World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life (Environmental History, 9)

This volume collects the best scientific contribution presented in the 3^rd World Conference on Terraced Landscapes held in Italy from 6^th to 15^th October 2016, offering a deep and multifaceted insight into the remarkable heritage of terraced landscapes in Italy, in Europe and in the World (America, Asia, Australia).

It consists of 2 parts: a geographical overview on some of the most important terraced systems in the world (1^st part), and a multidisciplinary approach that aims to promote a multifunctional vision of terraces, underlining how these landscapes meet different needs: cultural and historical values, environmental and hydrogeological functions, quality and variety of food, community empowerment and sustainable development (2^nd part).

The volume offers a great overview on strengths, weaknesses, functions and strategies for terraced landscapes all over the world, summarizing in a final manifest the guidelines to provide a future for these landscapes as natural and cultural heritage.  

Terraced landscapes are all over the world. They are the tangible evidence of how food production, rural activities and human life can express itself in the steepest slopes of mountain areas in the world.

Despite the multi-disciplinary values that terraced landscapes represent, they were scarcely appreciated in the past decades. Indeed the interest in their wise management and broader understanding has been constantly growing since the end of the past century.

Some outstanding terraced landscapes have been recognized at international level for their importance in the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, many other terraced landscapes in the world are abandoned or facing the same risks of collapse, trivialization or destructive urbanization, losing both their valuable environmental function and their intangible knowledge and heritage.

The volume collects the best scientific contributions presented in the 3^rd World Conference on Terraced Landscapes held in Italy from 6^th to 15^th October 2016, for the first time offering a deep and multifaceted insight into the geographic distribution and the remarkable heritage of terraced landscapes in Europe and in the world. The manifest “Terraced Landscapes: Choosing the Future” signed in Padova in 2016 by all members of the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance aims to stimulate their renaissance as a model for sustainable development.