Francesco Zullo

Land urbanization in Central Italy: 50 years of evolution

The increasingly fast pace in urban conversion of land over the past 50 years in Italy is a phenomenon that is still difficult to quantify reliably owing to the chronic lack of knowledge at every territorial level, from national to municipal. This article describes the results of a study on the features of urbanization in the 1950s in the peninsular regions of Central Italy, based on uniform historical maps of the entire country. The historical data were compared from a qualitative and quantitative viewpoint with the present-day geography of settlements. Interesting information has emerged on possible significant thresholds in the relationship between demography and urban use of land, in addition to data on landscape effects to be construed as signs of specific trends underway today and scarcely taken into account by land management tools.

Models of Urban Land Use in Europe: Assessment Tools and Criticalities

The aim of this paper is to examine available homogenous data on urban conversion of land in Western European countries and determine whether they are suitable to make an international comparison between land policies and management behaviour at the local level. This paper provides some results obtained from currently available information, but it stresses major data production criticalities which hinder the performance of comparable and reliable overall statistical studies. Conclusions stress the need for greater detail in the production of primary data on the features and magnitude of territorial urbanisation in Europe, as the EEA is doing for main cities. Moreover, this paper includes some remarks on the contents of the preliminary documents of EU soil directive. In particular, it focuses on the issue of urban transformation thresholds over time, a topic that has already been tackled by some northern European countries, however using techniques which cannot be applied as they are to all other countries.

Half a century of urbanization in southern European lowlands: a study on the Po Valley (Northern Italy)

This work analyses urban growth, in terms of quality and quantity, in one of the vastest lowlands in southern Europe, the Po Valley (PV). Research on the PV is part of a wider project dealing with the whole of Italy and, to allow a comparison with the other national geographic realities, it was carried out using municipal data. The main objective is to analyse the dynamics of the phenomenon of land uptake from the post-war period to the noughties, highlighting some territorial and environmental effects, and to prepare a future risk scenario for this area which is the cornerstone of the European economy. In this geographical district, urban conversion of land is a territorial ‘disease’ resulting from complex economic dynamism and ongoing population growth. These scenarios may seem justified by the fact that the PV is the most productive territory in the country, but the PV is one of the most heavily polluted areas in Europe with a highly deteriorated environmental matrix. The PV extends over five Italian regions with different settlement histories and different urbanization models, models which are evaluated and compared even with some European cases in the study. They are, however, always urban forms that are spread sparingly over the territory. This is why, in its conclusions, the research proposes criteria of compacting and reducing sprinkling, and improving the quality of the environmental matrix.

Urban Development in Tuscany. Land Uptake and Landscapes Changes

The phenomenon of urban sprawl has been already recognized as one of the major anthropic threats to natural ecosystems and landscapes while the negative aspects of the phenomenon are still only marginally taken into consideration in the scientific and local government circles. The recent decision of the European Parliament points out that the degradation, fragmentation and non-sustainable use of land in the EU is jeopardizing several important ecosystem services, threatening biodiversity and increasing Europe’s vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters and desertification. The study regards the processing of data on urban land conversion over the past 50 years and the effects in the areas of high environmental vulnerability in one of the most important Italian region: Tuscany. The historical data were compared from a qualitative and quantitative viewpoint with the present-day geography of settlements, which showing changes found in today’s settlement-territorial structure. The conclusion reports focuses on collated environmental criticalities and the margins for recovery of the compromised territories that still today receive little attention from central institutions and local authorities, in addition to data on landscape effects to be construed as signs of specific trends underway today and scarcely taken into account by land management tools.

Landscape change in the European Mountain Areas. Settlement of the Alps: evolution and trajectories

The increasingly fast pace of urban conversion of land over the past fifty years in Italy is a phenomenon that has caused serious damage to the national landscape. The problem concerns the whole Italy but is most serious in those areas that produce important savings thanks to the quality of their landscape. In this sense, many references in the European Landscape Convention are recognizable in the Alps that are undoubtedly one of Italys most iconic landscapes in international perception, along with the cities of art. This paper describes the results of a research on the features of urbanization in the fifties in the Italian Alps, based on uniform historical maps of the entire country. Geostatistical surveys were conducted to determine the distribution changes of urban concentration over time and analyses were developed to point out what landscape and morphological elements have emerged, and are basically confirming greater sensitivity to land artificialization. A number of comparisons based on specific indicators were produced that show the typological and geographic variations of development taking place in the time period studied. Important information has emerged on the different territorial policies implemented by the regions over the long-term.

