1,720,981 research outputs found
Una proposta per la pianificazione delle aree agricole periurbane: lo standard di ruralità
No full textA methodology to plan periurban farmland areas: the case of the Plain of Lucca (Italy)
No full textThe study of effective planning models to rule the relationship between urban and rural areas, is a theme that already about two centuries ago, was faced in Europe to contain urban growth and to mantain fundamental spaces to ensure the survival of the population. A renewal approaches to planning could be the use of the Ecosystem Services theory. A planning that needs to utilise new concepts and tools able to build a sustainable relationship between consumption targets and carrying capacity of the resources in a territory. In particular, the paper focuses on the Plain of Lucca (Italy). It is proposed, therefore, a methodology to assist the planning process. A methodology developed with open source GIS using cadastral data, land-use data data on agricultural sector, and semi-structured interviews with local actors
Building local food governance: the case of the Food Plan of the Pisa province
Full text linkIn the context of acknowledged need for a transition to more sustainable food systems, the definition and implementation of a new food governance system, aimed at facing the complexity of the change needed and assuring the expression of all the interests and potentials, appear crucial. Within a multilevel perspective of food governance, the local urban-rural systems appear particularly promising. This paper analyses an experience in Italy in which since 2010 public and private actors have been interacting to design and implement an integrated urban food strategy. While exploring the dynamics underlying the definition and the functioning of its various institutional tools, the paper critically analyses the challenges and the weaknesses emerged. The problems related to the active involvement of the various public and private stakeholders and to the implementation of an institutional environment enabling the exercise of food democracy are amongst the main issues analysed
A Spatial Integrated Database for the Enhancement of the Agricultural Custodianship Role (SIDECAR)—Some preliminary tests using Tuscany as a case-study Region
Full text linkAgriculture plays a fundamental role in the provision and regulation of Ecosystem Services. As a result, the loss of farmland or its mismanagement may consistently reduce community well-being. This problem is particularly felt in the Mediterranean area, where pedoclimatic conditions and high anthropic pressure on scarce resources are making rural systems more fragile. Policy is a very important driver in the promotion of sustainable agriculture and soil protection. However, it would appear that policy does not adequately address the scale and urgency of soil and environment protection issues. The complexity of factors that influence the role played by agriculture in territorial custodianship and Ecosystem service provision demands dynamic management tools, where information and territory are closely intertwined in providing adequate knowledge for intervention. This paper presents SIDECAR (Spatial Integrated Database for the Enhancement of the Agricultural Custodianship Role1), a decision support system (DSS) which aims to promote an integrated approach to planning, programming and design. SIDECAR is a database where several georeferenced data were merged and developed using a Geographic Information System (QGIS). It allows for the integration of spatialized information on land use, territorial biophysical characteristics, farm socio-economic characteristics, Common Agricultural Policy aid distribution, etc. SIDECAR has been tested in the Italian region of Tuscany where there is a high level of multifunctionality in agriculture and a great variety of contexts. Results show that the effectiveness of agricultural and spatial planning policies and their positive role for community well-being can be improved by considering: a) spatialized information; b) farm data used for forecasting agricultural trends at territorial level; c) the provision of ecosystem services by agriculture
Politiche di sviluppo rurale e paesaggio
No full textL’agricoltura è la prima delle arti, nasce da un progetto, dalla modificazione cosciente di un contesto, utilizzando conoscenze tramandate e accumulate nel tempo. L’agricoltura contemporanea, figlia della ‘rivoluzione verde’, del fordismo e della sua crisi, ha voltato le spalle a questo sapere che era in grado di produrre non solo alimenti, ma anche tutela ambientale e qualità estetica. I testi raccolti in questo volume intendono alimentare riflessioni e pratiche nei vari settori della pianificazione e progettazione del territorio e del paesaggio – da quello universitario a quello politico, tecnico, professionale e amministrativo – che portino il mondo dell’agricoltura a riconquistare un ruolo centrale nel disegnare nuove relazioni fra abitanti e territorio. In questi scritti, il paesaggio agrario rappresenta un’opportunità per produrre un contesto in cui sia piacevole vivere, con un approccio lontano dalla deriva estetizzante di un malinteso immaginario ‘pittoresco’, ma attento piuttosto ad un’estetica di tipo contestuale, che nasce dentro e dal mondo rurale
Understanding the participation in agri-environmental schemes: evidence from Tuscany Region
Full text linkSince introduction with accompanying measures of MacSharry Reform, Agri-Environmental Schemes (AESs) represents the main agricultural policy instrument which address environmental objectives in Common Agricultural Policy. In spite of twenty years application and its high share of RDP budget, several evaluation reports and scientific literature have measured a low environmental impacts compared with the expectations. Economic literature has identified in low target level of schemes, low participation rates, spatial distribution heterogeneity and asymmetric information between farmers and public administration the main reasons for such AESs lower impact. AESs are compensation payments, aimed to encourage farmers to adopt agricultural practices/prescriptions which affect positively environment. The agri-environmental payments are designed in order to cover (on the average) income foregone, and operational and transaction cost increase due to AESs farm implementation. Agricultural economic literature has highlighted positive effects of incentive mechanisms in increasing farmers? participation. Such literature has identified farm, farmers and household characteristics which determine an expected compliance cost lower than compensation payments, and then are determinant of participation. The agricultural economics literature has also highlighted how uncertainty in market and climatic condition is one of the main driver of adoption of AESs. Due to farmers? risk aversion, farmers prefer to receive lower