Enhance the landscape through ecomuseum networks

Ten years on from the signing of the European Landscape Convention in Florence, the topic of the environmental quality of daily life is recognized as a precondition for development and is present on the agendas at all levels of government, from the sphere of planning in Europe right down to the desks at local government level. The broadening of the concept of "landscape" to include the territory in its entirety on which the relationship between man and nature is developed has brought innovation to how the project is carried out. Traditional urban planning has, over time, given way to an approach which calls for performance requirements which force the built-up environment to respond to community requirements with logic and where culture holds an unassailable position of importance – a scenario which demands new forms and structures of transformation management through the introduction of elements of complexity; not tied by administrative boundaries but instead by large areas of reference in continuous evolution; well-developed networks between people and the resources of the territory, participatory systems of governance, and public-private partnerships. To the growing question of quality, efficiency and stability in social and economic development, which arrives from the global market, the answer, which can be read in the articles of the European Landscape Convention, lies in acting on strategy and development for local systems, aiming towards sustainable interventions, the active participation of citizens in the decision making process and the recognition and strengthening of local identities.