The persistent decline in infrastructure spending, notably within the transportation sector, raises concerns about governments’ capacity to meet the demands of a sustainable growing economy. The incorporation of risk assessment in the analysis and computation of potential cost overruns emerges as an effective and efficient tool, underpinning the economic and financial sustainability of infrastructure expansions. Focusing on the “State Road No. 51 of Alemagna Vittorio Veneto” (SSv-51) variant, this study analyzes and proposes a model to forecast the possible cost overruns of an infrastructure project. The application of the risk assessment tool proposed by the National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) offers valuable insights into potential risks associated with project costs and their valuation. The matrix developed in the current study draws from the ANAC Matrix, which comprises four categories of risk divided into 21 risk types. The selection is based on the project’s characteristics, and a matrix is compiled that forecasts the combination of the probability of risk occurrence and the cost impacts on the project. The proposed risk matrix serves as a practical tool for managing uncertainties and estimating potential cost overruns, estimating ex ante a possible cost increase of 7.53%. This projected increase differs only by 1.34% from the final execution costs, mitigating the unforeseen cost overruns not estimated by the initial project. The proposed risk assessment tool emphasizes the importance of integrating risk management into project planning and execution. The research investigated an applied case utilizing an easily adaptable tool, suitable for potential future implementation, further advancement, and broader testing across various project samples in the future. The study provides a framework to assess and mitigate risks linked to cost overruns. As nations navigate infrastructure development complexities, proactive risk management practices are indispensable for efficient resource management, ensuring the economic and financial sustainability of these complex projects.

The European Union faces a complex economic conjunction where different factors affect and reduce the number of feasible and sustainable projects according to the legislation and the available resources. In this context, one of the available solutions to the current energy crisis could be the implementation of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to support the European dual transition targets. The idea of an energy community is still being defined in the literature and from a legislative perspective. The increasing REC dimension and numerosity demand in-depth studies on opportunities and threats in a still unexplored market. To clarify the Italian and European state of the art of these communities, this study in the first section addresses the socioeconomic and policy conditions needed for the foundation and development of energy communities by analyzing the in-force legislation. The analysis of the current regulation has been conducted to verify how RECs affect local communities and their degrees of freedom and action in regions. The second part of the study aimed to define threats and opportunities in creating new professional profiles and local job opportunities in this new thriving market. In this study, we collected interviews and surveys with market operators, both on the service providers’ side (ESCo) and the communities’ side (promoters), to identify conflicts and advantages associated with establishing communities. The participants were initially selected through publicly available lists, and after verifying the contact correctness, they were contacted by email or phone. The results of the interviews have been processed into a SWOT analysis, showing how national policies currently need to catch up in implementing this efficiency tool and how the restricted number and the variety of the existing communities increase the difficulty in creating cohesive and universal guidelines. Finally, local markets can still not correctly manage this innovative tool’s uncertainty despite being interested in it.

This paper reports data describing development projects for new buildings according to construction costs in North-East Italy. A survey was carried out on local companies undertaking new residential development projects in two Italian regions (Veneto and Lombardy). The aim of this survey was to record new real estate construction projects, collecting both technical and socio-economic cost features. It is extremely difficult to collect such data for the Italian real estate construction sector, due to its lack of transparency, so that the novelty for the Italian scenario is the dataset itself. Another interest perspective of this survey is that socio-economic characteristics were also recorded; they are often studied in urban economics, but are usually related to property purchase prices and values, not to construction costs. The data come from an analysis of Canesi and Marella regarding the relationship between the trend of construction costs and the socio-economic conditions of the reference setting, such as the mean years of schooling of the workforce, housing market trends, and average per capita income.

Urban transitions and urban-scape have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely be affected by the current Ukrainian-Russian conflict. These two major events have affected European urban regions and especially marginal regions. Indeed, these regions are mostly struggling with inequality, lack of optionality, interoperability, and resilience due to their energy dependency and digital asymmetries. The continuous demand for a green and digital transition to strengthen social and economic resilience sought and targeted by the European Community has driven the policy of recent years to new European Guidelines. Nevertheless, the digital transition will require sustainability targets in the urban context, changing economic, social, and ecological relationships and balances. In this context, faced with these new transitions, marginal urban regions must plan, design, build, and manage future urban planning choices in a new digital-hybrid space. Therefore, it is crucial to support these transitions with a multi-dimensional sustainability concept through economic, environmental, social, and digital measurements. Urban sustainability indicators (USIs) play an essential role in supporting urban choices and planning. The current study analyzes recent literature and European standards to verify if and how they have changed in embracing the European Policy Pillar under a new and different sustainability profile, which needs to include digital sustainability. As a matter of fact, even if the concept of digitization has been recognized as a pillar of ongoing transitions, the literature and even European indicators struggle to recognize it as a tangible and measurable indicator of sustainability. Seeking to bridge the gap between European requirements and urban practice, the aim of this study is to identify and suggest new key indicators of digitalization to enable the digital sustainability of urban planning to be measured. These indicators can be used to implement a new valuation tool capable of supporting marginal regions by promoting sustainable urban investments in this new hybrid space.

In this paper, we analyze the concept of forced sale value (FV) and investigate the Italian real estate forced sale market. The aim of this study is to fill the gap in the literature on the proper quantitative determination of FV. A robust FV evaluation is a key issue for financial institutions in order to determine the value of mortgages' underlying guarantees. By an empirical investigation, we identify the relation between FV and market value (MV), analyzing the components of the Italian real estate forced sale auction market. We sampled and analyzed 119 cases of forced property sales that took place between 2006 and 2014 in the North of Italy, in order to determine the discount between MV and FV.