Da palude a “Granaio del Tirolo”: la bonifica della Val Venosta nel XIX secolo attraverso la cartografia

Till to the end of the Vinschgau valley was mostly characterized by swamps and marches. During the 19th century several projects drastically changed the morphology of the valley floor. Land drainage was substantially improved and the ground became very fertile. Thanks to this massive transformation and ground melioration the valley was nicknamed Kornkammer Tirols (Tyrolean granary). In last decades the further change towards intensive farming and orchard confirmed the efficiency of 19th century interventions. This papers investigates cartographic and other archive sources in order to reconstruct the historical evolution of the valley and the genesis of land melioration, aimed to transform the valley in a modern agricultural region. Between several sources, very significant is a topographical map (1: 3.456, year 1817) which describes most of the valley floor and is notable for its accuracy. The map is very suitable for geo-refering and comparison with contemporary topographic maps. This survey is related to a greater multidisciplinary research project - named Etsch 2000 - which involves engineers, historical geographers, geo-morphologists and archaeologists in order to reconstruct the evolution of entire Etsch Valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.