The Emilia-Romagna Region, within an agreement signed with its Provinces (November 2006), has financed a study aimed at identifying the existing production areas and, in particular, those interested in projects aimed at their qualification, in the sense of APEAs (Ecologically equipped productive areas). The main objectives of this study, carried out by the IEFE (Institute of Economics and Policy of Energy and Environment, Luigi Bocconi Commercial University - Milan) are related to:

- the normative and programmatic classification of the APEAs;
- the description of the productive vocation of the Province, with particular reference to the industrial and handicraft sectors developed in the territory and, in particular, in the existing productive areas;
- the identification, in the Bologna provincial territory, of existing production industrial and craft areas or new buildings (defined as "strategic development areas") that can acquire the characteristics of an Ecologically Equipped Production Area (APEA);
- the identification of the consolidated or strategic development areas that could need a financial intervention by the Emilia-Romagna Region for their redevelopment or realization