Health emergency and economic and territorial implications. First considerations

The Covid-19 epidemic has caused a lot of economic and social damages and has generated territorial imbalances that are not yet quantifiable. Many research groups are currently committed to deepen their understanding of the impact of the crisis using different disciplinary methodologies and focusing on different aspects of the phenomenon. These researches reveal causal links between the variables involved that have not been explored up until now and raise relevant questions for the economic and social future of our Country. This paper wants to provide an overview of the territorial and economic implications related to the epidemic event on the basis of a set of economic, settlement and environmental indicators applied to the two territorial dimensions of the Italian Regions and Provinces. For each of them, the connection with primary epidemic data (number of cases and number of deaths) was analysed to verify the possible presence and consistency of the correlation indices. Aim of the article is to highlight some territorial characteristics that may have facilitated the spread of the epidemic by identifying, at the same time, some actions that will positively affect them, in an evolutionary perspective.