A New Environmental Approach In The TerritoryAssessment

Abstract

Research on the brownfield topic has mainly been focused either on the practices of redevelopment and restoration of a single portion of territory or on the investigation of the causes of a polluted site. In this paper we present a different approach that includes a vast territory (a region or a district) with different types of soil use. This approach allows one to evaluate the state of the territory as a whole and to investigate the pressure due to human activities. The case study is on the Province of Grosseto and it is studied by emergy analysis. This environmental accounting methodology is able to compare the value of human and natural systems on a common basis: the quantity of solar energy directly and indirectly required for a process. This quantity is called emergy and represents the memory of all the energy, matter and time that the biosphere used up to make a product available. Emergy analysis permits us to divide the territory into different districts and to highlight those with a better relationship with the environment. In particular, one of the emergy indices, the empower density, i.e the emergy per unit time and area, gives a concrete measure of the pressure exerted on a territory. We can assess the state of the pressure associated to an activity and then manage the territory in an environmentally sound way. Moreover this index, with the Environmental Loading Ratio (the ratio between non-renewable and renewable resource used) is able to differentiate those areas where the extractive activities have or had an impact on the territory with respect to those areas where the excavations are limited or absent. Using this environmental account methodology it is then possible to outline a photograph of the Province of Grosseto and to give indications for a sustainable development of the territory.