Territorial disparities in Tuscan industrial assets: a model to assess agglomeration and exposure patterns

  • Diego Altafini Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni Università di Pisa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6559-2372
  • Valerio Cutini Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni Università di Pisa
Keywords: Territorial Disparities, Territorial Exposure, Industrial Agglomerates, Tuscany, Urban and Regional Planning

Abstract

Industrial agglomerates are considered drivers of urban development. This reiterative process of industrial growth, nevertheless, tends to increase regional territorial disparities, an asymmetrical development pattern that can lead to productive spaces’ underuse or abandonment. Although numerous economics studies about industrial distribution and territorial disparities were so far conceived, those are based on dated spatial methodologies. These consider space as an abstract background, hence, leaving unexplored several spatial relations between production, infrastructural networks and industrial agglomerates organization. Novel models ought to consider real attributes of space, being crucial to economic recovery in times of territorial constrains; with this in consideration, the paper objective is to construct and discuss a spatial-economic model tailored to assess territorial disparities in industrial agglomerates distribution and the condition here defined as territorial exposure. Exposure, represented by a composite spatial index, denotes disparities in territorial endowments, identified as factors of sensitivity or support to firms placed within industrial agglomerates, spatial conditions that can affect their capabilities to react to periods of economic recession and their post-crisis recovery. The model analyses Tuscany Region’s industrial structure and depicts territorial disparities in a GIS-based environment. The spatial knowledge produced can aid regional initiatives for economic recovery directed to Tuscan industries.

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Author Biographies

Diego Altafini, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni Università di Pisa

Ph.D. researcher at the department of energy, systems, territorial and construction engineering of the Università di Pisa. Has obtained its bachelor’s degree in economics (2014) and defended its master thesis in urban and regional planning at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil (2018). Since 2018, Diego Altafini conduces its doctoral research at the Università di Pisa, focused on the development of spatial-economic models to the evaluation of productive areas’ locational efficiency and the assessment of territorial disparities. From 2019 carries out teaching activities at the Università di Pisa in the courses of Tecnica Urbanistica e Modellazione del Territorio (Fondo Giovani 2019, 2020).

Valerio Cutini, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni Università di Pisa

Full professor of Tecnica e Pianificazione Urbanistica and vice-director of the department of energy, systems, territorial and construction engineering at the Università di Pisa. Obtained its Ph.D. in Ingegneria Edilizia e Insediativa at the Università di Bologna (1991). Since 1997, Valerio Cutini teaches at the Università di Pisa on the courses of di Ingegneria Civile Ambientale and Ingegneria Edile-Architettura, and in several international universities as a visiting professor. It conducts research focused in the analysis of urban settlements and regional networks, assessing their development and evolutionary process of their morphology and functional aspects.

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Published
2021-08-31
How to Cite
AltafiniD., & CutiniV. (2021). Territorial disparities in Tuscan industrial assets: a model to assess agglomeration and exposure patterns. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 14(2), 161-176. https://doi.org/10.6093/1970-9870/7976