s schedule during this passage are related to climate conditions, snow melting course and amount of precipitation, and to the actual land demand. These transitional periods also constitute the best moment to define the longer term changes and how the machine can respond to them, therefore the interventions illustrated in the catalogue can be mainly inserted during spring and autumn.

What is available?

The scheme illustrates which amount of land will be available in the several seasons. In the highly controlled process some braid bars are managed in order to be permanent, while others are let to be flooded on a temporary base.

Figure 163.

Figure 164.

Figure 165. Control of land during autumn.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO WINTER

Figure 166. Plan of scenario in winter zone 4.

WINTER The winter season constitutes the period in which fish farming production and aquaculture connected activities, such as aquaculture are intensively conducted.

Thence the to tourism dedicated island are either flooded in order to disappear or they are temporary converted to host the aquatic farming industries.

Furthermore, in order to be capable to deal with precipitation hazards and alluvial disasters whose effects are instantaneous and significant, the river is controlled in order to flood specific buffer zones with no threat for the existing activities.

What is available?

The scheme illustrates which amount of land will be available in the several seasons. In the highly controlled process some braid bars are managed in order to be permanent, while others are let to be flooded on a temporary base.

Figure 167.

Figure 168.

Figure 169. Control of land during winter.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO CONSTRUCTION OF THE ISLAND (site of zoom in shown in figure 151)

Figure 170.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO COMPOSITION OF THE ISLAND

Figure 171.

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Figure 172.

Figure 173.

MAGGIA - GORDEVIO

Figure 174.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO

Figure 175.

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MAGGIA - GORDEVIO IMPRESSIONS

Figure 176. Impression of the northern part of the island.

Figure 177. Impression of the southern part of the island.

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CONCLUSIONS The Riparian Land-Shaping Machine represents the opportunity to translate the European Landscape Convention (also known as Florence Convention, effective 1st March 2004) into effective and projective guidelines for dealing with riparian zones in mountain landscapes. The research and the design activities have been challenged from the rather ambitious perspective to deal with multiple scales and related complexities, from the pan-European to the very sitespecific scale. Thereafter the most important passage accomplished by the entire Landscape Urbanism unit has been to be capable to convey, illustrate and complement what otherwise would remain a still bureaucratic document.

Might this land management tool be relevant for different conditions apart from mountain territories? As a matter of fact the issue of hydropower generation is present in the agenda of several river policies that not involve mountain conditions These open questions reflect how the landscape urbanism discipline might constitute a meaningful perspective through which could be dealt with territorial complexities at several scales, in an open proceeding of multiple explorations.

Eugenio Da Rin & Josine Lambert

In particular, in the large framework, the project addresses the issue of the hydropower generation and how the expected climate change effects could influence the future water management in mountain regions. The necessity of a negotiation agenda between several policies and interests which control and organize one single system - such as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians - have been pointed out, yet which might be the political reference capable to assume the guidance role remains an interesting aspect to be further investigated.

As a design project, the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine constitutes a land management tool, through which the dynamism of water forces and sediment movement shapes the territory. The strategy takes in account the existence of two different approaches which have been influencing the land organization in mountain territories, the first one eager to preserve and maintain the uniqueness of specific natural values and cultural identities, the second one focused on the economical exploitation of the territorial resources – with the water network being the main one. As it has been illustrated in the first part of the research, the different purposes of these attitudes have been expressed on the actual territories through irreconcilable conflicts and fixed strategies, however the target of the project doesn’t rely on the defense of one of them, but rather it originates from a different starting assumption.

In fact as a land management tool the design assumes that geomorphological processes and social formations can inform and influence each other in a continuous dynamic course.

Therefore the notion of riparian landscape is understood in a broader sense and it relates to its territorial conditions, beyond the natural friend approach. Differently from current river restoration initiatives, the project tries to overcome that concept to explore an interaction between natural courses and human activities.

In order to do that, the design course has been directed in a way which could guarantee at the same time the experimentation of local interventions and their generic abstraction in order to constitute relevant guidelines to be applied in diverse pan-European conditions.

Whether the process has brought the advantage to finally express in concrete design terms what the Florence Convention has up until now listed through words, In order to test if the developed strategy would work, the application on site should be developed and designed more thoroughly and detailed. What now remains is a series of open questions and aspects that could and should be further investigated.

Which type of aesthetic might this strategy develop? Would this new riparian landscape easily fit in all the different conditions among the alpine valleys? Which could be then the criteria to diversify them?

Figure 178. Physical model of the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine.

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APPENDIX I energy landscapes

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APPENDIX I

ENERGY LANDSCAPES EUGENIO DA RIN & JOSINE LAMBERT TERM 1, NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2013

Prior to the graduation project, we worked on the project “Energy Landscapes” in the first term. This project started with a fascination for both sandbar patterns and how they could play a role in the Dutch coastal defence system and the emergence of energy landscapes in the Netherlands. These topics of exploitation of the landscape related to energy generation are further explored and developed in the subsequent project “The Riparian Land-Shaping Machine”.

“A sandbar is a somewhat linear landform within or extending into a body of water, typically composed of sand, silt or small pebbles. Alternatively termed shoal or sandbank, a bar is characteristically long and narrow and develops where a stream or ocean current promote deposition of granular material, resulting in localized shallowing (shoaling) of the water. Bars can appear in the sea, in a lake, or in a river.” - wikipedia

Near shore sandbars measure 5-8 km in length, 0,5-2 km in width and move up to 10 m per year. Near shore sandbars can develop due to an interaction among currents, waves and a sandy bottom.

COASTAL DEFENSE Sandbars are a natural barrier on which the incoming wind-generated waves break, thus dissipating the potentially harmful energy of the waves.

This characteristic could be of benefit for the Netherlands, a country that has to maintain its coastline continuously to prevent coastal erosion. As 2/3 of the country is below sea level, flooding caused by sea level rise is a serious threat.

