Half a century of urbanization in southern European lowlands: a study on the Po Valley (Northern Italy)

This work analyses urban growth, in terms of quality and quantity, in one of the vastest lowlands in southern Europe, the Po Valley (PV). Research on the PV is part of a wider project dealing with the whole of Italy and, to allow a comparison with the other national geographic realities, it was carried out using municipal data. The main objective is to analyse the dynamics of the phenomenon of land uptake from the post-war period to the noughties, highlighting some territorial and environmental effects, and to prepare a future risk scenario for this area which is the cornerstone of the European economy. In this geographical district, urban conversion of land is a territorial ‘disease’ resulting from complex economic dynamism and ongoing population growth. These scenarios may seem justified by the fact that the PV is the most productive territory in the country, but the PV is one of the most heavily polluted areas in Europe with a highly deteriorated environmental matrix. The PV extends over five Italian regions with different settlement histories and different urbanization models, models which are evaluated and compared even with some European cases in the study. They are, however, always urban forms that are spread sparingly over the territory. This is why, in its conclusions, the research proposes criteria of compacting and reducing sprinkling, and improving the quality of the environmental matrix.