Tuscany in 2050 as one big smartland? The survey on the expected and imagined future of Tuscany begins with the question ‘How cities change’, chosen by the Scientific Committee and the Presidency of the Council as the first of six decisive topics in the evolutionary trajectory of the region between now and 2050 and in the orientation of the ordinary planning tools that guide the Council's administrative actions.
At the opening of the round table in the presence of the Scientific Committee, the President of the Regional Council, Antonio Mazzeo, wished to emphasise the centrality of the role of cities in imagining Tuscany's future, indicating them as the ‘primary factor in the development of the territory’ which, in the Tuscan case, is strongly characterised by different types of settlement and urbanisation, with the presence of 276 small villages but also of larger urban centres.
Trends and the concept of ‘well-being’
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The Scientific Committee's work is aimed at analysing the possible declinations of each of the decisive topics chosen in the light of the concept of widespread ‘wellbeing’, a cardinal factor of good administration, chosen by Regional Council President Mazzeo as the yardstick for evaluating the trends recorded by the studies and the strategic lines drawn up by the round tables.
From the Committee's debate, six perspectives emerged, in some ways competing, through which to scrutinise and potentially design the region's future:
- The competitive advantages of urban areas. Cities, in Tuscany as in Italy, provide their citizens with advantages that offset the costs of living in these environments. Economic development resides, after all, mainly in highly urbanised areas, places where labour productivity is higher, as are wage premiums. The consequence is that the most innovative businesses and activities are concentrated in urban areas. li>
- The size of Tuscany's urban agglomerations.Tuscany's urbanised areas are much smaller in terms of size and population than the rest of Italy and even Europe.
- Thecongestion costs of urban areas. High housing costs and a deficit in infrastructural investments have caused growing congestion in cities over the years, resulting in increasing inconvenience for the urban population, both in terms of internal movements and of perceived and suffered pollution.
- A progressive questioning of the advantages of city life. Although it is not possible to predict whether tomorrow the process of urban agglomeration will be greater or whether, vice versa, a flight from cities in favour of rural areas will prevail, the introduction of teleworking - accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic - seems to allude to the possibility of adopting settlement models capable of leaving the density of large agglomerations behind without renouncing the possibilities offered by the urban environment.
- The emergence of a smart citizenship capable of guiding the decentralisation of housing choices. The population potentially affected by migration to less urbanised areas is certainly that which has access to teleworking, is childless and belongs to a middle social class.
- Potentially candidate territories as a new settlement choice. Territories that are candidate as a settlement choice for out-of-towners do exist in Tuscany, but it is crucial that they have important requirements such as adequate digital accessibility, the necessary endowment of services and the availability of unused housing.
The urbanised areas in Tuscany are much smaller in terms of size and population than the rest of Italy and even Europe.
These are the main reasons for the increasing number of urban residents.
Strategic Guidelines
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The debate developed by the Scientific Committee in relation to the perspectives described above has led to the definition of as many trajectories that the Regional Council of Tuscany is invited to pursue with respect to the theme of the change of the cities with the broader objective of widespread wellbeing. These are the strategic lines that emerged most clearly:
- New settlement balances. The gaps that currently exist between the different parts of the regional territory must be reduced, in order to arrive at new settlement balances, a ‘single large Tuscan city’, capable of decongesting the most populated areas and revitalising the less populated or abandoned territories. A fundamental element to be leveraged is the promotion of teleworking. Solving the many situations of territorial imbalance through the promotion of teleworking means first of all improving and making regional accessibility fairer, both in terms of roads and public transport services and in terms of digital infrastructure. Moreover, re-establishing an effective system of widespread services at the regional scale is fundamental both for the promotion of teleworking and, more generally, for promoting widespread welfare. Therefore, in relation to the demographic trends affecting the regional territory - an ageing population and strong immigration - the regional territory would need a widespread network of schools, social-health facilities, spaces for young people, and care and socialisation routes and places for the elderly. From this point of view, the Tuscan territory should become a single large smart land, characterised by the protagonism of the relationship networks of smart citizens, the citizens capable of producing and dominating the transformational processes underway in the territories.
- A new relationship with the environment. The horizon of ecological transition must inform every territorial transformation both in terms of mobility, production, and, finally, energy.
- A traditional, yet innovative industrial system. The region's power of attractiveness is given above all by the strength of the industrial district, because Tuscany's territory gives a company the opportunity to be networked with a widespread know-how that has no equal in the world and that has made the region's industrial culture deep and sedimented. The region's industrial development must therefore start from the evidence of this tradition, but at the same time be open to innovation. In short, the industrial system must be able to prevent the flight of young people from the region by providing suitable employment outlets, but also suitable paths and places to train, consistent with the available labor supply.
- Sustainable tourism for the protection and promotion of Tuscany's diverse landscapes.Tourist flows represent a huge potential for the regional economy, however, they should not penalize local communities, as could potentially happen in some areas of Tuscany affected by phenomena of overtourism, a load of tourist presence that is excessive compared to the capacity of places to sustain it. To this end, it is essential to adopt an approach that favors the development of sustainable tourism, which promotes the knowledge and appreciation of different cultures, traditions and local knowledge, while respecting the environment and the living systems of the host countries, territories and populations.
- An Inclusive Territory. The Tuscany system must provide a territory-wide supply of places suited to the needs of every diversity and social vulnerability.
- A new approach of building scenarios of the future. In order for regional development to be designed on the real needs, capabilities and desires of its various inhabitants, it is necessary to use a different approach to the design of its guidelines and the operational actions with which to pursue it, based on their direct involvement and co-design.
Beyond these general directions, in casting one's gaze at a time distance of nearly 30 years one also encounters practical questions the answers to which, however, may affect a particularly large scale.
It is therefore also important to ask whether the city of 2050 will still have automobiles. Or whether the city of the future will have, say, 1.5 million inhabitants and 100,000 robots serving them. And how it will hold together, how it will plan a community going in that direction, and how this will affect jobs and the relationship between housing and manufacturing settlements. The Toscana 2050 project serves to challenge human intelligence to answer these questions,having, however, always in mind the most relevant of all: how do we leave a better world than the one we found?