Conflicts between environmental protection and energy regeneration of the historic heritage in the case of the city of matera: Tools for assessing and dimensioning of sustainable energy action plans (SEAP)

Abstract

The effort towards the reduction of energy consumption, reduction of emissions and the adoption of Renewable Energy production technologies produced significant spatial and urban transformations. In terms of environmental impact assessment, a structural contradiction between a system of governance that promotes renewable plants, an economic system ready to invest huge resources and high profitability, a weak system of territorial planning rules and instruments of landscape protection not yet adequate to govern such transformations. This paper proposes a local case study (the city of Matera) where the ex-ante evaluation of investment programs for the energy regeneration of the public housing stock under the Covenant of Mayors has to be compared with the preservation objectives of an unique historical settlements (“i sassi”). In fact, the city, elected European Capital of Culture 2019, has characteristics of unique historical and architectural value of historical value. On it they act the signs of a PRG dated and the management rules of the UNESCO site most recently adopted (2014). The Municipalities adopted the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) - a new category of instrument of urban government which includes strategies and methods of urban transformation - but the intervention scenario not considered the integration of RES plants and technologies with historical settlements. This paper, starting from remote sensing assessment of local radiation index, proposes a methodology to improve the integration between the issue of implementing RES at urban scale and to preserve traditional settlements in a sustainable perspective.