INTERVENTION

SANDBARS The bottom of the North Sea is a landscape of various different bottom patterns; near shore and offshore sandbars, long bottom waves, sandwaves and sand ripples. Sandbars are probably the most well known landforms of this sea bottom landscape. They have an important ecological value and influence for example the shipping network and sand extraction areas. Sandbars can be found on many continental shelves and often appear in groups.

The sandbars in the North Sea seem to have a fixed orientation, but when you have a more detailed look you can distinguish two different types of sandbars. The orientation and size of the near shore sandbars differ from that of the offshore sandbars. This can be explained by their genesis.

The offshore sandbars can be found in waters where the currents are mainly determined by the tides. A minimal current velocity of 0,5 m/s is required for offshore sandbars to develop.

The orientation of these sandbars is counterclockwise with respect to the main direction of

The Dutch always had to take precautions to prevent their land from being flooded, these flooding threats will definitely continue to be a concern in the future.

Instead of continuing the relatively small scale and short-term “solutions” of nourishing the beaches, larger scale interventions could provide for a long-term solution.

The proposed intervention doesn’t consider the land-sea boarders as given fixed elements but approach the landscape – under and above water – as one system.

The intervention is based on the existing near shore sandbar patterns in the North Sea. The objective of the intervention is to build up a dynamic coastal defense system in which natural processes play an essential role. At the same time new land is generated in the form of semiartificial sandbars, this new land will initially be used to locate new windparks.

Besides from being a long-term solution for coastal defense and at the same time a unique sustainable energy landscape, this project would generate many jobs and help start up the economical engine working again. With the realiza­tion of this project, the Netherlands could also strengthen their position on the world map as specialists in land expansion.

the tidal currents. Their size is in order of 5-10 km length, 2 km in width and they frequently extend to within a few meters of the sea surface.

Near shore sandbars are not directly linked to the dominant direction of the tidal currents.

These sandbars make a 20° - 50° angle with the dominant wind driven current. On the Belgium and Dutch part of the North Sea, this, by storms caused, current is mainly North East oriented.

Figure 179. Fishing chart showing the sandbar formations in front of the Belgium and Zeeland coast.

Figure 181. Sand nourishments along the Dutch coast, over a period of 11 years.

(After P. Sistermans, O. Nieuwenhuis, DHV group)

Figure 180. The sand engine is a new approach (building with nature) to enhance coastal safety. A large amount of sand is nourished. Natural morphodynamical forces spread the nourished sand over a longer coastal stretch.

As a result, erosion is temporary mitigated and the coast is strengthened.

Figure 182. Catalogue of simulations run with SMC coastal software.

Different inclinations and proximities to the coastline, tested with various wind directions.

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Figure 183.

Figure 184.

Figure 185.

APPENDIX II essays

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APPENDIX II

NEW BABYLON - A VIRTUAL REALITY JOSINE LAMBERT THE RETHORIC OF MAPPING, APRIL 2014

As a child my parents often took me and my sister to exhibitions in various museums. When we were about 12 years old we went to the Witte de With museum in Rotterdam to see the exhibition “Constant – New Babylon”.

The space was full of models, drawings and constructions, in my eyes an adventurous exhibition which triggered my imagination. A film composed of edited fragments of Constant’s work with sounds in the background gave an impression of what life in New Babylon could be like.

This exhibition plunged you in I an imaginary world, a utopia. I was fascinated by the complex structures, models and drawings which looked like maps but at the same time like artworks.

I didn’t know all the ideas behind this fascinating world, but it was a great source of inspiration for my own creations.

What are the ideas behind this mysterious world and could this world ever exist in real life?

Have those maps ever been translated into real projects? I wondered when wandering around this exhibition.

revolution. They both argued that creativity should be connected to the realization of social freedom. Disagreement about these political ideas was one of the reasons for the short existence of the CoBrA group, which fell apart in 1951.

Asger Jorn and Constant Nieuwenhuys keep in contact because they share artistic and political ideas. In 1956 a fusion of Jorn’s movement for the Bauhaus of the Imagination with the Letterist International takes place. The Letterist International was a Paris based collective of radical artists and theorists who opposed the commercialization of art and organized collective actions to generate creative situations. One of the leading members of the group was Guy Debord. When these two groups merged together, the main aim was to achieve “urbanism as a unity”, in other words “unitary urbanism”. This fusion was the basis for the Situationist International, to be formed one year later. (H. Heynen, 1995)

NEW BABYLON In 1957, various avant-garde groups founded the Situationist International, an international movement of social revolutionaries. In the beginning, the movement had a predominantly artistic focus; emphasis was put on concepts like unitary urbanism and psychogeography.

Unitary urbanism is a fierce critique on modern urbanism and focuses on reinventing human environment, according to progressive conceptions. It rejects the utilitarian logics of a consumption society and aims for the development of a dynamic city, in which freedom and play are essential elements. The situationists strive for space for creativity within society. To achieve this they create situations in which they knock down the usual habits to bring about a subversive effect.

Within these experiments of the situationists, Constant started to create the New Babylon project, on which he worked for about 15 years (1959 – 1974).

Originally named Deriville (French; ville derive - drift city), Constant later renamed the project New Babylon. “New Babylon -- a provocative name, since in the Protestant tradition Babylon is a figure of evil. New Babylon was to be the figure of good that took the name of the cursed city and transformed itself into the city of the future” (H. Lefebvre, 1983) New Babylon is an anti-capitalist utopian design that pleads for a new form of society, represented by a large series of models, maps, drawings and paintings. New Babylon is a form of propaganda that criticizes conventional social structures. This utopian city is the result of an entire liberation of the established order, standards and traditions.

Inspired by the Homo ludens – an idea, firstly introduced by historian Johan Huizinga, in which man is in essence a playing being – Constant creates a society in which the playing and creative human being is placed centrally and freed of any physical labour. Only then, human can completely devote themselves to the development of creative ideas. He devotes himself to the question of what additional value art could add to intensifying daily life.

