From Policy to Practice: Decision Support Principles for No Net Land Take in Emilia-Romagna

Land take persists across Europe despite demographic stagnation and EU commitments to No Net Land Take (NNLT). Using Emilia-Romagna one of first Italian region to adopt a binding NNLT target (L.R. 24/2017) and a regional observatory of disused sites - as a case, we surveyed 68 stakeholders from public administrations, professionals, academia, and civic actors to calibrate a Decision Support System (DSS) for regeneration. Respondents strongly prefer reuse/reconversion of abandoned or underused areas over densification or greenfield expansion but report significant financial and governance constraints: high regeneration costs, fragmented competences, and lengthy approvals. Social and environmental benefits are prioritized over economic gains, and climate risk is the highest-ranked criterion for site selection. Framed by DPSIR, legacy greenfield economics and NNLT commitments act as Drivers; finance/governance barriers as Pressures; uneven readiness as State; financing/prioritization bottlenecks as Impacts; and reuse-first strategies with analytical DSS functions as Responses. We propose a stakeholder-informed DSS linking scenario analysis, trade-off evaluation, and participatory inputs to permitting and financing pathways. Future work will test the DSS on cases, extend surveys, and integrate geospatial data.