Fondaco profilo di Venezia

16. Governet Project - Case-study: periurban area of Mestre

• sustainability, in terms of reducing the negative impact on the environment and citizens' health, as well as in the development of natural and human resources within the territory;
• integration with other activities, particularly artisan, commercial, social, and tourism;
• multifunctionality, participation in a territorial and social context, in terms of employment.

This project is being realized through an adjustment of governance models on rural development that are applied to numerous areas of study and are representative of different environments in the CADSES region: mountains, foothills, rivers, urban peripheries, and perindustrial areas. To represent these areas, Mestre's urban periphery on the Venetian inland was selected. This area is characterized by a high level of integration between urban and rural roles. From an environmental standpoint, this territory of level plains is influenced by slow-flowing rivers, and above all by the presence of the lagoon trough.

At the end of the Governet project, it seems appropriate to draw some operative indications that come from the due experience, to be considered for future intervention in the primary sector. Moreover, it could be useful also for other economical sectors, which strongly interact with the territory and the agricultural activities (e.g. vaste area territorial plans, city planning, great infrastructures design).

A first suggestion is the methodology followed during the project, in all its phases. It has in itself some useful operative indications for planning and carrying out a government process of rural development in a specific area, and also for characterizing its protagonists.

The procedure course allowed to prepare a shared, participated and effective methodology of analysis and decision (actions choice). It has been improved thanks to the relation among the partners (national and foreign ones) and it has been adapted to the various territorial situations, which have different characters and problems.

It must be put in evidence the importance of the involved actors' roles and functions definition, at different levels. The bodies that allowed an effective development of the project are:

• the partners, characterized by a local body (Region, Province, group of municipalities somehow associated) or a public body (e.g. the University) linked to a specific study territorial ambit. Each partner was the addressee of the singled out actions in the project definition path;
• the accomplishing agencies. The technical group (research institute or, sometimes, technical section of the partner itself) works as project accomplisher, according to and in strict interaction with the partner;
• the Governance Councils, consisting of representatives of the different local interests. They must effectively animate the harmonizing process (inside and outside) of the choices to be carried out for supporting the agricultural development.

In the hypothesis of future developments or replies of the project, is important to define precisely:

• the criteria for its characterizing, nomination and activation;
• the composition type (severe or flexible, fixed or variable?)
• the functions, competences and powers (preliminary, expression of opinions and evaluations, advisory, decision making, choice between preset options and pre-defined bond level, etc.?)
• the working modes, strictly dependant on the ascribed powers;
• the questions and themes of intervention (plans and projects of the agricultural sector, vaste area territorial plans, municipal city planning instruments, etc.);
• the relations with the institutions.

A second suggestion that the Governet project leaves to the interested operators (institutional or not) is to consider what is indicated by the cognitive map and the paths suggested by the same map, for planning the relevant interventions towards the primary sector.
In the case of Mestre periurban area, 7 factors have been selected. They are linked among them by a series of logical-relational connections, in sequence. The connections among factors appear as more or less structured and strong. It is difficult that the same connections will significantly modify in the middle-term. The map seems therefore an useful instrument for the next future too.

The goal of Work Package 2 (finished in August 2004) was the description of the designated study areas from the territorial, environmental, social-economical and institutional points of view. A short description of the periurban area of Mestre is presented.

In the Work Package n. 3 (finished in May 2005) the project analysed, for each "project area", the spatial, socio-economic and institutional impacts of initiatives promoting agriculture. The results for the periurban area of Mestre are shown in English version and Italian version.

The Work Package n. 4 (finished in June 2006) moves to identify and build optimal operational models of governance to support rural development, in each of the case study areas. The WP4 results indicated the most important factors for the rural development in the periurban area of Mestre.

The Work Package n. 5 (finished in October 2006) aims at the definition of an optimum model for rural development governance, through simulating various alternatives. In order to give concrete form to the various steps of this plan, the project partner PP2 (Province of Venice) decided to focus the analysis on three different actions: training, marketing, exploitation of local typical productions.

The Work Package n. 6 (finished in December 2006) provides the diffusion of all documents produced during the three years of Governet project. A particular attention is given to the last phase of the project, which is specifically dedicated to start some actions (as the Marketing Plan and the training courses) and to the diffusion of the achieved results by some meeting occasions and audio/video/information technology instruments.

The official web site of the project is starting and it will go on for two years.

I documenti prodotti dal COSES nel corso del progetto Governet sono i seguenti:

• Doc. COSES n. 591, "Area periurbana di Mestre: descrizione degli aspetti territoriali-ambientali, socio-economici ed istituzionali", Governet WP2, Luglio 2004;
• Doc. COSES n. 681, "Misurazione di alcuni indicatori territoriali, socio-economici ed istituzionali per i comuni di Campagna Lupia e Mirano". Lettura sintetica dei risultati ottenuti nel pacchetto di lavoro n. 3 del progetto Governet, per il partner Provincia di Venezia - COSES, Governet WP3, Ottobre 2005;
• Doc. COSES n. 651.1, "Area di progetto 'Vie del gusto'. Analisi degli impatti territoriali-ambientali, socio-economici e istituzionali", Governet WP3, Maggio 2005;
• Doc. COSES n. 725, "Definizione di modelli integrati di sviluppo rurale", Governet WP4, Dicembre 2005;
• Doc. COSES n. 807, "Simulazione e validazione di modelli di sviluppo rurale per l'area periurbana di Mestre", Governet WP5, Ottobre 2006;
• Doc. COSES n. 841, "Networking e iniziative promozionali per la messa in atto dei modelli di sviluppo rurale", Governet WP6, Dicembre 2006;
• Doc. COSES n. 842, "Piano di Marketing. Area campione di Mirano e Campagna Lupia", Governet WP6, Dicembre 2006;
• Doc. COSES n. 843, "Governet nell'area periurbana di Mestre", Filmato, Dicembre 2006.