Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol A semi-quantitative methodology to evaluate the main local territorial risks and their interactions E. Pilone ⁎ , M. Demichela Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Multi-Risk Local scale Semi-quantitative methodology ABSTRACT The paper presents a semi-quantitative methodology at a local scale, developed to increase the efficacy of Land Use Planning related to the Management of risks, in particular as far as it concerns multiple risks impinging on the same territory (Multi-risks). At the moment, each risk is managed through a dedicated sectorial plan, having its proper procedures and scale, and the only “meeting point” for these plans – at least in Italy - are the Municipal city plans. The Municipalities have to implement the contents related to the various risks and directly intervene on the territory, but the lack of linkage and coordination between the plans and the authorities in charge often makes the emergency management and LUP less effective towards the achievement of a real safety of territories. In ad- dition, the actual legislative framework does not face the possible consequences of risk interactions. In this context, the objective was to develop a simple risk pre-screening tool, expressly designed for local planners, able to point out the areas more exposed to risks and risks interactions, in order to better address the distribution of the municipal resources for further studies and interventions. The local planners that, especially in Italy, have a central role for the risk management of the territory, became the central point for the proposed framework, assuming the role of evaluators, and then decision-makers. A semi-quantitative approach, based on an index scale from 0 to 3 onwards was developed for a direct use from Municipal technicians; the proposed scale is applied to measure both the impact of the risks and risk interaction. The methodology is composed by 4 steps: 1) characterization of the risks; 2) assignation of the ratings to the risks; 3) assessment of binary risk interactions; 4) assessment of the compatibility and planning phase. Each step is accompanied by GIS mapping. The methodology was tested on two Italian case-studies, two Municipalities affected by multiple types of risks which could interact; the proposed approach demonstrated to be able in identifying and bring multi-risks aspects to the attention of the decision makers, constituting a guide to risk that can be integrated with the existing planning instruments to improve the quality of decisions related to risks. 1. Introduction The research developed by the authors rose from previous experi- ences in the field of Major risks and Land Use Planning; in particular, it tried to deal with some difficulties and shortcomings emerged during the drafting of E.R.I.R. plans – Plans for a safe Land Use Planning of the areas around Major risk plants, made in cooperation with some Italian Municipalities. The need to improve the safety of the Major plants through a de- tailed planning of their neighborhoods was introduced in Europe by the so-called Seveso II Directive 96/82/EC; each country then adopted different methodologies to harmonize the foreseen urban functions with the possible accidents related to the major risk plants. Italy implemented the European Seveso Directive with the Legislative Decree 334/1999; a dedicated Ministerial decree (D.M. 09/05/2001) was is- sued to define a method to establish safety distances and bindings around the plants. For this purpose, Italy adopted a hybrid method between the Consequence-based approach and the Risk-based approach employed in other European countries: 4 degrading damage zones, from the inner “high lethality” to the outer “reversible damage” zone, are estimated for each incidental scenario, together with their frequency of occurrence. On the basis of the zone and of the probability, the com- patible urban functions are defined. According to D.M. 09/05/2001, Local authorities (Municipalities) with a Seveso plant are in charge of the identification of the safety distances, through the draft of a dedicated plan called E.R.I.R. - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.05.027 Received 6 March 2018; Received in revised form 11 May 2018; Accepted 11 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: eleonora.pilone@polito.it (E. Pilone). Land Use Policy 77 (2018) 143–154 0264-8377/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T