Abbreviations; Introduction; 1 New Perspectives on Ecological Networks; Abstract; 1.1 The Impact of Urbanization Processes on the Consumption of the Soil and on the Fragmentation; 1.2 From Protected Natural Areas to Reticular System; 1.3 The Paradigm of the Ecological Networks; 1.4 European Policies About Ecological Networks; References; 2 Ecological Networks and Planning; Abstract; 2.1 The Issue of Regulation; 2.2 The Re-processing of Values: New Types of Planning?; 2.3 Ecological Networks in Planning Instruments; 2.4 The Case of Italy

2.5 The Italian Census of Local Scale Planning Instruments According to the Ecological Network ModelReferences; 3 Ecological Network, Application of a Model in Sicily; Abstract; 3.1 Soil Consumption and Fragmentation of the Regional Natural System; 3.2 Urban-Planning Versus Environment-Planning; 3.3 A Reticular System for the Protected Areas; 3.4 The Application of the Ecological Network in Wide-Area Planning in Sicily: The Case of the Metropolitan City of Palermo and of the Libero Consorzio Di Siracusa; References; Conclusions; References