The 5th International Scientific Symposium of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division has just opened in Rome, bringing together specialists in geographical names, cartography, cultural heritage, linguistic rights, territorial governance and sustainability. The symposium, entitled “How toponymy can contribute to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” takes place from 3 to 5 June 2026 at the Italian Geographical Society, Villa Celimontana – Mattei Palace, in cooperation with the Italian Geographic Military Institute and the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy.
Opening Session
The symposium opened with welcome addresses by Luigi Postiglione, Pierre Jaillard, Helen Kerfoot, Maria Paradiso, Egidio Dansero, Gianluca Casagrande, and Andrea Cantile, under the chairmanship of Claudio Cerreti, President of the Italian Geographical Society. Gianluca Casagrande introduced the symposium on behalf of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division.
Session 1: Toponymy, Environment, Education and Identity
Luisa Spagnoli - “Toponymy as historical evidence of hydrogeological risk in Basilicata. An integrated approach combining the geo-historical dimension and satellite monitoring.”
This opening paper examines how place names may preserve evidence of environmental fragility and hydrogeological risk. Focusing on Basilicata, especially the Basento and Bradano river context, it links historical toponymy with satellite monitoring and sustainable territorial planning.
Andrea Cantile and Chiara Giuliacci - “Hydronymic evidence of human-water interaction: water supply and driving force in the small Terzolle Valley (Tuscany).”
This contribution studies hydronyms as witnesses to long-term relations between communities and water. The Terzolle Valley case suggests how water names can reveal patterns of supply, use, movement and local environmental knowledge.
Stefano Piastra - “Toponymy and education in Italy. Textbooks, in-service training for teachers, national curriculum guidelines for geography in schools: a critical balance.”
This paper turns to geographical names in education. It examines how toponymy is represented in Italian school textbooks, teacher training and national geography curricula, asking how place-name studies can strengthen geographical literacy and sustainability education.
Angelo Besana, Nicola Gabellieri and Chiara Lo Destro - “On boundaries, practices, and settlements: notes on hagiotoponymy as a source for historical geography.”
The authors explore hagiotoponymy — place names derived from saints or sacred figures — as a source for reconstructing historical geography. Such names may help trace settlement patterns, religious landscapes, local boundaries and community practices.
Filiberto Ciaglia and Riccardo Morri - “Unlocking the interpretive power of toponymy. A long-term Cartography Seminar to reconnect with place names and foster sustainable citizenship.”
This presentation connects cartographic education and civic awareness. It presents a long-term seminar model in which place names become tools for reconnecting learners with territory, history and responsible citizenship.
Malika Salhi - “Algerian odonymy: between strengthening national identity and the challenges of modernization and socio-political changes.”
This paper focuses on Algerian street names and their role in shaping national identity. It also addresses the pressure of modernization and socio-political transformation, showing how odonymy reflects changing public values.
Session 2: Territorial Memory, Political Authority and Mediation
Angelo Turco - “Naming space: symbolic control in the territorialization process of Sub-Saharan Africa.”
This lecture examines naming as a form of symbolic control in processes of territorialization. The title suggests a broad reflection on how place names participate in power, governance and the making of territorial order in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sara Racca - “Vernacular neighbourhood names and residents’ spatial structuring of the city: the case of Turin (Italy).”
This contribution studies unofficial or vernacular neighbourhood names in Turin. It highlights how residents mentally structure urban space and how local naming practices may differ from official administrative geography.
Francesco Valacchi - “Toponymy, historical memory and political authority in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: policy implications for sustainable development.”
This paper considers the relationship between place names, historical memory and political authority in Iraqi Kurdistan. It asks how toponymic policy can influence sustainable development and the recognition of contested or layered identities.
Lorenzo Bagnoli - “The memory of the territory: toponyms as indicators of environmental resilience.”
This talk treats toponyms as archives of environmental experience. Place names may encode past adaptations, hazards, resources or ecological knowledge, making them indicators of territorial resilience.
Annalisa D’Ascenzo - “The geohistorical trail ‘Barili and the Cinque Ville’. An ongoing project to preserve memory through place names.”
This presentation introduces a geohistorical trail project dedicated to preserving memory through local place names. It shows how toponymy can be integrated into public history, heritage routes and community engagement.
Denise Macciò - “Place names to read the World. Giacomo Gastaldi’s toponymic tables as tools of mediation between past and present.”
This paper examines the toponymic tables of the Renaissance cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi as instruments that mediate between historical geography and contemporary interpretation. It underlines the enduring value of historical cartographic names.
