Italy's land border follows the watershed that separates the drainage basins of northern and southern Europe. Running mostly at high altitudes, it crosses snowfields and perennial glaciers—all of which are now melting as a result of anthropogenic climate change. As the watershed shifts so does the border, diverging from its representation on official maps. Italy, Austria, and Switzerland have consequently introduced the novel legal concept of a "moving border," which acknowledges the volatility of geographical features once thought to be stable. The book builds upon the Italian Limes project by Studio Folder, which started in 2014 to survey the fluctuations of the boundary line in real time. It brings together critical essays, visualizations, maps and documents from state archives to show how natural borders are produced through spatial and historical narratives—and hints at the challenges that global warming poses to Western conceptions of territory.

Marco Ferrari is an architect and codirector of Studio Folder, a design and research studio based in Milan. He graduated at IUAV in Venice and holds a MA in history and theory from the Architectural Association in London. His research centers on the relationship between cartography, visual representation, and politics, working across a diverse range of outcomes and research methodologies. Ferrari has been one of the founding partners of the architecture collective Salottobuono, and was creative director of Domus magazine between 2011 and 2013. He has been teaching Information Design at ISIA in Urbino since 2010 and at IUAV in Venice between 2013 and 2016.

Elisa Pasqual is a designer and codirector of Studio Folder. She has recently finished a PhD in design sciences at IUAV in Venice, with a research that maps the evolution of the visual communication of nation states at the intersection of design, politics, and identity. She taught visual design at the bachelor's and master's level at IUAV from 2008 to 2015.

Andrea Bagnato is an architect and book editor. Since 2014 he has been working on the research project Terra Infecta, which looks at epidemiology as an agent of urban and territorial transformation. Bagnato has previously worked as publications manager for the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, and is currently head of publications for the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. He also teaches at the Architectural Association and Piet Zwart Institute.