Shared Values in Practice: a Multi-Methodological Approach for River Landscapes

Landscapes are visible and integrative social-ecological systems with variable spatial and temporal dimensions. They have expressive aesthetic, natural, and cultural qualities, are perceived and valued by people in multiple ways, and invite actions resulting in landscape change. Multiple disciplines and perspectives are required to understand landscapes and align cultural, social and ecological values to ensure their sustainability. Fluvial landscapes follow complex temporal trajectories because they result from the combination of physical drivers, biological interactions and human influences. For this reason, river landscapes are dynamic and resilient territories, and so their identity is strictly linked to the theme of change. Indeed, issues concerning the conservation of river landscapes must include the continuous transformations to which they are subjected. The study case, namely the blue-green system around the city of Pisticci (Basilicata Region, Italy), returns a complex landscape made up of different patterns, where natural values intersect cultural values. Understanding the spatial-temporal distribution characteristic and evolution tendency of the river system is important in integrated river basin management; thus, when it comes to the Pisticci blue-green system management, it is fundamental to connect the dynamism of rivers and coastal areas to the static nature of the badlands context and the old town, both of which are symbols of transformation and conservation, of changing dynamics and resilient values. The present paper introduces the evaluative multi-methodological process implemented in the Green Lucania research project (DiARC, Unina) in order to identify situated synergic actions that are able to build a network of shared values through an adaptive evaluation process which uses the approaches and tools of Collaborative Spatial Decision-Making and Geo-Design interplay.