Recent  

In the field of regional geo-heritage promotion, this paper presents some opportunities, challenges and risks for geotope protection and geotourism.

Soil quality depends on water availability for plants. Sandy soils with a poorly permeable layer (fragipan) are considered inept for agriculture. However they are cultivated in Namibia as they secure a minimum harvest during droughts. In order to understand the hydrological influence of fragipans in these soils, soil moisture content was measured. The results illustrate that the combination of sandy topsoil and shallow fragipan has beneficial effects on plant-available water during dry periods.

The Monte Crenone rock avalanche of 1513 is well known on the southern side of the Alps because in 1515 it generated the largest inundation that has occurred in Switzerland in the Common Era, the Buzza di Biasca. New geological and historical observations allowed the setup of a numerical model of this major event, permitting a better definition of the chain of consequences that affected the alluvial plain of the river Ticino from Biasca to Lake Maggiore between the 16th and the 19th century.

The paper presents the results of recent geoarchaeological studies on the Ticino river alluvial plain. The sedimentological descriptions are combined with archaeological observations and constrained with radiocarbon dating. This approach, together with data from previous research and historical sources, provides an interesting overview of the eveolution of Ticino river morphosedimentary dynamics in relation to human settlements since the Neolithic.

This paper analyses two master plans of the canton Ticino from a philosophical point of view – the first one from 1990, Keynesian, and the second one from 2009, neoliberal. This type of analysis, by showing the political and moral concepts and criteria underlying a master plan, favours their political discussion and thus, ultimately, the implementation of a more inclusive planning process.

The essay combines the concept of social cohesion with Rudolf Stichweh’s system-theoretical concept of world society. These two approaches are combined hereafter with questions of spatial differentiation. The aim is to embed empirical micro-studies in macro-theoretical terms and to make them useful for empirical research in social geography and spatial science. The construct of “cohesive region” demonstrates this by using the example of urban neighbourhoods.