Major Risk Installations and Land Use Planning: Application of the Local Authority Guidelines in Piedmont (Italy)

Abstract

The Italian government implemented the European Directive “Seveso 2”, concerning the control of major industrial risks, with the 334/1999 - Legislative Decree (LD, 1999) on the implementation of 96/82/EC for the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances, which, together with the 09/05/2001 - Ministerial Decree on the minimum requirements for land-planning and urban-planning in areas in the vicinity of major risks installations, introduced land use planning criteria for areas close to “Seveso” type factories for the very fist time in Italy. The "Regione Piemonte" implemented these national laws through guidelines that are known as “Guide Lines for the assessment of industrial risk in land use planning: Strategic Environmental Assessment and Technical Report on Major Industrial Risks”. The provincial administrations and municipalities then had to transpose the regional laws into their urban and land use planning instruments. Until now, only the provincial administration of Turin has introduced a variation of the provincial land-use plan (Piano Provinciale di Coordinamento Territoriale), while the municipalities in the province are currently updating their urban plans with the introduction of Technical Reports on major Industrial Risks. The application of these laws requires a multidisciplinary approach: updated and exhaustive knowledge on the hazardous substances handled by the different companies involved in the analysis and on the possible accidents is essential, but the analyst should also be able to use the land-use analysis correctly and interpret the environmental, urban and historical assets which could be considered vulnerable elements in the case of an industrial accident. Local authorities are often not sufficiently prepared for this kind of multilevel analysis, because they do not have the human or economic resources or even the technical abilities necessary to conduct it; as a result, they frequently do not understand the importance of urban and land planning in the areas around major risk installations. This paper offers some reflections regarding the application of regional and provincial laws concerning major industrial risks and urban and land use planning, and focuses on their application problems and capabilities with reference to some practical cases.