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The integration of field surveys, bibliographic research and multitemporal analysis of historical maps, aerial photographs and satellite images in a GIS environment, allowed the current and past geomorphological features of the old city of Alessandria and its surrounding areas, NW Italy, to be identified and mapped. Their analysis provided an overview of the geomorphological evolution of the city that is strictly related to the historical vicissitudes occurred since the Middle Ages. Nowadays, the most representative landforms and deposits characterizing the urban landscape result from human interventions and are associated with ancient military facilities and infrastructures, a historical man-made channel network no longer recognizable, the Tanaro riverbed channelization, and the urban sprawl occurred from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards. This study represents a useful tool for urban planning and management and for raising the citizens' awareness of the urban-landscape geomorphological features and evolution, and therefore the geo-hydrological risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a geomorphological map of the Entella River floodplain (scale 1:10,000), one of the largest and urbanized Ligurian Tyrrhenian flat area. The coastal floodplain suffered substantial modifications due to human activities since the latter half of the nineteenth century, which transformed the natural landscape into an anthropogenic environment. Fluvial, marine and anthropogenic geomorphological features have been investigated through a multi-temporal analysis and the reviewing, re-elaboration and summarization of previous geographical and geomorphological materials. An historical analysis has been performed to reconstruct morphological modifications and their correlation with anthropogenic interventions. The main geomorphological map includes a multi-temporal analysis of shoreline and major anthropogenic landforms. Small sketch maps on the geographical, geological and land use settings are also provided. The detailed geomorphological map can be used for urban and land planning, including the mitigation of the meteo- and geo-hydrological risk, which historically has dramatically influenced the Entella coastal floodplain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting on 24th August 2016, Central Italy was struck by a six-month earthquake sequence that caused 303 victims and extensive major damages to urban areas and infrastructures, in some cases entire villages needed complete rebuilding. In this paper we present a map that portrays the overall susceptibility to multiple landslide types and the exposure to landslides of the rural-urban areas of the Castelsantangelo sul Nera Municipality, a typical village of the central Italian Apennine. The map is based on a procedure that ingests geomorphological data and models and groups the individual landslide susceptibility maps in a joint susceptibility and exposure map based on expert-defined criteria. The procedure has been applied to built-up and to undeveloped areas to highlight their exposure and was used as a tool for planning post-seismic reconstruction. We advise that such maps are used also as basic tool for ordinary urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting on 24th August 2016, Central Italy was struck by a six-month earthquake sequence that caused 303 victims and extensive major damages to urban areas and infrastructures, in some cases entire villages needed complete rebuilding. In this paper we present a map that portrays the overall susceptibility to multiple landslide types and the exposure to landslides of the rural-urban areas of the Castelsantangelo sul Nera Municipality, a typical village of the central Italian Apennine. The map is based on a procedure that ingests geomorphological data and models and groups the individual landslide susceptibility maps in a joint susceptibility and exposure map based on expert-defined criteria. The procedure has been applied to built-up and to undeveloped areas to highlight their exposure and was used as a tool for planning post-seismic reconstruction. We advise that such maps are used also as basic tool for ordinary urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a geomorphological map of the Entella River floodplain (scale 1:10,000), one of the largest and urbanized Ligurian Tyrrhenian flat area. The coastal floodplain suffered substantial modifications due to human activities since the latter half of the nineteenth century, which transformed the natural landscape into an anthropogenic environment. Fluvial, marine and anthropogenic geomorphological features have been investigated through a multi-temporal analysis and the reviewing, re-elaboration and summarization of previous geographical and geomorphological materials. An historical analysis has been performed to reconstruct morphological modifications and their correlation with anthropogenic interventions. The main geomorphological map includes a multi-temporal analysis of shoreline and major anthropogenic landforms. Small sketch maps on the geographical, geological and land use settings are also provided. The detailed geomorphological map can be used for urban and land planning, including the mitigation of the meteo- and geo-hydrological risk, which historically has dramatically influenced the Entella coastal floodplain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of a geomorphological study carried out in the urban area of Palermo are summarized in a thematic map. Field survey, analysis of aerial photographs and topographic maps, consultation of historical documents and maps, stratigraphic and topographic reconstruction from numerous wells and subsoil data, and bibliographic search were performed, in order to display the geomorphological changes produced by man over time in a densely populated area and to define the Anthropocene of the study area. Palermo town rises along large marine terrace surfaces cut by small river valleys and bordered by wide degraded and abandoned coastal cliffs. Over the last 2700 years, this area was affected by remarkable man-made changes to topographic surface and underground, exposing large areas of the city to hydraulic, sinkhole, and landslide risks, and increasing the levels of seismic susceptibility. In light of these results, the produced map is useful for urban planning studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of a long-lasting geomorphological survey carried out in Rome are summarized. A method aimed at integrating survey data, historical maps, aerial photographs and archaeological and geomorphological literature produced a geomorphological map of the present-day historical centre. The geomorphology of Rome is related to the paleogeographical conditions prior to the founding of the City; they allow us to recognize the stages of landscape evolution of the ancientCaput Mundi(Capital of the World). The study area has been affected by continuous man-made changes to the drainage network and to the topographic surface over the last 3000 years. It has forced the authors to develop innovative solutions to undertake effective analysis of the urban environment and the legend of the geomorphological map in this peculiar context. The resulting map is useful for urban planning and archaeological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a project undertaken in Rome in the 1930s by the Fascist government that involved cutting a grand approach to Saint Peter's basilica through the ancient Roman neighborhood called the Borgo. The resulting street has been widely criticized for its design and the damage done to the old city. The author notes that clearance of the Borgo had been a stated aim of the papacy for 500 years. The article examines other plans that have been considered for approaches through the Borgo to Bernini's piazza in front of the church.

The article focuses on the social participation in urban planning in Faenza, located in the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. Faenza is a small city with some 54,000 inhabitants and a notable historical tradition. After World War II, in Faenza as in many Italian cities the inhabitants of the oldest section, the historical center, who earned avenge or high incomes and wanted new housing left for the expanding suburbs. The situation of Italian historical centers recalls that of the oldest parts of American cities, the so-called core or downtown areas of inner cities. The starting point of the experience to be described in Faenza, while making plans for urban development, was the scope of the mandate that the municipal administration gave for a plan to revitalize the historical center. The planners were to take into account not only problems of the buildings such as various palaces of historical value that were empty, some near collapse, but also social decadence. What exactly the municipal administration meant by the goal of revitalization of the historical center was not made clear in the commission nor in subsequent discussions.