Territorial Impact Assessment of European Policies on Water. Top-down vs Bottom-up Analysys. The cas

Urban Planning and Design Research (UPDR) Volume 2, 2014

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Territorial Impact Assessment of European Policies on Water. Top-down vs Bottom-up Analysys.

The case study within the Province of Rome Tullia V. Di Giacomo*1 Planning Department, Alpha Consult s.r.l., Via Taro 46, Roma, 00199, Italy *1

tulliadigiacomo@tiscali.it

Abstract The present study aimed at exploring territorial planning in the light of the protection and development regulations governing the various materials in the specific field of water resources. The activity was focused on the analysis of the European Directives including the Water Framework Directive, transposed into Italian Laws with D.Lgls 152/2006 and the various existing large-scale planning tools in Italy.

Through the analysis of the legislative instruments at various levels, the comparison between the different regulatory instruments, the adoption of some scenarios of development of the territory, as well as by an analysis of the specific case of the Valley of the River Aniene (near Rome, Italy) has been possible to draw important conclusions on actual state of the art of urban planning tools legislating in Italy in terms of water resources in order to consequently assume the evolution of the territory.

The aim of this study was twofold, and concerned in the first place, the analysis of the existing legislation in the field of water resources to promote understanding of the situation by the operators that act with the water resource, secondly, the implementation of direct operative scenarios mainly to guide the legislator.

Keywords Territorial Planning; Development Scenarios; European Directives; Water Resources

Introduction The water resource currently plays a primary role in the public opinion, not only in terms of natural and environmental as well as social and economic development.

The fundamental significance that this resource is for the life of all human beings has led, in fact, to raising awareness on the part of the institutions, with the emergence of interest in its protection and rational use.

The growing interest in the protection and rational use

of the resource, connected to the renewed interest in the prevention of risks related to its existence determines consequently the development and analysis of the current body of law.

The work is essentially divided into three parts: a first part which introduces and describes a case study of the valley of the Aniene river, a second part in which the various EU Directives, the most salient legislative measures are analyzed currently legislated in Italy concerning the protection of water resources and the large-scale planning instruments that are involved in the management and protection of this resource.

Through a summary of the various regulations, it is intended to show the importance that the water resource plays and the multi-scale and multi-sectoral aspects of this investigation and of the issues that water involves.

The third part deals with the determination of territorial development scenarios to hypothesize the resulting evolution due to the currently introduced planning instruments and the existing relationships between them reaching the final conclusions.

The directions of existing regulations specifically regarding land management at the provincial level have been choosen for the establishment of development scenarios.

This is a choice of method, which emphasizes the aim of determining a link between the territorial government at the local level and large-scale level that takes into account the characteristic of natural multiscale aspect of the water theme.

Background and Method The legislative panorama facing the field of water resources is very broad and confusing and therefore it

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is considered convenient to prepare an updated framework of Community, National, Regional and Provincial legislation regarding the protection of water resources.

The European Community legislation, lays down homogeneous and uniform standards for the various European Member States, with the understanding that the environmental issues of a single Member State, if neglected and not properly addressed, it could have negative effects that can also affect other States. In this sense, this regulatory level plays a major role in the promotion of culture and environmental priorities within the public institutions of the Member States.

The transposition of EU directives into National Laws imposes economic commitments, the adjustment of the legal framework and the need to redesign and adequately equip the Public Administration Authorities to the new common objectives.

National legislation, as a second regulatory level, transposes European directives integrating them, when necessary, according to national characteristics as schematically shown in Fig. 1.

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Valley and partly the study of the analysis carried out by the Provincial Public Authority for the realization of the PTPG – Provincial Territorial General Plan.

In Italy, the concept of Environmental protection, especially with regard to the protection of the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage has long been entrusted mainly to two fundamental laws, the Law n.1497/1939 on the protection of natural and landscape n.1089/1939 and the Law on the Protection of the things of artistic and historical interest, including archaeological assets.

