Legislative Decree D.Lgs. 42/2004 (Codice Urbani) is the primary legal reference for the protection, conservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage (cultural assets and landscape). Protected areas, considered as a whole—those identified under Article 142 and Article 136—had a percentage of soil consumption in 2023 lower than the national average (5.43%), with an increase of just under 1,400 hectares in the last year. Campania is the region with the highest percentage of land consumed in protected areas (11%) and the largest increase, both in absolute terms (+135 hectares) and in the density of changes (3.53 m²/ha).

This indicator quantifies soil consumption within specific distances from the coastline and tracks its temporal evolution. Nearly a quarter of the land within 300 meters of the coast has been urbanized, while 19% of the area between 300 and 1,000 meters and 8.7% of the area between 1 and 10 km have been affected. In comparison, only 6.5% of the rest of the territory has undergone soil consumption.

The indicator describes land use (agricultural, urban, industrial or commercial, infrastructure, recreational, natural and semi-natural, water bodies, etc.), reporting the territorial surfaces associated with different classes according to the CORINE Land Cover classification system. Between 2012 and 2018, there was a continued general increase in artificial urban areas, primarily at the expense of agricultural land. In Italy, as in the rest of Europe, cultivated areas show a contraction, linked not only to urbanization processes but also to agricultural land abandonment.