Sustainable touristic development in marginal landscapes: The Mills Valley in Osilo (Sardinia)

This study exploits the rehabilitation of a watercourse as an opportunity to develop a sustainable touristic scenario for a small rural community. The river flows in a valley that had thirty-six mills serving the agriculture of the surroundings. The availability of newest and better power sources led to the decline of the valley, and the mills became farms, week-end houses, or went abandoned. This project takes full advantage of the restored waterflow designing multiple forms of interaction with different contextual issues related to the nature of the terrain and of the human settlement: as energy source; as sewage cleaning system through phytodepuration; as reclaiming expedient where it floods some abandoned quarries; and as organizing element of touristic affluence. The result is a series of integrated actions that produces a shift in the way of life of the community, designing a new sustainable landscape that originates from the peculiarities of the site and of its history.