From a Smart City to a Smart Up-Country. The New City-Territory of L’Aquila

Donato Di Ludovico; Pierluigi Properzi; Fabio Graziosi

doi:10.6092/1970-9870/2482

Donato Di Ludovico DICEAA – University of L’Aquila
Pierluigi Properzi DICEAA – University of L’Aquila
Fabio Graziosi DISIM – University of L’Aquila

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/2482

Keywords: City-territory, Connectivity, Smart Up-Country, Smart Cities, Territory Project

Abstract

Ever since it was founded in the Middle Ages, the city of L’Aquila has been known as a City-territory. This was because it was established through an original unification process involving approximately 70 minor centres, which transferred a number of their inhabitants into the new City, in an act that we today would call Territorial Cohesion, thereby forming a city that was inextricably linked to its territory. While it is now undergoing radical transformation with dedicated resources, it is within this context that the issue of Smart Cities has emerged, which has, however, focused its work solely on established urban systems and historic centres. By reflecting on L’Aquila’s role as a City-territory, which falls within the disadvantaged inland areas, and by preparing the Project in the Junction 2 - Abruzzo Territories of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the Abruzzo Region, we are able to extend the objectives of the Smart-City to the L’Aquila City-territory and in particular to the Seismic Crater, a pertinent example of an “inland area” (or rather “Up-Country”) that today has been increasingly deprived of its identified resources. With a view to the development of inland areas based on the “smart” concept and involving planned integration between the Macro-region, the Territory Project and the Urban Planning Project, this paper supports the need for immediate intervention in the L’Aquila City-territory, and more broadly speaking for the entire territorial settlement system that is a feature of inland areas in Abruzzo. Nowadays, it is not possible to prepare a development project for inland areas without providing them with suitable access to connectivity and other more general networks.

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Author Biographies

Donato Di Ludovico, DICEAA – University of L’Aquila

Graduated in 1999 in Civil Engineering at the University of L’Aquila. In 2004 he obtained the Ph.D. degree in Urban Planning from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Faculty of Engineering at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome. He has conducted a research fellowship and worked as a lecturer in Urban Planning Laboratories, while also working as an adjunct professor in Urban planning on the Civil Engineering and Architecture Degree Course at the University of L’Aquila. Currently works as a researcher in Urban and regional planning at the Department of Civil, Building-Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of L’Aquila. He conducts research on environmental, landscape, territorial and strategic Planning and Programming, with a particular emphasis on Inland areas, Territory and Landscape Projects, and Macro-regions, within the area of environmental assessment and on the specific subject of the integration of Assessments and Plans. Furthermore, his research focuses on the construction and management of Knowledge-based Systems for planning, including through GIS techniques. He is currently the Secretary of the National Urban Planning Institute (INU) –Department of Abruzzo and Molise, as well as the Managing Director of INU Publishing and the Director of the Urban Planning Laboratory for the Reconstruction of L’Aquila (LAURAq) of INU and ANCSA.

Pierluigi Properzi, DICEAA – University of L’Aquila

Has been a full professor of Urban Planning. He currently works as an adjunct professor in Urban planning in the Civil Engineering and Architecture course at the University of L’Aquila. His research work is focused on two interacting plans: one on environmental sustainability and the Countryside-Territory, in reference to the creation of shared Region Profiles, and the other on the interaction between Plan/Programme in reference to the creation of complex territorial projects through new concerted actions and new non-institutional dimensions. His research interests address the Vast Area dimension, both in the QUATER project and in the PLANECO Group project (MURST 40%) and more recently in PRIN SPHERA. His coordination in the definition of new regional legislative Articles has allowed checks of the intersections between the development and sustainability processes in the territory’s governance system. The funding received from the CNR, MPI-MURST and MIUR, for projects under a 60% share and for projects of national interest, has helped to achieve the results which are documented in specific publications or in research reports by Ministries and/or National Organisations, which are referred to in the list of publications. He is President of the National Urban Planning Institute –Department of Abruzzo and Molise – and the national coordinator for INU research.

Fabio Graziosi, DISIM – University of L’Aquila

Was born in L’Aquila, Italy, in 1968. He received the Laurea degree (cum laude) and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Since February 1997, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of L’Aquila, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He is a member of the Executive Committee, Center of Excellence Design methodologies for Embedded controllers, Wireless interconnect and System–on–chip (DEWS), University of L’Aquila, and the Executive Committee, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT).He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WEST Aquila s.r.l., a spin–off R&D company of the University of L’Aquila and the Center of Excellence DEWS. He is involved in major national and European research programs in the field of wireless systems and he has been a reviewer for major technical journals and international conferences in communications. He also serves as Technical Program Committee (TPC) member and Session Chairman of several international conferences in communications. He is a member of IEEE and has authored over 150 papers in technical journals and conference proceedings. He has supervised 6 Ph.D. students and 4 Post-Doc researchers. His current research interests are mainly focused on wireless communication systems with emphasis on wireless sensor networks, ultra wide band communication techniques, cognitive radio and cooperative communications.

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