Learning from the Past: the Water’s Heritage. Landscape Patterns around Parma

Landscape bears the layering of settlement’s thousand years long history. Canals around the city of Parma show patterns that express the survey tools and the relationship between the city and the territory. There isn’t many documents about the works carried out by the Romans as well as the Middle Age. The landscape itself testifies its far past in architecture and in the design of water management, which witnesses a carefully controlled execution of hydraulic works. Different patterns represent three historical phases, according with the survey’s concept and water management design. Canals show the reason behind patterns that identify the main phases of landscape transformation. Landscape geometry tells the history of settlement in the concept of human transformations. The layering of historical maps and landscape built signs is the basic instruments of territory knowledge and transformation. A sustainable landscape management follows the development of the environmental legacy.