River as a trigger for active citizenship of small rural communities: a case study in Central Italy

Riverscapes have a crucial role and they must be safeguarded in order to ensure social, environmental and economic development. In order to ensure sustainability, ecological restoration and restoration strategies, the maintenance and improvement of the environmental quality is indispensable and policy makers, scientists and civil society are often today involved in the development of criteria and indicators for environmental governance management objectives. For these reasons, the active participation of citizens is essential to ensure effective protection of the environment at local level, especially in areas affected by the ageing population, emigration and a declining economy. This work explores the weaving of local knowledge, experiences, perceptions, and values of water and place by working with diverse communities and people that know Chiauci, a little village in Alto Molise, in Central Italy. This eco-social research project discovered concerns and needs of a territory through the understanding of the perception by local residents and goers of a recent-built artificial basin, and to consider their adaptation. Structured questionnaire surveys and unstructured interviews were conducted among adults and young people. We critically examined the opportunities and the tensions to people's past, present, and future connections and relationships with the local water environment and their senses of self and/or community. The results showed that drought is a severe crucial climatic event in this area. Moreover, we have identified "top tips" concerning the participatory knowledge and values. These can contribute to co-working with communities to enable and empower citizen engagement with places and local water issues for resilient futures. Local perceptions should be a key to find the process and solutions, by taking into consideration all stakeholders in order to integrate with scientific knowledge. Our findings contribute new understandings of "hydrocitizenship".