La bassa valle del Tronto tra XIX e XX secolo: le trasformazioni al contesto rurale nei documenti d’archivio e nelle fotografie del Consorzio di Bonifica

The paper considers the alterations to the lower valley of the Tronto River (province of Ascoli Piceno, region of the Marche) in the 19th and the 20th century. The process of landscape transformation is documented by archival documents, and by photographs portraying the works of the Consorzio di Bonifica. The photographs attest to the technical efforts for the rearrangement of the local orographic and hydraulic systems, for purposes of agricultural development. The study first examines the irreversible modifications to the river's flow rate, primarily through comparison to the previous situation, as described in the Pius-Gregorian cadastral maps. The study then examines how these engineering strategies transformed the rural landscape, at that time still linked to ancient traditions, into a "planned" area characterized by intensive farming, and where new residential and industrial districts were also built as the decades progressed.