Mapping the environmental pressure due to economic factors.
The case of Italian coastal municipalities.
Marco
Modica, Elena Pagliarino, Roberto Zoboli
National Research Council of
Italy
Institute for Economic Research on Firm and Growth
CNR-Ceris,
via Real Collegio 30,
10024 Moncalieri (To), Italy
CNR-Ceris, Via Bassini 15,
20133 Milano, Italy
* Corresponding author:
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02-23699.501
Abstract: In
this paper we map the main economics characteristics that may impact the
environment of the Italian coastal municipalities. The mapping aims at
quantitatively characterizing the main characteristics of the coastal
municipalities from the point of view of sector specialization. More in
details, in this work, first we briefly quantified settlement pressure on the Italian
coasts, then we provide a detailed analysis of economic specializations by
sectors of coastal municipalities. Finally, we develop a more specific analysis
on the specialization and dependence of coastal municipalities. This latter
study is based on the classification of two specific groups of economic
sectors: i) those that depend on the sea as the primary source input (tangible
and intangible) and ii) those that do not depend on the sea but that have high
environmental pressures. This second set of sectors can have adverse impacts,
direct and indirect, on the marine and coastal environment - and consequently
on the ‘marine’ sectors. We then provide evidence of the relationship between
sectors depending from the sea, i.e. ‘marine’ sectors and sectors that have a high pressure on the
environment, i.e. ‘high pressure’ sectors in coastal municipalities. The
analysis is based on municipal data of the Census of Industry and Services of
2011 provided by ISTAT on seven selected Italian regions: Campania, Emilia
Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Apulia, Sardinia and Veneto. The
choice fell on them because of their regional peculiarities in terms of length
of coastal territory, number of coastal municipalities and ratio between
coastal areas and hinterland areas.
Keywords: Italian
coasts, economic specialization, environmental pressure, dependence on
the sea
The
research described in this paper was supported by the Project “Bandiera
(Flagship) RITMARE - La Ricerca Italiana per il Mare (The Italian Research for
the Sea)” coordinated by the National Research Council of Italy and funded by
the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research, under the National
Research Program 2011-2013.