Afer the Industrial Revolution and even more afer the World War II, the socio-economic dynamics have strongly exacerbated land use and land cover changes (LUC) in Italy. LUC can be analyzed using both cartographic and inventory approaches. The later, in particular, provides estimates of the accuracy of the sampling strategy adopted, allowing objective and scientifically-sound comparisons of the estimates at diferent times. The aim of this contribution is to present recent outcomes and methodological remarks obtained by testing, improving and implementing the Italian Land Use Inventory (IUTI), a survey system based on point sampling on orthocorrected very high resolution remotely sensed imagery, adopted in Italy at national and regional scales. In particular, the principal implementations and experiments have been aimed to: (i) analyze recent LUC in Italy (particularly forest expansion, urban growth and dynamics within the agricultural domain) and their spatial distribution along diferent contexts (i.e., mountain, protected and inner areas) and in relation to diferent aspects (i.e., soil features); (ii) propose the integration and comparison of land use and land cover analysis as a quick and efective instrument to beter characterize LUC and related impacts as well as to monitor particular features such as green infrastructures; (iii) propose and check a two-phase strategy for LUC estimation based on a one-per-stratum stratified sampling to reduce costs and time while minimizing the lost precision. Results highlighted three interlinked LUC paterns in Italy, as follows: (i) increase in forest lands (1.7% of the Italian territory), mainly at the expenses of croplands in the hills, and pastures and grasslands in mountains; (ii) consumption of arable lands (-4.2% of the Italian territory) due to urban growth in lowlands, conversions to permanent crops in hills (mainly orchards and vineyards) and natural reforestation in mountain areas; (iii) increase in built-up areas (1.6% of the Italian territory). Results of the updating process at 2013 show a decreased rate of annual variation, if compared with the first monitoring period (1990-2008). Our findings demonstrate that the evaluation of LUC and the selection of a reliable and accurate approach usable as a standard for a large series of experiences play a primary role to support land use planning and sustainable development policies, and highlight the potential for further re - search to enhance the implementation of cost-efective monitoring instruments.

How much, where and how is land use changing in Italy? The supporting role of the Italian Land Use Inventory

A. De Toni;
2017-01-01

Abstract

Afer the Industrial Revolution and even more afer the World War II, the socio-economic dynamics have strongly exacerbated land use and land cover changes (LUC) in Italy. LUC can be analyzed using both cartographic and inventory approaches. The later, in particular, provides estimates of the accuracy of the sampling strategy adopted, allowing objective and scientifically-sound comparisons of the estimates at diferent times. The aim of this contribution is to present recent outcomes and methodological remarks obtained by testing, improving and implementing the Italian Land Use Inventory (IUTI), a survey system based on point sampling on orthocorrected very high resolution remotely sensed imagery, adopted in Italy at national and regional scales. In particular, the principal implementations and experiments have been aimed to: (i) analyze recent LUC in Italy (particularly forest expansion, urban growth and dynamics within the agricultural domain) and their spatial distribution along diferent contexts (i.e., mountain, protected and inner areas) and in relation to diferent aspects (i.e., soil features); (ii) propose the integration and comparison of land use and land cover analysis as a quick and efective instrument to beter characterize LUC and related impacts as well as to monitor particular features such as green infrastructures; (iii) propose and check a two-phase strategy for LUC estimation based on a one-per-stratum stratified sampling to reduce costs and time while minimizing the lost precision. Results highlighted three interlinked LUC paterns in Italy, as follows: (i) increase in forest lands (1.7% of the Italian territory), mainly at the expenses of croplands in the hills, and pastures and grasslands in mountains; (ii) consumption of arable lands (-4.2% of the Italian territory) due to urban growth in lowlands, conversions to permanent crops in hills (mainly orchards and vineyards) and natural reforestation in mountain areas; (iii) increase in built-up areas (1.6% of the Italian territory). Results of the updating process at 2013 show a decreased rate of annual variation, if compared with the first monitoring period (1990-2008). Our findings demonstrate that the evaluation of LUC and the selection of a reliable and accurate approach usable as a standard for a large series of experiences play a primary role to support land use planning and sustainable development policies, and highlight the potential for further re - search to enhance the implementation of cost-efective monitoring instruments.
2017
Anthropocene, IUTI, rewilding, urban growth, land abandonment
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1160548
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