Biopotentiality as an index of environmental compensation for composting plants Alberto Pivato a,⇑ , Stefano Vanin b , Luca Palmeri c , Alberto Barausse c , Giovanni Mangione d , Michele Rasera e , Monego Gianluca e a ICEA, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy b Department of Chemical & Biological Sciences, School of Applied Science, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK c Environmental Systems Analysis Lab (LASA), Dept. of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy d Teseo Ingegneria, via Dei Da Prata 14, 31100 Treviso, Italy e Contarina S.p.A., Via Vittorio Veneto 6, Lovadina di Spresiano, 31027 Treviso, Italy article info Article history: Received 17 September 2012 Accepted 30 March 2013 Available online 6 May 2013 Keywords: Biopotentiality Composting plant Environmental compensation Landscape ecology abstract The Biopotentiality Index is a landscape ecology indicator, which can be used to estimate the latent energy of a given land and to assess the environmental impacts due to the loss of naturalness on a land- scape scale. This indicator has been applied to estimate the effectiveness of the measures put in place to provide an environmental compensation for the revamping of a composting plant. These compensation measures are represented by a green belt with a minimum width of 25 m all around the plant, represent- ing both a windbreak and a buffer zone, and by two wide wooded zones acting as core natural areas. This case-study shows that the compensation index could be used as a key tool in order to negotiate the acceptance of waste treatment plant with the population. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The current struggle to meet the consensus of local communi- ties when building industrial or technological plants causing po- tential environmental impacts is an issue tightly linked to the need to harmonize two seemingly-conflicting needs: the economic and technological progress of society and the conservation of the ecological balance at a large, landscape scale (Wiens, 2009). Both needs are robustly rooted in two opposite sides of the public opin- ion, both characterized by their own, partial reasons, which rarely communicate with each other. This lack of communication is becoming stronger and stronger, since the technological progress has increased the perception of the risk caused by industrial plants. There is, thus, an urgent need to develop clear analytical method- ologies to quantify in a transparent manner the environmental transformations of environmental compensation measures, follow- ing the construction of industrial plants (as the waste treatment plants). Analyses based on the landscape ecology theoretical framework (Formann, 1995; Odum, 1971) are a valuable tool to assess the ef- fects of siting a technological plant, such as a composting plant (as the one examined in this paper), on a large spatial scale that can be classified as landscape; by landscape we mean a system of ecosys- tems organized in a hierarchical structure and interacting one with another through on exchange of energy and matter, forming a frag- ile dynamic balance perturbed by both natural forcing and anthro- pogenic pressures. The Territorial Biopotentiality or Biological Territorial Capacity (Btc)(Ingegnoli, 1993, 1995; Caravello et al., 2006; Lauro et al., 2007) is one of the key indicators used in such assessments; it allows the evaluation of the landscape perturba- tions from an energetic point of view in a synthetic manner, high- lighting the overall benefits following from environmental compensation measures at the landscape level such as reforesta- tion, and construction of wetlands. According to this approach, the energetic value for each element of the landscape is estimated before and after a given landscape transformation. The difference between the total energetic value of the landscape after and before the transformation represents a quantitative index assessing the quality of the transformation. If the difference is negative we ex- pect a decrease in the quality of the environment, if negative we expect an improvement. The goal of this paper is to show, based on the case study of a composting plant in Italy, the wide applicability and usefulness of this indicator as applied to waste treatment plants and waste management systems. 2. Description of the case study This paper focuses on the case study of an existing composting plant in the Province of Treviso (Italy), to be transformed through an increase in its waste treatment capability and the related envi- ronmental compensation measures, as well as the construction of a 0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2013.03.023 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 049 8278993; fax: +39 049 8278984. E-mail address: alberto.pivato@unipd.it (A. Pivato). Waste Management 33 (2013) 1607–1615 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman