Accessibility analysis in spatial planning: A case of special economic zones (SEZs) in Campania, Southern Italy

Abstract

The strategic role of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) at the Italian level has also been underlined by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which has provided an important economic endowment to relaunch the national economy, in general, and the Campania region territorial economy, in particular. Literature and best practices clearly show that many factors determine the success of a SEZ, with transport accessibility being one of the key factors. This study performs a transport accessibility analysis both at national and first/last-leg levels, by comparing the accessibility of the Campania SEZ areas, the other SEZ areas in Italy and all the other Italian local labour systems. The study focuses on the Campania region, as it represents the first Italian pilot project of spatial planning through the establishment of SEZs. The Campania region exhibits, on average, good transport accessibility both at a national level (considering the multi-modal freight Italian transport network) and at a first/last-leg level (considering relevant nodes of the network, such as tollbooths, freight stations, ports, interports and airports). Also, the impact of SEZ implementation on land use planning has been discussed, to provide a useful tool for stakeholders that are interested in revitalizing the area, at different levels: i) land use policymakers, to plan interventions/planning concerning infrastructures and spatial planning; ii) national policymakers, to establish SEZs in other geographical areas; iii) investors, to assess the convenience of investments in this geographical area.