Fed by the ideals of the unitary urbanism, New Babylon is a strong antitype of functionalistic architecture. It is a world of collective creation, absolute transparency and publicity.

Imagination is in power in New Babylon and the homo ludens is the ruler in this world.

Figure 187. Constant Nieuwenhuys, Mobile ladder labyrinth, pencil and watercolour on paper, 99 x 110 cm.

CONSTANT

THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL AND UNITARY URBANISM

When Constant (1920 – 2005) started working on the New Babylon project, he was already quite well known as painter and member of the CoBrA group. CoBrA (acronym of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam) was founded in 1948 in Paris by artists and writers from these European capitals, oa Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Corneille, Karel Appel, Christian Dotremont and Joseph Noiret. The movement evolved from a discontent with the perspectives of the surrealists, at that time the ruling avant-garde. The founders of CoBrA criticized Surrealism and their practice of psychic automatism, an approach developed by the surrealists as a means of expressing the subconscious. The working methods of CoBrA involved a complete liberation of the mind, based on spontaneity and experiment. Only then one could get to its real needs and sensory desires. They were inspired by children’s art and art made by psychiatric patients.

For Asger Jorn and Constant Nieuwenhuys this fascination was part of their ideas for a social

The base text for the programme of the unitary urbanism was set up in 1953 and for the first time published in the Internationale Situationniste in 1958. The text was written by Gilles Ivain (pseudonym for Ivan Chtcheglov) and meant to be the programme for the Letterist International.

The text opposes the boredom and utilitarianism that dominate the modern urbanism. The city has become a static and functionalistic environment which should be transformed into a dynamic structure driven by the imagination and desires. (I. Chtcheglov, 1953) It will consist of areas related to different emotions; happiness, sadness, surprise and tragedy.

Inhabitants of the city would wander around without a predefined or planned route, just directed by their emotions. This should bring about a feeling of entire alienation, in order to generate the freedom to play.

The directionless wandering through the city was referred to as the “dérive”. For the situationists the dérive became a tool to explore the psychogeography of cities. Psychogeography explores the influence of the geographic living environment on the behavior of individuals. It emphasizes playfulness and unplanned “drifting” around urban environments. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the motions and the behavior of individuals”. (G. Debord, 1955) The dérive was in detail described by Guy Debord; it happens within a set time-lapse (preferably a day) by a small group, the route is outlined by a certain system, but also by coincidence.

The aim is to move through the city in an unplanned way in order to provoke unexpected encounters.

In 1958, Constant and Debord set up a manifest, de Verklaring van Amsterdam (The Amsterdam Declaration), in which they describe unitary urbanism as a “complex, ongoing activity that consciously recreates man’s environment according to the most advanced conceptions in every domain…. Unitary urbanism, independently of all aesthetic considerations, is the fruit of a new type of collective creativity; the development of this spirit of creation is the prior condition of unitary urbanism.” (C. Nieuwenhuys, G. Debord, 1958).

This collective creativity will bring about a fusion of scientific and artistic activities that will trigger small transformations and consequently evolve on a larger scale to the creation of a universal, permanent environment in which playfulness and freedom are the main conditions.

The Declaration of Amsterdam puts emphasis on the urge for collective action. Urbanism is

Figure 186. Physical model of New Babylon, Constant Nieuwenhuys, 1962.

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Figure 190. Constant Nieuwenhuys, Sketch for a mobile Figure 191. Constant Nieuwenhuys, group of sectors. labyrinth, 1968. Pencil, watercolour and crayon on Collotype and ink, 57 x 68 cm. paper.

Figure 188. Guy Debord, Discours sur les passions de l’amour, 1957.

Figure 192. Constant Nieuwenhuys, map of The Hague, watercolour on paper, 200 x 300 cm.

Figure 189. Constant Nieuwenhuys, map of Amsterdam.

Figure 193. Constant Nieuwenhuys, map of the Ruhr area, ink on map, 52,5 x 63,5cm.

a unity and shouldn’t be approached in different individual ways. Everyone has to commit himself as a unity in order to strive for a spatial and collective art.

Constant develops the New Babylon project as his interpretation of this manifest. Not much later he and Debord go their own ways. Constant enthusiastically devotes himself to the creation of his New Babylon, an actual physical model of how this world according to the unitary urbanism ideas could look like. The members of the Situationist International find Constant’s work to focused on only the structural problems of urbanism, they rather put emphasis on the content, the play, freedom of creation and daily life. The situationists think that this world should comprise all different aspects of society in order to bring about a social revolution. However, Constant thinks this social change can’t be made in once and he prefers to start creating a physical translation of these ideas. In 1960 the disagreement becomes so significant, that he decides to resign from the group. (H. Heynen, 1995) After he broke with the situationists, Constant kept on working on the models, paintings and photocollages to develop New Babylon. The idea is that a strengthened mechanization can improve productivity significantly, so that labor becomes superfluous and people have space and time for leisure and play. Slowly, the urban environment will be covered with what Constant called “sectors”; enormous constructions on pillars hovering above the landscape. These structures will be inhabited by people who are completely freed of any obligations, orders and traditions, they can freely develop their own world. People can change the spaces they live in according to their mood, they can adapt the atmosphere to their desires. New Babylon is a dynamic labyrinth which is continuously rearranged by the spontaneity and creativity of its inhabitants. They live a nomadic life in which time doesn’t play a role anymore. As the spaces change continually and will never be the same as what they had been before, people won’t ever fall back into their habits and routines.

DRAWINGS AND MAPS OF NEW BABYLON At the beginning of New Babylon, drawings were not part of the project. When the first models were exhibited in 1959 in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, no drawings were present.

When two months later the project was published for the first time in a Situationist Newsletter, the only image was a photo of one of the models.

