Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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Fig. 2: Ponte di Piave 2025 (A), water system (B), guiding model for industrial settlements (C).
Conceptual shift
A shift in water management paradigm is emerging into
regional policy and professional practice. Nevertheless
it will take time before it will become a main stream
concept.
In the frame of the research Ponte di Piave and Ronco
all’Adige are considered ecosystems that can regulate
flows by input and out put and also by resistance and
retention. They can hold, buffer and store water before
draining it. For example they can store a surplus of water,
and use it to prevent shortage. Store is the condition for
recycling. From this perspective closing the cycle is a
strategy.
Large flows are more difficult to manage than small
ones (Marsh 2005: 162). Ponte di Piave and Ronco
all’Adige areas exhibit a series of ecosystems at different
levels, from the fine scale (e.g. house) to the broad
configurations (e.g. settlement). There are good reasons
to use potentials at all levels. A chain of promising combinations
can be explored from the bottom-up and from
upstream to downstream. The strategy, in this perspective
is cascade: keep water longer and keep water clean.
Both closing the cycle and cascade guide the areas
toward been less dependent and less vulnerable (Tjallingii
2009).
More space for water is the key factor. In Ponte di Piave
and Ronco all’Adige and areas with similar features,
the fine structure of open spaces (porosity) which is
visible at different scales and the close relation in space
among users and water sources (proximity), can be seen
and understood as conditions for exploring scenarios and
prototypes. Peaks related to paved surfaces become opportunities
because they provide an extra amount of water
and depressions become opportunities for improving
storage capacity and quality. The issue on which are the
appropriate water system spatial configurations to make
the best use possible of the spatial and socio-economical
context in the area remains open for debate.
Scenarios
The scenario construction enables us to make visible and
to evaluate hypothesis on multifunctional water systems
at different levels. The conditions that have leaded to the
spatial transformations of the areas in recent decades
have changed. The scenarios presented assume that the
economic crisis affects both manufacture and agriculture.
It will result in inertia to radical changes in the density
and up scaling of agricultural parcels, industrial buildings
and dwellings. Water problems will increase. Strategies
of different types of integrated water systems are explored
to cope with storm water peaks and uses.
What if in Ponte di Piave area water is stored and
buffered in a system combining fine harvesting devices
across different scales? [Fig. 2] The system makes use
of existing field-ditches, settlement-ditches, road-ditches.
Former ditches are re-opened or new ones are dug, and
ponds are integrated. Storm water is buffered as much
as feasible in the system before it is drained out downstream.
During the year tanks back up water from roofs.
Settlement-ditches and ponds also harvest water overflow
from tanks and run off. From April to June field-dit-
Fig. 3: Ronco all’Adige 2025 (A), water system (B), guiding model for clay pit systems (C).