323,174 research outputs found
Landscape Agronomy - Advances and Challenges of a Territorial Approach to Agricultural Issues
No full textThe landscape is widely identified as a relevant target both by integrative policies and across the disciplines dealing with resource management and territorial planning. Landscape agronomy promotes a greater involvement of agricultural sciences into this arena by increasing the attention on the dynamics relating the farming practices to the natural resources and the temporal and spatial patterns of land covers.
This book covers the background that improved the transdisciplinary interface of agronomy with spatially-explicit disciplines like landscape ecology and geography both in research and in training programs, in addition to some experiences of participative landscape management. On these bases, the state of art on cutting-edge data availability and methodological issues is used to select and discuss some worldwide case studies.
This selection of research topic examples underpins the concluding discussions about challenges ahead. Researchers as well as policy and decision makers are the main target of this book that seeks to provide a toolbox of concepts, examples and ideas to improve the understanding of agricultural landscapes. Agricultural activities manage the greatest share of land surface on Earth with fast-paced changes compared to any other human land use. With this book we aim at providing a stronger interface between agricultural science and landscape design processes
A method to identify and map the land use patterns relevant for agro-environmental policies in agricultural landscapes.
No full textThe association of natural and farmed areas is of primary importance for ecological networks in agricultural landscapes. The main goal of this work is to present a method to rapidly quantify and map the spatial configurations (SC) of the main landscape elements in farmed landscapes. Such land use patterns are relevant for agro-environmental policies since a better knowledge of main CS in landscapes is needed (Forman and Wilson, 1995; Benoit et al., 2012). Such CS can support an evaluation of the ecosystems services provided by agricultural landscapes in view of the “greening” measures of the next CAP (Lefevre et al., 2012) and locally the integration of ecological networks in planning of agricultural landscapes (Pinto-Correia et al., 2006).
The method we developed was in four steps: (1) To identify the main objectives of agro-environmental policies and of their relationship with local land uses; (2) to qualify the CS relevant for policies through field surveys, aerial photos observation, qualitative spatial representations, also in order to describe each CS by spatial indicators; (3) to test the relevance of the indicators describing CS using Pearson Chi-squared and Wilcoxon signed rank tests; (4) to map the spatial distribution of the identified CS in the analyzed agricultural landscape. We applied this method to a case study in Southern Tuscany, a Mediterranean inland hilly landscape of 1500 ha (Figure 1a).
Relevant agro-environmental policy objectives were the protection of surface water from nitrates, the protection of soil quality and the conservation of the cultural landscape diversity (Marraccini et al., 2009). With respect to these objectives, several land elements and uses (patch and linear networks) were described to have an influence on the identified objectives (Lefevre et al., 2012): agricultural land uses (arable crops 83% of the landscape surface, permanent crops 10%, fallows 2%), natural vegetation (woods, hedgerows, isolated trees), water bodies, human settlements. Starting from this preliminary information, we identified four CS in the studied area, differing for the different composition and arrangement of land uses. Arable crops (mainly winter wheat) were part of each CS, e.g. as main land use nearby rivers in CS1 or in a mosaic of human settlements and permanent crops in CS2. The description of the five CS and of the indicators identified is in Table 1. Selected indicators were proper to distinguish CS and were all statistically significant. The mapping of the CS showed a total coverage of the analyzed landscape, with some overlapping among different CS (Figure 1b shows an examples for CS1 and CS2).
The method reliability has been tested on another grassland oriented landscape in Central France showing a higher predictive value of agro-environmental services for Mediterranean landscapes characterized by an higher land use diversity (Marraccini, 2010).
References:
Benoit M., Rizzo D., Marraccini E., Moonen C., Galli M., Lardon S., Rapey H., Thenail C., Bonari E. (2012). Landscape agronomy to deal with agricultural landscapes dynamics. Landscape Ecology 27: 1385-1394.
Forman R. T. T., Wilson E. O. (1995). Land mosaic: the ecology of landscapes and regions. Cambridge University Press, 632 pp.
Lefevre M., Espinosa M., Gomez y Paloma S. (2012). The influence of the Common Agricultural Policy on agricultural landscapes. JRC Scientific and Policy reports, 79 pp.
Marraccini E. (2010). La valutazione delle funzioni agro-ambientali: un approccio agronomico – territoriale. Tesi di Perfezionamento in Scienze Agrarie, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and AgroParisTech, 339 pp. http://pastel.archives-ouvertes.fr/pastel-00589832
Marraccini E., Galli M., Rapey H., Lardon S., Bonari E. (2009). Multiple agro-environmental functions targeted by decision-makers: a compared approach in two European regions. In: Breuste J., Kozova M., Finka M. (Eds), Proceedings of the European International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) Conference, Salzburg (Austria), 167-172.
Pinto-Correia, T., Gustavsson, R., Pirnat, J. (2006). Bridging the gap between centrally defined policies and local decisions – Towards more sensitive and creative rural landscape management. Landscape Ecology 21: 333–346.
