Landscape Laboratory

The Laboratory aims to provide the knowledge to deal with territorial analysis and planning from a technical and economic point of view. To achieve this goal, the Laboratory is composed by three teaching units:
BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPE, which aims to provide basic notions of plant ecology, describe (and explain the causes of) the distribution, both current and in the past, of individual species and plant communities on Earth, provide the scientific instruments suitable for studying plant communities, for the appropriate interpretation, management and planning of the landscape.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND LANDSCAPE RIVER RESTORATION, aimed at providing the knowledge to deal with issues related to environmental restoration of natural or artificial water courses in rural areas, with particular attention to geomorphology, hydrology, hydraulics and fluvial ecology. A further objective is to transfer design criteria related to the main typologies of river restoration interventions.
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION, aimed at: giving skills to students to understand the planning context in which a project is developed, defining and implementing the available tools to begin a requalification project of an area; detecting and analyzing costs and benefits related to a project at territorial and at farm scale.

The student will acquire skills on methods and techniques for territorial analysis, with particular reference to water courses, such as field survey methods, data analysis and representation, design of restoration interventions. These tools will constitute the basis for projecting a restoration intervention to address existing issues of a real case study, combining technical and economic evaluation aspects. In more detail, the skills that will be acquired in the three teaching units are the following:
BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPE: the student will acquire knowledge of plant ecology and applied geobotany, landscape ecology and environmental design, in order to conduct territorial analyzes, environmental quality assessments and formulate guidelines for environmental design, restoration and recovery.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND LANDSCAPE RIVER RESTORATION: the student will acquire skills to interpret the functioning mechanisms of water courses from a fluviomorphological and hydraulic/hydrological point of view (also using statistical and calculation methods). He will be able to implement hydrological and environmental quality assessments, also using statistical methods and mathematical models. He will be able to plan and design river restoration interventions, supported by calculation tools, and GIS and CAD software.
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION: the student will acquire i) the skills to produce a master plan of project in environmental field and ii) the competences to apply the economic and financial techniques evaluation at territorial scale and farm scale. The student will also be able to understand the administrative procedures and economic support tools linked to agricultural and environmental policies.