The first day also includes the inauguration of the exhibition “Place names and odeporical sources. Socotra and its liminal geohistories – Toponomastica odeporica. Socotra e le sue geostorie liminari,” edited by Annalisa D’Ascenzo.
Session 3: Health, Gender, Standardisation and Biocultural Heritage
Cosimo Palagiano - “Good health and well-being in the city of Rome.”
Opening the second day, this presentation links toponymy and urban well-being in Rome. It appears to connect place, health, city space and SDG-related reflections on quality of life.
Annamaria Bartolini and Giovanni De Santis - “Stories of life and landscapes of memory: gender equality in the construction of territorial identity. The case of Umbria.”
This paper examines gender equality in relation to territorial identity and memory landscapes. Through the Umbrian case, it likely considers how names and commemorative practices include or exclude women from public spatial memory.
Catherine Cheetham - “Romanization and orthography: standardisation, cultural heritage and the SDGs.”
This contribution addresses the technical but highly consequential questions of romanization and orthographic standardisation. It links naming standards to cultural heritage, accessibility and sustainable development.
Lydia Flöss - “Lavis, Mezzocorona, Mezzolombardo, Roveré della Luna, Nave San Felice, Nave San Rocco: Trentino settlement names and their relationship with water.”
This paper analyses Trentino settlement names in relation to water. By focusing on names such as Lavis, Mezzocorona and Nave San Rocco, it shows how settlement toponymy may preserve environmental and hydrological history.
Federica Cugno - “Orally transmitted toponymy as biocultural heritage: insights from the Atlante Toponomastico del Piemonte Montano.”
This talk presents orally transmitted place names as biocultural heritage. Drawing on the Atlante Toponomastico del Piemonte Montano, it highlights the urgency of documenting local microtoponymy before it disappears.
Session 4: Standardisation, Nautical Charts and Historical Layers
Gianluca Casagrande and Roberta Rodelli - “Italians and the ‘Cold Coasts’, or: a story about cultural inclusiveness and the appropriateness of toponymic standardisation.”
This paper discusses the cultural and practical questions behind toponymic standardisation. The “Cold Coasts” case appears to raise issues of inclusiveness, exonyms/endonyms and the appropriateness of naming conventions in international contexts.
Josip Faričić - “Geographical names on early nautical charts of the Adriatic Sea.”
This contribution explores the geographical names found on early Adriatic nautical charts. It brings together cartographic history, maritime geography and the transmission of coastal toponyms.
Fatima Louati and Nourelhouda Benlakhdar - “From place names to sustainability: the role of touristic toponymy dictionaries in achieving the SDGs (a case study of Tlemcen, Algeria).”
This paper presents touristic toponymy dictionaries as tools for sustainable development. The Tlemcen case shows how place-name documentation can support tourism, heritage interpretation and local identity.
Ivana Crljenko and Dino Mujadžević - “What can be learned from the toponymy in Ottoman-ruled Croatia: preliminary insights.”
This contribution examines place names from the period of Ottoman rule in Croatia. It offers preliminary insights into how historical toponymy can reveal administrative, linguistic and cultural layers of the past.
Elena Dai Prà, Federico Gestri and Chiara Lo Destro - “From icons to towns. Anthroponymic municipal renaming in Post-Unification Italy as a marker of territorial identity.”
This paper investigates municipal renaming after Italian Unification, especially cases based on personal names. It considers how anthroponymic place names helped construct territorial identity in the modern Italian state.
Session 5: Linguistic Rights, Minority Names and Endangered Microtoponymy
Aleksander Bruss and Laura Sgubin - “The preservation of linguistic and biocultural heritage through toponymic standardization: the case of Slovenian place names in the Province of Udine in Italy.”
This presentation addresses Slovenian place names in the Province of Udine. It highlights how standardisation can support minority-language rights and preserve linguistic and biocultural heritage.
Guglielmo Cevolin - “Toponymy, linguistic rights and community sustainability: legal perspectives.”
This paper brings legal perspectives into the symposium. It examines the relationship between toponymy, linguistic rights and sustainable communities, showing how naming policy can become a matter of justice and recognition.
Andreja Kalc - “Toponymic palimpsests: a shift in standardisation models for Slovene endonyms in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.”
This contribution studies Slovene endonyms in Friuli-Venezia Giulia as toponymic palimpsests. It focuses on changing models of standardisation and the layered coexistence of names in multilingual border regions.
Andreas Hadjiraftis - “How toponymy in Cyprus can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
This paper offers a Cyprus-focused perspective on the symposium’s main theme. It considers how toponymy can support the SDGs in a multilingual and politically sensitive island context.
