PIANIFICAZIONE E POLITICHE PER LA CITTÀ, L'AMBIENTE E IL PAESAGGIO

Title conferred.
Planning and Policies for City Environment and Landscape

Employment and professional opportunities for graduates.
Generic Profile - Spatial Planner
The competences and skills described above enable master graduates to work either as consultants and freelancers or as experts in local authorities or in institutes, companies and agencies. Their employment outlet is in the field of territorial, urban and environmental planning, with particular reference to the development of projects, plans, programmes and policies. Specific professional activities involve the definition and management of spatial government tools, with particular reference to:
- design, planning and policies for the transformation and redevelopment of the city, the territory and the environment (projects, programmes, plans and policies at various spatial scales, sector planning and policies, regulations and standards);
- Coordination and management of evaluation activities of urban, territorial and environmental projects, programmes, plans and policies;
- management of processes for the construction of government actions and related forms of communication.
Graduates can practise as freelancers (after passing the State examination) for the activities envisaged in section A 'planners' of the Register of architects, planners and landscape architects, or for unregulated free consultancy in the field of planning and more generally in the field of research relating to territorial and environmental transformations.
In particular, Presidential Decree 328/2001 'Modification of the discipline of the professions' states that 'the professional activities of those registered in section A - sector "territorial planning":
(a) spatial, landscape, environmental and city planning;
b) the performance and coordination of complex and specialised analyses of urban, territorial, landscape and environmental structures, the coordination and management of environmental and feasibility assessment activities of urban and territorial plans and projects;
(c) strategies, policies and projects for urban and territorial transformation'.
These functions and professional outlets are specified and also open to new competences in a broader context thanks to the international training offer with several partner countries.

Communication skills.
Graduates are able to clearly communicate the proposed conclusions and hypotheses for action, as well as the knowledge, structure and rationale behind them, to both specialists and non-specialists.
Graduates develop cooperative and interdisciplinary working skills, especially through:
- interactive ways in which training is organised (laboratory and internship activities);
- opportunity to study with colleagues from different degree classes and backgrounds;
- opportunities to enrich and integrate methodological approaches and languages in different study locations, thanks to the possibilities offered by workshops, Erasmus Projects and consortium locations.
Furthermore, they develop the ability to communicate the contents of analyses, proposals, conclusions, evaluations and projects in Italian, in English and, possibly, in another foreign language, in writing, graphically and orally, with the support of advanced communication techniques and tools, also in relation to technologies and with reference to different contexts and actors.
Laboratory experiences contribute, in a particular way, to the development of communication skills, required by professional activities oriented towards the construction of participatory planning processes, where negotiation, decision-making and the construction of public agendas play a major role. In particular, graduates acquire the ability to:
- expose complex analytical paths and articulated project proposals in a simple and clear manner;
- working in groups, confronting different cultures and disciplinary knowledge in a cooperative manner and oriented towards purposeful syntheses;
- communicating in public paying attention to the language used in relation to the comprehension capabilities of the interlocutors;
- facilitate communication and dialogue in multi-actor contexts;
- bring out shared values and principles from the dialogue between knowledge and subjects;
- communicate using appropriate representation techniques.

Learning skills.
Graduates develop learning skills that enable them to continue to study and keep up to date in a self-directed and autonomous manner, identifying continuing education opportunities and experiences best suited to their professional profile. Graduates develop, in particular, the ability to:
- turning participation in concrete experiences into learning opportunities, using case studies, comparative and enquiry methods;
- identify continuing education opportunities suited to one's profile, taking into account the evolution of disciplines, culture and intervention practices in the area.
The teaching methods and tools with which the expected results are achieved and verified are as follows:
- integrated teaching modules in which the confrontation between teachers forces students to continuously translate and compare personal and disciplinary points of view;
- project workshops inspired by complexity and interdisciplinarity;
- constant didactic call for the adoption of new theoretical viewpoints and the need to provide reasoned justifications for actual and possible choices;
- interpersonal confrontation, achieved through group work and critical class discussions;
- cultivation of independent judgement.
In addition to these instruments, they will be implemented:
- periodic tests, structured and coordinated by tutors, on both theoretical and design issues and themes chosen autonomously by the students and interpreted by them with the methods and techniques they deem appropriate;
- constant verification of communication skills, both verbal and written, and representation in examinations and in itinere tests.
In addition to the aforementioned tools and, in particular, the individual interpretation and analysis tests of workshop and course material, it is the 'learning by doing' process itself, such as the numerous tests and the constant interaction with teachers, experts and tutors, that is the decisive moment in the assessment of learning abilities.
Graduates develop learning skills that enable them to continue to study and keep up to date in a self-directed and autonomous manner, identifying continuing education opportunities and experiences best suited to their professional profile. Graduates develop, in particular, the ability to:
- turning participation in concrete experiences into learning opportunities, using case studies, comparative and enquiry methods;
- identify continuing education opportunities suited to one's profile, taking into account the evolution of disciplines, culture and intervention practices in the area.