An important step forward in the relationship among natural beauty, heritage and landscape was made in 1986 with Law n.344, with the establishment of the Ministry of Environment, institutional reference unit that has been allowed to move from one disjointed and sectoral to a more unified and global environment approach.

The fundamental task of the Ministry is, in fact, to "ensure, on a comprehensive framework, the promotion, preservation, and restoration of the environmental conditions of the community and the quality of life and the preservation and enhancement of the natural heritage and national protection of natural resources from pollution. " As a result of the stimulus of EU Directives the Italian Government has produced a series of organic laws of this sector, however, to date, only partially implemented.

The attempt is to proceed towards the regulation of land uses and water resources combining economic and social development with environmental protection Fig. 2.

FIG. 2 TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

FIG. 1 LEGISLATIVE LEVELS

Subsequently, the regional and provincial level refers to different types of legal instruments examined below.

The approach of the study involves the large-scale addressed analysis that allows framing the dynamics of development that characterize the territory while not neglecting, however, a more direct knowledge of the territory. The study thus provides the framework and the description of the territory of the Valley of the River Aniene, taking into account the area that falls within the watershed that lies within the Lazio Region respectively in the Provinces of Rome and Frosinone.

To reach a more direct knowledge of the territory the approach follows partly the study of the Aniene River 8

TABLE 1 THE ANIENE RIVER

Origin

Filettino – Simbruini Mountains

Mouth

Tiber (in Rome)

Basin countries Length Max altitude above sea level Basin area Average flow rate

Italy 74 miles (119 km) About 1600 m 569 square miles (1,474 sq km) 35 m3/s

Case Study The study area is represented by the Aniene River Valley (Fig. 3) from its source on Simbruini Mountains throughout its course to its confluence with the River Tiber in Rome, Italy.

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therefore involves a complex legislation that is addressed in the following to bring out the conflict points and the degree of impact that the Community Directives produce on land development and then in the future propose the resolution.

FIG. 3 THE CASE STUDY: ITALY, THE LAZIO REGION, THE PROVINCE OF ROME AND THE ANIENE RIVER VALLEY (HIGHLIGHTED IN RED)

The Aniene River originates on the Mount Tarino at an altitude of about 1600 m above sea level, is formed after the meeting of two streams namely Acqua Corore and Vardano, and ends, after a distance of 119 km, in the Tiber River, the second biggest river in Italy, of which is the main tributary contributing to its average flow of around 31%. The river crosses the territory of 17 different Municipalities partly in the Province of Frosinone and mostly in the Province of Rome (Fig. 4).

FIG. 6 THE RIVER ANIENE HEAD AND MOUTH

European Level The analysed EU Directives focusing on water resources are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 DIRECTIVES

ID

Directive

Number

I II III IV V VI VII VIII

Water Framework Directive Habitats Directive (Natura 2000 network) Floods Directive Urban Wastewater Directive Bathing Directive Environmental Quality Standards Directive Groundwater Directive Nitrates Directive Quality of fresh waters needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life Directive Quality standards for shellfish waters Directive Drinking Water Quality Directive

2000/60/EC 92/43/EC 2007/60/EC 1991/271/EC 2006/07/EC 2008/56/EC 2006/118/EC 1991/676/EC

IX FIG. 4 THE PROVINCE OF ROME: IN CYAN THE ANIENE RIVER’S CATCHMENT, IN LIGHT BLUE THE ANIENE RIVER, IN DARK BLUE THE TIBER RIVER, IN GREY ROME MUNICIPALITY

FIG. 5 DIAGRAM OF THE BIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF THE ANIENE RIVER (blue “not significantly polluted”, green “some clear effects of pollution”, orange “polluted or altered”, yellow “very polluted or altered”, red “heavily polluted”)

From the biological point of view, the quality of the river environment is varying throughout the course of the river (Fig. 5)and clearly reflects the anthropogenic and land use pressure mainly present in the immediate vicinity of the river but also in more distant areas where the influence on water resources is through the involvement of the groundwater catchment.

