Environmental Networks for Smart Territories

In this chapter, the concepts of

environmental networks

and

territories

are brought together. They are already dense with meaning individually, but we make adjectives of them and consider the added value that derives from their close geographical/

conceptual connection

. To carry out this reflection, we start from the case study of the

Marche Regional Ecological Network

(REM) for two reasons: first, considering the range of interpretations referring to this concept, by presenting a concrete case we can refer to a specific meaning, which we would like to reflect on without missing on an appropriate comparison to other approaches; the second reason is directed at the recovery of an experiential methodology that we often overlook in favor of abstractions. Unfortunately, in the field of governance, we have often seen what can sometime happen with apparently irrefutable theories, such that nothing positive is left in the territory if the comparison with concrete implementation at different levels of government is not controlled. The failures recorded in the history of

landscape planning

in countries such as Italy, which should focus its development policies on this extraordinary and strategic resource, are a warning we should not ignore: from the sharing of guidelines, programs, and master plans on the regional and national levels, it is difficult to proceed with identifying the effects of implementation on the provincial and community levels.