Micromunicipality (MM) and Inner Areas in Italy: A Challenge for National Land Policy

Bernardino Romano (), Francesco Zullo, Lorena Fiorini and Cristina Montaldi
Additional contact information
Bernardino Romano: Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Francesco Zullo: Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Lorena Fiorini: Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Cristina Montaldi: Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-16

Abstract: The following paper examines urban and territorial planning in Italy, where decision-making is entrusted almost exclusively to the almost 8000 small municipalities present in the country. Plans for and the transformation of built-up areas, infrastructure and social services of all types, and serving all purposes in a national territory of more than 300,000 square kilometers, are controlled by a multitude of Mayors, Boards and Municipal Councils that govern plots of land consisting of polygons of a few kilometers per side. This is generally achieved using urban planning tools developed without any general rule or protocol. Often, most of their content is even ignored as a result of national legislation that weakens them, making them largely irrelevant. This is a European example of urban mismanagement that should be brought to the wider attention of the European technical–scientific community because the debate developed so far on this topic—even by eminent and authoritative urban planners—has been almost entirely published in Italian only. Public and political attention around the issue is still extremely limited, although the serious effects of this “molecular planning” are beginning to be perceived: unjustified overurbanization and very disorganized, extremely energy-intensive and ecosystemically destructive urban layouts that are completely at odds with the public interests of environmental and urban quality. In the following paper, we make some comparisons with other European countries and outline some possible directions—certainly very difficult to follow—to rethink and remedy these negative effects.

Keywords: local planning; land take; micromunicipality; sustainable planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15169/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15169/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15169-:d:974026

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().