ABSTRACT
The paper examines the planning process in Italy, focusing on the innovations introduced by the EEC Directive 85/337 and by subsequent national legislation on resources used for public investments.
To permit a satisfactory resources allocation, so as to satisfactorily achieve the given objectives at the lowest costs, the adoption of a plurality of evaluation techniques is necessary to support the decision process. Recommendations favour the solutions which entail less environmental impact, i.e. adopting environmental compatibility criteria.
The overall evaluation must therefore be economic, social and environmental and must permit the achievement of a plurality of independent, complementary or, more often, accommodate conflicting objectives. The guide-line would be consistent with the sustainability issues.
Given the assumption that countryside stewardship may contribute to the solution of, or at least to ameliorate, many of the emerging problems of the metropolitan areas, the paper presents three case studies carried out by a research group in different professional circumstances, taking into account rural space and landscape.
