Abstract
The BES project (BES is an acronym for “equitable and sustainable well-being”) was started in Italy in 2011 by Istat and CNEL, largely building on the work of the Stiglitz Commission (2008–2009), and gathering contributions from a wide range of civil society Organizations. A first Report on “BES in Italy” was published in 2013. “Landscape and Cultural Heritage” is one of the 12 domains of well-being identified by the Project, additional to those proposed by the Stiglitz Commission. Landscape and heritage are considered as common goods of a non-renewable nature, whose preservation is deemed relevant to well-being – both for the individuals (subjective aspects), and for the society as a whole (objective aspects). Heritage and landscape conservation issues assume, in Italy, a special relevance in relation to some crucial aspects of the societal performance, such as the care for public assets and the management of conflicts between private and public interest.
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Notes
- 1.
Istat (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica) is the National statistical office of Italy (www.istat.it), CNEL (Consiglio Nazionale dell’Economia e del Lavoro) is the advisory body of the Italian Government and Parliament in matters of economy and labour market (www.cnel.it).
- 2.
Stiglitz et al. (2009).
- 3.
Istat and CNEL (2013). To know more about the BES project, see www.misuredelbenessere.it
- 4.
Kuznets (1934), p. 7 (“The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income”).
- 5.
See Costanza et al. (2009, 2014). For a comprehensive review of the various approaches to the measurement of individual well-being and social welfare that have been considered for the construction of alternatives to GDP (and for an extensive bibliography on this subject as well), see Fleurbaey (2009).
- 6.
Stiglitz et al. (2009), p. 12.
- 7.
Ibidem, p. 7.
- 8.
The Istat survey on Aspects of daily life, carried out on a yearly basis (edition 2011).
- 9.
Documentation of the BES Project in English is available at http://www.misuredelbenessere.it/index.php?id=documents
- 10.
The 21 NUTS 2 units (19 Regions and 2 autonomous Provinces), according to the current EU classification of territorial units for statistics, set by the Regulation (EC) No. 1059/2003 and subsequent amendments.
- 11.
In the sense that is generally accepted in the economic theory, common goods are defined as goods that are rivalrous (because their consumption by one person precludes consumption by another one) and non-excludable (because no payment is required in order to use them), whereas public goods are non-rivalrous and non-excludable. Here, we refer to the more inclusive definition proposed by the Rodotà Commission, established by the Italian Ministry of justice in 2007 in order to modify the Civil code regulations in matter of public goods, according to which goods shall be distinct into private, public and common, and the latter are defined as “things that express utilities functional to the exercise of fundamental rights and to the free development of the individual. Common goods must be protected and safeguarded by the legal system, also for the benefit of future generations. Holders of common goods can be either public or private legal persons. In any case, it must be ensured that these goods are available for collective enjoyment, to the extent and in the manner established by the law”. This applies, in particular, to “the river streams and their sources, lakes and other waters; the air; the parks, as defined by law, the forests and woodlands; the mountain areas of high altitude, glaciers and permanent snows; the beaches and coastlines declared environmental reserves; the protected wildlife and flora; the sites and properties of archaeological, cultural and environmental interest, and any other protected landscape areas” (Ministero della giustizia 2007). The reform bill proposed by the Rodotà Commission was presented to the Senate, but never came to parliamentary debate.
- 12.
Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana, art. 9. For a critical history of the Italian legislation on landscape protection, see Settis (2010).
- 13.
Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio (Legislative Decree no. 42 of 22nd January 2004).
- 14.
Biasutti (1962) defines the sensible (or visible) landscape as “what the eye can embrace, or (…) is perceptible to all senses; a landscape that can be reproduced by a photograph (…), the work of a painter or the description of a writer”, while the geographic landscape is defined as “an abstract synthesis of the visible landscapes, which tends to detect the elements or features that present the most common repetitions over a given space (…), which is larger, in any case, than any space encompassed by a single horizon”.
- 15.
Measures of the conservation of protected areas were developed within the Environment dimension of BES. See, in particular, the indicators Terrestrial parks (Ratio of the surface of terrestrial protected areas to the total surface), Marine protected areas (Extension of marine protected areas) and Areas of special naturalistic interest (Ratio of the surface of areas belonging to the EU network “Natura 2000” for the conservation of biodiversity to the total surface).
- 16.
The first question has been introduced in 2012, while the second had been already used in 1998. From 2012 onwards, both questions will be submitted every year. For the time being, it was preferred not to overload the questionnaire (quite demanding already) with further questions on this topic.
- 17.
Source: Istat, Aspetti della vita quotidiana (2012).
- 18.
Source: Istat, Aspetti della vita quotidiana (1998 and 2012).
- 19.
- 20.
Source: Elaboration from Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Carta del rischio del patrimonio culturale (2012).
- 21.
Source: Elaboration from Istat, Bilanci consuntivi delle amministrazioni comunali (2010).
- 22.
Source: Cresme estimates on illegal building (2011) and Istat, Statistiche sui permessi di costruire (2011).
- 23.
Recast in the Legislative Decree no. 42 of 22nd January 2004 (Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio).
- 24.
Source: Elaboration from Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Carta del rischio del patrimonio culturale (2012) and Istat, Censimento generale della popolazione e delle abitazioni (1981 and 2001).
- 25.
Extra-urban population: people living outside the boundaries of the “inhabited localities”, as surveyed by the Population Census.
- 26.
The agricultural districts (regioni agrarie) are territorially continuous clusters of Municipalities belonging to the same Province and class of altitude, and homogeneous by the market value of crops, which are established for Land registry purposes. Italy is divided into about 800 agricultural districts. The classification procedure is described in Costanzo and Ferrara (2013).
- 27.
Source: Elaboration from Istat, Censimento generale dell’agricoltura (1990 and 2000) and Censimento generale della popolazione e delle abitazioni (1991 and 2001).
- 28.
Source: Elaboration from Agnoletti (2011).
- 29.
Source: Ministero per le politiche agricole, alimentari e forestali, Paesaggio e sviluppo rurale. Il ruolo del paesaggio all’interno dei Programmi di Sviluppo Rurale 2007–2013 (2010).
- 30.
Source: Istat, Dati ambientali nelle città (2011) and Basi territoriali dei Censimenti (2010).
- 31.
The year 1919 was chosen as a plausible turning point between the prevalence of traditional building technologies and the diffusion of the technology of reinforced concrete.
- 32.
Source: Elaboration from Istat, Censimento generale della popolazione e delle abitazioni (2001).
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Costanzo, L., Ferrara, A. (2015). Well-Being Indicators on Landscape and Cultural Heritage: The Experience of the BES Project. In: Maggino, F. (eds) A New Research Agenda for Improvements in Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 57. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15904-1_1
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