Making judgements.
Graduates are able to make judgements and define choices within a framework of awareness of the approaches, the ethical matrices to which they can be traced, and the impacts they can bring about. In particular, they have skills that enable them to
- addressing complex issues with attention to the different dimensions and impacts of collective decisions;
- understand (and make people understand) the magnitude of the stakes in relation to collective interests, with particular reference to non-reversible choices, and propose appropriate precautionary action;
- select and construct, with respect to limited cognitive contexts, the information essential to address specific issues;
- propose projects, scenarios and policies contextualised to the different dynamics of the territory
- Prepare evaluation designs that are consistent with the problems addressed and useful for deepening the relationships between actions and context.
The interdisciplinary degree programme focuses on the construction of skills regarding: the interpretation of the ecological dynamics of 'sensitive' landscapes, the dynamics and strategies of the urban and territorial organisation of the city; the design at the territorial and urban scale of actions for the transformation of landscapes that represent significant places in the contemporary city; the economic, social, institutional, managerial and technical feasibility of the proposed design actions; the preparation of public policies that allow the landscape and the environment to be placed at the centre of the urban organisation and the cultural future of the city.
Graduates are also able to integrate knowledge and manage the complexity of environmental planning processes, as well as to make judgements on the basis of limited or incomplete information, including reflection on the social and ethical responsibilities associated with the application of knowledge and judgements.
The above-mentioned results will be achieved through face-to-face courses, workshops, seminars and laboratory activities in which different approaches and methods are proposed (also in a comparative perspective). In particular, in laboratory courses and workshops, students are required to have the ability to work in a coordinated manner, to self-organise and to argue and evaluate project actions on a plausible basis.

Knowledge and understanding.
Urban design and planning
The Master's degree student will acquirè and deepen knowledge in the fields of planning and urbanism supported by interdisciplinary teaching programmes. This knowledge will be reinforced in the areas of environmental disciplines, economics, politics and sociology, as well as in integrative teaching activities.
Some disciplines, in continuity with the three-year degree, are deepened in relation to application methods in real contexts that enable the planning student to deal with the complexity of urban and territorial design. Understanding takes place mainly through the interdisciplinary experience of project workshops that address problems and outline perspectives for the transformation of the city, the territory and the landscape.

Engineering and spatial sciences
The master's degree student will develop interpretative skills and technical-practical tools useful for tackling, according to an integrated approach, issues such as the organisation of the transport system within the more complex and broader process of territorial planning and redevelopment. Above all, the ability to grasp the relationships of reciprocal influence between mobility and the other components of settlement organisation is strengthened, and awareness of the importance of constructing systems of coherence between the interventions that contribute to the functioning of the city is increased.

Economics, politics and sociology
In the field of urban management, the master's degree student will have knowledge pertaining to the evaluation of plans and projects in accordance with the dynamics of the environment. Decision support methods and techniques will be explored through the use of decision support tools and software applied to spatial and environmental planning. Sociology also contributes to the construction of methods for the management of urban processes that often involve mediation between actors, in a decision-making process in which the transformations of the city include interests between the parties (e.g. public administrations, social groups, citizens).

Environment
The course in urban ecology will be oriented towards providing the application elements of planning, land use and the urban environment. Each frontal lecture, on a specific topic, is matched by a critical discussion, in the context of each specific project to be set up by the student or group of students, so that the ecosystemic concept of threshold of use is a primary objective of each action or planning hypothesis.

Related or complementary educational activities
The graduate's training is supported by a number of related or complementary disciplines that deepen the specialist knowledge of the figure of the planner in relation to emerging themes on which the demand for skills in the world of work will strengthen in the coming years. In particular, the study of methods and techniques to deepen the resilience of ecosystems in relation to water dynamics and environmental risks; the construction of urban space and its composition in coherence with the dynamics of the environment; the in-depth study of the dynamic relationships between historical and cultural public assets in relation to the processes of valorisation and territorial development; the relationship between the urban environment and public health issues.
These disciplines make it possible to understand the environmental requirements of city and territory design in relation to the possibilitỳ of generating new landscapes by innovating the tools of the Plan at the urban and territorial scale.

