Project started 8/99

Budget 30 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 53

Partner responsible: Lombardy Region

Studies and expert appraisals to establish architectural and landscape guidelines along the canals, unique heritage of Lombardy Region. The handbook, suggesting environmental works along the canals and provision of facilities for visitors, will be based on cartography of the features of interest present in the territory concerned. The aim is to define a framework for maintenance and enhancement of the key features and locations identified, taken case by case and as a complex organic landscape system, closely related to the presence of the canal.

The Martesana Canal at Cassana

Project started 8/99

Budget 84 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 54

Responsible partner: Lombardy Region

The Adda/Paderno/Martesana system has an exceptionally rich history. Its value is reflected by the extensive archives, the density of historic architectural features and by the diversity of functions of the waterways (transport, irrigation, energy...). In order to develop this heritage as an open museographic space, the project involves drawing up a handbook identifying the various historic features and the ways these interrelate with the area the canals pass through. The methods of systematic recognition developed in this context should be transferable.

Project started 8/99

Budget 30 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 55

Partner responsible: Lombardy Region

In the context of the programme of development of the Adda/Martanesa system proposed by Lombardy Region, organisation of a campaign of photography by photographers of international reputation, for various publications and exhibitions. The corresponding descriptive handbook is drawn up by landscape experts in Lombardy Region's planning and landscape information department.

Restored mill wheel on the Martesana Canal at Groppello

Project started 12/99

Budget 15 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 60

Responsible partner: Lombardy Region

Campaign to raise awareness of local actors in co-operation with the local councils. Preparation and production of a guide for the discovery of the tourist itineraries putting the accent on the environmental and historic value of the canals.

Extract from a map in the guide to heritage circuits centred on the Martesana Canal

Project started

Budget 45 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 66

Responsible partner: Lombardy Region

Study of the potential for development of a tourist economy in the territory of the Adda valley (with its canals), based on enhancement and interpretation of the cultural heritage. The aim is to evaluate the historical resources and to examine the means of using them as a factor of viable and sustainable local development.

Project started

Budget project 24 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 68

Partner responsible: Lombardy Region

Prefeasibility study of a local development project based on "revitalisation" of the Paderno and Martesana canals, in relation to their territory. The study aims at determining :

• features of the territorial system and their typology, in terms of their capacity to attract visitors and to serve for dissemination of information,,
• the obstacles or barriers created by urban development and the infrastructure which effectively breaks the continuity of the system,
• the weak points, i.e. sites that have been particularly deteriorated, in both landscape and environmental terms.

This project is based on a preliminary programme of work consisting in characterising the principal elements of the system, the "nodes" , the strong points, the breaks in continuity, the weaknesses, before defining the standard solutions to be considered.

Project started : 8/99

Budget project 6396 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 69

Responsible partner: Lombardy Region

Research and development project for the environment. Experimentation of new methods of consolidation of the banks by "natural" (environmentally sensitive) restoration of the banks of the "navigli" (Paderno and Martesana). The project, linked with the "clean canals" experimentation of Midi-Pyrenees, will essentially involve :

• an analysis of the problems encountered: phenomena of bank instability, excessive use of concrete for the consolidation of the banks and towpaths, poor vegetation, etc...
• identification of possible interventions, in order to enhance the canals as "ecological corridors" interconnecting sites of high environmental value.

In a subsequent phase, this research project will allow the development of a "standard" designs to be incorporated in the instruments of regional and provincial planning, opening up possibilities of financing of specific interventions under a large-scale project.

Bridge over the Martesana Canal at Trezzo sull'Adda

Project started 6/99

Budget 50 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 65

Partner responsible: Lombardy Region

Seminar in Milan on Thursday October 28, 1999, bringing together the technicians and members of the VEV network on the subject of regional planning from the point of view of the landscape and the enhancement of the historical heritage.

• Presentation, within this context, of the system of historic canals of Lombardy,
• Protection and enhancement of the historic landscapes : the case of the Martesana Canal,
• Exchanges between the partners on their comparable experiments and the difficulties encountered,
• Visits to the canals and studies of the comparative states between the technicians : identification of common points and differences and/or complementary aspects, attempting to build up a development model of use to all the partners.

Project started 6/99

Budget 20 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 64

Partner responsible : Lombardy Region VEV

Committees in Milan, Friday 29 October 1999, associated with the thematic seminar on landscape treatment and enhancement of the historical heritage (see previous "fiche").

Leonardo da Vinci

Project started 6/00

Budget 24 500 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 79

Partner responsible: Lombardy Region

This project aims at selecting and collecting information on the existence of archive documents and data bases proving interesting for the study of the canal network, in order to make up a directory of the existing documents and to provide the basis of an information-based network grouping results of the different studies carried out.

Project started 6/00

Budget 50 000 euros

Reference - "fiche" action 80

Partner responsible : Lombardy Region

One of the main objectives of the European policies of support to the projects of the Terra program is the communication of the results in order to guarantee a maximum diffusion of the working methodologies transferable to different territories, due to a similarity of approaches and for the construction of a common European culture.