Land transformation and new road infrastructures. An analysis on direct and inducted impacts due to the Brebemi highway

The paper reflects on the relation between land transformations and the construction of new road infrastructure, by focusing on the quantification of soil consumption related to highways. Such infrastructures are relevant cases since they can impact both directly and indirectly on the land cover: directly if we consider the soil sealing produced by the infrastructure itself (the natural soil urbanized to realizing the highway); indirectly if we consider the inducted transformations enhanced by the realization of the highway (e.g. other new infrastructures connected to the highway or productive and logistic areas close to it). The paper focuses on the Italian case study of the Brebemi highway, recently realized in the Lombardy Region (Italy). It represents one of the first scientific quantification of direct and inducted land transformations related to this new mobility infrastructure. The results demonstrate the heavy direct impact on soil consumption (278.3 ha), but also an alarming inducted soil consumption due to the secondary infrastructures realized in connection to the new highway (116.8 ha) and to the urbanization increase in a buffer zone of 1km (650 ha).