Municipality of Gaiba

Gaiba is a village on the border of Rovigo and Ferrara provinces with 1000 inhabitants overlooking the banks of the river Po, the longest river in Italy. The village is located between Venice and Bologna, in a rural and agricultural-oriented area. The new administration of the municipality of Gaiba took the challenge of developing the village into several paths. The main motivation was the citizen's disappointment with the stagnation and inertia in the village, in addition to the feeling of being abandoned by local institutions. The village is facing several issues: lack of jobs, agricultural crisis, depopulation, and youth out emigration, but still with the social engagement and commitment the village is having, human capital is a great resource. As a consequence of every crisis, creativity and innovation are growing by considering local richness and open-mindedly seeking and taking inspiration from worldwide projects. The longest river in Italy, the biodiversity and environment of the countryside, the historical and archaeological sites such as old villa, 10-centuries monastery ruins, barbarian tomb, horse ranch, and unique tennis grass courts in Italy that can attract tourists, engage citizens into entrepreneurship activities, and increase attention on this area. Still, the administration is struggling to realize its political dream to become a smart village.

Learning community in Renewable Energy

The municipality is working on improving energy efficiency in the municipality buildings and school. The heating systems are being switched to heat pumps, insolation in public buildings is being improved and solar panels will be implemented for renewable electricity production. The public lighting is already almost 90 % switched to LED lights, and they are working on switching the rest in the near future. The village applied to several applications for renewable energy community funding. They are planning to start a renewable energy community with solar power production on the local buildings to be more resilient as a community

Country

Italy

Type

not specific

Degree of urbanization

rural

population of 960

Check out the village strategy:

Village vision document of Gaiba

Village Solutions

Renewabe Energy Community

To tackle energy poverty and be more resilient to the energy crisis, the Municipality of Gaiba wants to start an energy community. They plan to use solar panels for the production of renewable electricity. The produced energy will be shared with other members of the community, including vulnerable households too.

Economy | Environment | Living

Sustainable tourism

The village wants to attract more people to visit it for relaxation and recreation. To provide a better environment for that, they plan on building pedestrian paths and bike lanes along the banks of the Po River. Also, public spaces like outdoor gyms and parks will be built to support that. It will give an opportunity for hosting events, collaborating with other regions, and attracting water sports events like rowing.

Economy | Living

Sports center

A group of local volunteers gathered and renovated old ruins to build unique tennis courts in Italy. Now they are used for international tennis tournaments and are attracting a lot of tennis players and tourists from all around the world. The new idea is to further extend this by building a new sports center that could be used for the tournament, but also as a working space, gym, conference hall or similar, all year round.

Economy | Living | Mobility & connectivity

Contact Information

Municipality of Gaiba, info@comune.gaiba.ro.it

https://www.comune.gaiba.ro.it/
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