Geografia delle localizzazioni commerciali e sistemi di regolazione e valutazione in Piemonte

The reform process of retail activities has been introduced in Italy with an Act of 1998, which has given the Regions the objective of a new approach for the regulation of their development. The proposal gives new roles to public bodies at different levels of governance, trying to strengthen the relationship between retail and territorial development: retail dynamics can support local development if they are not just related to the competition among developers, but also between “retail local systems”. The Piemonte Region has tried to implement the reform introducing criteria of regulation of retail implantations, which take in account socio-economical and urban-territorial characters of the municipalities where the activities are supposed to be localized. Considering the recent dynamics of localization of retail in Piemonte, this chapter presents the methodology of an specific procedure of assessment of the territorial impacts of large commercial zones, as a tool for innovative strategies for the governance of the retail local systems