Planning Tool Mosaic (PTM): A Platform for Italy, a Country Without a Strategic Framework

Abstract

The following work proposes the utilisation of a technical device named “Planning Tool Mosaic” (PTM), defined as a total homogeneous and standardised framework for the principles contained in municipal regulatory plans: the assignment of zoning, legends, and technical rules. The 300,000 km2-broad national territory is divided into nearly 8000 municipalities. Each of them refers to a distinct regulatory plan and then to a distinct regulation on local buildings, infrastructure, and social services. This level of planning tool is the one that has most impact on the territory. This highly fragmented scenario should be driven by upper-level regulation. Although protocols and guidelines are in force, they are almost irrelevant compared to the impact of regulation at the local level. This process is a European example of city planning mismanagement that needs to be brought to the broader attention of the European technical/scientific context. The PTM, though intervening when municipal plans are already in effect, introduces an element of social and political transparency to planning before transformative events occur. It also provides a continuous framework on the probable future of territories, thereby overcoming the current opacity with regard to public cognition of future arrangements.