Valore ambientale dei massi erratici e valutazione d'impatto ambientale dell'arrampicata

Abstract

The Susa Valley is rich in erratic blocks left by Quaternary glaciations. While in ancient times they were ranked among the most important elements of the landscape, in the past few centuries they have been gradually destroyed. At first in order to use them as building materials, then to make room for building lots and the expansion of towns. Their scientific value as geological and paleoclimatic indicators is, as of yet, still high and not thoroughly investigated. This is way they fall into the category of protected environmental properties; however, the lack of knowledge concerning their whereabouts and the scarce information about their value ultimately make them all the more prone to gradual destruction. Since a few decades erratic blocks are central in a discipline belonging to sporting climbing, that is nowadays diffused again after a time of decadence. This sport increased public interest towards the kind of blocks that were peculiar to it. In this work the blocks' factors of geological, geomorphologic and archaeological interest, and the possible interaction between them and the sporting activity are analysed. Modern block-climbing practice follows rules that account for the smallest damage to erratic blocks. The damage is widely counterbalanced by the increase in public feeling for their usefulness, which protects them from uses implying a largely bigger damage, or their utter destruction altogether. Simple interventions to promote this activity are therefore strongly hoped for. They have the twin purposes of increasing the appeal of areas otherwise badly deprived in that department, and of constituting a starting platform for the publicity and promotion of the more naturalistic aspects of erratic blocks.