An Assessment of Built-Up Areas Trend Among EU27 Small Municipalities

Land use, land use change and forestry (LULCF) were included by the Regulation (EU) 2018/841, in the 2030 climate and energy framework, as a sector accounting green-house gas emission. In this perspective, EU has established a comprehensive framework (such as European Landscape Convention, EU’s Common Agricultural Policy or EU’s Urban Agenda) aimed at reducing land consumption and promoting sustainable land use practices, facing climate change. Sustainable land use practices are also addressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with specific targets related to land consumption. In the EU perspective of achieving “net zero land consumption by 2050” target, the authors examined the trend of built-up areas in small Italian municipalities (those with a population below 10,000 inhabitants) and compared it with population growth. Results are oriented to understand if the built-up areas trend is related to a densification process or land consumption compared to the population growth. Data was retrieved from the Global Human Settlement Layer and Eurostat. Results remarked that demographic dynamics and land urbanization are two intertwined processes, but in the last decade, the increase of built-up areas overcame the decreasing population growth. Moreover, it is relevant that land consumption processes involved small municipalities as well as bigger ones.