The spatial footprint of energy infrastructures requires a re-evaluation of design and planning processes, especially in relation to the sustainable development goals enshrined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. This study investigates the Ravenna area (Italy)’s transition potential towards renewable energy sources, considering their spatial interaction with the landscape and the environment. The primary objective is to identify the opportunities and limitations associated with each type of renewable energy production and provide indications for the strategic actions needed to achieve total emissions reduction by 2050. The methodology applied involves several steps to compare both the efficiency and the spatial arrangements of alternative mono-energy scenarios over time. In order to manage the uncertainty inherent in technological development and the variability of territorial policies, the study puts forward the hypothesis of a mixed strategy capable of structuring the energy transition on the specificities of the local landscape palimpsest by identifying location criteria and related impacts. The research demonstrates how site-specific assessments are important to inform resilient strategic choices, and provide decision-makers and stakeholders with data and spatialized representations of future scenarios to discuss and share.

<p>At the end of their activity, quarries require environmental recovery in order to ensure a new balance between the quarry site and its physical and ecological context. Moreover, the activities of the ornamental rock extraction produce a large amount of extraction waste which profoundly modify the site's topography in an increasing way as the accumulations are formed progressively during the quarrying process. These wastes can be either recycled as secondary raw materials (e.g., in the context of the ceramic industry) or reused within the quarry site to mould a new topography and a new landscape as a result. Earth sciences and landscape architecture should constitute the disciplinary basis on which to develop the recovery project associated with the supply of secondary raw materials and the environmental improvement of the quarry site. This contribution discusses the case study of the Buddusò granite quarry (northern Sardinia, Italy), where a design methodology based on topology alteration of the site was applied. Through 3D survey and parametric design, it is possible to calculate the waste volumes within the excavation site and estimate how much and in what way the waste material can be recycled and reused. The first phase of the process consists of taking orthophotographic images by drone with subsequent georeferencing through G.P.S. points acquisition. After processing the acquired data, the topography of quarry volumes is recreated in an explorable 3D model. The last phase concerns the design management of the site topology through the application of parametric design tools. The objective is to create an adaptive project based on parameters such as: the balance between excavation and fill volumes; the recycling potential of waste material; the dynamics of water runoff; the ecological and ecosystem site potential; the site accessibility. The presented design methodology can be carried out either in the pre-quarry phase and/or during the quarry's operation, which allows an a priori assessment of what the future landscape will look like as a consequence of quarrying activities and subsequent site recovery. In practical terms, the presented methodology become a preliminary tool for the assessment of landscape evolution scenarios and ensures that the extraction cycle can be completely closed by reintegrating waste volumes into the recovery process. </p>

In the still dominant perception of a hierarchical order of nature, humans are disturbing ecosystems factors. We should move away from the one-dimensional dichotomy between natural and human interaction towards a more effective representation without nostalgia. The contact between human and natural habitats is close to the idea of maintaining and conserving a certain state of equilibrium, instead of letting natural habitats evolve into new ecosystems. In other words, energy management and the capacity of a system to self-organize (autopoiesis) defnes the difference between human and natural habitats. Where this capacity is not limited, a natural habitat is present. Contemporary landscapes (tourist coasts, reclaimed land, etc.) demonstrate this thesis by highlighting how human intervention is an indispensable factor in their maintenance. It is necessary to provide precise and sophisticated tools capable of synthesizing agents and forces within territorial transformations starting from a global understanding of natural processes. Ecological dynamics must be transformed into project parameters involved within design process. Here a further degree of integration is suggested above the level of simple natural ecosystems, where human is assumed as a key factor in landscape transformation and geography construction. Considering other paradigms that interfere with the same epistemological area, the contribution questions the theoretical and practical implications of rethinking the interaction between natural and artifcial ecosystems within the framework of landscape resilience. This perspective allows a territorial update by increasing the level of compatibility between the evolution of human habitat and the maintenance of natural regeneration times. This articulation, however, requires a reconsideration of landscape aesthetics beyond the beautiful and the consolatory, as well as a fundamental shift in landscape thinking from representation to action.