A Social Multi Criteria Evaluation for Remediation and Development of Contaminated Industrial Sites: the Case of Porto Marghera

Porto Marghera is one of the largest Italian industrial areas, located on the mainland five kilometres away from Venice, on the edge of the lagoon. Its development has begun during the second decade of the twentieth century, with the displacement in the area of the commercial port, previously located on the Isle of Venice. After the second world war, the industrial site has expanded thanks to the establishment of chemical and petrol-chemical industries. Next to the chemical industries, till the end of the seventies, the area has grown following the expansion of the metallurgical industry. Starting from the late seventies, the site has faced a decline in the employment. Besides, in the last twenty years, the number of firms have increased, and the core activities of the area have shifted toward the logistic and commercial sectors. Meanwhile, thanks to the increased environmental concern of the public, and to the introduction of EU regulations, the issue of the contaminated soils has emerged, and in 1998 the industrial site of Porto Marghera was included into the national priority list. In this situation, the issue of the remediation of the contaminated areas become a priority. Several agreements among local, regional and National institutions, as well as industry associations and other public bodies such as the Port Authority, have been carried out during the last years in order to manage the remediation and the redevelopment of the industrial area. In this context, the relations among stakeholders and institutions play a pivotal role in the definition of policies and strategies for the future of the area. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse the role of actors involved and the influence of site-specific features in brownfields reclamation and development process. In the first part of the study, a desktop analysis on a selection of documents produced by the primary stakeholders has been carried out. Then, in the light of the results of the first phase, a few semi-structured interviews with four key actors have performed in order to delve into the processes currently in progress in the area. The results of these two first phases constitute the framework of the third phase of the study. By means of a e-mail questionnaire a broader range of public and private stakeholders have been asked to weight the importance in fostering the development of the site of a site and context specific factors. The results of the questionnaire have been then aggregated in order to identify those factors that, if present or improved, could enhance the attractivity of the area.