Application of Strategic Environmental Assessment to Eco-Industrial Parks: Raibano Case in Italy

Environmental issues are considered increasingly more important in the field of industrial production, especially in the early stages of the planning processes: Eco-industrial parks seem to be effective planning models to reduce environmental impact and to increase firm competitiveness at the same time. By describing the Raibano industrial area planning process, this paper investigates the opportunities offered by strategic environmental assessment as an effective and suitable method in developing real eco-industrial parks. The assessment procedure, also supported by some prediction models, has been implemented by considering the environmental effects generated by the industrial park development and use on every environmental component, and the consequent precondition, mitigation, and remediation measures. The illustrated case shows that the application of environmental assessment principles to an early decision-making level enables the enhancement of some key features of eco-industrial parks, such as the high degree of project preplanning and design and the presence of site management and monitoring mechanisms during its implementation, thus guaranteeing enough flexibility to give birth to spontaneous cooperation and exchanges between the industrial activities. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.