Period
2024 / 2025
Research coordinator
Cristiana Mattioli
Period
2024 / 2025
Research team
Simonetta Armondi, Stefano Di Vita, Agim Kercuku, Arturo Lanzani, Marcello Magoni, Chiara Merlini, Eugenio Morello, Gloria Pessina, Giulia Setti, Davide Simoni
Tags
The fragilities of ordinary territories and spaces of production, logistics and work
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The economies related to digital enhancement in Italy are experiencing a period of great acceleration; in this framework, the Data Center market has emerged as particularly relevant and seems to have a growing trend, especially in the Milanese metropolitan area. Municipalities in this area have been experiencing this phenomenon closely for years, having to deal directly with large real estate and digital companies in a fragmented regulatory and authorization framework.
The need to define a national regulation on the issue is beginning to be felt as an urgency at the political level as well, as evidenced by the recent publication of some guidelines-such as those of the Ministry of the Environment of Energy Security and the Lombardy Region-and the current bill on Data Centers, currently being discussed in Parliament, which while hinting at the importance of certain criteria such as reducing land consumption or sourcing renewable energy, is strongly oriented toward simplifying and speeding up procedures.
Although this is an emerging phenomenon, several studies highlight the environmental impacts associated with the construction of Data Centers: the large electricity requirements, water consumption for cooling servers, noise, fire risk, and increased urban heat island. On the other hand, it is well known that the construction of Data Centers is often an opportunity to redevelop large brownfield sites and is linked to the capture of substantial funding, especially for small municipalities.
It is, therefore, a multifaceted phenomenon that requires integrated, multi-level planning and multi-actor governance. In this context, with the ProdAction research project, we intend to initiate a reflection on the transition processes of territories invested by new forms of digital production, logistics and storage.
ProdAction promotes, therefore, meetings with administrations affected by the presence or plans of Data Centers at various levels, digital and real estate operators, planners and stakeholders involved in order to initiate a debate on the issue and gather instances from the territory.
The project aims to build, on the basis of scientific evidence and listening to stakeholders, knowledge and tools useful to legislators and local governments to make future decisions in the public interest, in an informed and conscious manner.
The need to define a national regulation on the issue is beginning to be felt as an urgency at the political level as well, as evidenced by the recent publication of some guidelines-such as those of the Ministry of the Environment of Energy Security and the Lombardy Region-and the current bill on Data Centers, currently being discussed in Parliament, which while hinting at the importance of certain criteria such as reducing land consumption or sourcing renewable energy, is strongly oriented toward simplifying and speeding up procedures.
Although this is an emerging phenomenon, several studies highlight the environmental impacts associated with the construction of Data Centers: the large electricity requirements, water consumption for cooling servers, noise, fire risk, and increased urban heat island. On the other hand, it is well known that the construction of Data Centers is often an opportunity to redevelop large brownfield sites and is linked to the capture of substantial funding, especially for small municipalities.
It is, therefore, a multifaceted phenomenon that requires integrated, multi-level planning and multi-actor governance. In this context, with the ProdAction research project, we intend to initiate a reflection on the transition processes of territories invested by new forms of digital production, logistics and storage.
ProdAction promotes, therefore, meetings with administrations affected by the presence or plans of Data Centers at various levels, digital and real estate operators, planners and stakeholders involved in order to initiate a debate on the issue and gather instances from the territory.
The project aims to build, on the basis of scientific evidence and listening to stakeholders, knowledge and tools useful to legislators and local governments to make future decisions in the public interest, in an informed and conscious manner.