**4. First forms of sustainable landscape development: some experiences in Eastern Europe**

The values and strategies described so far have found a first application in a European project, born within the proposals relating to the thematic program 2007–2013 promoted by the European Union "Investing in Europe: Investing in People" and within the Eastern Partnership Culture program. The title of the project summarizes the focal points on which the partners have concentrated their insights and the consequent activities, Valorization and Improving of Management of Small Historic Centers in the Eastern Partnership region, hence the acronym VIVA\_EASTPART.

The project aims to establish study and operational methodologies that allow local partners from the Eastern European countries involved (Romania, Moldova, Armenia) to build new development paths through an integrated approach to cultural heritage, with particular reference to the centers and small historians, in order to produce territorial added value.5

The study and action strategy was aimed at defining an innovative form of sustainable development, which would best enhance the individual components that structure each "cultural territorial system" [20], the product of the interaction between culture and territory, between local identity and global heritage, and between conservation and transformation.

In fact, we speak of "systems," since the territories examined are characterized by the overlap of elements of historical and geographical evolution, precise and linear elements, merged with the surrounding landscape that holds them together

**47**

**Figure 4.**

*Promoting Territorial Cultural Systems through Urban Planning*

that the local works for the global and vice versa (**Figure 5**).

in a perfectly distinguishable unicum. The systemic character is particularly evident in one of the pilot cases, Tavush region in Armenia, in which the system of monasteries embedded in the rock of the Armenian barren mountains is now an integral part of a harmonious anthropic natural landscape, in which religion, tradition, culture, and history mingle to create a tangible and intangible systemic

The term "territorial" is also used, since the focus of the entire project was the internal rural areas dotted with small villages and historic centers, territories often still with unexpressed potential, not yet usurped by mass tourism and building speculation, and for this reason, still full of meanings elsewhere forgotten or suffocated. Strategies and planning must necessarily act here from a territorial point of view, to create sustainable development that brings out the values of these lands, so

Finally, the term "cultural" is used, referring to that cultural framework [21] composed of tangible and intangible assets, which affect a variety of aspects: from architecture to art, from history to music, from nature to crafts, and so on. It is a matter of identifying those local cultural landscapes [22] in which the population recognizes itself, beyond any geographical dimension and any administrative boundary. The atlas of landscapes that takes shape in this way perfectly follows the spirit of the European Landscape Convention of 2000 and lays the foundations for sustainable and flexible planning that goes beyond the territorial and sectoral hierarchies, which derives from the values in which the inhabitants recognize and manage to integrate the various components into shared strategic scenarios. The path to achieve these objectives and to draw up the so-called "integrated cultural plan" is described and detailed in the Methodology Dossier, produced by scientific partners and implemented and tested by local partners in

*The Haghartsin Monastery in the municipal territory of Dilijan in the Tavush region of Armenia,* 

*and widespread cultural heritage that characterizes the entire region (source: author's photo).*

*characterized by the widespread presence of places of worship of considerable historical value and agricultural dwellings which, integrated into the surrounding mountain landscape, make up a system of rural settlements* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91985*

heritage (**Figure 4**).

pilot projects.

<sup>5</sup> Scientific coordination was entrusted to academic figures from the Polytechnic University of Bari and the University of Rome La Sapienza, with the aim of supporting and guiding the actions of local partners, through the definition of a budget on past actions and policies (good and bad practices), the drafting of a methodology for the construction of the Integrated Cultural Territorial Plans and Local Action Plans, the drafting of a toolkit containing the operating instructions, and the support of local partners in the drafting of the pilot projects on the three selected areas (Sibiu County in Romania, Dilijan, Tavush region in Armenia, and Cahul County in Moldova).

#### *Promoting Territorial Cultural Systems through Urban Planning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91985*

*Heritage*

conservation, etc.)

ecosystems (**Figure 3**).

**in Eastern Europe**

VIVA\_EASTPART.

order to produce territorial added value.5

between conservation and transformation.

Dilijan, Tavush region in Armenia, and Cahul County in Moldova).

functions, landscape, natural heritage, etc.)

provide cultural services at most but not the other two [18].

• Procurement services (food and biomass products, raw materials, etc.)

