Problems related to the development of integrated systems for economic and environmental accouning: a preliminary analysis of the economic-environmental impact of human activities on the marine pollution in the Basilicata region

Abstract

The efforts made during the last years to analyze the interrelations between economy and environment, suggest defining and constructing standardized integrated systems for national economic and environmental accounting. The methodologies that currently exist are not fully developed and involve numerous theoretical and applicative problems that limit, and delay considerably, the construction of such systems. In this article an alternative approach to the analysis is suggested, which aims to attribute environmental problems to the economic activities that generate them. In particular, a complex procedure of explanatory analysis carried out on a regional scale is suggested. Based on environmental measurements already performed all over the national territory, the procedure identifies territorial and environmental characteristics and latent variables, as well as the variety of the intricate phenomena in a way that is compatible with the requirements of the national schemes for economic an environmental accounting. References are given to environmental variables on a regional scale that have not been previously considered in ISTAT’s current NAMEA projects and that can be obtained faster.