RURAL INNOVATION, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND URBANISATION PROCESSES IN LIGURIA, BETWEEN COASTAL AND INNER AREAS

Exploiting environmental resources and urbanisation processes has significantly altered thenatural ecosystems over time, turning them into socio-ecological systems strongly affectedby anthropic settlements. Spatial planning must therefore aim at new development modelsable to harmonise the need to preserve the environmental components with the need toreduce the socio-economic inequalities, often linked to inequitable access to ecosystemservices. The case study of the Liguria Region is presented, with its marked polarisationbetween the linear coastal conurbation and inner areas, the areas providing the most sig-nificant number of ecosystem services and those with greater population and urbanisationdensity, which are instead organised as large demand poles. The paper analyses the rela-tionship between environmental values, in terms of ecosystem multifunctionality, and ruralinnovation forms that support territorial competitiveness. The aim is to explore how a sys-temic approach can integrate opportunities between the inner and coastal areas, qualifyingthe valley systems as new elements of the anthropic-environmental structure of the region.