Production innovation and environmental protection in the management of rural landscapes: the UNESCO vineyard landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato

In Italy, the landscape appears more and more as the essential element of a sustainable economic development linked to environmental peculiarities and food excellence. In agriculture, the winning aspect of production is no longer measured, in fact, in merely “organoleptic” terms, but also through the issues of environmental protection and care and careful landscape management, as a cornerstone of quality and typical products. In this regard,production - in a broad sense related to wellbeing and leisure, as well as wine - absolutely needs places identifying it, since its value is intimately connected with the quality of the original rural landscapes. These landscapes - that still today represent an element of strong characterization of the single territorial realities - are those that denote a balanced intervention of man on the natural elements; they are those that offer a clear presence of historical signs and legible links between structure and land use. In recent years, agriculture appears to be increasingly responsible for carrying out a plurality of functions, in addition to the acknowledged traditional ones. The maintenance of the hydrogeological structure, the preservation of landscapes with significanthistorical-cultural values, and the maintenance of biodiversity are all the more important. In this perspective,farmers can certainly contribute to conserving and effectively producing high quality landscapes, through a careful “care” of the land in which they work, so as to maintain and strengthen the characteristics of formal quality and historical identity, by avoiding scrupulously useless compromises. A case study of great interest to verify the concreteness and general applicability of this type of reasoning is represented in Piedmont by the territories of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2014, where there are interesting research and experimentation activities in the fields of agricultural sustainability and territorial planning.


What perspective for historical / traditional agricultural landscapes?
Piedt ad particuary the hiy area f aghe Rer ad ferrat has bee e f the st siguar ad cuturay reevat adscapes ver tie  a iteratia eve ad is defied by grapevie cutivati The iprtace f this heritage is such that it has righty btaied the high iteratia recgiti by UESC as a "Wrd Heritage Site" becig a psitive factr fr sustaiabe grwth f the territry The 1972 UESC Wrd Heritage Cveti strgy estabished the pricipe that each State () recgises that the duty f esurig the idetificati prtecti cservati presetati ad trasissi t future geeratis f the cutura ad atura heritage () ad situated  its territry begs priariy t that State It wi d a it ca t this ed t the utst f its w resurces ad where apprpriate with ay iteratia assistace ad cperati () The chaege fr these territries appears t be the eed t cbie the prtecti f the adscape heritage with the ctiuati f prducti activities that are fte i eed f der adaptati t ew techgica prcesses ad the use f equipet ad achiery that are cpetey differet t that f the past Fr this perspective a idepth wedge f the cutura techiques f the past appears t be fudaeta i rder t evauate the extet t which these ca be aitaied ptetiay with pubic fiacia supprt recgisig their great idetity vaue fr the ca cuities ad fr the expectatis f turists ad visitrs wh have bee attracted by the UESC recgiti The iprtace f traditia wedge i agricuture was fuy recgised i the 2001 UESC Cveti  "Cutura Diversity" which uderies the eed fr it t be prtected especiay i the fieds f evireta ad atura resurce aageet i rder t fster syergies with der sciece The histric ad abrius activity f huas i hiside farig is ceary egibe i the wiegrwig adscapes f the Piedt regi eve i the ipeetrabe his f the aghe This is wr that eve tday ca be see i the ies f fieds ditches ad assive itervetis fr the setteet f the his The beauty ad rigiaity f these UESC agricutura adscapes derives precisey fr the rdery successi f rws fr the rgaisati f the territry accrdig t geetric frs reguary repeated fr e hi t ather accrdig t pecuiar patters due t the carefu hydrauicagraria arrageets f the spes Ag these the scaed "girappggi" (ctur farig) stads ut characterised by the siguar arrageet f the rws accrdig t the eve curves f the hiy frts which represet  i ters f siguarity  e f the cardia tivatis fr the recgiti f uiversa vaue by UESC I ther wrds it is a agraria adscape t y the resut f deeprted prductive activities but priariy the expressi f "cuture i the agric fied" ispired by a wise aageet f the territry that has bee abe t preserve it i the past fr serius threats t its stabiity Fr this pit f view the agricutura adscape f agheRer ad ferrat ecpasses a iprtat vaue f ery ad is testiy t the aciet reatiship betwee huas ad ature i the ctiuus reiterpretati f the ptetia f the territry 1 Ufrtuatey the icreasigy pressig eeds f the echaisati f vieyards have vertured the traditia ad csidated hydrauicagraria settig f the vieyards thrugh the adpti f "rittchi" arrageets distiguished by the ayut f rws fwig the ies f the axiu spe f the vieyards with a geera distrti f the adscape cpared t traditia histrica versis I this uxtapsiti f traditi ad derity a recet prvisi by the Piedtese Regia Gveret has bee iserted with fresight which thas t specific fiacia easures fr the restructurig ad cversi f the vieyards has fresee the iadissibiity t ecic ctributi f the vieyards with a rittchi settig