The complexity of the territory of the case study (Fig. 6)

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2006/44/EC 2006/113/EC 1998/83/EC

The most fundamental Directive is represented by the Water Framework Directive, 2000/60/EC, converted to Law in Italy in 2006 as a common tool for managing water challenges. The Water Framework Directive introduced a new method of classification of the waters. The Water Framework Directive, in fact, specifies the need for sequentially verify the ecological status, therefore, exceeded this level, the verify the chemical status and at last the hydromorphological status. Another basic issue introduced by this fundamental Directive is the new tool of the Management Plan for each Hydrographic District intended as a set of several watersheds.

National, Regional and Provincial Level In Italy, the body of rules related to the theme of water resources has always been very complex and disorderly and was often created to address the issues 9

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raised after a disaster.

Definition of Scenarios

The increasing inappropriate water use has forced the authorities to amend and expand the existing legislation comprehending the different aspects such as the defense of towns from floodings, civil protection, proper use of natural resources, regulation and protection of water courses. The vastness of the territory involved in the analysis of the case study of the Aniene Valley has inevitably had to take into account the various levels and types of planning tools.

Within the study of the Aniene Valley for the preparation of development reference, scenarios are taken into consideration, as defined by the Provincial Territorial General Plan, Systems and sub-systems that make up the Province of Rome (Fig. 7 and Fig. 9).

In particular for the analysis of the Aniene Valley, the following planning instruments are considered essential: 

Functional Master Plan - PS5;



Regional Landscape Territorial Plan - PTPR;



Regional Plan for Water Protection;



Provincial Territorial General Plan– PTPG.

The Province of Rome is considered useful to highlight the "central role" that municipalities take on either local-level and on metropolitan area, or higher regional/national/international levels.

In Fig. 8, from the Provincial Territorial General Plan, population density and percentage variation are shown in the population in the other municipalities of the Province of Rome that reflect in the analysis of supply/demand functions at the municipal level.

The functional Master Plan focuses on the hydraulic basins with theirs natural limits and focuses on the principal scope of defending settlements from hydraulic hazards.

The Regional Landscape Territorial Plan focuses on the landscape point of view related to the Lazio Region territory.

The Regional Plan for Water Protection has the goal of pursuing the maintenance of the integrity of the water resource, consistent with the uses of the resource itself and the socio-economic activities of the Lazio Region’s inhabitants.

FIG. 8 POPULATION DENSITY AND PERCENTAGE VARIATION IN THE POPULATION IN THE OTHER MUNICIPALITIES OF THE PROVINCE OF ROME. SOURCE: CRESME

The Provincial Territorial General Plan concerns the tasks in the field of planning and land management of the Provincial territory.

FIG. 9 PROVINCIAL SUB-SYSTEMS

FIG. 7 PROVINCIAL SYSTEMS

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This study allows the instrument to make a distinction in urban areas of sub-provincial systems (Fig. 9) that represent the place where the morphological, social, productive and institutional components converge to

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shape different local identities.

The comparison between the situation from 2001 to 2015 of the programmatic supply and local demand of the main functions the Provincial Plan highlights the surplus or deficit of supply over demand of each local sub-system in the perspective of sustainable and competitive integrated metropolitan provincial development.

The sectors that according to the Provincial Territorial General Plan, have therefore a need for incremental trend for the sub-area of the Aniene River Basin are: A.

industrial and logistics;

B. tourism, culture and recreation; C. directional; D. agricultural;

The presence of high risk in the relationship table emphasizes the need for attention that should be given to the definition of operational guidelines underlying the design and management of the territory.

The guidelines, therefore, play a key role in establishing a contact point between the bottom-up approach (from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy) of the local level and the top-down approach (from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy) level of large-scale area.

The following table (Table 4) compares the views of the scenarios of different development sectors from the PTPG with the various European Directives analyzed (identified with an ID as in Table 2) in search of the existing degree of risk of contrast.

