Smart Evaluation and Integrated Design in Regional Development. Territorial Scenarios in Trentino, Italy

Smart evaluation and integrated design in regional development puts forward an alternative approach to evaluation in spatial planning - one which considers ‘territory’ and ‘landscape’. More specifically, the book discusses a meta-evaluation methodology to design scenarios for regional development processes, namely territorial integrated evaluation (TIE), that was experimented from a research team of Polytechnic of Turin in the Trentino planning practices. This new approach is then put into practice in Trentino where its implementation supported the institutional innovation process that continues in that area today. It defines territorial scenarios that meet both the need for regional economic development and the need for nature and landscape conservation. The Trentino area is a cross-border region where economic development demand has to be harmonized with the exceptional and internationally renowned value of landscape. This context means it is necessary for TIE’s approach to integrated designing in development scenarios to look simultaneously at different topics such as retail, tourism, infrastructures, nature and landscape. By testing out TIE in practice in this extraordinary dynamic institutional context, the volume contributes considerably to debates on newly emergent approaches in spatial planning, such as the multidisciplinary vision, new paradigms in the regional development, institutional learning and capability in decision-making.