In contrary to a traditional architecture or planning project, the drawings appeared after the models. Over a time course of 15 years, Constant made more and more drawings. But in exhibitions and lectures they never took the core role in the representation of the project.

New Babylon contains about 70 drawings, ranging in size from around 3 x 4 cm to 200 x 300 cm. He used a large range of techniques in his drawings; pencil, chalk, crayon, watercolour, oil, pastel, fragments of existing maps, texts, photographs and newspapers.

Standard techniques for architectural drawings were not suitable for this project. To represent the structure of New Babylon accurately would be to misunderstand the whole idea of this new world. The idea of a world in which its inhabitants have the freedom to further shape the spaces would be lost in very detailed or technical drawings. The works of New Babylon are clearly architectural and urban designs, but still leave a lot to the imagination, exactly what Constant aimed for. He made use of many different materials and layers.

“This world requires a new cartography and new reference points, which Constant programs in terms of free activity and not of function. The use that Constant makes of materials in New Babylon suggests that he had intuitively grasped the instrumentalization of the image in terms of the artifact – that is, in terms of what the image does, rather than its material composition or its procedure of fabrication. A new architecture, a new city, calls for new media of representation.” (M. Wigley, 1998. Preface B. Mari) Stains play an important role in the works Constant made within his New Babylon project. He made stains on his models, threw paint splatters on the plexiglass, scratched and graffitied his

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A P P E N D I X I I _ N E W B A BY LO N - A V I R T UA L R E A L I T Y works. From 1962 on, the stains start appearing on his drawings and collages. One of these drawings is the photocollage map of The Hague to Scheveningen, which he made in 1962. The stains represent an imperfection in this imaginary world, as a symbol of conflict and aggression.

Constant explained this in his manuscript “New Babylon”: “New Babylon is an uncertain universe where the normal man is at the mercy of every possible destructive force, every kind of aggression. But let us know that normality is a concept linked to a certain historical practice, its content is therefore variable… The image of a free man who does not have to struggle for his existence is without historical basis… man’s aggressiveness does not disappear with the satisfaction of his immediate material needs”. (Constant, “New Babylon” in L. Andreotti, X. Costa, 1996) According to Constant, the violent instinct to survive in existing urban environments would transform into a creative instinct in a society where there is no need for survival. If society can satisfy the needs of everyone, there is no need to fight and people can follow their basic instinct, which is to play. This creative instinct would become the collective way of life and challenge the fixed order. In this way, it is not understood as violence, but as play, as it takes place in a society without any established order. Constant: “as long as mankind is denied the possibility to be creative, this creativity will express itself through aggression”. (M. Wigley, 1998) Constant applied his ideas and structures of sectors by overlapping them on real urban maps.

This made his ideas seizable, provided them with a context. One can clearly get an idea of the scale of the project and how it could cover the cities. On one hand these maps are strong media to function as idealistic propaganda, as they articulate Constant’s ideas in a very clear and concrete way, on the other hand this explicit representation is an easy target to criticize the project and question its realistic implementation.

VIRTUAL REALITY Constant himself always saw New Babylon as a realizable project, which provoked intense debates at schools of architecture and fine arts about the future role of the architect. Constant insisted that the traditional arts would be displaced by a collective form of creativity. He positioned his project at the threshold of the end of art and architecture. Yet it had a major influence on the work of subsequent generations of architects. It was published widely in the international press in the 1960s and Constant quickly attained a prominent position in the world of experimental architecture. (M. Wigley, 1998) New Babylon has so far never been realized in a literal form, but one could state that modern society has been more and more connected by digital networks. Social media connect people and the internet provides for space in which – virtual – encounters take place. Ideas can be shared easily and even (political) revolutions are brought about through collective action within this virtual space. The world of internet is – just like New Babylon – another layer on our existing world, and merged with this physical world by establishing connections which makes the physical world dependent on the virtual one. The idea of the inhabitants transforming the urban environment also applies to our virtual world; one can easily create spaces and even manipulate its own appearance according to his/her emotions and mood.

Although Constant wouldn’t have ever thought about a virtual internet world when creating his New Babylon, he unconsciously developed an imaginary world which shows many similarities with the virtual world that is now inseparable connected to our real, physical world. A world which connects people and provides them with a space to share their thoughts and creativity, although not as physical as Constant had imagined.

Figure 194. Constant Nieuwenhuys, group of sectors, metal (iron, copper), ink on plexiglass, oil on wood, 4,5 x 100 x 100cm.

Figure 195. Paul Butler, 2010. Map of the connections of 10 million Facebook users around the world.

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LIST OF IMAGES

L. Andreotti, X. Costa, 1996. Theory of the Derive and Other Situationist Writings on the City, Museu D’Art Contemporani De Barcelona , Barcelona.

186. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p94.

I. Chtcheglov, 1953. Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau (Formulary for a New Urbanism).

187. C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York, p68.

G. Debord, 1955. Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, Les Levres Nues #6.

188. http://arttattler.com/archiveatlas.html J. Dumpe, P. Minnema, 2011. Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon. ADIP-Rethinking Berlin// Architectural utopias.

H. Heynen, 1995. New Babylon of de antinomieen van de utopie (New Babylon; the antinomies of utopia), Oase #43, NAI publishers, Rotterdam.

189. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p145.

190. C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York, p68.

H. Lefebvre, 1979. Interview in the Situationist International.

J. Nichols, 2004. Nomadic Urbanities: Constant’s New Babylon and the Contemporary City, Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies 4:2 (2004), 29-52.

C. Nieuwenhuys, 1948. Manifesto, published in Reflex #1.

C. Nieuwenhuys, 1962. New Babylon, published in Randstad #2.

191. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p118.

192. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p153.

193. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p155.

C. Nieuwenhuys, 1970. New Babylon: the world of Homo Ludens.

C. Niewenhuys, 1980. New Babylon - na tien jaren. Lecture TU Delft, 23 May 1980 [online] http://www.vpro.nl/data/laat/010-map/materiaal-constant.shtml

194. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p119.

