OECD Territorial Reviews: Venice, Italy 2010
This Review of Venice, Italy, offers a comprehensive assessment of the city-region’s
economy and the extent to which its land use, labour market and environmental policies
embrace a metropolitan vision. A new understanding of the provinces of Padua, Treviso
and Venice as an interconnected city-region of 2.6 million people guides this study.
Venice ranks as among the most dynamic and productive city-regions in the OECD, with
high employment levels and growth rates. Though it has thrived on a model of small
firms and industrial clusters, it is undergoing a deep economic transformation. Venice
confronts growing environmental challenges as a result of rising traffic congestion
and costly infrastructure pressures, exacerbated by sprawl. Demographics are also
changing, due to ageing inhabitants, immigrant settlement and the rapid depopulation
of the historic city of Venice.
This report offers a comparative analysis of these issues, utilising the OECD’s metropolitan
database to benchmark productivity and growth. It draws on regional economics, urban
planning, transportation studies and hydrology to throw light on the changes within
the city-region. In light of planned inter-city rail extensions, the Review calls
for programmes to increase economic synergies between Venice and its neighbours. It
evaluates key tools for promoting economic growth and metropolitan governance and
proposes enhanced co-ordination of land use policies, additional business development
services for small and medium-sized businesses, and the enlargement of university-linked
innovation. Given frequent flooding, the report appraises the quality of metropolitan
water governance and Venice’s potential to become a powerful reference for climate
change adaptation.
Published on June 17, 2010Also available in: Italian
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