L’IMPATTO AMBIENTALE AEROPORTUALE DI UN NUOVO SCALO LOW COST

The new Viterbo Airport anticipates the transformation and upgrade of the 1936 aerodrome at the capital of Tuscia. Viterbo Tommaso Fabbri Airport, now home to the Italian Air Force Academy, could undergo a massive overhaul, to welcome the tourists of the third millennium to Rome. A consortium of various institutions has been set up to prepare a planning strategy for the construction of a new airport to ease the congestion of Ciampino Airport in the short term and to absorb a passenger traffic of 8 million, as projected in the medium term to 2020. The Rome Airports Authority (ADR), the Region of Lazio, the Province and Comune of Viterbo, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), Italian Air Traffic Control (ENAV), the Italian Highways Authority (ANAS) and the Italian Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato) have set up a task force to promote “this extraordinary action of synergy between the various institutions in authority over the construction of the new airport”, in the words of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Their objective is to conceive an action plan to construct an airport as quickly as possible, not in isolation, but interacting with the region and the Rome metropolitan area. The aim of this dissertation is to elaborate the various implications of constructing a new airport in a small community, from both an environmental point of view and that of the infrastructural burden it will eventually bear.