Action B.1.2 From governance to efficacy of EIA process

As part of the SEPOSSO project, action B1.2 envisaged the realization of a survey of projects subjected to EIA, which contained prescriptions regarding interventions on the priority habitat 1120 * (sensu Directive 92/43 / EEC “Habitat”) Posidonia oceanica meadows and any transplant operations of the same.

The survey was carried out using the database called I.De.A. (ISPRA Environmental Decrees), created by ISPRA for the Environmental Assessments Department of the MATTM. The I.De.A. contains all the prescriptions (or environmental conditions) included in the EIA decrees issued by the MATTM, the MIBACT, the Regions concerned and other local Bodies, from June 1989 to date being updated. In addition, the database contains, for example, information relating to administrative aspects, type and location of the work, proponent, prescribing bodies or involved in verifying compliance with the prescription.

The analysis conducted on the requirements contained in the I.DE.A. which contained a reference to Posidonia oceanica, made it possible to identify 107 prescriptions from the 32 national EIA decrees.

From the recognition of the 32 EIA decrees, for the SEPOSSO project it was chosen to primarily examine those projects in which P. oceanica transplant operations have been carried out on a large spatial scale in compliance with a specific requirement.

In detail, the three case studies are:

1. Variant to the Port Regulatory Plan of Civitavecchia – Energy Dock – Grandi Masse – EIA DECREE 6923/2002 and subsequent projects involving the Port of Civitavecchia area
2. Submarine gas pipeline project in the stretch of sea between Lake Fusaro in the Municipality of Bacoli (NA) and Punta San Pietro in the Municipality of Ischia (NA) – EIA DECREE 10/2008
3. Port Regulatory Plan of the Port of Piombino – EIA DECREE 478/2012

to which the case studies were subsequently extended:

1. Construction of an offshore terminal for the regasification of LNG off the Tuscan coast (OLT) – EIA DECREE 1256 of 15/12/2004
2. Procida gas pipeline – Sea stretch between Fusaro-Bacoli lake and Procida harbour area – EIA DECREE 7 of 24/01/2012
3. 220 kV Italy-Malta alternating current merchant line – EIA DECREE 739 of 20/12/2012
4. Trans Adriatic Pipeline – Albania-Italy gas pipeline – EIA DECREE 223 of 11/09/2014
5. Technical and functional adaptation to the Port Regulatory Plan of the Porto Torres civic port – Extension of the western breakwater and resection of the deep water quay – EIA DECREE 35 of 06/02/2018

The two reports “Basic information, legislative context and description of case studies” and the homonymous “Case studies extension” show the detailed analysis of the authorization process and the prescriptions that in the case studies analysed led to the implementation of the transplantation of Posidonia oceanica as a compensation measure. In addition, the first report also analyses, from a procedural point of view, the case study of the transplantation carried out in the Augusta bay in Priolo-Gargallo (Sicily) where, thanks to a PON funding, an attempt was made to recover the pre-existing Posidonia meadow, which had disappeared for years due to the rehabilitation of the Petrochemical Pole.

DELIVERABLE Azione B.1.2 – Basic information legislative context and description of case studies

DELIVERABLE Azione B.1.2 – Basic information, legislative context and description of case studies – Case studies extension

GUIDELINES

This document is an in-depth study of the “Methodological guidelines for the preparation of prescriptive frameworks of measures issued for environmental assessment procedures of state competence”, of MATTM (Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Sea, now MITE – Ministry of the Environment and Ecological Transition) implemented by DM 308/2015 and aims to provide useful suggestions for the formulation of prescriptive frameworks in EIA measures, relating to projects and works whose implementation, potentially determines impacts on Posidonia oceanica meadows, priority marine habitat 1120* sensu Habitats Directive 92/43 EEC.
The document “Insights into the methodological guidelines for the preparation of prescriptive frameworks in EIA measures: structure of the environmental condition. Environmental factor “Biodiversity” – Posidonia oceanica meadows – habitat 1120*” reports the analysis of the minimum contents of a typical environmental condition, which emerged from the in-depth studies of the LIFE SEPOSSO project, within the environmental factor “biodiversity”, in the case of actions involving Posidonia oceanica.

The objective of the document “Proposed update: Guidelines for the Environmental Monitoring Project of works subject to EIA. Environmental factor “Biodiversity” – Posidonia oceanica meadows – Habitat 1120*” is to provide the Proponent of maritime works that impact Posidonia oceanica with methodological and operational indications for the preparation of the Environmental Monitoring Project, within the framework of an EIA investigation. In addition, it provides methodologies for monitoring the transplantation of P. oceanica, if this is prescribed as a compensatory work, reflecting what is defined in the Framework Directive on Marine Strategy (Dir. 2008/56/EC).

Approfondimenti degli indirizzi metodologici per la predisposizione dei quadri prescrittivi nei provvedimenti di VIA: struttura della condizione ambientale. Fattore ambientale “Biodiversità” – Praterie di Posidonia oceanica – habitat 1120*

Insights into methodological guidelines for the preparation of prescriptive frameworks in EIA measures: structure of the environmental condition. Environmental factor “Biodiversity” – Posidonia oceanica meadows – habitat 1120*

Proposta di aggiornamento: Linee Guida per il Progetto di Monitoraggio Ambientale delle opere sottoposte a VIA. Fattore ambientale “Biodiversità” – Praterie di Posidonia oceanica – Habitat 1120*

Proposed update: Guidelines for the Environmental Monitoring Project of works subject to EIA. Environmental factor “Biodiversity” – Posidonia oceanica meadows – habitat 1120*