Chiara Garau (p), Giulia Desogus

Dimitris Ballas

In the last decade, the scientific community has focused on the challenges that islands must face in areas such as urban planning and economic and social development in order to achieve the same levels of development as non-island territories. Several studies have examined the urban planning methods in relation to geographical characteristics, specialised policies, structural problems, and the territorial dimension of islands, with the aim of promoting territorial cohesion relationships that increase the levels of sustainable development in these contexts. The Committee on Regional Development of the EU, in its "Report on EU Islands and Cohesion Policy: Current Situation and Future Challenges" (2022), reaffirms that island contexts have not been able to overcome the challenges and disparities in terms of sustainable development due to their permanent geomorphological and natural structural handicaps. Structural disadvantages are limitations for island contexts, but they can offer an opportunity to rethink the territory in terms of social and economic networks to improve the daily comfort and quality of life of users of the island territory or parts of it. Based on these premises, the paper aims to measure and assess the internal dynamics of large island contexts in order to identify suggestions for targeted actions of territorial cohesion between different parts of the island. Using Sardinia (Italy) as a case study can permit to identify specific functional areas in terms of urban planning, mobility, and socio-economic development. In addition to being an island system, Sardinia is emblematic as a case study for several reasons: not only because it is in the middle of the Mediterranean Basin, but it is also one of the biggest islands in the same basin, with a total size of 23,813 square kilometres. The study concludes with a discussion and presentation of its findings, demonstrating how the functional areas identified and analysed provide suggestions for large islands in the Mediterranean, as well as methodology repeatability and effective island comparisons.

Keywords: Territorial Cohesion; Island; Islands Functional Areas; Islands’ Structural Problems; Sardinia