Agriculture. What role?
Tyig a prduct t a territry is a respse t the curret treds f traveig csuers wh see a cbiati f adscape cuture ad a richess f fd ad wie 2 I this ctext a gd adscape ust be attractive ad therefre harius ad tidy but t tus Fd ad wie itieraries such as the Rads f Wies ad Favurs destrate the success f the attepts t raise csuer awareess f quaity prducts thus ehacig regia agricutura prducti The "Astesaa  Wie Rute" stads ut i UESC Piedt wieaig fr a g tie ag with ay iitiatives fr territria prti it has bee creatig a ivative "cuture f wie" by prtig wedge f the uerus histrica fars preset ag preestabished rutes These are rutes desiged t ptiie the usabiity f the wiegrwig areas where iprtat atura ad cutura vaues persist such as vieyards ad cears f sige r assciated fars pe t the pubic i a settig f prestigius adscape histrica ad artistic attractis I this perspective re ad re wieaers are begiig t cbie wie prducti with the ffer f eisure services such as tastig f far prducts ad accdati  the far A vieyard adscape f quaity ust dispay the cear characteristics f ruraity uderstd as a baaced cbiati f atura eeets ad athrpic presece It is fudaeta that the farers but as the prfessias (agrists architects egieers etc) ad the pubic adiistratrs ust agree  the rues required t prduce adscapes that are suitabe fraes fr "gd fd" I additi t its traditia wr the agricutura sectr is best suited t carryig ut ay fuctis fr the aiteace f the aiteace f the hydrgegica structure t the cservati f adscapes with sigificat histrica ad cutura vaues ad the aiteace f bidiversity 3 Wieaers ca effectivey ctribute t cservig ad prducig highquaity adscapes i a prfitabe way thrugh the thughtfu "care" f the territry i which they perate s as t aitai ad stregthe the features f fra quaity ad histrica idetity scrupuusy avidig ay useess cprise

The importance of agronomic science
The contribution of research and experimentation in the agricultural, and particularly in the winegrowing, fields are vital, in order to achieve these important objectives of environmental sustainability. There are a number of issues that are of great concern in this regard, including for the population not directly involved in the primary productive sector. These include the use of herbicides to control weeds in vineyards, and a series of plant protection products for the control of pathogens and pests. There are some very interesting models for controlled vineyard greening as alternatives to chemical weeding, and in the tillage of the land along the rows to limit the vast water runoff and surface erosion of the land. The adoption of completely alternative solutions to today's phytosanitary practices still seems problematic, including due to the recent spread of very worrying grapevine diseases such as Golden Flavescence, and many experiments have long been underway.

Rural police regulations
In order to direct the evolution of the wine-growing areas towards greater environmental sustainability, the rural police regulations have recently been revised and updated in light of the new quality expectations of agricultural production and the proper management of territories. A very interesting example in this regard is the complete re-elaboration by the province of Asti in 2016 of its own regulations, aimed at achieving environmental protection objectives in agricultural areas, without however hampering production activities. This includes safeguarding agricultural land to prevent erosion and instability at the same time as maintaining local roads in good condition. A particular emphasis is placed on the prescription of the use of naturalistic engineering techniques -as an alternative to traditional reinforced concrete structures -capable of ensuring the greater environmental compatibility of works for securing the hilly slopes and the hydrographic network, and this has also had good results from an aesthetic point of view. Other innovative rules of great interest concern the management of cultivated fields with respect to the property boundaries, with particular reference to the vineyards, with the aim of avoiding incorrect mechanical working of the land which may compromise rainwater drainage networks. These, and many other rules of great practical and managerial interest for agrarian land, have been the result of an innovative interprofessional working table specifically designed by the Province of Asti which saw a fruitful collaboration between agronomists, engineers, geologists, architects and professional colleges of land surveyors and agrotechnicians.

University training
The long-term sustainability of cropped lands, and particularly the UNESCO areas of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato, has led in recent years to profitable university collaborations both in terms of research and teaching within the academic areas of agricultural science, and landscape planning and design. An important example is the twenty-year collaboration between the two Turin universities (University and Politecnico). Both are founding members of the UNISCAPE European Network, currently including over 50 European universities involved in the implementation of the European Landscape Convention in their training and experimentation programmes. On the teaching front, it is worth mentioning the inter-university specialist degree in "Parks, Gardens and Green Areas" introduced by both universities over a decade ago, which took over the inter-university Master's Degree that had also involved the Universities of Genoa and Milan, in "Green Areas and Landscape Design". It is a set of activities that clearly shows a convergence of intentions and interests in the themes of the landscape.

Conclusions
In the logic of the sustainability of territorial transformations, planning at different scales must necessarily pay attention to the landscape, enhancing the elements of singularity, identity and equilibrium and at the same time preventing transformations that are the source of imbalance and dissonance [4]. These policies cannot, however, be merely defensive in nature, but must be characterised by a strong design intention to remove the structural reasons for deterioration and pursue new and advanced balances between the different economicsocial needs and the specificities of environmental features. It is therefore essential that the actions of safeguarding and enhancing the cultivated, and in particular the winegrowing, landscapes of the UNESCO areas of Piedmont may be conveniently undertaken through the effective involvement of local communities, with particular reference to winemakers, but also the academic world, the professions, including agronomists, architects and other categories of various subjects interested in this specific theme, and public administrators, in order to define the most useful and advanced models of governance for each situation, in the spirit of the European Landscape Convention