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TERRITORIAL AND STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

IREALP Area Sviluppo Territoriale e Strategico (ASTS, Territorial and Strategic Development Area) provides support and technical and scientific consultancy on the main themes connected to the development of the mountain territory and the improvement of the governance skills of the different institutional entities present in the mountain area.
ASTS has developed this type of action since 2003, with the activity of the Analysis and Development Sector, which then merged into the present ASTS.

The essence of ASTS consists in the implementation and organization of in depth studies and territorial analysis aimed at the identification of characteristics, features, potentials and criticalities of the mountain territories. In particular, ASTS develops actions and integrated and multidisciplinary applied research workshops (single projects, integrated plans and programmes), aiming at enhancing the different local situations by way of innovative solutions.

The scope of ASTS activity is the mountain territory, mainly in the Lombardy Region, adjusting to the different territorial sizes. Specifically, studies and analyses are developed and they concern the entire Lombardy Alpine Region but also actions and projects whose range extends from the regional, to the provincial to the sub-municipal level. This allows ASTS exchanging and interacting with all the players that, at different levels, are involved in the territorial development.

As a matter of fact, ASTS works in close co-operation with the Lombardy Region and in particular with the Presidency and the Mountain Committee. ASTS also collaborates with the various provincial Territorial Offices of RL (STER), with the mountain Local Authorities as the Comunità montane (Mountain Communities), Municipalities and down to local entities. It also worked in collaboration with the Department for Regional Affairs of the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (Prime Minister’s Office) and few Ministries, supporting the Lombardy Region.

The method at the base of ASTS action can be summarized as follows:
1. a direct experience of the territory, acquired through regular visits, contacts and exchange with the relevant players;
2. specific objective approach having a “strategic – innovative” feature;
3. development and implementation of applied research projects;
4. integrated and multidisciplinary actions that have an impact on environmental, socio-economic and cultural issues;
5. connection of the regional strategic level with the local, territorial one, fostering a continuous exchange, always keeping in mind the European principles implementation.

The founding element of the activity is the direct knowledge of mountain areas as a unique and complex “territorial system”, whose parts are interconnected thanks to relations that are based on a fine balance among the components. ASTS strategy is based on the analysis and tackling of the different problems of the mountain area, starting from the awareness that, in such an environment, an action requires the knowledge of the complexity of the whole system and the capacity to fully understand the reality, with the relevant interactions among the different components.