195. http://www.geekosystem.com/facebook-connection-world-map/

C. Nieuwenhuys, G. Debord, 1958. De verklaring van Amsterdam (The Amsterdam Declaration), Internationale Situationniste #2 December 1958, Amsterdam.

T. Tenney, 2012. (It Will) Never Work: A critique of the Situationists’ appropriation of Johan Huizinga’s theory of play.

M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.

C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York.

Figure 196.

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APPENDIX II

THE USE OF HUMOUR IN CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY EUGENIO DA RIN THE RETHORIC OF MAPPING, APRIL 2014 INTRODUCTION

THE SILVER DOG WITH THE GOLDEN TAIL

Humour has always represented an impressive and incisive device through which communicate ideas and information. It enhances engagement, as it stimulates reactions of surprise, interest, and curiosity. Fun, humor, and laughter can be empowering tools (Miller 1996).

As concerns cartography the power of satire was widely used between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th during the nation-state formation process, especially in Europe. In that period numerous maps representing national territories with the shape of animals, humans and monsters were popular to stigmatize a developing sense of territorial belonging or to ridicule common “enemies.” Many of the maps created in this context were pathetic and xenophobic (examples in Pickles (2004)) but some were humorous and quite compelling.

In general the use of provocative stereotypes has in cartography depicted the relationships between military powers, emphasizing the propagandistic use of it.

For which reasons does humour represent a powerful medium? Could nowadays humoristic maps have a role to play in critical cartography? In this essay I’ll try first to explain how humour, as a language device, influence our perception and engage with human mind. Then through some examples how it has been used to convey and provoke certain ideas in different contexts.

Finally in which terms could it be relevant for a further development in critical cartography.

This humorous map represents a precise crucial moment of the U.S.A. history. The presidential election in 1896 saw a deep propagandistic use of media to support the two different parties.

On one hand the few states of the East coast, represented in gold-black, fathers of the nation and historically the elite which used to control the main economical processes. On the other the new Western frontier, associated with silver-light grey, which was becoming predominant in the political, economical and cultural scenario.

The author, a cartoonist of a East coast newspaper, engaged this conflict trying to subvert the ordinary consolidated hierarchy. As a matter of fact the contraposition between the head and the tail of the dog is rather significant and effective in this sense. The economical argument among diverse monetary system conceptions became the topic on which install the ironic perspective and give a precise propagandistic idea about what the U.S.A. should have been in that precise moment. The subjectivity then is as necessarily linked with an humoristic cartography as every other type of map making procedure.

HOW DOES HUMOUR WORK? Humour has many functions and multiple facets. First of all the sense of humour establishes a way to attract the attention of the interlocutor, both through listening and sight, and help the clarification and comprehension of a particular idea or information. Moreover humour involves playing with ideas and changing our mental perspectives. Instead of following well worn mental paths of attention and thought, we switch to new paths, notice things we did not notice before, and countenance possibilities - even absurdities - as easily as actualities (Caquard, Dormann 2008).

On the other hand the social value of humour can produce a sense of exclusion by setting limits to belonging to a comic community (Young 1990). Thus, the use and form of humour will depend on the audience and the communication context. Children, teenagers, and adults, for example, often enjoy very different forms of humour. Thus, given a set of audiences and contexts, what would be perceived as quite humorous in one instance may seem irrelevant or less acceptable in another. Humour is then highly subjective and context dependent (Caquard, Dormann 2008).

All in all the perception radically change according to the type of audience, the place and the time. This characteristic is fundamental from a cartographic perspective and it represents the core around which build the entire argument of the map. Tools like irony, satire, parody in this dimension increase the pleasure experience associated with a specific cartography, map or atlas, overcoming the straight forward learning dimension and challenging the traditional understanding of reality.

As Caquard and Dormann argue in their research, the contemporary integration of humor into mapmaking confronts three major impediments. First, at a general level there is a lack of recognition with regard to the potential offered by humour for improving the educational, communicative, and critical dimension of mapmaking. Second, with regard to humour, the complexity of generating humour and anticipating its impact remains problematic. Besides the existence of well known mechanisms, humour creation remains an art difficult to control.

Third, the scientific, technological, and functionalist orientations given to modern cartography have limited the integration of non-scientific dimensions such as humour into mapmaking.

Nevertheless, humour has been applied to maps outside the discipline of cartography by many cartoonists and artists (Caquard, Dormann 2008).

Figure 197. Boston Globe, September 13, 1896. The Silver Dog With the Golden Tail - Will the Tail Wag the Dog, or the Dog Wag The Tail?

THE MAP OF THE UNITED STATES OF CANADA VS. JESUS LAND Ten years ago, just after the presidential elections in 2004, a similar technique was used to comment the rather astonishing result. The map emphasizes the different position of the Western coast and some other countries in the Great Lakes region, assuming that their political views were more similar and coherent with the Canadian ones than with the rest of the nation.

Since the campaign was mainly conducted on ethical themes such as same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research, the title of the map conveys the contrast between the more social liberal attitudes of the blue democratic countries opposed to the more conservative and religious positions of the republican red ones.

THE INSANE ASYLUM The author Louis Raemaekers, who was one of the most famous caricaturists dealing with the Great War, through this map wanted to communicate to the population of the Netherlands what was going on in the European context. As a matter of fact the newspaper was starting to become an important mass media device as much as radio to inform and control public opinion.

Although the map could seem rather messy and chaotic, it carefully depicts the main military tensions between the European powers. In particular every single potential casus belli is illustrated in the specific territory through brilliant representative ability. The scene mainly

Figure 198. G. Webb, 2004. The map of the United States of Canada vs. Jesus Land.

Figure 199. Louis Raemaekers,1915.The Insane Asylum (old song, newly wise).

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Figure 200. Boston Gazette, 1812.The Gerry-Mander Map of Essex County, Massachusetts.

