Soil consumption, climate change, and large commercial structures. The Italian case study. – In Italy, between 2006 and 2022, over 1,200 km2 of land was consumed, most of which was derived from urban expansion processes. There are many relationships between soil consumption and climate change, both in causes and consequences. In this work, I focus on the soil consumption of large commercial structures, such as shopping centers, factory outlets, and retail parks. In Italy, there are over 1,300 of these structures, and – apart from the few cases that have occupied areas derived from the reconversion of abandoned industrial sites or other urbanized areas – they have mostly developed in rural areas or by occupying residual urban and suburban green areas. In this work, I first reviewed the interna-tional literature on soil consumption deriving from GSCs, discovering that it is extremely rare and does not deal with this type of urbanization independently but only in a generic way as one of the many aspects of urban sprawl. Instead, they become protagonists of scientific literature when they are abandoned. There is no specific legislation in the European Union or Italy on soil consumption in commercial areas. In Italy, the legislature in this matter is delegated to the regions. Still, despite the existence of restrictive regional laws on land consumption, there is no effective response to the problem at the moment.

The management of water resources in mountain contexts in ecological transition. – The frequency and concatenation of environmental and climatic phenomena requires a reflection on our way of managing the change, and in this direction the principle of “custody of the high lands” enhances the awareness of the communities on ecosystem services related to the precious water resources, essential to the biodiversity and the basis of stable economies for the mountain. The contribution intends to build a critical framework on interventions oriented to stem the water crises, adopted in the most vulnerable national mountain areas but which at-tempt the difficult territorial transition path on the climate tendency scenarios. The strategies will be analyzed, promoted by regional legislation and innovative regulations, for the territorialization of the actions on the management of the resource, but also complex projects and multi-sectoral studies with direct repercussions on physical and cultural landscapes, which therefore lead to inclusive forms of governance and participate.

Gender Violence: Legislation and Dynamics. the case of the Messinese –The study is aimed at analyzing the spread of gender violence in our country, often linked to problems of urban and social marginality, examining its size and characteristics. After a brief examination of the interventions adopted by international organizations to combat the phenomenon, the current legislation in Italy regarding family relations and the civil consequences deriving from crimes against the family and gender is analyzed. By examining the statistical surveys conducted by Istat on the phenomenon and on the basis of the studies prepared on the subject by the Ministry of the Interior, the methods and spatial dimension with which gender violence has occurred in Italy in recent years are then analyzed. The survey then focuses on a specific spatial area, that the province of Messina, in order to understand the peculiarities and trends of this phenomenon with respect to the national context, trying to highlight any connections with the local socioeconomic dynamics and to identify a possible relationship between territorial criticality and the explosion of these criminal episodes.

The management of marine and coastal protected areas in Tunisia. – This contribution will examine the marine environment protection policies which have resulted from the international to endeavours undertaken by Tunisia in the last decade of the twentieth century, thus leading to the recovery of coastal wetlands, the establishment of sensitive coastal zones and Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (AMCP). In particular, when focusing on the latter, it was highlighted that, although specific legislation was issued (2009) following the acknowledgement of international guidelines on a participated management of such areas, the delay with which the implementing decrees (2014) were enacted and the strong existing contradictions within a country that only in recent years has initiated a process of territorial decentralization - a fundamental step for the democratization of the country - have hindered the civil society participation in the management of AMCPs.

The Protection of Agricultural Areas and Urban Legislation. Reflections on Building Uses of Rural Soils. – Since the Second World War, the dynamics that have animated the processes of urbanization have generated a radical transformation of the Italian rural landscape causing a change not only in order to the localization modalities residential functions but, more generally, on the whole organizational structure of the territory. As far as the protection of agricultural areas is concerned, the Italian town planning legislation has taken on a role only in recent times, referring to the concept of reducing land consumption.
Starting from a brief overview of the international context, the contribution focuses on the regional scale highlighting the critical issues of the regulatory system of reference, identifying some critical elements relating to the lack of protection of the agricultural territory.
In the conclusions some brief indications for updating the regulatory framework are proposed.