Landscape Dynamics and Local Development

The present chapter examines, from historical, geographical, and economic perspectives, the relationship between landscape dynamics and local development, emphasizing their interdisciplinary complexity and their centrality to future sustainability. Following a theoretical discussion that distinguishes the concept of landscape from that of environment, and interpreting the former as a polysemic and dynamic construct, our contribution demonstrates how landscape acts simultaneously as a resource, a marker of cultural identity, and a driver of socioeconomic transformation. The analysis explores the principal domains of interaction. They include agriculture (which has evolved from traditional systems into agro-industrial models, with profound implications for biodiversity, land consumption, and technological dependence), urbanization (which, since the nineteenth century, has radically reconfigured landscapes by concentrating population and economic activity, while generating social, environmental, and health imbalances), and tourism (now a strategic sector of the global economy, capable of enhancing territorial value but also vulnerable to systemic crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic). Further sections address culture (understood both as the foundation of collective identity and as a factor of local development, with the landscape serving as a vehicle of memory, belonging, and social cohesion), climate change (which introduces unprecedented global challenges and requires integrated mitigation and adaptation strategies), biodiversity (considered both as a common good and an economic asset whose conservation involves complex cost–benefit and ethical dimensions), and social well-being, intrinsically linked to landscape perception and to conditions of equity, inclusion, and efficiency in the shared management of resources. Finally, the chapter underscores the urgency of multiscalar governance rooted in sustainability, equity, and efficiency, referencing key policy frameworks such as the European Landscape Convention. Landscapes should no longer be conceived merely as the passive background of human activity, but as strategic and dynamic interfaces integrating economy, society, culture, and nature—basically a fundamental dimension in steering the just transition toward sustainable and resilient models of local development.