Strategic Environmental Assessment and spatial planning in Italy: sustainability, integration and democracy

Abstract

This paper investigates the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to spatial planning in Italy. We discuss SEA effectiveness by focusing on three main dimensions: sustainable development, environmental policy integration and democratic governance. The methodology includes the analysis of 27 SEA reports and interviews with key actors. Findings suggest that SEA is beginning to insinuate ecological rationality and improving environmental policy integration across planning levels and disciplinary boundaries. SEA also leads to progress in transparency and communication, whereas the actual involvement of the public in decision making is still weak. Future developments may address the potential contribution of SEA to focusing planning on long-term, shared, visions of socio-ecological systems.

Keywords:

• Strategic Environmental Assessment
• spatial planning
• sustainable development
• environmental policy integration
• democratic governance

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to three anonymous referees for highlighting shortcomings and suggesting useful amendments. C. Rega thanks Agata Spaziante (at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy) and Giorgio Baldizzone. A. Bonifazi wishes to thank Carmelo M. Torre and Dino Borri (at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy), and Abdul Khakee (at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden).

The two authors contributed equally to designing and carrying out the study. To make writing more efficient, Sections 1, 2.1, 3, and 4 (except 4.3) were drafted by C. Rega, while Sections 2 (except 2.1), 4.3, and 5 were drafted by A. Bonifazi; Section 6 was jointly written by the authors. Both authors have read and approved the final manuscript

Notes

1. Such as programmatic environmental impact statements under the provisions of the 1969 US National Environmental Policy Act.

2. The Aarhus Convention was negotiated within the framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and came into force on 30 October 2001.

3. Legislative decree 3 April 2006, n. 152, and subsequent amendments and integrations.

4. For local plans, the power of establishing the Competent Authority is left to Regional Legislators. As a consequence, arrangements vary considerably among regions; in regions that opted for full subsidiarity (e.g. Lombardy, Tuscany), the Competent Authority is established within the municipal government itself. Elsewhere (e.g. Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto), the Competent Authority for SEA is established at the regional or provincial level.

5. These are, according to the Italian law, ad hoc decision bodies made up of representatives from all authorities whose involvement is needed in order to grant development consent, or more generally secure consensus on a specific issue.

6. Following recent amendments to regional regulations, SEA now also applies in Lombardy to the other municipal planning documents.

7. We refer to similar participatory projects in the city of Monopoli (www.partecipapug.it) and in a consortium of five towns in the Province of Ferrara (www.comune.argenta.fe.it/psc/strumenti/psc_strumenti.aspx).

8. Recent reforms in both regional regulatory frameworks are likely to significantly alter the described contexts; in Tuscany (from 2012), sustainability evaluation has been discontinued, its contents being subsumed partly in SEA and partly in the planning process itself; in Campania (as of 2011), municipalities have become the competent authorities for SEA concerning local spatial plans.