The Urbanization Run-Up in Italy: From a Qualitative Goal in the Boom Decades to the Present and Future Unsustainability

Bernardino Romano, Lorena Fiorini, Alessandro Marucci and Francesco Zullo
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Bernardino Romano: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Via Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Lorena Fiorini: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Via Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Alessandro Marucci: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Via Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Francesco Zullo: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, Via Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

Land, 2020, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The research presented in the paper intends to overcome an information gap on the evolution of urbanized surfaces in Italy which in the studies carried out so far have never been available. The only historical data on this form of land use date back to the 1950s, and were extracted from a national cartography created by the Military Geographic Institute. The next chronological section available was then that of the noughties, already digital. However, much more frequent data were processed by the ten-year censuses by the National Institute of Statistics, but concerning buildings and not urbanized areas. By processing building census data, this study has put together some novel information on land take dynamics between the end of World War II and the year 2000, highlighting the more intensive processes that occurred at an extraordinary rate in the ‘70′s and ‘80′s, obtaining unprecedented information on the speed of transformation of the territory in these decades of economic boom. Through this method, we were able to obtain numerous geographical indications previously lacking on a national scale, highlight the yet significant vigor of this phenomenon and develop an inferential scenario.

Keywords: urban growth; land take; urban sprinkling; urban sprawl; urban risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:9:p:301-:d:405014

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