Geographic Information Systems and Decision Processes for Urban Planning: A Case Study of Rough Set Analysis on the Residential Areas of the City of Cagliari, Italy

In Italy, urban planning is based on the city Masterplan. This plan identifies the future urban organization and a system of zoning rules. Land-use policies are based on these rules. The zoning rules should synthesize environmental and spatial knowledge and policy decisions concerning the possible futures, with reference to the different urban functions. In this essay, a procedure of analysis of the city Masterplan of Cagliari, the regional capital city of Sardinia (Italy), is discussed and applied. This procedure is referred to the residential areas. The procedure tries to explain the urban organization of the housing areas using a system of variables based on the integration of different branches of knowledge concerning the urban environment. The decisions on the urban futures that the zoning rules entail are critically analyzed in terms of consistency with this knowledge system. The procedure consists of two phases. In the first phase, the urban environment is analyzed and described. This is done by defining and developing a geographic information system. This system utilizes a spatial analysis approach to figure out the integration of the residential areas into the urban fabric. The second phase is inferential. Based on the geographic information system developed in the first phase, a knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) technique, the rough set analysis (RSA), is applied. This technique allows to recognize the connection patterns between the urban knowledge system and the city planning decisions. The patterns, the decision rules, which come from the RSA implementation are important starting points for further investigation on the development of decision models concerning urban planning.

Ecosystem Services, Green Infrastructure and Spatial Planning

Ecosystem services and green infrastructure do not appear to inform spatial policies and plans. National governments hardly identify their ecological networks or make an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. In this respect, this Special Issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that, besides guaranteeing wildlife movements, also provide a wide range of ecosystem services. The social and economic profile of this question is also relevant since in the long run, savings in public spending (e.g., due to the reduced need for grey infrastructures aiming at contrasting soil erosion or at managing flood risk), savings in private spending (e.g., on water treatment costs) and the potential creation of green jobs are foreseeable. Moreover, indirect and less easily quantifiable social and health benefits (e.g., due to improved natural pollution abatement) are likely to occur as well

SEA: Comparing Open Perspectives on Planning Sustainability in Sardinia (Italy) and Torbay (Devon,UK)

If Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to be effective and fulfil in the spirit of its governing EU Directive 2001/42/EC, cooperative and inclusive attitudes are essential. Cooperation should involve institutions, planning authorities and agencies which are involved in environmental assessment procedures. Inclusion implies favouring and catalysing local communities’ participation, that is participation of the public, in the planning/ assessment process.This paper discusses crucial aspects of SEA through a comparison of two case studies: the SEA of the Torbay Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 (LTPT) published by Torbay Council, and the Masterplan of the Port of the City of Cagliari, 2010 (MPPC) published by the Autorità Portuale di Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, to provide evidence and lessons of good practice for both the UK and Italy. These include the assessment of:i. the endogeneity of the SEA process’ with respect to the planning process;ii. the sustainability and participation approaches;iii. the way available alternative planning options are compared;iv. the definition of the monitoring process

Ecosystem services, green infrastructure and spatial planning

Ecosystem services and green infrastructure do not appear to inform spatial policies and plans. National governments hardly identify their ecological networks and made an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. In this respect, this special issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that, beside guaranteeing wildlife movements, also provide a wide range of ecosystem services. The social and economic profile of this question is also relevant, since, in the long run, savings on public spending (e.g., due to reduced need for grey infrastructures aiming at contrasting soil erosion or at managing flood risk), savings on private spending (e.g., on water treatment costs) and potential green jobs creation are foreseeable. Moreover, indirect and less easily quantifiable social and health benefits (e.g., due to improved natural pollution abatement) are likely to occur as well

Anthropization processes and protection of the environment: an assessment of land cover changes in Sardinia, Italy

Protection of the environment is implemented through preventive and mitigating measures aimed at hindering anthropization processes. These measures may possibly entail the establishment of natural protected areas and sites where conservation measures are stated under the provisions of the “Habitats” Directive (no. 92/43/EEC) and Directive no. 2009/147/EC (the so-called “Birds” Directive, which modifies Directive no. 79/409/EEC). A straightforward way of assessing widespread anthropization processes consists in analyzing land cover changes related artificialization processes concerning natural areas. In this study, we assess land cover changes by using the simplified land cover taxonomy of the Land and Ecosystem Account classes and by analyzing transition processes; in addition, we propose a comparative appraisal of land cover changes occurring in areas characterized by different protection regimes, as follows: areas protected under the provisions of national or regional acts or regulations, sites belonging to the Natura 2000 network, that is protected under the Habitats or Birds Directives, and unprotected areas. We analyze anthropization processes that take place in Sardinia, an Italian insular region characterized by the presence of several national and regional protected areas and by a significant system of Natura 2000 sites, and assess land cover changes over a twelve-year period (2000-2012). The outcomes of our study put in evidence important lessons related to the definition and implementation of planning policies aiming at preventing anthropization processes in Sardinia. Moreover, the assessment methodology we implement in our study can be exported to other European regions in order to set up planning processes which fit the local features of land cover changes