Applying knowledge and understanding.
Urban design and planning
The Master's degree student will be able to tackle complex problems in the planning of the city, the territory and the landscape by applying knowledge, methods, techniques and tools acquired in the disciplines pertaining to urbanism and planning. The training project also makes it possible to identify the most appropriate intervention strategies that enable the realisation of urban plans, urban and territorial projects, and to set up action programmes in relation to the different scales of intervention. "Immersions" in real contexts, often promoted by teachers in agreement with local authorities, create opportunities to understand urban issues, to apply knowledge to specific problems, thanks to the realisation of laboratories, summer schools and workshops, in which students are actively involved and can measure their ability to learn.

Engineering and spatial sciences
Through the continuous alternation of analysis and design activities in relation to the study contexts, the graduate broadens his or her cognitive panorama, develops an open and non-sectorial view of urban and territorial mobility and learns a dynamic way of working, open to contamination with other disciplines.

Economics, politics and sociology
In the field of urban management, the master's degree student will be able to apply what he or she has learnt through reworking and restitution of concrete cases of spatial and urban planning using the methods of environmental assessment and sociology.
In the field of sociology and decision-aiding processes and systems, interactive exercises, often developed in coherence with the topics covered in planning and urbanism, allow the application of acquired knowledge.

Environment
The didactic approach provides for lectures and exercises in urban ecology to make the environmental requirements of the design hypotheses carried out in the urban planning, spatial planning or landscape architecture workshops consistent. The application of knowledge is facilitated by field exercises and interdisciplinarity.

Related or complementary educational activities
The Master's graduate will develop a critical method of rigorous approach to the issues of interest. He/she will be familiar with a management approach to environmental resources: from the choice of applying the principle of prevention or precaution; to the forms of absolute protection of environmental matrices. The interdisciplinary knowledge will enable the student to devise urban and territorial strategies that deal with complex and problematic processes of the urban reality and will enable him/her to refine research skills, to interact with experts from the various disciplines and to apply knowledge in practice.

Language(s) of instruction/examination.
ITALIAN

Skills associated with the function
Generic Profile - Spatial Planner
All functions require:
- knowledge of the Italian and European regulatory, administrative and institutional reference frameworks, in particular those of the non-Italian programme partner sites;
- ability to dialogue with experts from other disciplines;
- ability to work within interdisciplinary and non-disciplinary teams;
- ability to coordinate work groups;
- ability to communicate and dialogue with non-experts;
- ability to relate different problem fields and aspects;
- ability to select and critically apply methods, techniques and tools for analysing and structuring planning problems;
- knowledge in the field of local development;
- ability to conduct local, social and environmental systems analysis;
- critical knowledge of sustainability concepts and principles;
- ability to carry out complex and specialised analyses in the field of landscape and the environment;
- ability to coordinate and manage environmental assessment activities;

Furthermore, the knowledge and skills acquired in the Master's degree programme are prerequisites for admission to postgraduate university programmes, including international ones such as second-level postgraduate courses and PhD programmes.

Function in a work context
Generic Profile - Spatial Planner
A master's degree in planning can perform typical functions related to the liberal professions (after passing the state examination and registering with the Order of Architects, Planners and Landscape Architects and Conservators).
In detail, the master's degree
A. coordinates working groups in the field of town, country and landscape planning at various scales
B. draws up, coordinates and manages plans, policies, urban and territorial transformation projects, programmes, strategies and policies for city and territorial government at different scales.
C. carries out and coordinates complex and specialised analyses of urban, territorial, landscape and environmental structures, designs and coordinates processes of environmental assessment and feasibility of urban and territorial plans and projects;
D. designs, manages and coordinates participatory processes for the drafting, implementation and management of plans and programmes for the city and the territory
E. is responsible for technical and administrative procedures in the public administration and is eligible for management functions.

