On the occasion of the Biennale of European towns and town planners 'Inclusive cities and regions' held in Naples at the ‘Federico II’ University and organised by the Italian Institute of Town Planning (INU) and the European Council of Spatial Planners (ECTP), Italferr - an engineering company of the FS Group's Infrastructure Hub - participated with an important scientific presentation.

In particular, at the workshop "Ports, Airports and other Infrastructure" it presented the paper "The role of railways in sustainable and cohesive territories. An integrated approach for territorial impact assessment" developed within the framework of a collaboration with FS Research Centre (Mario Tartaglia, Serena Martini, Chiara Ravagnan, Chiara Amato).

The study presented stems from the growing attention to the territorial impact of transport policies and infrastructure projects, fostered by the progressive strengthening of sustainability and cohesion being among the major objectives of the European Union. This attention has given impulse to the research paths of the numerous companies and sectors of Gruppo Ferrovie Italiane (FS Group) in order to update the methodological frameworks related to the assessment of the socio-economic and environmental impact of railways in an integrated territorial perspective.

In order to assess the potential of transport infrastructure policies and projects on territorial cohesion, understood as the "territorial dimension of sustainability" (Camagni, 2005), and in line with the scientific debate on territorial impact assessment (Camagni 2006, EC 2013, Espon 2013, Prezioso, 2020), the paper focused on the review of the literature on territorial cohesion that highlights the main pillars of assessment, the state of the art of territorial impact assessment methods and sustainability protocols for infrastructure projects, in order to compare and select indicators for infrastructure assessment, as well as the proposed framework for the territorial impact assessment of railway projects that has already been applied to several railway projects..

The proposed framework creates important connections and comparisons between different methodologies, combining a socio-economic and environmental approach and by placing cohesion and sustainable development at the centre of infrastructure design.

This highlights how Italferr's commitment to strengthening the role of railway infrastructure towards sustainability and territorial cohesion is a continuing activity.

Participation in the Biennale of European Towns and Town Planners was a valuable opportunity to present the results obtained and to exchange views with experts within the framework of the scientific debate on the potential of infrastructure towards more inclusive territories.

The paper presented by Italferr is published in the online volume at the link https://www.ectpceu-inubiennalenaples.com/catalogue