At the local and regional levels, planning for sustainable development rests on the structural peculiarities of territories following a development model that lays its foundations on the notion of the Marshallian industrial district. Recently, this form of production organization has been recognized as also featuring an organic agricultural sector, where the creation of ecoregions (or bio-districts) emphasizes the territorial dimension of sustainable development. Nevertheless, whilst ecoregions are acquiring substantial relevance at the international level, a comprehensive methodological approach for their analytical identification is still missing, thereby affecting the ability of policymakers to effectively identify territories suitable to enter an ecoregion. The few studies available on this topic adopt a narrow perspective when identifying ecoregions, considering only the dimensions that are strictly related to organic production and ignoring substantial variables that are able to capture the activities and elements that generate positive externalities and feed the economic, social and environmental life of a potential ecoregion. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper makes two innovative contributions. First, the paper discusses the notion of an ecoregion by stressing its relationship with other territorial features (i.e., environmental, social, and economic) that complement the agricultural dimensions. Second, the paper proposes a comprehensive methodological approach for the analytical identification of ecoregions considering not only the biological and agricultural features of territories but also crucial aspects related to their environmental, social and economic contexts. In this regard, the paper develops a new composite indicator, the Ecoregional Vocation Index (EVI) e to assess the vocation of territories to enter an ecoregion. As an illustrative example, the EVI is employed to analyse 29 municipalities belonging to the area of the Bologna Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region, Italy). The results of the analysis provide a ranking that classifies these municipalities from best to the worst in terms of their suitability to belong to an ecoregion. The results are presented and discussed to show how this methodological approach can be generally employed in sustainable territorial planning to support policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in the participatory processes concerning the creation of ecoregions.

Planning sustainable development of local productive systems: A methodological approach for the analyt-ical identification of Ecoregions / Assiri, Marco; Barone, Vincenzo; Silvestri, Francesco; Tassinari, Mattia. - In: JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION. - ISSN 1879-1786. - 287:(2021), pp. 1-13. [10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125006]

Planning sustainable development of local productive systems: A methodological approach for the analyt-ical identification of Ecoregions

Vincenzo Barone;Francesco Silvestri;Mattia Tassinari
2021

Abstract

At the local and regional levels, planning for sustainable development rests on the structural peculiarities of territories following a development model that lays its foundations on the notion of the Marshallian industrial district. Recently, this form of production organization has been recognized as also featuring an organic agricultural sector, where the creation of ecoregions (or bio-districts) emphasizes the territorial dimension of sustainable development. Nevertheless, whilst ecoregions are acquiring substantial relevance at the international level, a comprehensive methodological approach for their analytical identification is still missing, thereby affecting the ability of policymakers to effectively identify territories suitable to enter an ecoregion. The few studies available on this topic adopt a narrow perspective when identifying ecoregions, considering only the dimensions that are strictly related to organic production and ignoring substantial variables that are able to capture the activities and elements that generate positive externalities and feed the economic, social and environmental life of a potential ecoregion. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper makes two innovative contributions. First, the paper discusses the notion of an ecoregion by stressing its relationship with other territorial features (i.e., environmental, social, and economic) that complement the agricultural dimensions. Second, the paper proposes a comprehensive methodological approach for the analytical identification of ecoregions considering not only the biological and agricultural features of territories but also crucial aspects related to their environmental, social and economic contexts. In this regard, the paper develops a new composite indicator, the Ecoregional Vocation Index (EVI) e to assess the vocation of territories to enter an ecoregion. As an illustrative example, the EVI is employed to analyse 29 municipalities belonging to the area of the Bologna Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region, Italy). The results of the analysis provide a ranking that classifies these municipalities from best to the worst in terms of their suitability to belong to an ecoregion. The results are presented and discussed to show how this methodological approach can be generally employed in sustainable territorial planning to support policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in the participatory processes concerning the creation of ecoregions.
2021
10-mar-2021
287
1
13
Planning sustainable development of local productive systems: A methodological approach for the analyt-ical identification of Ecoregions / Assiri, Marco; Barone, Vincenzo; Silvestri, Francesco; Tassinari, Mattia. - In: JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION. - ISSN 1879-1786. - 287:(2021), pp. 1-13. [10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125006]
Assiri, Marco; Barone, Vincenzo; Silvestri, Francesco; Tassinari, Mattia
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
6. JCLPRO_ 2020.pdf

Accesso riservato

Tipologia: Versione pubblicata dall'editore
Dimensione 2.74 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
2.74 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
Pubblicazioni consigliate

Licenza Creative Commons
I metadati presenti in IRIS UNIMORE sono rilasciati con licenza Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal, mentre i file delle pubblicazioni sono rilasciati con licenza Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale (CC BY 4.0), salvo diversa indicazione.
In caso di violazione di copyright, contattare Supporto Iris

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1297095
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 20
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 17
social impact