The soil matter between eco-systemic performance and spatial planning in metropolitan areas

Although soil represents an essential resource for the sustainability of anthropic life, through the provision of different and relevant “ecosystem services”, it does not emerge as an object of effective protection and safeguards actions. It results considerably underestimated in space policies while, when it is being considered, it appears as a generating factor of conflicts between instances of exploitation and safeguard requirements. The present paper focuses on the phenomenal and regulatory aspects concerning the soil resource in metropolitan areas, where the rate of “soil demand” is particularly relevant. Moreover, the recent establishment of the “metropolitan cities” in the Italian institutional framework, in accordance with the law 07 April 2014 n. 56 “Provisions on metropolitan cities, provinces, union and merging municipalities”, provides a new field of action and new – regulatory and strategic - planning tools for the governance and safeguard of the soil resource, on which it seems appropriate to suggest a path of investigation.