This document discusses the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) conducted for the urban plan of the municipality of Genoa, Italy. It describes the SEA process, which included building environmental knowledge, assessing the plan's impacts, and developing tools like district cards and municipal cards. The goal of the SEA was to integrate environmental considerations into the urban plan to promote sustainability. It analyzed the plan's proposals for transport, urban transformations, and green spaces using geographical information systems. The assessment evaluated impacts on environmental factors and contexts to identify opportunities and critical issues.

2. 0 - SEA: methodological paths and functional efficiency for
municipality urban planning
Summary
1 – Characteristics and peculiarity of SEA for Municipal Urban Plans
2 – Environmental knowledge construction, techniques and method
3 – Environmental assessment, tools and procedures
4 – Considerations about technical content and operative effectiveness

3. 1 - general consideration on Urban Plan of Genova Municipality SEA
SOMMARIO
Few axioms founding SEA formulation
A) About urban municipality plan
1 – Municipal Urban Plans draw up a project of a possible world , respectful
of public interest
2 – The project language is hybrid, joining the land use plan with
transformations governing norms
3 –Environmental quality and sustainability are taken into consideration more
frequently among public interest reasons,
4 – SEA introduces in Municipal Urban Plans environmental quality and
sustainability considerations, producing information about the induced effects
of transformations

4. 1 - general consideration on Urban Plan of Genova Municipality SEA
B) About sustainability and environment
5 – Sustainable development concept is not univocal because the paths for
sustainability are different: from those based on technological tools to
those proposing new development models
6 – The meaning of environment is wide and diversified; the path for building
environmental knowledge is not automatic and often is under-estimate

5. 2 SOMMARIO
- environmental knowledge
The environmental knowledge building approach has been followed to
respond two requirements:
1 – to represent data, information and knowledge in geographical pattern, in
order to compare them with transformations drawing for the plan’s land
use
2 – to build different environmental knowledge, referring to different
ontologies and using diversified concept categories (to analyze
geographical territorial objects) and environmental sustainability
meanings (to evaluate territorial transformations forecasted by plan):
a) analytical knowledge of environmental sciences, related to
single environmental factors
b) synthetic knowledge of geographical sciences, referring to
different environmental regions

6. 2 SOMMARIO
- environmental knowledge
In the first case, the following environmental factors have been assumed
for:
a) essential components of natural environment:
atmosphere ( air ), hydrosphere ( water ), lithosphere ( soil ), biosphere
( vegetation )
b) most important anthropic pressure actions on essential components of
natural environment: energetic use, electro-magnetic agents, wastes,
traffic
Moreover areas of significant historic and cultural value have been
considered
Collected data have been represented on environmental factors and historic
and cultural value charts

7. 2 SOMMARIO
- environmental knowledge
In the second case, environmental contexts have been assumed as areas
characterized by peculiar relations between natural environment and human
interventions, describing specific territorial , environmental and landscape
variations.
They are:
Coastal context
Urban context
Rural context
Natural context
The contexts a) have a specific identity (territorial, environmental and
landscape) characterized by a peculiar diversity of the relationship between
natural environment and anthropic interventions, b) represent geographical,
ecological and environmental diversities inside the municipal territory.

8. 2 - outline of relations between environmental factors, territorial
factors and environmental context
COMPONENTI AGENTI
DI PRESSIONE VALORI
AMBIENTALI
contesto marittimo
contesto urbano
costiero
contesto naturale
contesto rurale
DETERMINANTI PRESSIONI VALORI
TERRITORIO URBANIZZATO

9. 2 - environmental knowledge
Integration is a key word for environmental knowledge building
• integration with foundation knowledge of municipality urban plan
• integration to confront with land use plan language
• integration of natural sciences analytical knowledge with geographical and
territorial sciences synthetic knowledge
• integration to get over epistemological differences between urban planning
and environmental sciences about:
– statutes
– paradigms
– parameters
– values

