The Province of Genova has problems that concentrate in residential areas of a number of small municipalities, located on the borders of the northern side of Genova and especially in the main districts of the Scrivia Valley with 20,000 inhabitants. Other deprived areas are located in the Polcevera Valley, closer to the city centre, and in the Fontanabuona Valley.
While the Genova municipality government improved restoration programs for inner-city deprived areas, little communities in the surroundings do not have the same possibilities to improve their residential areas. As a consequence, problems such as the development of better housing, interferences between living spaces and industrial estates, intrusive motorways and railways, pollution, noise, lack of services, neglection of the river environment can not be solved. As a target area for POSEIDON, the Province of Genova has selected the Scrivia Valley towns, where people with low income and immigrant people are increasing due to cheaper rents than in Genova. Local inhabitants are becoming older, while newly arriving inhabitants are usually younger. The lack of plain zones available for locating new industrial and productive activities restrains development programs and restoration of existing wards, where people live near factoriies.
