Patterns of urban compactness: indicators of balance between built-up area and voids

An effective response to the current international and EU guidelines of limiting land consumption and desirable reversal of the phenomenon, is possible for Italy only if it succeeds in setting up centralized regional direction structures for settlement transformations and working on operational planning tools. Precisely at this level, a different control of classic urban planning parameters will have to be expressed, centering attention on the relationship between built-up areas and property areas (coverage ratio) and orienting it to support urban design from a soil-saving perspective. This should apply in all homogeneous zones covered in Italian planning, with a decisive revision of current models. The paper examines the possibilities of technical action in this direction by simulating land-saving solutions corresponding to the progressive reduction of areas committed to construction and formulating proposals to strategically better regulate urbanization arrangements.