Figure 201. R.Dighton, 1793. Geography bewitched! or, a droll caricature map of Ireland.

Figure 202. Ohara, Kisaburo, 1904. A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia.

Figure 203. Unknown, 1915. The Prussian octopus.

happens around the conflict between France and Germany, which are punching each other in the territories of Alsace and Lorraine, for centuries contended by the two countries. While on the top left Britain seems to be happily incline to intervene in the dispute, there are some other figures that are carefully avoiding to participate: Spain is deliberately turning around to isolate the Iberian peninsula together with Portugal from the rest of the continent, Scandinavian countries are attending the scene as judging audience, whereas a foreign northern African presence is suspiciously observing the scene. Furthermore the author depicts with incisive sensibility the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires which are molested and suffocated by so many collisions that they will not be capable to survive.

War; it flourished until the end of the Second World War but it still maintains its grip on the cartographic imagination today as we can notice from the examples.

However one of the first examples of zoomorphic cartography is constituted by The Salamander Map of Essex County, Massachusetts which is one of the first examples of modern political satire through this kind of media. The intention here is always the same: from a specific perspective a certain position and political view is caricatured in order to emphasize the different possible perspective of the particular conflict. The political position regarding the extension of the county of Massachusetts then was translated into an aggressive sneaky animal which is trying to surround the entire region.

Thus from a critical perspective the author had taken in account the overall state of tension of the entire continent and his position appears as external as the figure representing Netherlands.

Nevertheless this approach still engages territorial conflicts from a very specific and subjective perspective, though here the position seems to be super partes.

THE ROLE OF HUMOROUS MAPS IN CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY

ANTRO- AND ZOOMORPHIC CARTOGRAPHY Anthropomorphism - and more broadly speaking, zoomorphism - have always been a fairly popular cartographic method. Usually the intent behind the use of a such radical medium is to express what Denis Wood defines a “protest map” (Wood 2010). While anthropomorphic figures could immediately transmit a certain idea, the use of animal shape often subtends a deeper meaning. Humour indeed provides from this perspective a powerful tool to formulate allegories and metaphors about ideologies, symbols, attitudes and behaviours.

Accordingly, wild aggressive animals, such as bears, wolves, tigers and especially octopuses, have been utilised to indicate the reach of an enemy state’s destructive potential. Moreover they can be used on a more abstract level, showing dangerous ideologies insipidly both infiltrating and strangling the world. The cartographic octopus was born in the late 19th century, when the intra-European tensions were slowly gearing up towards the First World

How could the examples described be relevant for a critical cartography? Might humour these days engage with further developments in map making?

Apparently a significant contraposition exists among the current tendencies. On one hand map making is developing through GIS software and scientific based structures, while on the other protest maps, counter mapping and other critical uses of cartography are more keen on establishing an engagement with reality through imaginative, narrative and artistic processes.

From another perspective it could be argued that if scientific based maps reproduce reality through an encyclopaedic illustration of values and conditions, the humoristic map’s aim relies on the subversion of this given state, doubting and criticizing the uniqueness of the point of view. Therefore through the humour device a different idea of social, political and cultural features of our world might be depicted, challenging and stimulating our reasons, consciousnesses and sensibilities.

In order to do that humoristic maps don’t necessitate of quantitative data nor projection systems nor coordinate rules. One of the main differences between these two types of

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A P P E N D I X I I _ T H E U S E O F H U M O U R I N C R I T I C A L C A R TO G R A P H Y approach relies on this crucial aspect: while measurements are the base on which build the current scientific maps, the humoristic ones just need a brilliant sensibility to read, synthesise and convey a provoking different point of view.

An evident proof of this different approach consists on the management of the definition of space. Traditional cartography has accurately developed and accumulated through centuries techniques to measure and precisely draw lines, and the technological innovations of the digital era have established and confirmed this attitude. On the other hand humoristic maps designedly reconfigure the space, for their intent is to accentuate social and political statements.

All in all we could argue that while in the first case the share of information has the primary role, in the second one the knowledge is questioned and an awareness sensation is generated.

In general map making is an activity which requires an author capable to carefully select the most useful information and representation techniques in order to transmit a certain idea.

Therefore subjectivity is a characteristic to every type of maps, the ones which claim to be objective and scientific included. As a matter of fact both conventional maps and satirical maps represent reality in particular ways by selecting and distorting certain features of the world.

Combining elements of both satire and maps, satirical maps are meant to inform, entertain, and shock all at once. Like much satire, satirical maps take something familiar and make it unfamiliar, by imbuing a sense of incongruity that is often unexpected by audiences. In many cases, satirical maps appropriate the outline of a political unit, which is a familiar image to most audiences, such as the geographical shape of a nation, to create a cartoon stereotype of its people and/or a caricature of its political situation.

New forms of hybrid cartographies are developing in these very last new decades in which scientific maps can be intersected with different kind of media in order to provide a different perspective of the world we live in. The recent success of The Atlas of Prejudice (Yanko Tsvetkov 2012) attests how among many European countries the humour engages with human curiosity.

The Atlas simply consists of an European map depicted each time by a different population and perspective, such as by Americans, Italians, French, German and so on. Enhancing to the very highest point the human attitude of prejudice, the Bulgarian designer illustrates how different the continent could be read.

He bluntly demonstrates how it would influence public opinion of the rest of the world, since he assumes that everyone sees the world through slightly prejudiced glasses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY J.Black, 2000. Maps and Politics, Reaktion Books.

J.Black, 2013. The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World, Yale University Press.

S.Caquard, C.Dormann, 2008. Humorous maps: explorations of an alternative cartography, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (January 1, 2008).

A.J.Klinghoffer, 2006. The Power of Projections: How Maps Reflect Global Politics and History, Praeger Publishers Inc. R.Koolhaas, 2004. Content, Taschen GmbH. L.Kurgan, 2013. Close Up at a Distance .Mapping, Technology, and Politics, MIT Press.

