Siena: Territorial Plan of Coordination

Siena Province PTCP (Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale) is based on the idea that "territory" is a resource that must be considered as a whole, and it is something more than the sum of its various meanings. Its aim is to get over all the partial viewpoints about territory, and to lead the different sectorial policies to a more comprehensive framework of global efficiency. This is also the premise on which the different subjects, at the different levels of government, can share a common basis and method to coordinate their actions. Among the distinctive features of Siena's PTCP there is the importance attached to the conservation of the essential resources of the territory (environmental and anthropic ones, according to the spirit of the tuscan law on planning, which assumes the sustainable development as its fundamental principle); and first of all the conservation of water resources and of ecosystems. Another important topic is the management of the settlement system and of landscape. The PTCP's purpose is to ensure the continuity of landscape identity elements, of perceptive relationships (established over history) between built-up environment and agricultural areas, of fields' texture and of traditional farming know-how. This aim is followed up through specific rules concerning:
- the Tipi di Paesaggio (Landscape Types, areas with a high homogeneity as for geo-lithological features, settlement framework, rural landscape shape and texture; these are the units where the different forms of exploitation of territory resources, resulting in different land uses, should be checked and controlled);
- the Unità di Paesaggio (Landscape Units, complex areas composed by various landscape Types; each one has its peculiar identity and specific problems as for the management of natural resources, the improvement of settlement system and the sustainable development; these are the units where different subjects should coordinate their management strategies);
- the trends of settlements' growth and of historical-architectural resources;
- the main features of rural landscape.
The peculiar urban framework of the Senese area, characterised by a highly diffused settlement, is certainly a precious resource as for the conservation of man's presence on the territory. On the other hand, it can become very difficult to ensure to all citizens an easy access to fundamental services. The PTCP assumes the purpose of the "equipotentiality" of the urban effect for all the centres and it aims at promoting the growth of the main poles of the settlements' framework, and at restraining that of the smaller villages and scattered settlements. The Tuscan law (Legge Regionale n. 5/1995) places the PTCP in a system of territory government where the different administrative levels have a specific competence to discipline the use of territory resources with different grades of detail and of strictness.
The Provincial planning intends to increase the capacity of management of territory resources, by giving rules for the matters that cannot be controlled efficaciously at the municipal level, and by providing the municipalities with a reference frame so that they can operate also in fields and for matters that till now were not usually included within the competence of local planners.
The fields ascribed to the competence of the provincial planning can be identified with reference to the kind of resources it has to manage and to its role of coordination of the action of municipalities. The PTCP's contents must be coherent and coordinated, of course, with that of local plans. See for example the relation between the discipline on the environmental-landscape matter in the PTC and its enforcement and specification, which is referred to the municipal planning. In the PTC the environmental protection directions are tied to precise and definite objects, but proper rules are given only for special conservation purposes; the task to specify and to put the directions into effect is left to the municipal administrations. Thus the operativeness of the PTCP's directions and policies requires the intermediation (the enforcement) by the local planning, which has the task to specify and define the PTC discipline. At the local level the PTCP's knowledge framework must also be detailed, and to this more defined level of territory analysis the management choices and the enforcement of the PTCP's directions have to be related; once a more detailed knowledge is acquired, the strategies chosen may also be different from the PTCP ones to pursue the same goals.

For the elaboration of the PTCP the Ufficio di Piano (a group of people from inside the Siena Province staff) was established in May 1996, with the participation of the Territory Management Department and other Departments, and of a team of external consultants. The GIS was also developed inside this organization, and it gave an important contribution to the analyses drafted for the PTC. Siena PTCP was meant as an instrument for a concerted management of territory transformations and of sustainable development. In order to reach this purpose all the concerned actors where involved in the Conferenze di Programmazione that took place in October 1997 and November 1998. During this meetings an agreement on the general philosophy of the PTCP was expressed.

State of the procedure
effective from april 12, 1999

Workteam
For the elaboration of the PTCP the Ufficio di Piano (a group of people from inside the Siena Province staff) was established in May 1996, with the participation of the Territory Management Department and other Departments, and of a team of external consultants. The GIS was also developed inside this organization, and it gave an important contribution to the analyses drafted for the PTC.
Siena PTCP was meant as an instrument for a concerted management of territory transformations and of sustainable development. In order to reach this purpose all the concerned actors where involved in the Conferenze di Programmazione that took place in October 1997 and November 1998. During this meetings an agreement on the general philosophy of the PTCP was expressed.