10. 2 SOMMARIO outline between municipality plan and SEA
- integration
R E D AZ IO NE P UC P R O C E S S O DI INT E G R AZ IO NE E L AB O R AZ IO NE VAS
C O NO S C E NZ A/ DE S C R IZ IO NE
C O NO S C E NZ A/ DE S C R IZ IO NE
Des c rizione F attori
F ondativa Indic atori C ritic ità ambientali
C onos c enz e
ambientali O pportunità
ambientali
C ontes ti
Ambientali
Doc umento deg li
P O L IT IC HE / O B IE T T IVI
P O L IT IC HE / O B IE T T IVI
obiettivi O B IE T T IV I DE L
O B IE T T IV I DE L O B IE T T IVI
P UC
P UC O biettivi di AMB IE NT AL I
P O L IT IC HE /O B IE T T IVI
s os tenibilità
S MAR T C IT Y ambientale S is tema di
O B IE T T IV I DI
O B IE T T IV I DI
S O S T E NIB IL IT A’
O B IE T T IVI
O B IE T T IVI pianific az ione
S O S T E NIB IL IT A’
AMB IE NT A L I
AMB IE NT A L I
P AT T O DE I
AMB IE NT AL E
AMB IE NT AL E
S O VR AO R DINAT I
s ovraordinata
P er G E NO V A
P er G E NO V A
S IND AC I
S T R UT T UR A DE L P IANO
S c hede
S T R AT E G IE /S C E L T E
S c enario s trateg ic o dis tretti
s trutturale delle
S T R AT E G IE / S C E L T E
infras trutture di tras porto
S c hede
S c enario s trateg ic o munic ipi
s trutturale delle
tras formazioni urbane
S c hede
S c enario s trateg ic o c ontes ti
s trutturale del verde
P IANO S OS T E NIB IL E VAL UT AZ IONE MONIT O R AG G IO

11. 3 - environmental assessment
In the SEA procedure, only documents with operative and project
effectiveness have been considered and confronted with environmental
knowledge:
•normative documents
•maps of transformations project forecasted by plan, reorganized according
to three thematic scenarios:
- the transport infrastructures network scenario
- the urban transformations scenario
- the green areas scenario

12. 3 - transport infrastructures network scenario

13. 3 - urban transformations scenario

14. 3 - green areas scenario

15. 3 - environmental assessment
Environment has been assessed, ascribing to each phenomena analyzed
categories and classes of values, depending on different environmental
knowledge produced and refering to different sustainability objectives
A) for environmental factors the objectives are:
•energy consumption reduction
•natural resources consumption reduction
•pollution air, water and soil reduction
•climatic change contrast
•hydrogeological risk contrast
•biodiversity protection

16. 3 - environmental assessment
The environmental factors charts have been processed to assign
opportunity or criticality values to those categories and classes of elements
positive or negative for environmental sustainability assessment
Two maps are created:
• opportunity map
• criticality map

17. 3 - criticality map

18. 3 - opportunity map

19. 3 - environmental assessment
B) for environmental contexts the objectives are to propose a new
alliance between "country" and "town" into the river basin eco-system to:
closing vital cycles of urban metabolism
controlling the cumulative effects of transformations projects
forecasted by plan
The contexts chart has been processed with the river basins and local
municipalities maps to obtain
the valleys sections chart
− the civic unity chart

20. 3 - environmental contexts and river basins

21. 3 - environmental assessment
For SEA procedure the GIS has been a fundamental tool:
•to collect environmental knowledge, plan knowledge, structures and
projects
•to confront their geographical and spatial configuration
•to analyze their topological relations
•to monitor their evolution
Using the GIS two fundamental assessment tools have been produced
•The district card, to assess each area where the strategic
transformations are forecasted by plan
•The municipal card, to assess the comprehensive development project
of each local municipality, resulting from all the transformations there
forecasted by plan

22. 3 - district card

23. 3 - municipal card

24. 4 - conclusions
A) considerations on technical contents
•geographical and procedural tools have been produced to know and
assess the environmental effects of transformations forecasted by plan
•complex knowledge has been produced and represented in a synthetic
way, using a lot of data arising from different sources
•cognitive and assessment models have been utilized, referring to formal
ontologies that facilitate the transparency of evaluation process
•many actors having environmental roles and competence have been
involved
•models and procedures, implemented on the GIS, can be used
independently from actual municipality plan structure and can be used for
monitoring its changing

25. 4 - conclusions
B) considerations on effectiveness and utility
•The SEA procedure, without normative measures, risks to become a
rhetoric exercise
•The environmental improvement, started with the SEA procedure, should
truly involve citizens, not only formally
•Political engagement cannot be disregarded, if the SEA necessity and
utility are not recognized, its effectiveness is null and void