A methodological approach to build a planning environmental assessment framework in the context of marine protected areas

In the last years, issues concerning the environmental protection of marine-coastal protected areas have become a crucial part in policies related to coasts and sea. In Italy, marine protected areas are established by the laws n. 979 of 1982 and n. 394 of 1991, through a ministerial decree where the areas to be protected are named and defined, and objectives and protection disciplines for marine ecosystems are declared. Marine protected areas need to be managed through regulations based on institutional goals aiming at preserving the biodiversity of the marine ecosystem, and promoting the use of natural resources, also through experiences based on sustainable development. The regulation of marine protected areas often overlaps with additional levels of protection coming from planning and management tools referring to different regulatory tools (e.g. the overlap of marine protected areas with the sites of the Natura 2000 network) and, sometimes, to different territorial contexts. This overlap requires a holistic system to integrate all planning issues of the environment and the territory. This condition entails the creation of a cognitive level taking into account relations of the marine-coastal context with the surrounding territorial systems, with particular regard to transition boundaries. Approaches should be able to support territorial policies concerning interactions between human and nature dimensions. This paper proposes a study concerning the definition of a methodology structure to build an analytical-cognitive environmental framework to be integrated into planning processes related to marine protected areas.