Exploring the relationship among local conflicts and territorial vulnerability: The case study of Lombardy Region

During the last 10 years, opposition by local communities against the development of industrial facilities, energy technologies and transport infrastructures has steadily grown. Negative externalities on the environment, quality of life and health are the most frequent motivations of the opponents. Disputes are typically grounded in environmental, social and economic concerns about the local impacts of new development proposals. Within this context, this paper aims to explore the existence of a potential relationship between the level of territorial vulnerability and the distribution of local conflicts surveyed by the local and national press in the Lombardy Region (Italy). This type of relationship is investigated using an empirical analysis based on an overlay mapping of different informative layers. The vulnerability index has been calculated according to the most recent conceptual and analytical frameworks developed in the scientific literature. It is a multidimensional index grounded in environmental, social and economic criteria. The outputs of the vulnerability assessment have been placed into thematic maps to provide a comprehensive overview of the environmental and socioeconomic state of the Lombardy Region. In addition to the general degree of vulnerability, the maps display the local conflicts surveyed by the NIMBY Forum, an Italian survey of territorial disputes managed by the Agency of Research and Information Society. The maps provide a means of i) putting forward some hypotheses about the oppositions that have emerged around the localization of new facilities, including mainly industrial facilities, waste disposals, energy plants and transport infrastructures, and the vulnerability of the Lombardy Region; ii) identifying the driving factors of territorial vulnerability; iii) investigating whether the local oppositions are directly proportional to territorial vulnerability. The first results indicate that a direct relationship among territorial vulnerability and conflicts does not exist. This outcome, even on a preliminary basis, provides a new analytical perspective for understanding the reasons behind local community protests.