D.Smith, 2003. The Atlas of War and Peace, Myriad Editions Limited.

Y.Tsvetkov, 2013. Atlas of Prejudice> Mapping stereotypes, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

The humour tool is partially involved in a new approach about map-making processes but certainly it could contribute more to generate curiosity and improve the pleasure in the fruition experience. The reasons for which humour is not on the agenda of cartography are several.

First of all it is a complex device whose use needs to be faithfully thought and calibrate.

Moreover cartographies which include humour transgress the traditional approach that is instead challenging the scientific possibilities of software explorations.

Nevertheless the use of humour could be remarkable in a new critical cartography to create engagement, support the communication, increase the interest about the topic and encourage creativity processes.

CONCLUSIONS The sense of humour applied to cartography, in its satirical and ironic facets, constitutes a powerful device through which provoke and enhance astonishment in the reader, changing the perspective from a conventional standpoint to a critical one.

Since this intrinsic feature its role is deeply connected and related to conventional cartography and it actually represents a fundamental tool to control and generate an awareness about the subjectivity that even the scientific based maps claim to have.

The intent behind this kind of maps in rather different from the conventional ones: while these convey information and knowledge, the former ones stimulate a reflection on certain given conditions. Therefore the humoristic tool should be inscribed as a critical cartography device and not be confined just as a comics related technique.

Especially to describe and arise social, economical and geopolitical issues, humour is impressively efficient.

Therefore as a critical device humorous maps should be considered an important phase in the map making process, not just for the sake to entertain the public, but it could represent even for the author an useful tool to revise, take distance and reflect on the map.

Figure 204. Y.Tsvetkov, 2013. Atlas of Prejudice: Mapping Stereotypes, Vol. 2.

Figure 205. Y.Tsvetkov, 2013. Atlas of Prejudice: Mapping Stereotypes, Vol. 2., detail of Tearing Europe Apart.

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LIST OF IMAGES 1. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_di_Resia;

39-40. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

2. www.knowledge.allianz.com;

41. http://alpen-montblanc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/mont-blanc-foto-kaart-alpen-italie.html;

3. National Research Council – NRC, 2002. Riparian Areas. Functions and Strategies for Management. Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning and Strategies for Management, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, p.428;

42-43. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 44. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val-d’Isère; 45. http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/21810650.jpg;

4. N. Clerici, C.J. Weissteinera, M.L. Paracchinia, L. Boschettib, A. Baraldib, P. Strobl, 2012.

Pan-European distribution modelling of stream riparian zones based on multi-source Earth Observation data, Elsevier, Ispra, p.217;

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48. http://www.italianfoodexcellence.com/alto-adigesudtirol-the-land-of-unlimited-winepossibilities/;

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49. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Michele_all’Adige;

8. B. Blackshear, T.Crocker, E. Drucker, J. Filoon, J. Knelman, M. Skiles, 2011. Hydropower Vulnerability and Climate Change; A Framework for Modeling the Future of Global Hydroelectric Resources, Middlebury, p.32;

50. www.maps.google.co.uk;

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10. B. Blackshear, T.Crocker, E. Drucker, J. Filoon, J. Knelman, M. Skiles, 2011. Hydropower Vulnerability and Climate Change; A Framework for Modeling the Future of Global Hydroelectric Resources, Middlebury, p.33;

53. http://cyclingtips.com.au/2011/07/rest-day-up-mont-ventoux/;

11. http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/alps/griesgletscher/griesgletscher-en.html?id=2;

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12. Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, 2010. The Alps; people and pressures in the mountains, the facts at a glance, Bolzano, p.15;

56. http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/27/power.php;

51. http://qbk.pl/blog/kaunertal-staudamm;

54. http://climacus.tumblr.com/page/2;

57. www.ofima.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=12; 13. European Environment Agency, 2010. The European Environment; State and Outlook 2010; Water resources: quantity and flows, Copenhagen, p.21; 14-15. O. Pirker, 2012. Hydropower in Europe and Climate Change Consequences and Challenges, p.12;

58. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 59. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diga_del_Narèt_II; 60. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/82352495;

16. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/21608004; 61-65. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 17. http://www.lacsdespyrenees.com/lac-366-Barrage+de+Lanoux.html; 66. www.maps.google.co.uk; 18. http://impeller.net/magazine/news_de/doc3364x.asp; 67. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 19. http://www.rusevine.com/index.php?id=48; 20. http://no.geoview.info/altadammen,104231087p ;

68. C. Scapozza, P. Oppizzi, 2013. Late Holocene morphosedimentary and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Ticino fluvio-deltaic floodplain (Canton of Ticino, Switzerland), Geomorphologie: relief, processus, environnement, n3, p.283;

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69. Surian, N, Rinaldi, M., 2003. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy, Geomorphology 50, Elsevier; 70. L. Descroix, E. Gautier, 2002. Water erosion in the southern French alps: climatic and human mechanisms, Paris, Catena 50, Elsevier, p.67;

25. Ruimtelijk Planbureau, 2006; 71. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 26-27. OMA, European Climate Foundation, Roadmap 2050; A practical guide to a prosperous, low-carbon Europe, 2010;

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28. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 73. www.maggia.eth.ch 29. D. Campana, F. Comiti, Historical channel adjustment in the Ahr river (Italian Alps) and ecological effects of restoration, 2012; 30-31. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

74-76. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 77. Canton of Ticino, 2010. Decreto di protezione delle golene della Valle Maggia, Taverne, p.7;

32. http://www.provincia.bz.it/opere-idrauliche/bacini-montani/931.asp; 78. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aquifer_en.svg; 33. http://www.alpconv.org/en/organization/groups/WGWater/workshopsediment/ Documents/ComitiHecherBozen5.pdf;

79. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, based on a diagram of the Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 2008;

