The amendments to L.84/1994 have progressively given greater importance to the consultation of the actors involved in port planning. The major novelty introduced is related to the importance given to regional authorities, with whom greater collaboration and the definition of co-planning is required, as clarified in the DPSS.
In particular, the role of municipalities has become increasingly important, not only as the last obligatory step prior to adoption, but above all in deciding on the identification of port-city interface areas and agreeing on their management with the Port Network Authority.
Great importance is also given to local and regional authorities, with whom greater co-planning is required: in particular they are the municipalities, the last institutional step before adoption of the DPSS in the Management Committee.
In particular, municipalities must also give their opinion on the identification of areas of port-city interaction.
Consultation of stakeholders is an important step in the development of the strategic planning process of the DPSS and has a specific phase, i. e. the DPSS Preliminary Document, which serves as a common basis for multi-level debate. This debate is therefore articulated in three distinct levels of consultation:
- Level of Regional bodies: (Municipalities, metropolitan cities and regional administrations in the Network)
- Level of Port Stakeholders: (Sea Resource Partnership)
- Level of Local Actors: (Citizens and Stakeholders).
Constructive input is required from all these actors to complete the analysis of the preliminary DPSS and to elaborate the draft of the final DPSS. In detail, the steps in the three consultation levels will enrich the preliminary DPSS with objectives, strategies, actions and guidelines for port masterplans, as well as defining the systemic contents of strategic port planning.
Social restrictions due to the COVID_19 emergency have been in place since March 2020. Consequently, all three levels mentioned above cannot foresee traditional meetings, but will take place remotely in different ways:
- First Level: For regional and local authorities, thematic and regional meetings take place by videoconference, recreating virtual technical panels;
- Second Level: For port stakeholders: questionnaires and in-depth interviews with individual port masterplan members
- Third Level: For local actors: webinars with opportunities for public interaction, targeted questionnaires and Geoblogs