Strategies for Democratizing Development. Application of Geodesign in a Low-Context Culture

Geodesign involves multiple stakeholders, including community members, planners, designers, and policy-makers, to collaborating in designing solutions to local development. Public involvement in the co-design process is a worthwhile means of generating consensus on choices and of raising awareness of the territorial structural issues and associated risks. In fact, during the knowledge building phase, spatial critical points can be highlighted in a readily communicative form that can be interpreted even in a low-context culture. Hence, this resilience-oriented co-design approach is part of the MITIGO project, which aims to deploy a framework for innovative and sustainable hydrogeological and seismic risk mitigation solutions targeting road connections and strategic structures in mountain areas typically located in the Basilicata region. In these areas a survey showed the demand for more constancy in the co-participation of the population in decision-making processes by fostering a democratic approach to local development and ensuring iterative planning. The learning process analyzed the territory to train and inform participants, raising awareness of territorial governance and urban transformation issues. The methodology applied in this experience shows alternative participatory approaches to sustainable, inclusive, and innovative future planning in risk scenarios.