Tap the billion euros (over 800 million) the maximum annual price that Italians could pay from 2016 onwards for deal with the consequences of land consumption over the last 3 years (2012-2015), a consumption which, although traveling today at the slower speed of 4 square meters per second, continues inexorably to advance, covering another 250 km2 of territory in just two years, approximately 35 hectares a day.
The hidden costs, i.e. those not always immediately perceived, provide for a average expenditure which can even reach 55 thousand euros per year for each hectare of land consumed and they change according to the ecosystem service that the soil can no longer provide due to the transformation it has undergone: we go from agricultural production (over 400 million), allo carbon storage (about 150 million), from erosion protection (over 120 million), to the damage caused by lack of water infiltration (nearly 100 million) and fromabsence of pollinators (nearly 3 million). Only for the regulation of the urban microclimate (an increase of 20 hectares per km2 of land consumed corresponds to an increase of 0.6 °C in surface temperature) a cost of around 10 million a year has been estimated.
These are the preliminary estimates of the “hidden” national costs caused by the forced transformation of the territory which took place between 2012 and 2015 and published in the ISPRA report on soil consumption in Italy 2016 presented this morning in Rome during the day dedicated to soil.
Milan (45 million), Rome (39 million), and Venice (27 million) are the metropolitan cities with the highest annual costs.
Despite the crisis, Italy is still losing ground: from 2012 to 2015 the sealed territory increased by 0,7%, invading rivers and lakes (+0,5%), coasts (+0,3%) and protected areas (+0,3%), also advancing in areas with seismic (+0,8%), landslide (+0,3%) and hydraulic (+0,6%) danger.
Furthermore, most of the soil consumed is of good quality: the study conducted in Abruzzo and Veneto demonstrated that the modified soils are those with greater productive potential.
Furthermore, the artificial cover not only deteriorates the land directly involved, but produces significant impacts on the surrounding area as well. The effects, the loss of part of the fundamental functions, affect the ground up to 100 meters away. In other words, over half of the national territory (56%) is compromised.
In the past year, 3 regions exceed 10% of land consumed, with the highest percentage value being Lombardy, Veneto and Campania. In Emilia Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Puglia, Piedmont, Tuscany, Marche we find values between 7 and 10%. The most virtuous region is Valle d'Aosta (3%).
In the three-year period 2012-2015 Italy was clearly divided in two: the consumption that took place in half of the Italian municipalities (51%) coincides with the increase in the population, while the other half (49%) consumed 'disposable', i.e. despite the fact that the population did not grow. Small municipalities (with less than 5.000 inhabitants) are the most inefficient, having the highest values of marginal land consumption: for each new inhabitant they consume on average between 500 and 700 m2 of land against 100 m2 in municipalities with more than 50.000 inhabitants.
All the numbers and costs of Italian soil consumption, in open data format, can be consulted online at: www.isprambiente.gov.it or http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/temi/suolo-e -territory/land-consumption/data-on-land-consumption .
