Metropolitan City of Capital Rome
The Metropolitan City of Capital Rome is a local government authority comprising within its borders the territory of the City of Rome and 120 other municipalities. With more than four million people living and working in an area of over five thousand square kilometres, it is the largest metropolitan city of Italy.
The area is the centre of a radial network of roads starting from the City of Rome, which roughly follow the lines of the ancient Roman roads, and four motorways that add up to a motorway ring road around the Capital. It is the most important rail transport hub of Central Italy, counting Roma Termini station, the second largest railway station in Europe, and Tiburtina station, a major high-speed rail station and a cutting-edge intermodal node.
The intercontinental Leonardo da Vinci airport in the City of Fiumicino is the largest airport in Italy by number of passengers and one of the largest ones in Europe, in addition to being the second largest Italian cargo airport. The primary harbour of the territory is the seaport of Civitavecchia, an important hub for the maritime transport of goods and passengers in Italy and one of the main cruise ports of the Mediterranean.
The main administrative functions concern land use planning, mobility and transport, environment, road network and secondary school maintenance.
Economy
The Metropolitan City of Rome is one of the richest territories in the country and a fundamental piece of the national production system. Its economy is characterized by a prevalent role of services, driven by the significant presence of central government administrations, followed by the trade sector and a high-tech manufacturing sector ranging from pharmaceutical chemistry to advanced aerospace mechanics, biomedical and ICT.
Interests and Future Goals
The Metropolitan City of Capital Rome is developing its Strategic Plan and the Agenda for Sustainable Development, whose priority thematic axes will be consistent with those of the 2021-2027 European programming period and the guidelines of the National Recovery and Resilience Fund. These axes are:
- Culture, identity and innovation
- Green revolution and ecological transition
- Climate, energy and sustainable mobility
- Digital transformation and governance
The participatory planning process with local stakeholders currently underway will help define a shared framework of the priority strategies of the Plan which will further specify the thematic axes, also taking into account the features of the area and the assets identified by the preliminary document: Natural and Relational Capital.
The Metropolitan City of Capital Rome is also adopting its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan which is one of the most effective mid-long term strategic planning tools available to metropolitan areas to define development strategies for contributing to the transition towards low-emission mobility models, improving the quality of life of their citizens, reducing the diseconomies caused by the inefficiency of the current transport system, and by making metropolitan areas more resilient. The actions to be included in the SUMP of the Metropolitan City of Capital Rome will be developed starting from the strategic framework and based on the minimum macro-objectives provided by the ministerial guidelines, to which one or more measurement indicators and the set targets have been associated. Starting from the macro-objectives, four macro-dimensions of sustainability were identified:
- Accessibility: entering and circulating easily in an area, accessing its spaces, functions, and services
- Liveability: living in a pleasant, safe, and healthy area, ensuring a mobility system with motorised-traffic free spaces and a low level of accidents, noise, and health-harmful air pollutants
- Environmental sustainability: minimising the negative impacts of mobility on natural resources and the environment, promoting a mobility system with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions, land consumption, and waste production
- Economic sustainability: reducing citizens’ expenses for public and private mobility, increasing efficiency in the management of mobility systems and the sustainability of investments
An additional pillar of widespread sustainability was added to these dimensions, since it was considered that the Metropolitan Area of Rome suffers from imbalances mainly due to the centripetal role of the capital that strongly penalises widespread transversal relations between the metropolitan municipalities.
The Network Cities for Apprenticeship is an initiative spearheaded by the Metropolitan City of Capital Rome and supported by the European Commission within the framework of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship. One of the primary goals of the network is to raise awareness of the potential that the cities have to support apprenticeships, to become an advocacy platform, and to provide cities with information, training, and technical and policy assistance. It will play a proactive role in encouraging development of green skills as well as digital skills in apprenticeships. Among others, the network can fuel the consultative process for the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and have an impact on the European policies implemented during the new programming cycle 2021-2027. Ultimately, through the network, cities will be able to learn from each other, collaborate, develop tools, share good practices and provide and receive technical and policy assistance.
