Seminar

Land reclamation as a parenthesis?
Stories of wetlands and drainage
(17th – 20th centuries)

April 10, 2026, 3:00 – 7:00 pm

Niccolini Library
Via Romiti 13
Ferrara

Poster

Climate change and the resulting rise in sea levels pose new challenges to the management—if not the very existence, at least in the forms we have known—of the reclaimed lands of the past few centuries. The loss of hydraulic stability—generally taken for granted following the major works of the modern era—prompts us to re-examine the past. Who populated, managed and exploited the wetlands (“marshes”)? What resources did they offer, and what conflicts did they generate? For what reasons were they drained (“reclaimed”)? By whom, using what techniques, and in pursuit of what interests and cultural representations? How were the new lands populated and developed, and through what conflicts and ideological constructs? Drawing on their in-depth studies of the Lower Po Valley or the Pontine Marshes, a group of scholars from various disciplines (history, geography, urban planning) attempt to answer these questions and provide new ways of interpreting the past, which may also offer some food for thought regarding our present.

PROGRAMME

On the centenary of Giorgio Bassani’s birth
Opening lectures

edited by
Marco Manfredi

INTRODUCTION
Michele Nani
CNR-ISMed

PRESENTATIONS
Giulia Becevello
University of Padua

Roberta Biasillo
University of Utrecht

Luca Santangelo
AISO/House of Architecture, Latina

Stefano Piastra
University of Bologna

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE

Closing readings from Bassano

edited by
Marco Manfredi

ORGANISED BY
CNR-ISMed

HOW TO ATTEND
The event is in-person and open to the public, subject to availability.

INFO AND CONTACTS
Michele Nani
CNR-ISMed, Ferrara Research Unit
michele.nani@ismed.cnr.it
www.ismed.cnr.it