Educational goals
The Master's degree programme in Planning and Policy for the City, the Environment and the Landscape has a limited number of students.
The teaching in the degree programme is delivered in a blended format. It envisages online learning mainly for the theoretical lectures of the characterising courses and related disciplines.
For the characterising subject areas of town and country planning, face-to-face teaching prevails over distance learning and includes all design workshops and practical exercises. For the other characterising subject areas (Environment, Political Economy and Sociology, Engineering and Spatial Science) and for the related subject areas, the number of credits allocated to online and face-to-face teaching is balanced.
The programme involves teaching in a blended format to
_involve a wider target group of students and expands the pool of students from other regions;
_respond to the proposals of the social partners (ANCI, local administrations, world of professions) with reference to the new guidelines on continuous training;
_meet the requirements of the memorandum of understanding recently signed between the University of Sassari and the Ministry of Public Administration to broaden the knowledge and skills of civil servants (a target audience already present in the degree programme).
It provides the student with the option of following an entirely local training pathway or an international pathway.
It focuses on the design of the territory, landscape and city, as well as its ability to interweave relationships with ecological dynamics, socio-economic and cultural trends in a context, and ongoing processes of land management and governance.
The programme directs students towards interdisciplinary working methods that enable them to operate in multi-scalar, complex and uncertain contexts, including at international level.
The degree programme measures the possibility of innovation of territories starting from a deep knowledge of the matrices of history and the environment and the possibility of establishing strategic interconnections with the reality of the different settlement situations, also of non-European contexts, in relation to the crucial themes of contemporaneity (climate change, processes of globalisation of the economy, urban modifications induced by decommissioning, abandonment and reuse, forms of inequality, movement of peoples and cultures, etc.).
The graduate planner in the course of training develops skills and competences aimed at governing transformations, acting on strategic urban issues that identify alternative models of local development, applying strategic and innovative planning methods for environmental resources, urban planning approaches and territorial in relation to the theme of reuse, governance approaches of complex processes, conflict mediation methods, etc.
The curriculum provides the skills to build a figure capable of
- interpreting the dynamics of the environment and the different forms of the city, to be able to foster dialogue with its different populations and cultures, and to open up future scenarios of urban and territorial development;
- designing urban and spatial development scenarios that address the problems facing contemporary landscapes and in particular the crisis of environmental ecosystems and contemporary society also in relation to climate change and the depletion of non-renewable resources.
Master graduates are able to:
- analyse, represent and interpret urban and environmental problems in processes of land and landscape transformation;
- interpret trends and outcomes of the transformations of the city and the territory, also in relation to socio-economic dynamics and morphologies;
- building environmental scenarios and policies aimed at protecting, enhancing, upgrading urban, land and landscape;
- apply theories, methods and techniques to design plans and programmes with a focus on environmental resources;
- configure implementation processes anchored in policies and strategies to environmental education, inhabitants' participation, and spatial practices that put the right to the city at the centre;
- monitor and evaluate actions of settlement, cultural and socio-economic transformation of a territory, with tools capable of 'measuring' processes and results;
- direct environmental management and auditing activities, also coordinating specialists with different cultural backgrounds and skills.
- defining strategies for administrations, institutions and companies with reference to the recovery, enhancement and transformation of the city, the territory, the landscape and the environment.
Description of the degree programme and teaching methods
The various disciplines contribute to the achievement of the training objectives in coordination with each other in relation to the themes of urban and territorial design, which are covered by the interdisciplinary design workshop that characterises each semester.
The degree programme is organised in four semesters. The course-units and modules taught in each semester focus on a main project theme around which various disciplines are integrated; each workshop involves the production of an individual project or group project.
During the first year, two project themes are explored:
- project at the territorial scale that experiments with the relationship between settlement projects and landscape policies in which environmental issues related to soil and water management are prevalent in relation to different landscapes of a study context and the objectives of the project workshop; the founding matrices of the history of places are also investigated and the confrontation with local populations is tested.
- project at the urban scale that measures the relationship between city, environment and architecture in which the themes of sustainability are declined in the city by meeting the requirements of the systemic approach of urban ecology and environmental hygiene; models and tools for evaluation and decision support in the field of urban planning, spatial and environmental issues are also explored.
In the second year, the programme focuses on the interpretation of the landscape through the architecture of transformations, including infrastructural ones, and investigates the existing heritage of a context and the possibilities for its redefinition and reuse. The year is completed with an internship and final examination, which may be carried out at DADU's affiliated sites or at the partners' affiliated sites.
The study manifesto and the teaching regulations of the degree programme highlight the educational activities that students may choose independently, with a view to deepening their own pathway.
The design activities involve the presence of tutors, who follow the laboratory and project activities, and in some cases the teaching activities of the lectures. Some lectures are developed independently of the design activities (although in many cases they may delve into interdisciplinary aspects and specific investigations concerning design work).
Intermediate learning verification activities are planned (written and oral tests, intermediate critiques of workshop projects).
The range of courses on offer meets the diverse needs of students who, in addition to learning a method of working and having more job placement opportunities, have the opportunity to project themselves in an international learning and exchange environment.
The international dimension of the degree programme offers the opportunity to measure oneself against different contexts and project approaches that can provide new working methods, greater spendability of the degrees awarded. and broader employment prospects in an increasingly competitive global context.
The perspectives towards broader contexts, including non-European ones such as South East Asia China and the southern shore of the Mediterranean (and Tunisia in particular), strengthen the planners' training and perspectives in relation to their own life projects, thanks to the possibility of deepening working methods that will enable them to take up the challenges of the different contexts in which they will be able to operate, not only locally or in the exclusively European dimension, but also in non-European contexts.