Story | 05 Sep, 2019

Remembering Professor Roberto Gambino

A historical figure and living reference for parks and landscape planning passed away 1 August 2019. Architect and Professor of urban and regional planning at Turin Polytechnic from 1981 to 2010, also the founder of the European Documentation Centre on Nature Park Planning at Turin Polytechnic, Professor Gambino devoted an important part of his research activity to protected area planning and management policies.

Photo: rivistaeco.it

In 1994 Roberto Gambino founded the European Documentation Centre on Nature Park Planning at the Polytechnic of Turin. Since the Nineties, the Centre has been focusing its research activity on nature and landscape conservation issues, in particular the relationship between European protected area policies and landscape planning policies. The Centre will stay focused on these topics, keeping alive the memory of his long and priceless work.

Prof. Gambino developed several important Park plans as well, which set the pace in the Italian framework of protected area policies. His numerous books* contributed to open and then define new visions and approaches on nature and landscape conservation issues, making him a point of reference for research on these topics.

"Prof. Gambino was an urban planner, architect and territorialist who has always paid attention to protected areas and who has always emphasized the importance of correct planning as a scientific and technical tool and as a democratic process," says Fabio Renzi of the Council Federparchi Board of Directors - He did this both with his studies and as a baker, having signed numerous plans for Italian parks, and among the many contributions to the system of protected areas I would like to mention two fundamental researches to which several of us have had the privilege of collaborating: ' APE, the European Park Apennines - environmental infrastructures and enhancement of protected areas in the European framework' , 2001, and ' National system of protected areas in the European framework: classification, planning and management .' (ref. http://www.parks.it/news/dettaglio.php?id=55647)

Member of the IUCN, Prof. Gambino always enthusiastically participated in the IUCN activities and congresses, eager to share with the international colleagues new conceptual and operational perspectives on protected area policies.

* From “Conservare Innovare. Paesaggio ambiente e territorio” (UTET, 1997) to “Nature Policies and Landscape Policies. Towards an Alliance” (edited with Attilia Peano for Springer, 2015)

See the following articles (in Italian) for deeper information on Professor Gambino: