Strategic Environmental Assessment as a tool for limiting land consumption

The value of "soil" is poorly taken into consideration in Italian SEA of urban and regional planning, reflecting the low awareness of the many functions and vital services to human activities and ecosystem survival, and the misconception of soil degradation impact on water, human health, climate change, nature, biodiversity, protection, and food safety. Recently enhanced planning practices account for soil protection objectives, but they are still not properly justified, assessed, and compared to different alternatives; and consequently not respected due to lack of adequate monitoring. The paper focuses on exploring the potential of SEA as an effective tool for improving urban and regional planning processes, in respect to land consumption, soil degradation and urban sprawl. Some SEA of Italian and foreign cases are presented, underlining how they were able to create more awareness of soil as a resource, and how this new awareness can lead to the integration of often neglected environmental considerations into the planning process.