The Province is an intermediate public administrative entity between municipality and region. A consequence of its position as an intermediate level is that of the mediator of the initiatives that arise from the different municipalities, in two ways: through the design of planning tools and through the promotion of local projects of development.
The Province of Genoa has recently set up a tool of general territorial planning, the Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale or PTCp (Provinces Plan), based on the coordination between the administration of the territory at local level and the perspective of regional and European development. It is a document of rules in matter of land, environment, infrastructure and services, settlement system, environment and landscape, and social and economical matters.
In this plan, constructed through an ample coordination of decision-making processes, the different demands that originate from individual municipalities are coordinated with an integrated and unitary viewpoint.
The PTCp faces several themes of particular complexity through special projects focussed on punctual objectives on the basis of an assessment on their sustainability. One of them regards the Scrivia Valley with the aim to implement a polycentric urban system and to balance the territorial gap derived from the strong polarity of Genoa urban centre through the reorganization of the bottom of the valley-floors, along the Scrivia river watercourse, that represents the physical catalyser of the project. The process designed by the PTCp consists in an organic scheme to evolve the disorganised centres of the valley toward the creation of a third pole in the Provincia di Genoa territory, besides Genoa and the coastal area.
The specific actions selected to achieve this scope are represented into three sub-projects:
- Reorganization of the mobility system in the central area.
- Reuse of brown areas located along the Scrivia river watercourse in order to give to the local communities new opportunities of economic development in an environmental sustainability viewpoint.
- Improvement of sports and culture settlements trough the creation of a net of multi-sports structures (such as pedestrian and bicycle lanes, archaeological parks, fishing centre, etc) in order to exploit the rural, environmental and tourist resources and increase the services for local communities.
Inside the territory of Provincia di Genova a great effort has been accomplished since 1992 up to now in the implementation of renewal programs in the city of Genoa. The total amount of investments has been about 61,4 millions of Euro, which have been spent for some major events, like Columbus celebrations, G8 meeting, and Genoa European Capital of Culture. Thus a great regeneration of the City has been achieved but, on the other hand, the gap with the surrounding area has grown, in a special way in the inner valleys, where the deprivation problems arent yet solved. For this reason, Provincia di Genova Administration is carrying out a relevant policy for the improving of these areas, and has committed itself in the implementation of the special project in the Scrivia Valley.
by Andrea Pasetti & Anna Celenza, Land planning Office, Provincia di Genova
