Land consumption grows by 10% in 2022 in Italy

Land consumption in 2022 grew by 77 square kilometres or 10% over the previous year to reach a total of over 21,500 square kilometres or 7.25% of the Italian territory net of rivers and lakes, according to the the 2023 report 'Land consumption, territorial dynamics and ecosystem services' released by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research ISPRA on Wednesday, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

This was the equivalent of 2.4 square metres of new artificial land cover per second.

Most of the new land consumption in 2022 was concentrated in the northern Po Valley, in the Lombardy and Veneto regions and along the Via Emilia, and along the entire Adriatic coast, particularly along some parts of the Romagna, Marche and Puglia coastlines, the report said.

Between 2006 and 2022, the hidden cost resulting from the loss of ecosystem services due to land consumption amounted to nine billion euro per year.

The increase of artificial land cover impacted agriculture in particular, with the loss of 4,800 hectares of arable land.

ISPRA said 13% of total new land consumption in 2022 occurred in areas of medium hydraulic risk and that over 35% occurred in areas of high or very high seismic risk and 7.5% in areas at risk of landslides.