Besio - Input2012

0 - SEA: methodological paths and functional efficiency for

municipality urban planning

Summary

1 – Characteristics and peculiarity of SEA for Municipal Urban Plans

2 – Environmental knowledge construction, techniques and method

3 – Environmental assessment, tools and procedures

4 – Considerations about technical content and operative effectiveness

SOMMARIO

Few axioms founding SEA formulation

A) About urban municipality plan

1 – Municipal Urban Plans draw up a project of a possible world , respectful

of public interest

2 – The project language is hybrid, joining the land use plan with

transformations governing norms

1 - general consideration on Urban Plan of Genova Municipality SEA

transformations governing norms

3 –Environmental quality and sustainability are taken into consideration more

frequently among public interest reasons,

4 – SEA introduces in Municipal Urban Plans environmental quality and

sustainability considerations, producing information about the induced effects

of transformations

B) About sustainability and environment

5 – Sustainable development concept is not univocal because the paths for

1 - general consideration on Urban Plan of Genova Municipality SEA

5 – Sustainable development concept is not univocal because the paths for

sustainability are different: from those based on technological tools to

those proposing new development models

6 – The meaning of environment is wide and diversified; the path for building

environmental knowledge is not automatic and often is under-estimate

SOMMARIO

The environmental knowledge building approach has been followed to

respond two requirements:

1 – to represent data, information and knowledge in geographical pattern, in

order to compare them with transformations drawing for the plan’s land

use

2 - environmental knowledge

2 – to build different environmental knowledge, referring to different

ontologies and using diversified concept categories (to analyze

geographical territorial objects) and environmental sustainability

meanings (to evaluate territorial transformations forecasted by plan):

a) analytical knowledge of environmental sciences, related to

single environmental factors

b) synthetic knowledge of geographical sciences, referring to

different environmental regions

SOMMARIO

In the first case, the following environmental factors have been assumed for:

a) essential components of natural environment:

atmosphere ( air ), hydrosphere ( water ), lithosphere ( soil ), biosphere ( vegetation )


b) most important anthropic pressure actions on essential components of natural environment: energetic use, electro-magnetic agents, wastes, traffic

Moreover areas of significant historic and cultural value have been considered

Collected data have been represented on environmental factors and historic and cultural value charts

SOMMARIO

In the second case, environmental contexts have been assumed as areas characterized by peculiar relations between natural environment and human interventions, describing specific territorial , environmental and landscape variations.

They are:

� Coastal context


� Urban context

� Rural context

� Natural context

The contexts a) have a specific identity (territorial, environmental and landscape) characterized by a peculiar diversity of the relationship between natural environment and anthropic interventions, b) represent geographical, ecological and environmental diversities inside the municipal territory.

COMPONENTI

AMBIENTALI

AGENTI

DI PRESSIONEVALORICOMPONENTI

AMBIENTALI

AGENTI

DI PRESSIONEVALORI

2 - outline of relations between environmental factors, territorial

factors and environmental context

DETERMINANTI PRESSIONI

contesto marittimo

costierocontesto urbano

contesto ruralecontesto naturale

VALORI

TERRITORIO URBANIZZATO

DETERMINANTI PRESSIONI

contesto marittimo

costierocontesto urbano

contesto ruralecontesto naturale

VALORI

TERRITORIO URBANIZZATO

Integration is a key word for environmental knowledge building

• integration with foundation knowledge of municipality urban plan

• integration to confront with land use plan language

• integration of natural sciences analytical knowledge with geographical and

territorial sciences synthetic knowledge


territorial sciences synthetic knowledge

• integration to get over epistemological differences between urban planning

and environmental sciences about:

– statutes

– paradigms

– parameters

– values

SOMMARIO2 - integration outline between municipality plan and SEA

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In the SEA procedure, only documents with operative and project effectiveness have been considered and confronted with environmental knowledge:

•normative documents

•maps of transformations project forecasted by plan, reorganized according to three thematic scenarios:

3 - environmental assessment

to three thematic scenarios:

- the transport infrastructures network scenario

- the urban transformations scenario

- the green areas scenario

3 - transport infrastructures network scenario

3 - urban transformations scenario

3 - green areas scenario

Environment has been assessed, ascribing to each phenomena analyzed

categories and classes of values, depending on different environmental

knowledge produced and refering to different sustainability objectives

A) for environmental factors the objectives are:

•energy consumption reduction


•natural resources consumption reduction

•pollution air, water and soil reduction

•climatic change contrast

•hydrogeological risk contrast

•biodiversity protection

The environmental factors charts have been processed to assign

opportunity or criticality values to those categories and classes of elements

positive or negative for environmental sustainability assessment

Two maps are created:


• opportunity map

• criticality map

3 - criticality map

3 - opportunity map

B) for environmental contexts the objectives are to propose a new alliance between "country" and "town" into the river basin eco-system to:

� closing vital cycles of urban metabolism

� controlling the cumulative effects of transformations projects forecasted by plan


The contexts chart has been processed with the river basins and local municipalities maps to obtain

� the valleys sections chart

− the civic unity chart

3 - environmental contexts and river basins

For SEA procedure the GIS has been a fundamental tool:

•to collect environmental knowledge, plan knowledge, structures and projects

•to confront their geographical and spatial configuration

•to analyze their topological relations


•to monitor their evolution

Using the GIS two fundamental assessment tools have been produced

•The district card, to assess each area where the strategic transformations are forecasted by plan

•The municipal card, to assess the comprehensive development project of each local municipality, resulting from all the transformations there forecasted by plan

3 - district card

3 - municipal card

A) considerations on technical contents

•geographical and procedural tools have been produced to know and

assess the environmental effects of transformations forecasted by plan

•complex knowledge has been produced and represented in a synthetic

way, using a lot of data arising from different sources

4 - conclusions

•cognitive and assessment models have been utilized, referring to formal

ontologies that facilitate the transparency of evaluation process

•many actors having environmental roles and competence have been

involved

•models and procedures, implemented on the GIS, can be used

independently from actual municipality plan structure and can be used for

monitoring its changing

B) considerations on effectiveness and utility

•The SEA procedure, without normative measures, risks to become a

rhetoric exercise

•The environmental improvement, started with the SEA procedure, should

truly involve citizens, not only formally

4 - conclusions

truly involve citizens, not only formally

•Political engagement cannot be disregarded, if the SEA necessity and

utility are not recognized, its effectiveness is null and void

Documents

Besio - Input2012