The work started as part of the ROBUST project, funded by the HORIZON 2020 program of the European Union, came to an end December '21. ROBUST analyzed urban-rural connections, with a look at the governance systems and processes in 11 different European city-regions, in order to make recommendations for territorial policies and at different institutional levels.
In line with the general purpose of the project, the Living Lab activated by the Province of Lucca and the Universities of Pisa and Florence had the objective of identifying urban-rural connections in the Lucca plain and tools to promote local synergies. The outcome of the collaboration between the academic and institutional partners is reported in a document accessible at this link. In a first phase, the work aimed at identifying the specific “functional” urban-rural connections, characterizing them in relation to food systems, eco-systemic services and cultural connections. In a second step, some possible instruments (both of government and governance) were analyzed, with reference to the context of the peri-urban areas of the Piana di Lucca, focusing attention on the potential of open and agricultural spaces, including abandoned land, to in order to generate mutually beneficial rural-urban relationships
