Introduction. Flowing consciuosness and the becoming of waterscapes

Within the idea of ‘waterscape’, a special heed will be paid to canals and rivers as linear paths of high cultural value where it is possible to identify specific and unique environmental heritage. Much has been written about the multiple values of the major waterways of Europe. The network of secondary, or ‘minor’, regional hydrography - minor rivers and secondary canals for example - is equally significant in forming a multi-functional resource that can address the objectives of both the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 and the new European agenda, as set out in Europe 2020. The idea of multi-functionality is consistent with a holistic understanding of the culture-nature relationship, going well beyond the framework of intangible values found in traditional cultural landscape studies. In this article I want to face with the possibility to recognize in hydrography not only valuable assets that are at the core of landscape management, but also more intangible aspects that could actually matter deeply to people, such as “familiarity” or the complex emotional (and often unknown) relationships that affect what is understood as “fluvial sense of place”.