Soil consumption and public policies of territorial government

The soil consumption is currently regulated by a set of rules fragmented and difficult to harmonize. This framework is accompanied by a system of multilevel governance where a plurality of subjects operate in a mix of conflicts and cooperation. A rational use of the soil represents an unavoidable circumstance in order to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Within this scenario, a central role is assumed by tools with strategic vocation and consideration of wide areas, such as environmental assessment, landscape plans and other territorial coordination plans, but also, on a smaller scale, by programs of urban regeneration. Local communities should always be in condition to point out the interventions necessary to enhance their peculiarities which impose an approach based not just on legal and economic profiles, but also connected to territorial sciences, like architecture and engineering, agriculture and ecology. The essay has the aim to prove that, following a multidisciplinary approach, it is going to be required a new paradigm focused on the restraint of soil consumption, which arises at guiding principle in the future territorial government public policies hinged on criteria of sustainable development.