Territorialization in the Region of Romagna, Italy

In large measure, territorialization is an old and venerable process by which land is settled, converted to productive use, preserved and conserved in some cases, and a geography is made. It almost goes without saying, for instance, that urbanization takes place in a broader territory. Terms and phrases like “urban region” or “urban areas and their hinterlands” certainly imply a broader terrain than the cities and towns involved and signal ideas of economic and other interaction, as well as building, across an area more extensive than the cities and towns themselves. Also, recognizable gradients, from central and inner urban zones to peripheries and per-peripheries, turn the idea of a territory inward by suggesting ways in which its urban landscape can be spatially qualified.

Conversely, territories are also often the sites of non-urban production, of agriculture, forestry, coastal activity and natural preservation, inscribing different patterns of use across a landscape and placing other demands on land and its margins. Moreover, the concept of a territory is rarely fixed, changing in both predictable and unpredictable ways, as the scheme of urban and non-urban use, influencing its character, matures under the auspices of different technological, political and other circumstantial regimes. Nevertheless, in spite of these vagaries and intellectually compartmentalized depictions, the territory itself is of significance as both a registry and component in urban and non-urban development processes and, ultimately, because of how it must be considered and made.

An essential aim of the study is to develop a comprehensive and temporally longitudinal understanding of the cultural process, or processes, by which the territory in Romagna, Italy, has been and continues to be made, shaped and produced. It does not aim to yield planning proposals, specific designs, nor political blueprints. Rather, it attempts to contribute to an academic understanding of territorialization as an important contemporary phenomenon and explore various scenarios of possible spatial reconsideration and development, under varying assumptions, in a manner that allows them to qualify most closely with practices that might be inferred to as belonging to the culture production of territorial space.

The study is conducted at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, under the direction of Professor Peter G. Rowe, in collaboration with the University of Bologna’s School of Architecture in Cesena, under the direction of Professor Gianni Braghieri, with support from a grant from the Regional Government of Emilia-Romagna and the Province of Forlì-Cesena.

Gianni Braghieri, University of Bologna School of Architecture

Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Sponsored by the Regional Government of Emilia-Romagna, and the Province of Forlì-Cesena

Healthy Environments

How the built environment affects physical activity and how changes in the environment can promote active living are issues that have captured public attention. There are many other links between health and the built environment, however, from air quality and noise to the accessibility of food and nearby nature. The healthy environments project has examined some of these multiple connections between health and place.

One aspect of this work is practical—translating research from the health fields into guidelines for practice. This is exemplified in the work of the Health and Places Initiative at Harvard, and the earlier Design for Health, programs that help create and synthesize the evidence base linking landscape, urban design, planning, and health. In doing this practical work I have developed a number of tools for linking health and place including a suite of health impact assessments.

Other research has looked in more depth aspects of healthy environments with more technical projects examining physical activity and food access (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Institutes of Health including the Twin Cities Walking Study, TREC-IDEA, ECHO,  EAT projects).

2004-present

Selected Publications

2017     Forthcoming. A. Forsyth, E. Salomon, and L. Smead. Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Evidence-based Planning and Design Strategies. Chicago: APA Planners Press.
2017 A. Forsyth. Evidence-based Practice: Challenges in a Changing World. In T. Beatley, C. Jones, and R. Rainey eds, Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces: Current Practices and Future Directions in Health, City Planning, and Design. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
2016     A. Forsyth. When Public Health and Planning Closely Intersected: Five Moments; Five Strategies, plus several large photos. In D. Mah and L. Ascencio Villoria eds. Life-Styled:  Health and Places. Berlin: Jovis.
2015     A. Forsyth, M. Wall, T. Choo, N. Larson, D. Van Riper, D. Neumark-Sztainer. Perceived and Police-Reported Neighborhood Crime: Linkages to Adolescent Activity Behaviors and Weight Status . Journal of Adolescent Health 57, 2: 222-228.
2015     A. Forsyth. Holistic Planning . Harvard Design Magazine. 40: 7.
2014  J.M. Berge., M. Wall., N. Larson, A Forsyth, K. W. Bauer, D. Neumark-Sztainer. Youth Dietary Intake and Weight Status : Healthful Neighborhood Food Environments Enhance the Protective role of Supportive Family Home Environments. Health and Place 26: 69-77
2014     Health and Places Initiative (Principal Investigator).
A. Forsyth, ed. Health Assessment  series (Contributors A. Forsyth, L. Smead, E. Salomon, and others).
A. Forsyth and L. Smead, eds. Research Brief  series. (Contributors L:Smead and others).
2012     A. Forsyth, D. Van Riper, N. Larson, M. Wall, D. Neumark-Sztainer. Creating a Replicable, Cross-Platform Buffering Technique: The Sausage Network Buffer for Measuring Food and Physical Activity Built Environments. International Journal of Health Geographics. 11:14. http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/11/1/14.
2010    K. Krizek, A. Forsyth, and C. Shively Slotterback. Is There a Role for Evidence-Based Practice in Urban Planning and Policy? Journal of Planning Theory and Practice 10, 4: 455–474.
2010    A. Forsyth, C. Schively Slotterback, and K. Krizek. Health Impact Assessments in Planning: Development and Testing of the Design for Health HIA Tools. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 30: 42-51.
2010    A. Forsyth, C. Schively Slotterback, and K. Krizek. Health Impact Assessment for Planners: What Tools are Useful? Journal of Planning Literature. 24, 3: 231-245.
2009    R. Brownson, C.Hoehner, K. Day, A. Forsyth, J. Sallis. Measuring the Built Environment for Physical Activity: State of the Art. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 36, 4s: s99-s123.

Collaborators

Numerous collaborators from the University ofMinnesota, University of Colorado, and elsewhere.

Design for Health