Assessment of the Current State of Urban Redevelopment Areas and Their Environmental Impacts: An Analysis to Support the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

In metropolitan areas that have encountered various transformation processes and have a complex urban history, there are often undeveloped or abandoned areas, a result of the rapid and continuous change in cities. For this reason, in urban redevelopment and planning processes, it is important to consider these spaces as potential areas for development and to start with them, as they represent urban voids that should be viewed as a key element in the creation of redevelopment strategies. In this context, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) procedure becomes mandatory in order to evaluate the environmental impact of transformation strategies. This study proposes a working framework to support the SEA in defining strategies and actions for the development of degraded areas. The method applied consists of two distinct phases. In the initial phase, an analysis of the present state of the territory was developed to assess the current situation, ongoing dynamics, and critical issues to be resolved. This analysis integrated SWOT analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. In the subsequent phase, the environmental impact of the proposed strategies was assessed. This assessment was based on the results of the initial analysis, and it was conducted by developing coaxial environmental impact matrices.