OECD territorial reviews Venice, Italy 2010.

This review offers a comprehensive assessment of the city-region's economy and the extent to which its land use, labor market and environmental policies embrace a metropolitan vision. A new understanding of the provinces of Padua, Treviso and Venice as an interconnected city-region of 2.6 million people guides this study. Venice ranks as among the most dynamic and productive city-regions in the OECD, with high employment levels and growth rates. Though it has thrived on a model of small firms and industrial clusters, it is undergoing a deep economic transformation. Venice confronts growing environmental challenges as a result of rising traffic congestion and costly infrastructure pressures, exacerbated by sprawl. Demographics are also changing, due to aging inhabitants, immigrant settlement and the rapid depopulation of the historic city. This report offers a comparative analysis of these issues, utilizing the OECD's metropolitan database to benchmark productivity and growth, drawing on regional economics, urban planning, transportation studies and hydrology to throw light on the changes. In light of planned inter-city rail extensions, the review calls for programs to increase economic synergies between Venice and its neighbors. It evaluates key tools for promoting economic growth and metropolitan governance and proposes enhanced coordination of land use policies, additional business development services for small and medium-sized businesses, and the enlargement of university-linked innovation. Given frequent flooding, the report appraises the quality of metropolitan water governance and Venice's potential to become a powerful reference for climate change adaptation.--Publisher's description.  Read more...