Italian local Food Atlases as basis to build a National Observatory on local food policies: watching, organizing, researching and sharing knowledge through a digital participatory platform for citizens and policy-makers”

Food Atlases (FAs) are tools to analyse, map, represent and communicate territorial food systems. FAs serve as a participatory platform for the design, decision-making and evaluation of local integrated food policies by facilitating dialogues, strategy development and identification of innovative solutions to influence food system transition towards sustainability. FAs serve to facilitate the science-policy interface by promoting scientific evidence-based policy and favouring citizen science through multi stakeholders’ engagement. Relying on the existing Local FAs in Italy - in particular those of Rome, Metropolitan Turin, and the Venice Lagoon, OnFoodAtlas project aims at: 1) create a model of Local FAs that can be adopted by local governments in developing integrated food policies and setting-up a digital platform connecting the Local FAs to support the National Observatory of Local Food Policies to monitor and analyse the development of local integrated food policies in Italy; 2) activate 4 new Local FAs in significant Italian geographical contexts (follower areas) characterised by conditions of particular vulnerability/potentiality of the local food system, also through creative tools aimed at including vulnerable groups; 3) developing a digital ecosystem, toolkits and guidelines accessible to the all actors involved in local food systems, complementing the Local FAs and the National Observatory to improve participatory processes in integrated local food policy making.