TABLE 4 DIRECTIVES VS SCENARIOS

E. residential.

Directives and Scenarios The definition of scenarios in recent years seems to have become an essential component of the decisions’ processes of cities and regions transformations.

The definition of scenarios will strongly operate towards the future perspective and able to positively influence certain aspects of both the urban conformation and the public and private benefits.

The study examines the influence that the existence of EU directives can determine towards the outlined scenarios.

The highlighted reports are defined in a hierarchical manner which makes clear the parameter, identified as the most significant, of the degree of risk of a conflict between the scenarios and the objectives of EU Directives.

The parameter used for the comparison is therefore “the degree of risk” and the hierarchical classification is defined with respect to five levels.

TABLE 3 THEVALUES OF THE PARAMETER USED FOR THE COMPARISON AND THE LEGEND TO TABLE 4

Value Very high risk High risk Medium risk Low risk Very low risk

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Color dark red red orange dark green light green

The risk levels according to which the identified scenarios can come into conflict with the objectives of the Directives are therefore distinguished in the values indicated in Table 3.

Directives Scenarios of different development sectors from the PTPG (ID from Table 2)/ A. B. C. D. E. Scenarios industrial tourism directional agricultural residential I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI

The reports highlighted in the table above show that it is necessary to provide indicators with assess to the degree of risk that the legislative activity of the European Union can generate a cascade on the Member States.

Conclusions The comparative analysis between the European Community Directives and the assumed development scenarios showed the coexistence of two levels of conditioning: 

large-scale level;



local level of detail.

The first level consists in the drafting of the principles, values and objectives of preservation and environmental and sustainable development that are shared by the Community Member States to ensure the protection of resources for future generations.

The second level concerns rather the territorial data 11

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identified by the values defined by the tables of the quality standards of EU Directives.

The two levels expressed by the Community’s rules are difficult to apply at the local level but essential to standardize the land management at the local level in coherence with the Community principles.

The difficulty lies in the fact that often the territories at the local scale are governed by phenomena that affect the timing and financial management in a very different way compared to those that affect the macroscale.

Economic problems or local political interests often, in fact, push for faster resolution that may end up not reaching the quality and quantity standards of the macro-scale.

On the other hand, however, the collection of data by local authorities at local level clearly allows more accurate land management but needs a set of guidelines to be followed to standardize the approach to the management, protection and enhancement of the territory in line with the European principles. This standardize approach is shared by the European Community as pointed out by one of the objectives of the European Union: "to promote the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth ... and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment."

It is important to highlight that the operational town and country planning tools, the so-called planning instruments, are distinguishable by hierarchical level, by type and functionality in a variety of intervention approaches and are articulated into sectors. The analytical approach typical of spatial planning derives, in fact, from the unitary vision of the elements that characterize the territory such as urban structures within the road networks, production systems and/or buildings, as well as environmental values also distributed around them.

Territorial planning is a discipline that is concerned with studying and regulating the processes of land management by the public authority and evaluating the resulting evolutionary dynamics. Operationally this discipline is configured as the set of tools by which it is possible to define the overall structure of the environment. The spatial planning discipline is one of the functional tools for analyzing and evaluating the effects of specific operative actions may have on the territory .

This discipline is concerned, therefore, also trying to 12

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stem phenomena such as the total exploitation of natural resources in the difficult task of controlling the unstable equilibrium between human dynamics and environmental systems that coexist with the continuously territorial transformation processes.

The principles behind the modern theories of planning, which arise from the European Community and the decisions taken by international bodies must follow project guidelines consistent with the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection, both in an attempt to put a stop to insane anthropization, wich is capable of turning in an irreversible way natural systems, both in an attempt to improve the quality of life of present and future generations.

The knowledge of the area determined by the legal planning instrument discussed above shows in particular the articulation of space on two types: one, physical, determined assuming the natural watersheds’ boundaries, the other one theoretical and abstract, determined by the administrative limits of local authorities which in turn legislate at different scales, local (municipal), provincial (provinces), regional, and so on.

