The European transhumance network. The ancestral infrastructuring of the territory for settlement rebalance in post-pandemic society.

The lockdown caused by the Covid-19 outbreak was an involuntary socio-environmental experiment demonstrating that the conditions exist to pursue alternative solutions to our short-sighted economic-productive system. Long neglected themes have returned to the center of the debate: the potential of inland areas in the policies of redistribution of settlement density; the value, not only cultural, of secondary historical settlements; the enhancement of ecosystem services due to large-area environmental systems; the role of urban spaces and proximity green spaces for the sustainability of dense settlements. For all these issues, the transhumance system has played a central role over time. In this new scenario, the article reports on a research effort aimed at defining a territorial model for the European transhumance network. The territorial system of transhumance, observed according to the taxonomic hierarchy proposed by the research, will be able to constitute a knowledge base for implementing policies for the conservation of customs, traditions, beliefs, food and wine culture, and expression of the pastoral world. Furthermore, the system may become a coherent framework aimed at assessing the environmental and landscape sustainability of rebalancing settlement transformations in a climate-proof way, with particular reference to the new mobility strategies and new settlement choices that will become appropriate in the post-pandemic era.