LINKING ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY TO GEOHERITAGE: A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO UNRAVEL AND PROMOTE PAST FLUVIAL LANDSCAPES

Landscapes are geographic areas perceived by people whose characteristics are the result of the interaction between natural factors and human activities. This definition has been established during the European Landscape Convention (Florence, Italy - October 20th, 2000) when the member States of the Council of Europe debated and proposed guidelines to achieve sustainable landscape development based on a balanced and harmonious relationship between social needs, economic activity and the environment. The landscape has an important public interest role in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and constitutes a resource favourable to economic activity. Multi-temporal analysis of landscapes enables the understanding of how geomorphic constraints conditioned the human settlements in the past and how land-use altered the environment natural development. Moreover, the diachronic approach to landscape research helps in evaluating the grade of sustainability of past societies systems and their impact on natural resources throughout the Anthropocene. This Ph.D. project aims to understand past landscape evolution and in identifying the features derived by the human-environment interplay to promote the conservation of those features through geoheritage plans. To perform the project’s objectives a multi-disciplinary approach that combines Environmental Archaeology methodologies and Geoheritage tools in GIS has been applied. Case studies in fluvial environments have been selected to test the interdisciplinary approach proposed because floodplains represented the most suitable environment for human sustenance in history. The main area considered in this Ph.D. project concerns the evolution of Central Po Plain (Italy) during the Middle Ages (5th - 14th centuries CE) and secondary case studies (in Italy and abroad) have been considered to assess the reliability and versatility of the proposed methodology. In particular, Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry has been tested as a valuable method to digitise historical cartography in order to use it in a GIS software for spatial analysis. This technique has been employed to digitise historical cartography for the main case study as well as to reconstruct the evolution of the Upper Rhone Valley (Valais, Switzerland) at the end of the Little Ice Age (18th19th century CE). Moreover, geoarchaeological and geomorphological tools have been utilised to understand the environmental development of the Central Po Plain and its connection with human settlement dynamics. Geospatial Analysis played a key role in the accomplishment of the project’s goals. GIS software were fundamental to combine different kinds of datasets (archaeo-historical information, remote sensing images and geological maps to name a few) and to perform quantitative studies. In this regard, Point Pattern Analysis highlighted the role of alluvial geomorphology in Late-Holocene settlement strategies in Central Po Plain. Finally, Geoheritage has been used to propose geo-educational plans to encourage the fruition of past landscape features and to increase public awareness on landscape conservation.