An ontology of the appropriate assessment of Municipal master plans related to Sardinia (Italy)

This paper discusses some key points related to the ontology of the “Appropriate assessment” (under Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992, the so-called Habitats Directive) procedure concerning plans significantly affecting Natura 2000 sites. We study this ontology by discussing its implementation into the adjustment process of the Masterplans of the regional municipalities of Sardinia (Italy) to the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP), and put in evidence some important general observations, coming from the case study, concerning the utility and effectiveness of the ontological conceptual framework in order to help planners and decision makers understand and structure the assessment process of plans

The influence of Natura 2000 Sites on land-taking processes at the regional level: an empirical analysis concerning Sardinia (Italy)

This article focuses on the role that the provisions of the Natura 2000 Network play in affecting land-taking processes by looking at the Italian region of Sardinia, where strict rules on land development have been enforced since 1993 through regional landscape plans and where an extensive Natura 2000 Network, covering nearly 19% of the regional land mass, was established in compliance with Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora and Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds. The results and inferences of our study could be easily generalized to other European Union regions, provided that similar geographic datasets are available. By shedding some light on the relation between land take on the one hand, and nature conservation and landscape protection on the other, it is possible to enhance regional planning policies to prevent or hinder land-taking processes, and, by doing so, to help implementing the European Commission recommendation on no net land take by 2050 into the EU regional policies

Historic Centers and Urban Quality: a Study Concerning Perceived Needs and Expectations

This paper proposes an econometric approach based on Discrete Choice Models to identify and analyze the residents’ needs and expectations concerning the spatial organization of the historic neighborhoods where they live, which provides inferences on residential satisfaction’s determinants. In this framework, determinants are grouped into three distinct categories as follows: i. level of satisfaction related to house; ii. neighborhood characteristics; iii. respondents’ social and demographic characteristics. The information coming from the implementation of the DCM-based analysis can be used as an important reference point for the definition of planning policies for historic centers’ preservation. In order to test and discuss its effectiveness, we use the model to analyze needs and expectations of the residents of the historic center of Cagliari, a medium-sized urban context of the Italian insular region of Sardinia

An analysis of regional drivers of land take over a 50-year time span: The case of Sardinia, Italy

Land take is a significant issue in the European Union (EU), where, according to the Communication of the European Commission no. 571 of 2011, no net land take should be achieved by 2050 and impacts on land take should be taken under strict control. It is therefore vital not only to understand what the main drivers of land takes are, but also whether they act similarly over time. To this end we analyze land-taking processes over two time periods, 1960-1990 and 1990-2008,and take the region of Sardinia as a case study so as to investigate if the main drivers of land take identified in previous studies bring about similar, or different, effects in the two periods

Factors Affecting Land-Taking Processes in Italy at the Regional Scale: Empirical Findings from Sardinia

Land take is a process of significant relevance in the countries of European Union (EU), defined as the “Change of the amount of agriculture, forest and other semi-natural and natural land taken by urban and other artificial land development” (European Environment Agency, 2013a). In 2011, the European Commission (EC) put in evidence that an important milestone for the EU should be to reach the goal of no net land take by 2050, and to take under strict control the impact on land-taking processes of the EU policies in the new Structural Funds programming period (2014-2020) (Communication of the EC to the European Parliament COM(2011) 571 of 20.9.2011). In a previous paper, we analyzed the land-taking process in the period 2003-2008 through the land cover maps of Sardinia, made available in 2003 and 2008 by the Sardinian regional administration (Zoppi and Lai, 2014), as related to factors which are identified as relevant variables in several studies concerning land take, such as area size, accessibility, proximity to main cities and small settlements, to the coastline, or to nature conservation areas. In this paper we study the Sardinian land-taking process in two time periods, 1960-1990 and 1990-2008. We assess if, and to what extent, these factors reveal similar, or different, effects in the two periods, and try to identify consistencies concerning the determinants of land take