Introduction

The “Plan of sustainability in the territory of Ortona” started up in 2004, co financed by the national Ministry of the Environment.
The idea to promote the project in an area of 22.000 inhabitants (Ortona) came from the cooperation of public and private local actors (Provincia di Chieti, Regione Abruzzo, Municipality of Ortona and ALESA) which found common interests in the Plan’s goals.
Ortona is one of the most important towns in the provincial territory according to the relationships among economic, environmental and social sectors. In this framework the environmental and social features feel the necessity to join with an important industrial context under continuous and deep adaptation.

Objectives and target audience

The project aims at studying sustainable models for disused areas by the investigation of three different approaches:
1)    the recovery of the tertiary and service areas;
2)    the recovery of a residential-tourist area;
3)    the recovery of residential and industrial-handcraft areas;
The framework of these different approaches is based on the common working methodology of the citizens involvement. This means that all the steps of the project have been carried out by the means of working tables, civic forums and constant consultations of the whole local community.
The involvement of the citizens-users has been pursued with both direct (such as survey of opinion inside the population etc.) and indirect actions (such as information and training activities through the “Resources Centre”).

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The total cost of the project is: 1,383,000 Euro, co-financed by the national Ministry of the Environment (1.260.000 Euro).
The partners are: Provincia di Chieti, the Municipality of Ortona and the local energy agency A.L.E.S.A. Private operators have also been involved, like the electric energy supplier for the territory of Ortona. The local energy agency has worked on the energy analysis of the feasibility studies and took part to the dissemination activities about the promotion of Res&Rue culture.

Process

The project is made up of four phases:
1.    creation of biodiversity areas in urban and/or industrial zones in order to help the recovery of disused grounds. The interventions (such us planting autochthonous arboreous species) were carried out with the cooperation of students;
2.    setting up of an environmental training centre named “Resources Centre” in the downtown with the purpose of increasing the awareness of technicians and citizens toward RES and RUE issues;
3.    feasibility studies for the reuse of industrial areas close to urban centre and/or new residential districts according to a sustainable model and using innovative solutions for resources management (energy, water, waste etc.). In this phase the use of local building materials was studied including the whole life cycle assessment and the costs-benefits analysis. The potentialities related to the use of the RES in the territory of Ortona were investigated (off shore wind power, biomass and solar energy) and management solutions for the mobility aspects proposed;
4.    Dissemination activities (targets: citizens, local mass media, students, households, technicians). The involvement of the local population has been pursued with both direct actions (for instance the initiative of a survey named “The imagined town” that has been carried out in the first months of activity among the citizens, before starting the feasibility studies of the sustainable village) and indirect actions (workshops and training activities in the “Resources Centre”). The survey aimed to realize which the local population expectations were, as well as to affect the acceptability of the proposed interventions. In this way the necessities of the potential buyers of the eco-compatible dwellings were well defined. This phase is strictly related to the creation of the “Resources Centre” as a physical point of reference for many awareness activities, workshop, informative sessions for students, citizens households, technicians, working tables with local stakeholders etc.

Results

The cost-benefits analysis of the sustainable village highlighted the following results:

• about 408 TPE/year saved;

• about 1.020 tons/year CO2 avoided;

• about 220.000,00 €/year energy cost saved;

• 1,5 GWh/year of energy produced by RES and RUE;

In addition to the direct results, the sustainable village represents an exemplification of bio building techniques integrated with innovative solutions based on the direct experience acquired. Another, not tangible, result is the involvement of final users and local stakeholders in the decision-making process with the understanding of long-term costs and direct and indirect benefits of sustainable construction, increasing, at the same time, their environmental awareness.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

At present we are working for a concrete realization of the project in the next future and still carrying out the dissemination activities. A fundamental step, through the results of cost-benefits analysis and the contractual aspects, is the identification of strategic mix (public-private) partnerships for the realization of the eco-compatible buildings. Such operation has already been realized with the arrangement of a programme agreement for the hypothesis of the recon version for tertiary and services use between the Provincia di Chieti and the local energy supplier, the “Odoardo Zecca Srl” Company. At the same time, the pursuing of the awareness activities is guaranteed by the achievement of the title of “Environmental Training Centre” for the “Resources Centre”. In this way, the structure could take part to the call for proposals of Abruzzo Region of other public sources of funding to realize other initiatives. In addition, for the prosecution of the Centre activities, the Provincia di Chieti has already announced a call to find private sponsors. The factor of success for the replication of such a project is the participated approach adopted in each intervention, in particular in the planning of the sustainable village. The survey, for example, is a good methodology to pick up the expectations and the request of the local population, as well as to affect the acceptability of the proposed actions and to overcome the cultural lacks. On the basis of the survey results the whole planning approach has been decided.
This type of approach can be easily used by other parties. The integration of different interventions (both under the technical and educational profile) to insert a sustainable village in an enlarged sustainable context is a positive aspect of this Plan too, but it would be important to involve private partners from the beginning to pass from the planning phase to the executive one.