Development of a Decision-Making Model to Support the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the Revision of the Municipal Plan of Turin (Italy)

Abstract

This article presents a decision-making model for assessing the sustainability of urban plans and programmes to envision long-term transformation scenarios through the development of consistency matrices. The tool was tested in a real case study, which is the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the Revision of the General Municipal Plan of the City of Turin (Italy). The changes that have taken place in recent years have highlighted the need for more flexible, dynamic, and streamlined tools that can help the revision of plans and programmes, which are capable also of considering the citizen’s needs. The decision-making model provided in this paper was structured into five phases: normative framing of the environmental assessment procedures; spatial analysis by structures; consistency analysis of conformity between the objectives of the technical proposal of the preliminary draft and the superordinate and coordinated planning; monitoring of the technical proposal through the employment of key indicators; and the definition of guidelines for the General Regulatory Plan of the City of Turin. The tool presented in this work can support planners, municipal technicians, and general public administrations, both in the planning and assessment processes to design and implement sustainable policy recommendations capable of tackling the increasing complexity of urban transformations.