Pianificazione strategica tra sviluppo locale e policentrismo: alcune evidenze empiriche sul caso siciliano

Abstract Strategic planning, local development and policentrism: empirical evidence for Sicily Objectives The aim of this paper is the analysis of metropolitan strategic planning in Sicily. Urban areas are becoming important units for territorial cohesion policy and strategic planning represents more and more an important policy instrument. Evidence of a policentric pattern is tested across 30 strategic plans carried out by Sicilian cities in order to derive useful insights for policies implications. Methods and Result This study uses multidimensional scaling and rank-size regressions across Sicilian Functional Urban Areas (FUA) as well as descriptive information drawn from strategic plans in order to identify the main characteristics of these instruments and to provide evidence on their capacity to innovate traditional local development policies. Conclusions The empirical results show a strong evidence in favour of hierarchical patterns across urban areas which are adopting a strategic plan while polycentric forces appear to be very limited.