The impact of land taken by logistics in two Italian regions. A proposal for a detection method to inform decision-making processes

In recent years, global e-commerce has grown exponentially due to the evolution of markets and companies’ selling strategies. Moreover, COVID-19 has accelerated this trend, increasing the demand for new logistic hubs, responding to the growing request for the online buying/selling of goods/ or services, while generating a remarkable land take process. The national database on LULC and municipal land use plans do not detect logistics, thus limiting the adoption of strategies and policies for contrasting the associated phenomenon of land taken. Photo-interpretation and manual validation techniques, in combination with ancillary geodata, could fill the gap through an in depth classification of selected land use categories for mapping logistic hubs in a simple, accessible and economic way. The method was tested in two northern Italian regions (Lombardy and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia). Results display radical differences between the two con-texts, emphasising the heterogeneous impacts generated by logistics on the landscape. Lombardy has a significant concentration of new hubs located in the municipalities surrounding the Milan metropolitan area, whereas, in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, this type of land take is only a marginal problem when compared to other land use change. Findings confirm the need to define tailor-made land classification methodologies that support the definition of site-specific land take management policies.