Chapter The quarries in the coastal municipalities of western Liguria: reflections on landscape protection with a view to their recovery

Overview & Synopsis

The coastal landscape, of western Liguria, constitutes one of the most delicate territorial areas that has undergone the greatest transformations. The coastal processes of industrialisation and urbanisation, linked above all to seaside tourism, have induced radical transformations, linked to the railway development, which in the 19th century drew a strongly built coastal landscape, and allowed the development of industrial and commercial settlements. Among these activities, such as open-cast quarries, has contributed to the transformation of the landscape, due to its strong impact on the morphology of the territory. What we often read today as 'wounds' of the territory, have fed strategic sectors for the national economy (construction, infrastructure etc.) with motives that are no longer sustainable from an environmental point of view, and need to be 'healed'. In western Liguria, out of 224 disused quarries, 78 are currently reused for tertiary or industrial or artisan purposes, 64 are spontaneously renaturalised, 11 are restored to their natural state and 71 are abandoned without plans. Through the analysis of some case studies, , such as the Ghigliazza quarries in Finale Ligure, this work aims to draw attention to the role that landscape protection can play in governing and directing the choices of reuse of delicate situations from a landscape, environmental and economic point of view.