Population growth stops in Italy but overbuilding increases: in 2019 420,000 children were born and we consumed 57 million square meters of land, at a rate of 2 square meters per second. It is as if every child born brought 135 square meters of concrete with them. Soil waste continues to advance in hydrogeological and seismic risk areas and among Italian cities, even if there are positive signs: Valle d’Aosta, with only 3 hectares of land waterproofed in the last year, is the first Italian region close to the “0 land consumption” objective and the amount of soil lost in a year within protected areas is halved.
These are some of the data contained in the Report “Land consumption in Italy 2020”, presented today by Ispra, the Higher Institute for Environmental Research.
Introducing the presentation of the Report, the president of Ispra Stefano Laporta,he stressed the importance of being able to have “an updated picture of the transformation processes of our territory which continue to cause the loss of a fundamental and non-renewable resource, such as the soil. The recognition of the value of natural capital is a theme that Europe reminds us of with the Green Deal, which is fundamental for us in light of the particular conditions of climatic fragility of our country. The data of the Report are fundamental in this phase of preparation of a national legislation on land consumption, currently under discussion in Parliament. A legislation that can finally guarantee the progressive slowdown and zeroing of land consumption in Italy “.
Let’s see these numbers. Veneto, with +785 hectares, is the region that consumed the most land in 2019, followed by Lombardy (+642 hectares), Puglia (+642), Sicily (+611) and Emilia Romagna (+404). Valle d’Aosta is the first region with near zero consumption (only 3 hectares more). Umbria, Liguria, Molise, Basilicata and Trentino Alto Adige are the other regions that this year have had increases of less than 100 hectares. Among the municipalities, Rome wins, so to speak, with an increase of 108 hectares in the last year, followed by Cagliari (+58 hectares) and Catania (+48 hectares). It is better in Milan, Florence and Naples with a consumption of less than one hectare in the last twelve months (in the last 7 years + 125 hectares in Milan, + 16 in Florence and +24 in Naples). Turin, after the decrease in 2018, starts building again, losing 5 hectares of natural soil.
The good news comes from protected areas. In 2019 there were 61 and a half hectares of compromised soil, a value that was halved compared to the previous year. Of these almost 15 hectares in Lazio and over 10 in Abruzzo. Bad news, on the other hand, from the coasts, already cemented for almost a quarter of their surface, the consumption of soil increases with an intensity 2-3 times greater than that which occurs in the rest of the territory. And again, in the last 7 years, between 2012 and 2019, the loss due to land consumption for agricultural production has reached 3 million 700 thousand quintals, the estimated economic damage of which is almost 7 billion euros.
But you can go back from concrete
According to the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment Roberto Morassut“Yes, you can go back. Today there are the technological conditions to regain waterproofed territories and the possibility of using new building materials that have the characteristics of being less impactful for the environment. There is a concrete possibility of imagining new cities based on a new model of urban and industrial development. To determine the conditions for a stop to land consumption up to the zero goal of the mid-century, it is necessary to intervene on the industrial mechanisms and on the economic processes that determine the expansion of urban areas in an indiscriminate manner. For this reason, some of the regulations contained in the various bills under discussion in Parliament will be anticipated in the Collegato Ambientale,
The new artificial coverings are not the only factor of soil and territory degradation, which is subject to different processes: the loss of productivity and organic carbon, erosion, fragmentation and deterioration of habitats. The estimate of degraded areas to evaluate the distance that separates us from the objective of Neutrality of Soil Degradation, foreseen by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, shows that only from 2012 to 2019 the very degraded areas have increased by more than 1,643 square kilometers and those with more limited forms of degradation even of 14,000 square kilometers.
“Unfortunately, we have to record too many delays on an issue that is central to our country – said the Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschiniconcluding the presentation of the Report -. Consuming land in Italy means burning a resource that allows our country to be competitive in the world with beauty, art, history, landscape. Values that the Constitution itself includes among its fundamental principles. It is necessary to intervene on the urban peripheries with “urban mending”, as Renzo Piano says, to requalify, recover, experiment rather than consume soil. The same goes for abandoned industrial areas which, in addition to being reclaimed, can also be redeveloped. Now, then, we also have a unique opportunity through the use of European funds to relaunch Italy in the coming years and do it in a specific direction so that every choice is linked to sustainable and lasting development “.
