An integrated georeferenced dataset of public investments for soil defence in Italy

Abstract

The dataset collects and harmonizes financial data about public works in Italy, focusing on soil defence investments. The data are sourced from three distinct platforms: the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance's open data platform OpenBDAP, the OpenCoesione website, concerned with interventions framed in cohesion policies financed by additional resources from the European and national budgets, and the ReNDiS database, provided by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), that exclusively gathers information about public works in soil defence. The data records belonging to these three sources are linked by a unique project code (CUP), ensuring that there is no duplication of data. The OpenBDAP and OpenCoesione repositories report financial variables classified into various funds. In contrast, the ReNDiS database only provides the total amount of financial resources allocated to each intervention. Consequently, the merged dataset consolidates these financial variables into one, representing the total investment amount. For the first two databases this aggregate is derived by summing the financial flows from the different funds. Geographical referencing has been added to each intervention and each financial observation is associated with an Italian municipality. The database includes information on the region, province, and municipality for each record. Each database entry has also been equipped with the coordinates of the municipality's centroid and with the polygonal shape of the municipality area. Overall, the merged dataset encompasses 28 variables reporting three descriptive variables, one financial variable representing the total amount of financial resources, six geographic variables representing the codes and names of regions, provinces, and municipalities, sixteen variables referring to key dates of the process of public works, two geographical references variables respectively representing the centroids and the shape polygons of the municipality. This comprehensive dataset allows to analyse the spatial distribution of the resources allocated to soil defence investments. It offers insights to policymakers striving to allocate resources more efficiently, thereby fostering sustainable land management practices and ensuring the long-term health of the Italian ecosystems. The dataset can be complemented with additional information related to various concomitant aspects such as those pertaining to the environmental and socio-economic fields. This integration allows for broad analysis of the relationships between soil defence efforts and surrounding environmental and socio-economic contexts.