but with certain payments (i.e. payments by landscape measure or twenty years set-aside) instead of uncertain income (even if is higher). A growing literature has investigated the role of transaction costs and social capital as determinants of AESs participation. Such literature branch has identified elements of trust and networking, as main motivational factors which affect AESs participation. The objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of determinants of agri-environmental adoption. The objective is pursued combining results of farm level adoption analysis with spatial analysis of participation rate. The first analysis is undertaken applying farmers? behavior choice model, in order to identified the main farm, farmer and household (micro) characteristics which positively or negatively affect the probability to participate in Tuscany AESs. Data are obtained by Tuscany 2010 Census. The second model is undertaken applying spatial analysis (ESDA and spatial econometrics) in order to identifies alternative spatial patterns and to investigate meso determinants of participation to AESs. Data are obtained by ARTEA (regional RDP payments agency) and are referred to the entire RDP 2007-2013. Preliminary results shown that both micro and meso characteristics strongly affect participation to AESs. In fact, farm and household structure, quality of advice services and territory endogeneity, significantly affect AESs adoption. Altogether results allow to better understand the participation mechanism. Results will support an improvement of selection mechanism which is aimed to better target AESs measures
The Food Council of Pisa
Full text linkThe need for a transition to more sustainable food systems has made the definition of more integrated and advanced forms of management of food-related issues increasingly urgent, especially in the urban contexts. As for many other cities around
the world, also in the territory of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy), since 2010 a process aimed at developing an integrated food strategy has been promoted (the Food Plan of the province of Pisa). In the context of new reflexivity and mobilization created by the process for the definition and implementation of the Plan, in 2013 a group of citizens, researchers and professionals established the Food Council of Pisa, an organization aimed at stimulating a reflection on the food-related issues at urban level and at promoting an integrated approach to their management. The Council started to operate identifying some specific areas of action, establishing relationships with the various initiatives carried out by local civil society, and trying to interact with public
administrations
I territori della neoruralità. Un repertorio georeferenziato per la Provincia di Lucca
No full textThe paper illustrates the elaborations carried out within the PTC of the Province of Lucca in the identification and description of the innovative practices of multifunctional agriculture in the province.
The authors intend to illustrate the spatialization and systematization of a series of experiences (companies that produce and market the traditional agricultural products, places of social farming and short supply systems for the use of rural areas) whose the data is stored in geographical archives difficult to use in the process of spatial planning.
The elaboration is a very important cognitive phase within the plan for the activation of new alliances between city and countryside
A Spatial Analysis to evaluate the Farm's structure and the Geography of Rural Areas: The case study of Mugello Area
Full text linkIn order to promote rural development public agricultural policies need to constantly adapt to the continuous change of socio-economic conditions of rural areas, related to both farm and territorial dynamics. Hence beyond the zoning provided by the European Commission and developed by Member States [art. 11 Reg. Ce 1698/2005], policy makers should take into account geography, farms characteristics and farmers attitude to acquire a deeper knowledge of these rural areas. This paper aims at supporting the design of proper agricultural policies focusing on the case-study of Mugello territory, a rural area located in the North of Tuscany, which includes both: intermediate rural areas and areas with development problems. This purpose is firstly pursued by generating a geo-referenced database able to develop a deeper analysis on the existing interactions between socio - economic attributes of farms, land use and agricultural policies. The study combined several sources of data: the 2010 Italian Agriculture Census, the Tuscany Regional Agency for Payments in Agriculture (ARTEA) database, and cover land data from the database Corine Land Cover (CLC-06), as updated to 2007 by LaMMA (Laboratory for Environment Monitoring and Modeling). The resulting sample is composed by 821 farms operating in the Mugello area which are split in four different farm styles according to their level of multifunctionality and enterpreunership capacity. Results show that Mugello territory is characterized by an internal differentiation, that determines the prevalence of different farm structure according to the sub-areas characteristics. Especially analyzing the distribution of payments related to area with development problems we note that there are still margins of improvement
Exploring the provision of ecosystem services through rural landscape management: a development of conceptual framework
No full textMillennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) provides bases for comprehensive understanding of Services provided by
ecosystems, linking ecosystems and human well-being. As rural landscape is considered provider of multifunction
services and is affected by a wide range of land uses several ecosystems are involved in developing an operative
definition of landscape. Thus a common and comprehensive definition of landscape function, services provides, benefits
and value are not enough developed. In fact, the concept of landscape function or services has been used as
synonymous to ecosystem services Literature has highlighted that alternative land uses/rural area managements affect
the ecosystem services provision, due to the trade-off, synergies and disservices in the provision of these services.
The paper aims at exploring the linkages between ecosystem services and regarding rural landscape. To support this
comprehensive assessment of the linkages between ecosystem services and landscape an empirical analysis to
understand trade-off and synergises in ecosystem services provision by landscape are applied in Tuscany region.
Results will contribute to provide empirical evidences and knowledge about the implementation of mechanism aimed to
align provision of ecosystem services by rural landscape towards current and future needs
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