Merging the Divide: Challenges and Strategic Orientations in integrating Piemonte Regional Landscape Plan and Asti’s Land Use Plan

This thesis investigates the integration of the Piemonte Regional Landscape Plan (PPR) into Asti’s Land Use Plan (LUP), focusing on the methodological, spatial, and institutional challenges that emerge in aligning regional landscape objectives with municipal urban planning tools. The research is grounded in a diagnostic and observation-based approach, emphasizing spatial analysis, regulatory comparison, and perceptual mapping. Particular attention is given to the role of GIS-based cartographic techniques in documenting landscape constraints, visual corridors, and settlement morphologies, as a result constructing a multi dimensional reading of the territory that moves beyond formal zoning logic. Asti represents a particularly relevant case due to its complex territorial identity—defined by overlapping systems of ecological corridors, historical layering, rural landscapes, and urban expansion pressures. Through the integration of technical assessments developed during an internship at a planning studio involved in the preliminary variant of Asti’s Land Use Plan, the study identifies critical mismatches between protected landscape values and areas allocated for transformation. These findings are supported by detailed spatial overlays that reveal inconsistencies in regulatory alignment, perceptual discontinuities, and the underrepresentation of landscape sensitivity within local planning categories. Rather than proposing planning solutions, the thesis offers a diagnostic framework for evaluating how regional landscape strategies—particularly those related to scenic continuity, ecological resilience, and territorial identity—are recognized and translated into municipal planning instruments. It also reflects on the institutional and procedural gaps that limit the implementation of co-planning mechanisms, particularly the absence of structured collaboration between regional and municipal levels. Ultimately, this study argues for a renewed approach to planning in which the landscape is not treated as a secondary constraint, but as a structuring and perceptive framework capable of guiding spatial coherence, cultural continuity, and integrated governance. The case of Asti highlights the importance of landscape as both an analytical lens and a design premise, contributing to a broader reflection on how identity-based planning can be integrated within contemporary urban and territorial strategies.