Alpine Industrial Landscapes Transformation - Project Handbook

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heritage sites 3 . Large-scale inner developments in major urban
centres, where the pressure for land recycling is higher, also
tend to be successful.
The Alps as laboratory
Located at the heart of Europe, at the crossroad of strong
economic regions and dynamic metropolises, the Alps were
pushed through a modernization process far earlier than other
mountain ranges. This caused the emergence of the different
forms and cycles of industrial development, leading the Alps
to be one of the few existing mountain regions in the world
characterized by a mature industrialization today 4 . In the
current transition phase, the once historically relevant labourand
energy-intensive industry is experiencing a significant
decline, while advanced tertiary activities are only developing
in major urban centres and hub regions. This negative trend is
clearly reflected in the shift in secondary sector employment
from 50% to 36% between 1975 and 2000, and even further
down to 18% by 2016, registered across the Alpine region 5 .
Compared to the national averages of Alpine countries, these
numbers show that in the Alps a slightly delayed but equally
relevant deindustrialization process is occurring. Recent
research 6 has identified 289 industrial sites in declining
sectors, for example ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, the
building materials, textile, chemical and paper industries, of
which 142 have already closed or downsized – that is, actual
and potential brownfield sites.
Given this scenario, it is reasonable to expect that in many
Alpine areas the already significant amount of disused or
underused industrial sites will tend to increase in the near
future. Although not yet officially recognized at the regional
planning and policy levels nor by the scientific community, the
management of brownfield sites is becoming a crucial issue
in the sustainable development of the Alpine region. Besides
posing key challenges, the redevelopment of mountain
brownfield sites provides several opportunities, in particular
concerning:
• environmental regeneration: soil de-contamination
from potentially hazardous waste, with expected
positive effects beyond the site itself, e.g. in
connection to rivers and groundwater, prevention of
natural disasters, e.g. flood prevention and landslide
protection, ecological compensation, e.g. soil
de-sealing and improvement of disrupted ecological
corridors;
• economic development: sustainable
re-industrialization, e.g. making or reactivating space
for small-scale business activities in green economy
sectors linked to local nature-based production
chains, innovation and research activities and
business support centres and multi-seasonal tourism,
e.g. in connection with cultural heritage valorization,
artistic events, etc.;
• socio-cultural development: prevention of rural
depopulation and social desertification, improvement
and maintenance of local public services, protection
of cultural identities.
The Alps are a relevant case study area not only because of
their key position in the middle of Europe and their crucial
importance to all six Alpine countries and their neighbours.
This central European mountain region is, in fact, a unique
socio-cultural complex integrated into a dynamic natural
setting that is currently undergoing dramatic transformation
under the influence of global climate change 7 . Many of
the brownfield sites are located at strategic key positions
in the region with regard to the future development of
sustainable living environments on a local and regional scale.
By carefully combining the solutions to the above mentioned
three major challenges at different administrative levels, the