2016 is a watershed for the infrastructure sector both for constructions but also, and perhaps above all, for the paradigm shift in their planning. The conclusion of three works for years emblematic of the country's infrastructural inefficiency, the Salerno-Reggio Calabria, the Variante di Valico and the Treviglio-Brescia high-speed railway, represent a sign of change and break with the past.
The sector reform process is leading to a review of the priority objectives and consequent changes to the regulatory framework. Think of the approval of the new Public Procurement Code, the overcoming of the Objective Law, the issue of the MIT Guidelines for the evaluation of investments in public works. All of this is the result of a new approach to infrastructure planning and construction that focuses on the quality of the work and its effective economic, environmental and social utility.
Another aspect of the change is the growing attention of companies to new technologies, in particular digital ones, and to the improvement of existing infrastructures to redevelop the services provided and reduce their costs. In essence, people are increasingly looking to infrastructure intelligence rather than steel and concrete.
For these reasons, the 2016 Study of the Agici Infrastructure Unit focuses on the following topics:
* The identification of the new infrastructural priorities and the calculation of the Costs of Not Doing in the time horizon 2016-2030;
* The analysis of the main methodologies for evaluating investments in infrastructure at a national and international level and the focus on the Cost-Benefit Analysis;
* The study of the main IoT technologies at the service of infrastructures.
From the various analyses, what emerges is, first of all, the cost due to the failure to carry out the priority works in Italy, in the period 2016-2030, equal to €606 billion. Therefore, the Cost of Not Doing appears to be borne by the country in economic, environmental and social terms which is still very high, despite the various achievements in 2015: 90 billion in the energy and environmental sectors; 137 billion in the mobility and logistics sectors; 380 billion in the TLC (Ultra-Broadband) sector.
Attention is also drawn to the need for an articulated assessment, selection and monitoring methodology for infrastructure projects, especially with scarce public resources, to direct investments towards truly priority works, to carry out quality works and to favor a correct allocation of resources. In recent decades various methods have been developed on which, in our opinion, the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) excels.
Finally, new technologies also play a fundamental role in the development of efficient and quality infrastructures in a context of limited resources. Digital technologies, especially Internet of Things (IoT) devices, offer immense opportunities for the infrastructure world. Given the trends taking place worldwide, such as the progressive and unstoppable urbanization, and the policies for the sustainability of European and national cities, it emerges how digitization and IoT technologies are fundamental for developing resilient and sustainable environments, which respond effectively to the risks of pollution, energy consumption and climate change, i.e. developing Smart Cities. The results of the Study will be presented on 8 February in Milan in the presence of important representatives of institutions, utilities, industry and finance, on the occasion of the annual Workshop of the Infrastructure Unit: Qualifying infrastructure investments. Experiences and tools to reduce waste.
At the end of the Workshop, the 2016 Infrastructure Development Award will be given to Prof. Ennio Cascetta, coordinator of the Technical Mission Structure of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT), for having innovated, in a complex phase of MIT, planning, scheduling and selection of the country's infrastructure works.
