1,720,973 research outputs found
Dinamiche socio-demografiche, paesaggio e degrado delle terre nella piana del sele: un inquadramento geo-economico
No full textA 'laboratory' of landscape degradation: Social and economic implications for sustainable development in peri-urban areas
No full texthe present paper debates on human-derived landscape degradation (LD) and sustainable development reviewing the main factors of soil and land degradation in northern Mediterranean peri-urban areas, taken as paradigmatic cases for Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Population growth and urban sprawl were found as the most important factors determining soil sealing, land consumption, biodiversity decline and loss in natural resources. The multifaceted interactions observed between socioeconomic and biophysical factors were also highlighted. The study discusses an integrated set of measures as a policy instrument for sustainable land management of Mediterranean peri-urban areas
Diffusione urbana e Cambiamento Climatico: Percorsi di (in)sostenibilità a livello locale?
No full textDevelopmental Policies, Long-Term Land-Use Changes and the Way Towards Soil Degradation: Evidence from Southern Italy
No full textThis paper discusses the relationship between state-driven developmental policies,
considered as potential drivers of land degradation, and post-war territorial transformations in
southern Italy, a disadvantaged Mediterranean region. Since the early 1950s, state-driven
development policies aimed at balancing the socio-economic disparities between coastal and
inland areas in southern Italy have sometimes impacted negatively on the quality of land. Three
national and one European Union post-war policies have been considered in this study: (i) the
Agrarian Reform promoting the realignment of land ownership and a new agricultural
organization, (ii) the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno intervention stimulating economic development and
reducing territorial unbalances, (iii) the measures for industrial recovery and settlement
reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Campania and Basilicata regions and (iv) the
European Common Agricultural Policy. The impact of these policies on soil resource depletion
and land degradation in ecologically fragile, arid areas has been discussed using three case
studies: Basilicata region, Sele river plain and Fortore river valley (both located in Campania
region). The paper illustrates the multiple links between post-war economic policy and the
downward environmental spiral observed in southern Italy as a contribution to the Mediterranean
strategy for combating soil degradation, drought and desertification. It raises valid concerns
about the negative implications of national and international political policies for land
degradation in Italy which share resonance with similar developments in other countries.
considered as potential drivers of land degradation, and post-war territorial transformations in
southern Italy, a disadvantaged Mediterranean region. Since the early 1950s, state-driven
development policies aimed at balancing the socio-economic disparities between coastal and
inland areas in southern Italy have sometimes impacted negatively on the quality of land. Three
national and one European Union post-war policies have been considered in this study: (i) the
Agrarian Reform promoting the realignment of land ownership and a new agricultural
organization, (ii) the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno intervention stimulating economic development and
reducing territorial unbalances, (iii) the measures for industrial recovery and settlement
reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Campania and Basilicata regions and (iv) the
European Common Agricultural Policy. The impact of these policies on soil resource depletion
and land degradation in ecologically fragile, arid areas has been discussed using three case
studies: Basilicata region, Sele river plain and Fortore river valley (both located in Campania
region). The paper illustrates the multiple links between post-war economic policy and the
downward environmental spiral observed in southern Italy as a contribution to the Mediterranean
strategy for combating soil degradation, drought and desertification. It raises valid concerns
about the negative implications of national and international political policies for land
degradation in Italy which share resonance with similar developments in other countries
A New Methodology for Rice Area Monitoring with COSMO-SkyMed HH-VV PingPong Mode SAR Data
No full textIn this paper, a novel approach is proposed to exploit a time series of COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) HH-VV SAR images to map rice fields and to estimate the sowing dates. The approach relies on multi-polarization features, i.e., the squared modulus of the HH and VV channels and the polarization ratio, extracted from CSK SAR scenes. The key step consists of extracting a rice training signature related to the multipolarization features. This signature allows estimating the sowing date that, at once, is used to refine the rice map obtained by the conventional interpretation of the CSK time series in terms of the scattering mechanisms of the different growing cycles. Experiments, carried out on a time series of 32 CSK images, collected from the Mekong Delta region, South Vietnam, confirm the soundness of the proposed methodology which is shown to provide results comparable to the ones obtained by a literature approach that exploits a similar dataset
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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