The Effectiveness of SEA in Evaluating the Land Consumption. An Analysis on 100 SEAs in Lombardy, Italy

SEA is a tool useful to evaluate the environmental effects on the territory, generated by the urban transformations. In this study, the land consumption is the effect we take into account. Indeed, the paper aims at investigating how SEA is effective in evaluating it and, in case, in reducing the land consumption generated by the urban plans at municipal scale. The analysis considers the Italian context, in particular the Lombardy Region, which was, in 2005, the first Region in Italy having implemented the European Directive on SEA. Assuming that in Italy the land transformations are mostly decided by the municipal planning, 100 SEAs related to 100 different municipal urban plans, have been studied. It is the widest sample of SEA ever studied until now in Italy. The purpose of this research consists of verify how usually SEAs treat the issue of the land consumption and if they provide indicators, uniform and comparable each other, to measure it. First, it is introduced how SEA can evaluate the land&soil issue, starting from the initial intentions of the European Directive of 2001, to the translation in the Italian legislation. Then, it is explained the specific case of the Lombardy Region (in Italy the authority about these topics are transferred to each Regions), with its recent urban planning laws, the regional laws, RL 12/2005 and the RL 31/2014. The former changed the planning system at municipal scale; the latter wanted to govern and reduce the land consumption derived from the urban plans. In the fouth section, it is presented and discussed the indicators introduced by the RL 31/2014 to calculate the land consumption. The following part shows the analysis of 100 SEAs, considering whether they evaluate the land&soil issue and how they do (using the new indicators provided by the RL 31/2014 or not). In the conclusion the results of the analysis are commented, considering that the new Regional law did not success in making uniform the approach to evaluate and measure the land consumption.