34-37. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 80. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, based on a drawing from W. Ruf, 2007; 38. Laurent Filippini, Cassarate river, flood protection and river restoration in an urban environment, 2014;

81. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, based on a diagram of the Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 2008;

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CHAPTER

82. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

157-158. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

83. http://flickrhivemind.net/User/vencjon/Interesting;

159. www.reviews.mtbr.com;

84-86. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

160. www.johnsonsbeach.com;

87. C. Scapozza, P. Oppizzi, 2013. Late Holocene morphosedimentary and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Ticino fluvio-deltaic floodplain (Canton of Ticino, Switzerland), Geomorphologie: relief, processus, environnement, n3, p.283;

161-162. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 163. www.kwwl.com/story/24593275/2014/01/30/cedar-falls-aquaponic-system-growsproduce-without-soil;

88. Surian, N, Rinaldi, M., 2003. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy, Geomorphology 50, Elsevier;

164. www.flickr.com/photosmbell19754980548462sizesl;

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165-166. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

90. L. Descroix, E. Gautier, 2002. Water erosion in the southern French alps: climatic and human mechanisms, Paris, Catena 50, Elsevier, p.67;

167. www.raglaneels.comwp/contentupl/ads201406Aquaculture/Ponds?Aerial.jpg; 168. www.johnsonsbeach.com;

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179. http://www.vliz.be/en/multimedia/belgian-sea-fisheries?p=slideshow&album=2468;

93. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, based on a drawing from W. Ruf, 2007;

180. http://www.dezandmotor.nl;

94. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014, based on a diagram of the Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 2008;

181-185. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014;

95. Sparks, Bioscience, vol.45,p.170, March 1995, American institute of Biological Science; 96. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 97. The Federal Interagency Stream Restorian Working Group, 2001. Stream Corridor Restoration - Principles, Processes, Practices,p.78; 98. Updating the Manual of River Restoration Techniques, Environment Agency,p.2; 99-105. The Federal Interagency Stream Restorian Working Group, 2001. Stream Corridor Restoration - Principles, Processes, Practices,Appendix A;

186. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p94; 187. C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York, p68.; 188. http://arttattler.com/archiveatlas.html; 189. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p145.; 190. C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York, p68.;

106-109. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 110. Unites Nations Environment Programme, Integrated Watershed ManagementEcohydrology & Phytotechnology-Manual, p.186; 111. United Nations Environment Programme, Integrated Watershed ManagementEcohydrology & Phytotechnology-Manual, p.187; 112. National Research Council – NRC, 2002. Riparian Areas. Functions and Strategies for Management. Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning and Strategies for Management, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, p.428.; 113. N. Surian, M. Rinaldi, 2003. Morphological response to river engineering and management in alluvial channels in Italy, Geomorphology 50, Elsevier;

191. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p118.; 192. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p153.; 193. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p155.; 194. M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, p119.; 195. http://www.geekosystem.com/facebook-connection-world-map/; 196. https://cup2013.wordpress.com/tag/constant-nieuwenhuys/;

114. W. Ruf, 2007. Numerical Modelling of Distributed River - Aquifer Coupling in an Alpine Floodplain, dissertation ETH Zurich, p.5.;

197. http://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1ind7k/the_silver_dog_with_the_ golden_tail_will_the_tail/;

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151-154. E. Da Rin, J. Lambert, 2014; 155. www.commons.wikimedia.org; 156. www.tripadvisor.co.uk;

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A. Picon, 2010. What has happened to territory?, Architectural Design; Territory – Architecture beyond Environment; W. Ruf, 2007. Numerical Modelling of Distributed River - Aquifer Coupling in an Alpine Floodplain, dissertation ETH Zurich, Zurich; C. Rumford, 2006. Rethinking European Spaces: Territory, Borders, Governance, Comparative European Politics, 4 (127-140); P. Scaglione, A. Franceschini, F. Farinelli, A. Cecchetto, M. Gausa, A. Clementi, M. Ricci, M. Thun, T. Demtz, 2009. High_Scapes Alps, Trento, List; B. Schaefli, B. Hingray and A. Musy, 2007. Climate change and hydropower production in the Swiss Alps: quantification of potential impacts and related modeling uncertainties, Hydrology Earth System Science, 11(3), pp.1191-1205; S. Schumm, H. Kahn, 1972. Experimental study of channel patterns, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 83: 1755-1770, Colorado; D.Smith, 2003. The Atlas of War and Peace, Myriad Editions Limited; Società Ticinese di Scienze Naturali, 1993. Ecologia dell’Insubria e del Ticino, Ticino; T. Tenney, 2012. (It Will) Never Work: A critique of the Situationists’ appropriation of Johan Huizinga’s theory of play; S. Terrier, F. Jordan et al.,2011. Optimized and adapted hydropower management considering glacier shrinkage scenarios in the Swiss Alps, Taylor & Francis Group, London; A. Thorens, C. Mauch, 2002. Case study 1: Maggia Valley, Euwareness, Lausanne; K. Tockner, A. Paetzold, U. Karaus, C. Claret, J. Zettel, 2009. Ecology of braided rivers; Y. Tsvetkov, 2013. Atlas of Prejudice> Mapping stereotypes, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; J. Urry, 1990. Tourist gaze: leisure and travel in contemporary societies, London, Sage; E.S. Verry, J.W. Hornbeck, C.A. Dolloff (eds), 2000. Riparian management in forests of the continental Eastern United States. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton; M. Wigley, 1998. Constant’s New Babylon; The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam; G.L. William, 2012. Downstream hydrologic and geomorphic effects of large dams on American rivers, n.79 Geomorphology 2006 (pp.336-370); C. de Zegher, M. Wigley, 2001. The Activist Drawing; Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Drawing Center, New York.

Figure 206. Physiscal model of the Riparian Land-Shaping Machine.

96 T H E R I PA R I A N L A N D-S H A P I N G M AC H I N E