Pietro Laureano, an architect and urbanist, is UNESCO consultant for arid areas, Islamic civilization and endangered ecosystems.

He has lived for eight years in the Sahara working for study and restoration of oases in Algeria. With numerous essays and books published since the late 1980s, he demonstrated how oases are the result of human ingenuity, patrimony of techniques and knowledge to combat aridity and sustainable management model for the entire planet. He coordinates and manages projects based on the recovery of ancient techniques of water collection systems with various international organizations throughout the Mediterranean, Yemen, Mauritania and Ethiopia.

He promoted the recovery of the troglodyte town of the Sassi of Matera in the south of Italy, which had been completely abandoned in the 1960s, and is the author of the reports that led to the inclusion of the Sassi of Matera and the Cilento Park in the list Of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Reality in relation to the recovery of urban ecosystems and the preservation of the landscape.

He is founder and coordinator of IPOGEA Center for Traditional Knowledge, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Matera and Florence, which designs landscape conservation projects with ancient practices such as the use of dry stone terraces, water capture tanks And drainage galleries.

He is part of the UNESCO expert group who is working on the drafting of the new Landscape Convention. As an Italian representative in the United Nations Convention against Desertification (UNCCD) Technical and Scientific Committee and as Chairman of the Panel for Traditional Knowledge, he promoted the creation of a World Bank on Traditional Knowledge and their Use Innovative (www.tkwb.org). This initiative is being pursued together with UNESCO through the creation of the International Institute of Traditional Knowledge (ITKI), based in Florence, which will play a decisive role in the new Landscape Convention.

Main publications:

– 2001, P. Laureano, Water atlas, traditional knowledge for the fight against desertification, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin

– 1995, P. Laureano, The Reversed Pyramid, the oasis model for the planet Earth, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin.

– 1993, P. Laureano, Giardini di Pietra, the Sassi of Matera and the Mediterranean civilization, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 2nd edition 1997

– 1988, P. Laureano, Sahara, unknown garden, preface by Joseph Rykwert, Giunti, Florence, December edition, 2nd edition July 1989. Re-edition in French with the introduction of UNESCO World Heritage Director.Sahara jardin méconnu, Larousse, Paris, 1991