Do Eco-Innovation Projects Target Environmental Fragile Areas? The Case Study of Some Italian Southern Regions through a Spatial Approach

Abstract

A fundamental objective for the effectiveness and, above all, for the efficiency of the dynamics of environmental sustainability is related to the correct directing of project actions towards those areas that need them most. This contribution intends to verify whether the spatial distribution of eco-innovation projects in some regions of Southern Italy affects areas characterized by greater environmental fragility. The proposed approach highlights a centrality of the spatial perspective, thus underlining how important and necessary it is for political actors to evaluate the goodness of projects not in absolute terms but in relation to their relationship with the territory in which they are implemented. To this end, the methodology used envisages two actions, a cartographic comparison between the distribution of environmental projects and that of environmental fragility and an analytical evaluation of the spatial autocorrelation between contiguous areas to detect any geographical determinisms. The results show a “positive” independence regarding the presence of ecoinnovation even in the absence of environmental fragility but not vice versa.