Il riassetto del suolo urbano italiano: questione di "sprinkling"?

Diverse ricerche in corso in Italia stanno indagando nel dettaglio i processi di urbanizzazione che hanno condotto alle particolari forme compromissorie e dissipative nella utilizzazione del suolo che e possibile riscontrare attualmente. La conoscenza di tali processi, anche molto differenti per tempi, luoghi e modelli espressivi, potrebbe consentire l’adozione di nuove regole per una razionale distribuzione degli usi. Gia da tempo emergono categorie tipologiche che distinguono piuttosto nettamente i fenomeni nazionali da quelli piu consolidati di altri Paesi e continenti, giustificando il ricorso a nuove definizioni. Da queste ultime, connotabili mediante set di adeguati indicatori, discendono poi soglie e criteri di intervento che si presentano fin d’ora complessi in termini di coinvolgimento socioeconomico, ambientale e politico e, conseguentemente, di tecniche urbanistiche mirate

Protected Areas, Natura 2000 Sites and Landscape: Divergent Policies on Converging Values

The identification of Natura 2000 sites in Italy has led to a significant change in the geography of environmental protection, by profoundly strengthening the role of ecological and naturalistic values in a country where the collective culture is traditionally more prepared to understand cultural values. In general, the identification of Natura 2000 Sites, carried out according to the guidelines established by Directive 92/43/EEC, was based on a more scientific and less politically “negotiated” process compared to the one followed for the determination of protected areas, by selecting habitats of community interest and not landscape or historical and cultural values. It seems very clear that these are two different types of areas with partially overlapping values that require forms of territorial planning and governance that optimize multiple conservation goals: while Nature 2000 sites protect habitats, protected areas extend their function to cultural landscapes, historical heritage and traditions. The Ecological Network should be a decisive model to classify values and integrate rules, avoiding excessively specialized approaches and applying instead the typical techniques of preservation biology and connectivity conservation, together with routine urban and infrastructure planning techniques.

The Italian Apennines between earthquakes, high naturalness and urban growth

This paper sets out the results of a study conducted in the inland areas in central Italy on certain phenomena that, for decades, have evolved separately: urban and socio-economic growth, environmental and cultural conservation and the curbing of seismic risk. The study was carried out by analysing the urban conversion of land in the Italian Apennines over the past 50 years, focusing on areas of varying seismic hazard. Our analysis highlights that territorial planning has failed to tackle this risk in an integrated manner, implementing entirely uncoordinated actions that have produced poor results. Thus, our main goal is to study urban development and its effects on the Apennine system and devise possible strategies to mitigate the seismic risk in this area of significant worth, but made extremely vulnerable by policies and solutions that have never been “nature-based”.

Spatial Methods to Measure Natura 2000 Sites Insularization in Italy

It is interesting to notice how Nature 2000 is described as an instrument of “widespread ecological network throughout the EU territories”, insisting in a definitional imprecision that has been dragging on for more than twenty years, and that was often, also authoritatively, criticized by many. Undoubtedly, many of these elements constitute the focal point of local ecological networks for species conservation importance, but their functionality depends on equally undoubtedly by the presence of ecologically permeable matrices that enable the biotic flows dynamics. The Italian Regions are the subjects of this study, as an expression of homogeneous forms of territorial government and as a reference on the administrative level for the implementation of Community policies for Nature 2000 network. The method followed in the work refers to an evaluate spatial fragmentation conditions methodology and the SCIs are the evaluated patches, which have a high dispersion on the national territory. This research has been conducted to show how the central issue of habitat and species conservation is still currently the fragmentation provoked by mobility infrastructures and urban growth.

L’espansione urbana nel sistema costiero sardo. Analisi, diagnosi e prospettive

L’obiettivo e quello di indagare gli effetti delle trasformazioni urbane che hanno interessato dagli anni ’50 ad oggi la Regione Sardegna, meta turistica di eccellenza del Mediterraneo. Considerando che la conversione urbana del suolo e ritenuta oggi una delle maggiori minacce antropiche a carico dell’ecosistema, la ricerca ha analizzato le dinamiche di queste trasformazioni sull’intero territorio e nel sistema costiero, facendo emergere modalita ed intensita dei fenomeni in gran parte inedite. La forte attrattivita turistica dei luoghi ha generato un problema politico oltre che urbanistico, al quale la regione ha cercato di porre rimedio con strumenti normativi e di pianificazione. L’analisi dei dati evidenzia le responsabilita gestionali dei singoli comuni al fine di consentire una riflessione sugli indirizzi urbanistici futuri in termini di governance ecosostenibile