Milano metropoli rurale. Un progetto di valorizzazione delle acque per la neo-ruralizzazione del sistema territoriale milanese

Abstract

The portion of the Po Valley we usually define as the Milan metropolitan region is a multi-millennial place of human settlements due to the extraordinary abundance of water, and seat of hydraulic civilisations that represent tangible and intangible heritage among the most significant at a global level. The partial abandonment of agricultural practices, which in the past century has led to a deterioration related to the decay of the continuous monitoring and maintenance of the entire settlement system, currently shows signs of a turnaround: the increasing consolidation of the Milan agricultural districts may certainly be read as an indicator of the persistence of a value attribution to the genuine agricultural tradition of Milan, and brings again in the foreground exactly the need for a new design of its extraordinary water system. It forms the strategic matrix underpinning the process of neo-ruralisation of the Milan territories in which Local authorities and businesses are already engaged. The project “Milan rural metropolis”, pivoting on the districts in agriculture, represents a highly innovative model: the district businesses of Milan, appropriately cooperating with Public governments and, more generally, with the settled community, intend to develop a shared strategy for the development of an agriculture able, above all, to transform the abundance of well-governed water in good quality food.