• Regulation and maintenance services (climate regulation, carbon capture and storage, erosion and nutrient control, water quality regulation, protection and mitigation of extreme hydrological phenomena, genetic reserve, biodiversity

• Cultural services (recreational and cultural services, ethical and spiritual

In general, a soil can be considered in good health if it has an adequate content of organic substance, a good structure, and a high diversification of the micro- and macroorganisms that populate it [19]. It is evident that a waterproofed soil can

With these premises, it is easier to understand why historic centers are potential epicenters of new economic networks and ecosystem services. In fact they are certainly able to offer multiple cultural services, but at the same time, their reuse saves soil and therefore guarantees at least the services of regulation and maintenance of

**4. First forms of sustainable landscape development: some experiences** 

The values and strategies described so far have found a first application in a European project, born within the proposals relating to the thematic program 2007–2013 promoted by the European Union "Investing in Europe: Investing in People" and within the Eastern Partnership Culture program. The title of the project summarizes the focal points on which the partners have concentrated their insights and the consequent activities, Valorization and Improving of Management of Small Historic Centers in the Eastern Partnership region, hence the acronym

The project aims to establish study and operational methodologies that allow local partners from the Eastern European countries involved (Romania, Moldova, Armenia) to build new development paths through an integrated approach to cultural heritage, with particular reference to the centers and small historians, in

The study and action strategy was aimed at defining an innovative form of sustainable development, which would best enhance the individual components that structure each "cultural territorial system" [20], the product of the interaction between culture and territory, between local identity and global heritage, and

In fact, we speak of "systems," since the territories examined are characterized by the overlap of elements of historical and geographical evolution, precise and linear elements, merged with the surrounding landscape that holds them together

<sup>5</sup> Scientific coordination was entrusted to academic figures from the Polytechnic University of Bari and the University of Rome La Sapienza, with the aim of supporting and guiding the actions of local partners, through the definition of a budget on past actions and policies (good and bad practices), the drafting of a methodology for the construction of the Integrated Cultural Territorial Plans and Local Action Plans, the drafting of a toolkit containing the operating instructions, and the support of local partners in the drafting of the pilot projects on the three selected areas (Sibiu County in Romania,

**46**

in a perfectly distinguishable unicum. The systemic character is particularly evident in one of the pilot cases, Tavush region in Armenia, in which the system of monasteries embedded in the rock of the Armenian barren mountains is now an integral part of a harmonious anthropic natural landscape, in which religion, tradition, culture, and history mingle to create a tangible and intangible systemic heritage (**Figure 4**).

The term "territorial" is also used, since the focus of the entire project was the internal rural areas dotted with small villages and historic centers, territories often still with unexpressed potential, not yet usurped by mass tourism and building speculation, and for this reason, still full of meanings elsewhere forgotten or suffocated. Strategies and planning must necessarily act here from a territorial point of view, to create sustainable development that brings out the values of these lands, so that the local works for the global and vice versa (**Figure 5**).

Finally, the term "cultural" is used, referring to that cultural framework [21] composed of tangible and intangible assets, which affect a variety of aspects: from architecture to art, from history to music, from nature to crafts, and so on. It is a matter of identifying those local cultural landscapes [22] in which the population recognizes itself, beyond any geographical dimension and any administrative boundary. The atlas of landscapes that takes shape in this way perfectly follows the spirit of the European Landscape Convention of 2000 and lays the foundations for sustainable and flexible planning that goes beyond the territorial and sectoral hierarchies, which derives from the values in which the inhabitants recognize and manage to integrate the various components into shared strategic scenarios. The path to achieve these objectives and to draw up the so-called "integrated cultural plan" is described and detailed in the Methodology Dossier, produced by scientific partners and implemented and tested by local partners in pilot projects.

#### **Figure 4.**

*The Haghartsin Monastery in the municipal territory of Dilijan in the Tavush region of Armenia, characterized by the widespread presence of places of worship of considerable historical value and agricultural dwellings which, integrated into the surrounding mountain landscape, make up a system of rural settlements and widespread cultural heritage that characterizes the entire region (source: author's photo).*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Rural houses in the municipal area of Dilijan in the Tavush region of Armenia which, in the strategies of the integrated cultural plan developed during the VIVA project, represent a connection of a physical but also immaterial territorial character between the villages and small towns that dot the region (source: author's photo).*

At the operational level, the preparation of a "toolkit" was also extremely useful, a lean and easy-to-use manual that local partners could follow and consult at each stage of their activities.

Furthermore, the involvement of the populations was transversal within the project, from the cognitive-reconnaissance phase to the planning phase, to draw on the one hand important elements of the diffuse knowledge necessary to create a map of values inherent in the territories and on the other to create an awareness of a place such as to develop awareness of the development potential of the territories themselves in the inhabitants, an essential condition for initiating effective processes of sustainable local development [5]. Drawing important lessons, in fact, from good and bad practices of the past, we tried to involve the local populations by directing all activities towards forms of active and inclusive participation, with the aim of exploiting and interpreting those codes and languages of the best transmission that are almost always behavioral and that as such escape codification through rules and documents but which represent an invaluable pool of knowledge and potential action.
