Research Project: Artificial Biotic Corridors – Sustainable Models for Coastal Urbanisation
Principal Researcher: Andrea Di Stefano _ AA Dipl RIBA II
Research Period: 2002- 2003, 2004-2010
Research Status: ongoing
Research Framework: 1st stage supported by Team Network, Engineering and Management; Siracusa, Italy

Following the recent EU reports on global environmental trends, new European policies are being elaborated in order to define two parallel strategies. The first one concerns the conservation of natural resources by reducing polluting agents and protecting sensitive areas, while the second concerns modernization, growth and development to be accompanied by integrated approaches.

The aim of this research is to develop a model of urbanization trough a holistic approach that takes in account both strategies in order to: [i] reduce the environmental impact implicit in urban developments, [ii] integrate natural and urban dynamics, [iii] and maximize the transformation of polluting agents into new resources and energies. The focus of the research is the extreme condition of coastal urbanization in which cities, by sitting on the threshold between two interdependent habitats affect their equilibrium.

The research is based on detailed knowledge and instrumentalisation of phyto-sociology (the science of plant species co-dependency). In order to ensure continuity and exchange of sea-land biotopes a paradigmatic inversion in urban design and land management is vital. In opposition to centralized, poly-nuclear or diffused urban systems a new fringed model alternating biotic corridors with urban settlements will be developed and elaborated.

Along with the study of ongoing EU development of a continental network of infrastructures - EU corridors – connecting all major cities, the research addresses the dynamics of biotic corridors in order to identify crucial nodes of interaction between natural and artificial infrastructures occurring along coastlines.
The research investigates the conditions for development of Artificial Biotic Corridors (ABC) as a pre-urbanization model for coastal urban settlements and other forms of anthropisation (agriculture, industries, tourist facilities, etc.) In alternation with natural biotic corridors, ABC will act as artificial parks featuring only endemic species according to phyto-sociological models as in the most advanced plans for reforestation, for the habitat to grow and develop autonomously.


ABC will operate as a prototypical land organization; a flexible system that ensures sea-land exchange. It will be characterized by adaptive patterns of vegetation determining ranges of capacity to naturally treat wastewater and to sustain urban development. On one hand the park will expand nourished by urban growth, on the other, excess of treated wastewater will feed and reinvigorate the neighbouring land, facilitating the balance of the overall environment. As a consequence, the project will operate as a form of territorial management, dispersing and reducing highly polluting areas and counteracting ongoing processes of fauna and flora degradation, water resources impoverishment and coastline regression, while responding to socio-economical needs for development.