The primacy of land consumption does it no credit. Rome has lost more than 105 hectares of surface in one year: something like 150 football fields. Given the size it is the first Italian city for degraded soil. The general state of the city has been criticized by Carlo Calenda, former mayoral candidate in the last elections, just when theIspra (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) made known "the analysis of land cover in the territory". In the Campidoglio they had to admit that the situation denotes a very negative aspect of the city. 63% of urban consumption is due to construction sites and dirt areas. Among the major damages caused by forced overbuilding are those on the environment and climate. Sabrina Alfonsi Councilor for the environment, she underlined how this relationship is not “positive but negative for Rome. Let's start from here to develop a positivity with the knowledge of the real data of land consumption with a view to planning by the city and the commitments made by the mayor Gualtieri ".
Land consumption moves the city towards the countryside
Before being elected, Roberto Gualltieri he was committed to a city "with zero soil consumption, which focuses on profound and systematic processes of urban regeneration and redevelopment and reuse of the existing built heritage". In the last 20 years Rome has had a development towards the municipalities that are located beyond the Grande Raccordo Anulare. The housing emergency has been spreading towards the countryside, eroding spaces useful for economic activities. Of course there was a need for housing but the solutions have become more or less planning choices of past administrations towards the countryside.
In short, there has been a shift of the city towards the first belt. The ambition with the last elections to govern one more sustainable city, strengthening the territory also against natural disasters, floods, impassable roads, remained halfway.
The Ispra analysis shows a city divided into three
But where were the 105 hectares consumed? In the peripheral areas - explains Ispra - with prevalence in the Municipalities IX, XI and XII. However, the most built-up area is the Centre, with record peaks of 73% in municipality I, for example. It is clear that the trend must be reversed and not create further imbalances. The current map, due to a sum of errors, shows us even three cities: one between the Aurelian Walls and the GRA; one between the GRA and the neighboring Municipalities and the last one inside the walls, ie an empty city as big as Bologna. A setback for anyone who wanted to plan the development of the capital while preserving its history, landscape and environment.
Worse still, thinking of Europe which has included the capital of Italy among the sample cities on which to measure climatic trends. To see them evidently improved, starting from urban spaces. The urgency to do better than the Raggi, Marino and Alemanno councils is recognized by the Gualtieri Administration which fears that in 60 years Rome will have the climate of Tunis, even though it was not born to support it. It will be true that the current building results are the effect of choices made many years ago and in part of the 1962 Master Plan. But we are faced with a serious contradiction, where Parliament periodically discusses laws to be updated, environmental protection, sustainable building and of those 2 square meters per second of soil that are eaten.
In the heart of Rome, thousands of empty houses
The Rome of the 15-minute circularity from one end to the other, presented by Gualtieri in the elections, is still far away. The Municipality says it is committed to forestation, greenery, soil permeabilization and the use of land to be used as agricultural land with a view to sustainability. But inside the walls, the thousands of empty houses to be recovered must be related to an authentic one urban regeneration to prevent new soil from being consumed. The Capitol offices know this. The Roman countryside is gradually shrinking and the Administration has to think about how to repopulate the hundreds of thousands of uninhabited apartments for the same vitality of the City. The Councilor for Town Planning Maurice Veloccia faced with the data, Ispra thinks of a plan that does not envisage "the search for new resources but a better use of the current ones". The money to stop that 7,1% of land consumed nationwide each year, vary between 81 and 99 billion euros, according to the Greens. If Rome does not move, it would absorb a demanding part of it due to its negative primacy.
