Nature and Heritage. Approaches to transform urbanised water landscapes

Each design project on the water landscape requires the acquisition of a specific behaviour towards nature: clarifying the requirements of the observed attitudes is fundamental to considering which value system should be shared in the ecological conversion of the urbanised environment. Among the most used approaches, the contrast between an anthropocentric and ecocentric debate shows the existence of a crippling dichotomy between nature and culture, that some environment-oriented approaches try to mend and overcome. In the experiments aimed at this objective, heritage has a crucial role in the territory project, even with the wide range of interpretations and practices, as it emerges from the analysis of three case studies: the new paradigms originated in the Netherlands in river and heritage management, the experience of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia catalogues, and the Territorialist School’s concept of territorial heritage.