LAND RECLAMATION. — In its etymological meaning (bonum facere), the term summarizes the work carried out by man in order to “make good” an environment that adverse causes keep in a deteriorated state of backwardness. In its ordinary meaning, when referring to land, it denotes the action undertaken to give it that productivity which unfavorable environmental conditions have diminished.
In Italy, reclamation works were carried out from the most ancient times. The Etruscans reclaimed the Maremme and built flourishing cities there; the Volscians transformed the Pontine Marshes; the Romans devoted themselves above all to draining the Rieti valley, the Val di Chiana, and Lake Fucino; Greek colonies reclaimed the Ionian coasts, where the cities of Taranto, Sybaris, and Syracuse arose. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the irruption of the barbarians, stagnant waters and malaria returned almost everywhere. Reclamation works were, however, resumed by certain Benedictine families, especially the Cluniacs and Cistercians. Over the centuries the Venetian Republic likewise carried out extensive reclamation works; while, under the Lorraine Grand Dukes, the Val di Chiana was reclaimed and the restoration of the Grosseto Maremma was begun. Among the Pontiffs, Clement VIII (1592–1605), Innocent XI (1676–89), and Pius VI (1775–99) distinguished themselves in reclamation works: the latter, ably assisted by the engineer Rappini, brought the drainage of the Pontine Marshes almost to completion (v. MONACHISMO; PIO VI, PAPA; STATO).
Among the most common causes of the deterioration of land, hydraulic disorder is especially important, since it can cause floods, waterlogging, landslides, erosion, etc. For this reason, the word reclamation, or land improvement, refers chiefly—and referred to it even more in the past—to the hydraulic restoration of a territory.
As such, hydraulic reclamation had, especially in the last century, a predominantly hygienic purpose, namely, combating malaria caused by marshland. But since its essential purpose is to restore a higher degree of productivity to the land, its agricultural purpose has gradually emerged as predominant. Reclamation therefore seeks a more complete and comprehensive form of land use, in order to increase its productivity and, with it, the well-being of the populations that benefit from II. This results not only from the greater abundance of products that can be obtained from reclaimed land, but also from greater stability and continuity in employment, better forms of settlement, and a higher standard of living among rural populations.
The social purpose is thus combined with the hygienic and economic purposes and sometimes, as in the case of the need to bring new land under cultivation in order to absorb demographic surpluses, or of the agrarian transformation of land under latifundist economies, ultimately prevails over the economic purposes themselves.
To achieve these complex purposes is to ensure that reclamation has its comprehensive character. The definition of “comprehensive reclamation,” which had already appeared in earlier documents, was introduced especially in the law of 24 December 1928 and codified in the legislative text of 13 February 1933. It may be expressed as the “coordinated implementation of all the works and activities necessary to adapt the land to a higher level of production and rural coexistence” (Serpieri).
Reclamation is carried out in specific territorial units called districts, classified by legislative or administrative measure. The districts may be of two categories, in the first of which the purposes of colonization predominate.
Reclamation is undertaken according to a general plan of coordinated works and activities: the works carried out include all those that may be necessary to achieve the purposes indicated above. The major works of common interest to the entire district or to a substantial part of it (hydraulic regulation of waterways and land levels, reforestation and the establishment of windbreak plantations; agricultural and potable use of water; roads; creation of villages and centers of civic life for rural populations; electrification of the countryside) are public in character and, as such, reserved to the competence of the State, which contributes most of the expenditure and may carry them out directly or entrust their execution to the consortium of the interested proprietors.
The resulting land-improvement works capable of conferring upon the reclaimed territory its high productive potential are privately administered and therefore left to private initiative, but are obligatory for the proprietors in accordance with the agrarian-transformation directives approved together with the general reclamation plan. Proprietors who fail to meet these obligations may be replaced by the consortium in carrying them out, or expropriated when they are unable or unwilling to perform them.
Reclamation districts in Italy cover a total area of more than 9,000,000 hectares, of which approximately 2,500,000 are represented by lowland reclamation projects of predominantly hydraulic character; approximately 700,000 hectares by irrigation reclamation projects; more than 4,000,000 hectares by extensive complexes and agrarian-transformation areas; and 2,300,000 hectares by hill and mountain reclamation projects. The first two categories are located mainly in the Po Valley and along the Venetian coast. The others concern for the most part the Tuscan-Latian Maremma, southern Italy, and the Islands, while the mountain projects affect chiefly the foothills of the Apennines.
The works completed are very considerable, especially in the Po Valley and the Veneto, where the hydraulic and drainage works may now be considered close to completion. Among the largest reclamation projects in the Veneto are those of Lower Friuli, the Lower Piave, the areas surrounding the Venetian lagoons, and the Lower Polesine. In the Po Valley there are the Cremona-Mantua reclamation district, the Lower Parma district, Parmigiana-Moglia, Burana, the Renana reclamation district, and practically the entire province of Ferrara, from the Terre Vecchie to the great Ferrara reclamation district, the Valli di Mesola, and the lands surrounding the Valli di Comacchio. A particular characteristic of these districts is that a large part of the land lies below the flood level of embanked rivers or of the sea. In the lowlands, the outflow of spring or rainwater is ensured by pumping installations. The areas mechanically drained amount to 680,000 hectares, of which 600,000 are in the Po Valley and the Veneto alone.
Among the major Tuscan reclamation projects, we may mention the Grosseto Maremma and the Val di Chiana. In Latium: Maccarese, Ostia, and the reclamation of the Agro Pontino (90,000 hectares), recently redeemed from the marshes, where several cities and small towns have been built—Latina, Sabaudia, Pontinia, Aprilia, and Pomezia—as well as more than 3,000 farms under the auspices of the Opera Nazionale Combattenti.
Southern reclamation projects are at a less advanced stage because of the greater difficulty of the problems to be solved and the agrarian transformation to be carried out on land under extensive cultivation and latifundist economies.
The largest districts, where the works have been largely completed and where work is still continuing, are those of the Lower Volturno, the Sele, the Tavoliere of Apulia, the Lower Premurgiana, and the Lucanian Ionian coast between the Bradano and the Agri (Metaponto). In Calabria, the plains of Sibari, the Neto, and S. Eufemia. In Sicily, the plains of Catania and Gela, and the Belice basin. In Sardinia, the Campidani of Cagliari and Cristano (the latter irrigated with the waters stored in the artificial lake of the Tirso, which made possible the agricultural development of the desolate area of Terralba, where a new municipality, Arborea, and one of the most modern agricultural enterprises have arisen), Lower Sulcis, the Agro of Chilivani, and the Nurra, where the village of Fertilia was built.
The execution of reclamation works, especially in the extensive southern areas, is closely connected with any possible rational agrarian reform.