From railways to greenways: a complex index for supporting policymaking and planning. A case study in Piedmont (Italy)

Roberto Rovelli, Giulio Senes, Natalia Fumagalli, Jessica Sacco and Andrea De Montis

Land Use Policy, 2020, vol. 99, issue C

Abstract: Since the 1960s, a significant percentage of railway networks have been closed all over the world. This represents a heritage that can be used to provide new features to local communities with regard to sustainable development and landscape regeneration processes. Disused railways can be converted into greenways which are only dedicated to not motorized users and people with reduced mobility. Greenways can also be utilized for leisure, tourism and commuting. The growing interest and social demand for greenways face an obstacle in the form of scarce public funds. Accordingly, decision-makers and land-use planners need to assess the potential benefits and costs for local communities as well as the attractiveness for users. In this paper, we aim to provide a transferable working tool able to support decision-making and land-use planning processes related to the conversion of disused railway lines into greenways in mixed urban-rural contexts. We tested the developed methodology in Piedmont (Italy), a region with almost 600 km of abandoned railway lines and over 200 disused stations.

Keywords: disused railways; greenways; rail-trails; land-use planning; Multicriteria Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:99:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719320411

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104835

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