Lena Mirošević - “Public naming of the Zadar cityscape.”
This presentation examines public naming in Zadar. It likely addresses street names, urban memory, local identity and the symbolic organisation of public space.
Arturo Gallia - “Uninhabited but named: safeguarding the oral microtoponymy of Zannone Island as endangered biocultural heritage.”
This paper focuses on Zannone Island, showing that even uninhabited places can preserve dense networks of oral microtoponyms. Such names are treated as endangered biocultural heritage requiring documentation and protection.
Giorgia Ciolli - “Toponymy, art and memory: artistic practices as tools for the sustainable reinterpretation of place.”
This contribution connects toponymy with artistic practice. It explores how art can reinterpret place names, memory and landscape in ways that support sustainable cultural engagement.
Session 6: Multilingual Governance, Gender Equality and Inclusive Toponymy
Franco Finco - “Multilingual place names and sustainable governance in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.”
This talk examines multilingual place names in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and their role in governance. It highlights how official recognition and management of multilingual toponymy can support sustainable administration and cultural coexistence.
Peter Jordan - “The problem of gender asymmetry in street naming.”
This paper addresses the widely observed imbalance between male and female commemoration in street naming. It connects odonymy with gender representation, public memory and urban symbolic justice.
Assia Kessour - “Naming patterns in the Algerian educational space from a gender equality perspective: a toponymic-sociological approach.”
This contribution studies naming patterns in Algerian educational spaces from the perspective of gender equality. It combines toponymic and sociological approaches to examine whose names are represented in institutional landscapes.
Valeria Pecorelli and Giuseppe Muti - “Who gets a street? Gender equality, inclusive toponymy, and the politics of SDG 5.”
This paper directly connects street naming with SDG 5, gender equality. It asks who is commemorated in public space and how inclusive toponymy can help correct symbolic imbalances.
Genc Lafe - “The evolution of Albania’s toponymy in the last one hundred years as a case study.”
This presentation offers a century-long overview of Albanian toponymic change. It appears to treat Albania as a case study of how political, linguistic and cultural transformations reshape place-name systems.
Session 7: Historical Reconstruction through Toponymy
José Miguel Delgado Barrado and Juan Manuel Castillo Martínez - “Reconstructing territory through toponymy: the Enlightenment project of the Camino Real between Andújar and Mestanza (Eighteenth century).”
This paper uses toponymy to reconstruct an eighteenth-century Enlightenment territorial project along the Camino Real between Andújar and Mestanza. It shows how place names can help recover planned routes, settlement strategies and historical spatial imagination.
Laura Partal Ortega - “Toponymy and the construction of contemporary identity: Frederick II of Prussia’s settlements in the Warta River basin.”
This contribution studies the settlements of Frederick II of Prussia in the Warta River basin and their role in contemporary identity construction. It connects historical colonisation, naming and present-day memory.
Francisco José Pérez Fernández and Álvaro Moreno Martínez - “Historical place names and urban sustainability: the urban nomenclature of La Carolina (Spain).”
This paper examines the urban nomenclature of La Carolina in Spain. It links historical place names with urban sustainability and the preservation of local identity within contemporary city planning.
Francisco Javier Illana López - “Historical place names and rural heritage: evidence of the repopulation of the Sierra Sur and the Sierra Mágina (Jaén, Spain) in the 16th century.”
This presentation uses place names as evidence for sixteenth-century repopulation in the Sierra Sur and Sierra Mágina. It shows how rural toponymy can preserve traces of demographic and territorial history.
Antonio J. Ortiz Villarejo - “Toponymy as a tool for reconstructing Roman exploitation and settlement in Sierra Morena and the Guadalimar Basin (Republic–Early Empire).”
The final listed paper reaches back to the Roman period. It uses toponymy to reconstruct patterns of exploitation and settlement in Sierra Morena and the Guadalimar Basin from the Republic to the Early Empire.
Why This Symposium Matters
Taken together, the programme shows how broad the social role of toponymy has become. Place names are used here as evidence of environmental risk, water management, migration, minority rights, gender equality, urban memory, colonial and postcolonial authority, biocultural heritage, education, tourism, art and historical reconstruction.
The symposium is therefore important not only for specialists in geographical names, but also for scholars and practitioners working in sustainability, cultural heritage, cartography, education, public policy and community memory. Its main message is clear: toponymy can contribute to the SDGs because place names help societies understand where they are, what they have inherited, whose memory is represented, and how territory can be governed more inclusively and sustainably.
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