The injured coast: the degradation of the Italian coastal landscape between unauthorized development, eco-mafia and regulations

The coastal landscapes are an important part of the identity, history and collective memory of Italy, in addition to being a natural heritage of extraordinary value and an important tourist resource. Yet still, the substantial and uncontrolled transformations that occurred in the last decades in almost all coastal regions attest to an alarming reality that shows no sign of changing. The unauthorized development is in fact an extremely widespread phenomenon in Italy and in particular in coastal sites, and it is configured in a first time as a form of spontaneous urbanization to become soon a purely speculative phenomenon. The paper aims to illustrate the main causes of this process, outlining the main stages of historical development, but also the role of eco-mafia and the regulatory response of the Italian government, not always effective. Only in recent years the preservation, the requalification and the enhancement of the coastline have become priorities for the future of our country. The unauthorized development can’t be suppressed by healing the illegal buildings and selling off our coastal landscape heritage, but by elevating the levels of control for enhanced protection of the territory, by starting the process of demolition to all buildings constructed without the necessary permits and especially by raising public awareness to the inestimable value of the landscape and to the social mobilization. Focusing on some examples of significant landscape impact, the paper aims also to offer a reflection on the implemented methods to eradicate the phenomenon of unauthorized development from the Italian coasts and on the most significant results.