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Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the “Seriana” and “Brembana” valleys territories were affected by the construction of two railway lines which ensured a strong interaction with Bergamo and supported the economic and social development of the city. After decades of intense activity, these mobility services have been interrupted and the railway structures abandoned, producing two extensive “linear voids” in the territory and in the local economic system. A different role for this abandoned infrastructure emerged in the 1980s after the increase in private mobility and the rise of new institutional debate about alternative transport models. This contribution aims at presenting the case of the Bergamo Valleys Railways and will deal with both the reuse of a particular category of unused spaces and with the international debate from which the concept of greenway emerged as a possible approach for the enhancement of the disused railways. The case is significant both for its aptitude to show a strong synergy between mobility systems and territories, and in witnessing an approach to the “recycle” of disused railways typical for the Italian context., UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, Vol 4 No 2 (2019): Black

This paper analyses the planning implementation conducted by the Lombardy Region, in two different inter-municipal realities, as a useful example in a local context: the Area Regional Territorial Plan Alpine Valleys and the Area Regional Territorial Plan of the Franciacorta geographical area. These two complex experiences suggest positive conditions for the implementation of policies of Urban-Rural/Mountain partnerships to reach common goals and enhance urban-rural relationships, and complex institutional/administrative frameworks for activating multi-level governance processes.

The presence of underused spaces within urban areas, associated with the need to promote the transformation of such situations to respond to the different needs of communities, has led to the emergence of numerous experiences of depaving. These initiatives, promoted by institutions and groups of citizens, have acted with the aim of: countering the physical degradation of areas located in residential contexts; responding to the needs of communities for a new endowment of collective spaces and protection of places; promoting the principles of sustainability through the creation and management of renaturalized spaces; restoring the permeability of soils to contain the phenomena of flooding of urban areas by applying the principles of sustainable urban drainage. The contribution, after a brief approach to some key issues, will deal with international cases recognizing some conditions that have characterized these experiences. In particular, it is interesting to highlight their ability to translate de-sealing into concrete action, compared to some results consciously sought by the promoters., Altre Modernità, 2019: NUMERO SPECIALE: Scrivere la terra, abitare l’utopia tra comunità e migranza