The reference scale of planning and regulation plays a key role in formulating directions that take account of the existing features visible at that scale, but not forgetting to also represent part of the top or bottom situations. In the evaluation, it is important to highlight how different is then the degree of precision that can be achieved at different scales of investigation.

At the local scale, it can be seen based on the features that to a more general scale inevitably end up being neglected (Fig. 10) and this issue highligths the conflict between top-down and bottom-up legislative processes.

FIG. 10 IDEOGRAM OF DETAILED AND GENERAL SCALE APPROACH

The challenge that arises is thus to integrate the physical entity with the administrative entity, whereas the dynamics that characterize the spatial development depend heavily on both administrative and physical asset.

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The importance of understanding the possible use of existing tools sets up from the evidence that there is currently no coordination between the different planning tools because they have succeeded on the basis of the legislative process of the European Union according to time horizons shifted over time and there isn’t, therefore, an organic relationship between the different instruments.

The reference period used to postulate the adaptation of the different tools is the year 2025 in order to understand what is the impact on the territory of these tools. As previously mentioned, fundamental is the reference scale of planning and regulations to which it is assumed that the various legislative instruments can find integration under the joint leadership of the Water Framework Directive. The consequence is that the Management Plan, realized by the Hydrographic District Authority as defined by the Water Framework Directive, acting at the very large-scale is set up as a tool that takes superiority over the other as outlined below in the Figure 11.

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Hygiene and Environment Department of the Lazio Region-Department of Environment and Civil Protection, Rome, 2000.

Bateman,et.al, “Economic Values from Ecosystems”, in The UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report, UK National Ecosystem Assessment, UNEP‐WCMC, Cambridge,

also available from http://uknea.unep-

wcmc.org, 2011.

Bateman, et.al, “Valuing Changes in Ecosystem Services: Scenario Analyses”, in The UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report, UK National Ecosystem Assessment, UNEP‐WCMC, Cambridge, also available from http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org, 2011.

Piroddi E., Brunori L., Di Bernardino C Scenari per l’Europa delle città” Franco Angeli, Milano, 2002.

Mirabelli F., “Il governo del territorio” FORMEZ PROGETTO RIPAM, 2002.

Colarossi P., “Tre ragionamenti a favore di uno scenario desiderabile per abitare”, in Besio M., Il vino del mare. Il piano del paesaggio tra i tempi della tradizione e i tempi della conoscenza, Marsilio, Venezia, 2002.

Secchi B., “Prima lezione di Urbanistica”, Bari 2000.

Ventriglia U., “Idrogeologia della Provincia di Roma”

FIG. 11 INTEGRATION UNDER THE JOINT LEADERSHIP OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE

Therefore, each other sectorial plan, even the one at local scale, has to join the European principles that underlie the Managment Plan.

It is also clear that there is the need of creating a mechanism to predict the effects of EU Directives in the various Member States prior to the effective promulgation in order to facilitate required adjustments and the adoption of new regulation tools capable to produce Ecologically Sustainable Development.

REFERENCES

Amministrazione Provinciale di Roma, Assessorato LL. PP., Viabilità e trasporti. IV vol.: 93-129,1990.

Tullia V. Di Giacomo (Rome, Italy) Civil and Environmental Engineer, research assistant of Urban Planning course of Professor Claudia Mattogno Engineering Faculty, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Italy.

Degree in Building Engineering-Architecture certificate U.E in Urban Planning, Engineering Faculty, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Italy with a Specialization thesis on a “Project of riverine park for the Aniene river”A.A. 2010 – 2011. Scientific reviewer for the International Journal “Landscape and Urban Planning” and for the International “Journal of the Institution of Engineers (INDIA)”.

Arcà G., Mancini L., “Charter of the biological quality of rivers in the region Lazio”, Laboratory of Environmental

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