Environmental Quality of Life and Spatially Adjusted Indicators: Evidence from Italian Provinces

The growing use of composite indicators to assess environmental quality and quality of life in the Mediterranean region raises a key question: to what extent do observed outcomes reflect local policy efforts rather than spatial spillovers and broader structural pressures such as climate change? This paper examines the integration of spatial filtering techniques within a non-compensatory framework to enhance the measurement of environmental sustainability at the sub-national level and to explore its implications for societal well-being. Building on the Adjusted Mazziotta and Pareto Index (AMPI), we use spatial filtering procedures to disentangle environmental performance into (i) a locally actionable component associated with governance capacity, and (ii) a spatially structured component capturing supra-local forces linked to geographic proximity and regional dynamics. The empirical application focuses on Italian provinces, offering insights relevant to Mediterranean contexts characterized by environmental vulnerability and territorial inequalities. Results show significant spatial dependence across multiple environmental dimensions and reveal that accounting for spatial effects substantially alters provincial rankings. By improving the interpretability and fairness of composite indicators, the proposed approach supports more realistic benchmarking and contributes to the design of place-based policies aimed at enhancing environmental sustainability, territorial cohesion, and quality of life in Mediterranean regions.