Integrating Habitat Conservation with Amenity and Recreational Uses Along an Urban Stretch of the Adige River, Northern Italy

Rivers and their corridors are complex ecological systems and important landscape features. They are used for a wide variety of sometimes conflicting purposes such as drinking water supply, hydro-electric power generation, irrigation, industrial effluent disposal and leisure activities that include fishing, boating, walking and cycling. The potential for conflict increases in urban river reaches where protected wildlife habitats and species are also found. Several different activities and societal priorities influence the form and function of river corridors. These include water quality regulation, the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and safeguarding aesthetics and landscape character. For river corridors in urban and suburban areas town planning considerations include residential and industrial land-use, flood defence, the safety of pedestrians and road users, preserving the cultural character linked to historical and natural 'sense of place' and the availability of public open spaces for formal and informal leisure activities. The River Adige corridor located in Verona, northern Italy, exemplifies all these complexities. It represents a complicated ecological, environmental, historical, social-economic network in which history, landscape and nature are inextricably linked. This chapter describes how 'The Adige Park, an Environmental Landscape Plan 2007' was developed and is being used to safeguard and manage the river corridor in a sustainable way. The river forms a central axis, connecting different parts of the city and its open spaces and forming a network offering opportunities for environmentally sustainable development. The Plan is based on the integration of historical and environmental aspects of the landscape with local socio-economic requirements within the multi-dimensional complexity of the River Adige ecosystem. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.