Logistical transformations and metropolitan cities in the South of Italy

This paper presents theoretical and methodological reflections on some aspectscharacterizing the research in the field of urban logistics. The most important logisticalproblems affect not only the cities but increasingly more complex urbanareas that make up in many cases metropolis without interconnection functionsbetween different urban centres. Metropolitan aggregation in Italy and especiallyin the cities of the South, originated from the simultaneous acting of conflictingeconomic forces of agglomeration and dispersion which de facto triggered effectsin terms of mobility opportunities and connections among areas of different, ratherlow level of urbanization. In major urban areas in the South of Italy, the lack ofboth coordinated policies aimed at rationalizing the demand for mobility of peopleand goods and logistical culture aimed at economically and environmentallygoverning the development of the flows is very clear. Therefore, a new planningapproach should be focused on spatial rebalancing of everything that moves inmore and more complex, but at the same time less interconnected, urban environments.The traditional model «centre-periphery» which connects different levelsof hierarchical infrastructure, has led to the realization of radial axes of connection,underestimating the phenomena of settlement explosion of suburban areas,both in terms of residential settlements and of commercial and distribution settlements.The application of a model for the multidimensional analysis of territorialdata, with reference to Southern urban areas, has allowed to develop a compositeindicator, named ACIT, that is the expression and synthesis of the variables andindicators associated with individual economic dimensions of analysis.