Heterogeneous energy landscapes and the challenges for spatial planning: the Port of Ravenna and its hinterland

Abstract This article investigates how the changes in energy supply and the switch to renewable sources are transforming long-established industrial sites into novel energy landscapes. These are composed of heterogeneous spaces which pose challenges to the current governance of urban transformations, especially in terms of spatial planning. Such a trend is evident in sites with a high density of energy infrastructures, as well as a great degree of interdependence between these and the urban space, such as ports and their hinterlands. In Italy, Ravenna is an example of this. Once a major hub for gas extraction and processing in the Adriatic Sea, this Port has recently been the target of numerous projects to combine diverse energy facilities, turning it into the largest green energy hub in the Mediterranean. This transformation has however major implications for its surroundings: altering the environment, changing the maritime ecology, and complexifying the urban landscape with new functions and uses. With respect to this, the article advocates for an in-depth investigation of the heterogeneous spaces that form this landscape, and their interactions, to evidence the opportunities and risks of the ongoing energy-related transformations. This knowledge is useful to open up vistas on the many points of friction produced by current energy projects and to propose alternative spatial arrangements and design approaches to mitigate and govern existing tensions.