Rizzo D., Marraccini E., Lardon S., Rapey H., Debolini M., Thenail C., Benoit M. (2012). How can landscape management be enhanced by farming systems? A landscape agronomy perspective. European IFSA Symposium, 1-4 July 2012 Aarhus, Danemark, 9 pp
Intensification, periurbanization and specialization of agriculture as significant short-term land system dynamics in the Mediterranean basin
No full textMediterranean land systems are undergoing significant changes in terms of
agricultural land use and practices. In the literature these changes are highlighted by a number of local or regional studies, however, an overview of the land system changes at the Mediterranean basin level is lacking. This paper identifies the main land system dynamics over a short time period (2005-2015) and their location, in order to highlight the trajectories
that are also taking place in other parts of the world. We identified four significant types of change: (1) from mixed agriculture to specialized fruit groves; (2) from agricultural areas to
urban and/or periurban areas; (3) from agroforestry to arable systems, and (4) from
predominantly bare soils to agricultural areas. These ongoing dynamics can be characterized as intensification, periurbanization and specialization of agriculture
Combiner cartes à dires d’acteurs et lectures de paysage pour analyser les circuits agricoles et alimentaires de la Vallée de la Levrière
No full textPour aborder la complexité des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires dans les
territoires, une approche systémique est requise, tant les dynamiques sont inter-reliées et
nécessitent des regards croisés. Nous proposons une approche de diagnostic prospectif
participatif valorisant la transversalité et l’articulation des échelles. L’itinéraire
méthodologique suivi vise à faire ressortir les perceptions et motivations quant à ce territoire
de vie, et ce, à travers des cartes à dire d’acteurs et des lectures de paysage in situ ainsi que
l’organisation d’un jeu de territoire. Les diagnostics thématiques retranscrivent des
informations obtenues lors des entretiens individuels menés à travers le territoire, et se voient
enrichis des discussions et débats qui se sont tenus lors d’une après-midi de rencontre entre
acteurs. L’étape des scénarii et des actions reprend les idées et les volontés évoquées durant
cette journée à propos de l’avenir de la Vallée et des moyens à mettre en oeuvre pour le
développement de ce territoire. Cette approche empirique, qui part du terrain et des objectifs
pédagogiques de formation des étudiants, pour répondre aux objectifs de l’action et
réinterroger les concepts et méthodes de la recherche, donne un fil directeur pour penser la
généricité de l’itinéraire méthodologique et un cadre d’analyse pour les transitions
territoriales. Ainsi, tout au long de l’itinéraire méthodologique, il pourrait y avoir des
traitements géomatiques complémentaires pour consolider les analyses, extraire les
connaissances et faciliter la participation
Key Parameters Calibration and Benefits Evaluation of a Closed Loop Performance Monitoring System.
No full textThe paper presents results from field validation of a closed loop performance monitoring system installed on several units of a refinery plant. The system supervises more than 1200 base control loops and evaluates performance periodically, after scheduled data acquisitions followed by off-line analysis. The first point taken into account is a comparison between verdicts issued by the system and indications by control operators: the large number of issued verdicts indicating scarce performance, but considered still acceptable by operators, results practically in False Alarm and forced to revisit the criterion adopted to classify a response as excessively oscillatory. New threshold values for the widely used Hägglund criterion (1995) were found and similar criteria were proposed and compared in order to match operators practical indications. The efficiency of criteria and threshold values depend on the type of loop (i.e. flow, pressure, level or temperature). The second point examined concerns validation of valve stiction diagnosis: indications from the monitoring systems are compared with evidence before and after plant shut down. Results confirm that oscillations in valves indicated as sticky disappeared after the operation, while many valves which underwent the maintenance procedure on the basis of a time schedule did not require it. Therefore, a systematic application of diagnostics tools for maintenance scheduling would be beneficial in order to focus on real needs and avoid unnecessary revision cost
Food, Integrating Urban and Agricultural Dynamics in Pisa, Italy
No full textThe book gives an overview of frameworks, methods, and case studies for the analysis of the relations between agriculture and the city, in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its origin is the DAUME Project (Sustainability of urban agriculture in the Mediterranean) and the 5th annual Conference of the Sustainable Food Planning group of AESOP, held in Montpellier (France) in 2013. The book provides a set of approaches of the sustainability of urban food systems from an actors’ perspective. The Part I presents systemic approaches of agricultural-urban interactions at the city-region scales in France, Egypt, Italy and Morocco. Local food issues, agriculture-urban relations, short food chains and urban livestock are taken as examples to develop systemic approaches showing both integrative and dualism processes linking agriculture and the city. The Part II deals with methods and tools for urban planning and local development, in order to design and assess sustainable food systems. At the city-region scale, chapters show how to estimate relevant boundaries of a sustainable foodshed, to design tools including local food supply In urban planning, and to evaluate contributions of local projects to global sustainability. The Part III inventories the recent changes in urban agriculture and the new forms of governance which are emerging in European cities (Athens, Berlin, Lisboa, Montpellier, Paris and Zurich). Referring to urban agriculture, chapters show how sustainable pathways can be fostered by a wide range of multiscale grassroots initiatives (farms, gardens, buildings, urban green areas ...) embedded in transitioning trends of sustainable development
Contribution of periurban farming systems to local food systems: a systemic innovation perspective
No full textThe debate on food security has highlighted the connection between periurban farming systems (PFS) and local food systems (LFS) for academic research. Several researchers have called for in-depth analysis of the participation and impact of farmers in LFS, and the systemic innovation perspective can provide relevant analysis of the sustainability of this agro-food system. The objective of the current study is to investigate the integration of PFS into LFS from the systemic innovation perspective, by analysing systemic failures and merits that hinder or promote the contribution of PFS to LFS for farmers and commercial actors. The case study is the LFS of the urban Pisa region in central Italy. Results show that farmers there are adapting to urban pressure, which improves the sustainability of their farming practices. At the same time, commercial actors have a commercial opportunity to include local farmers in their economic strategy. Nevertheless, individual initiatives must be coordinated to support the sustainability of both LFS and PFS. This study thus developed an innovative method to identify systemic failures and merits for farmers and commercial actors to address sustainability strategies at the territorial level
Understanding networks in local food systems: the meeting of farmers and commercial actors.
No full textRecent literature has claimed for a better understanding of food networks, especially in
the case of local food systems. Studies should consider the social and territorial
dimension of local food networks, in order to understand how they are established and to
assess their effective sustainability. The aim of this contribution is to develop a
methodology to perform a spatial network analysis in order to include both the territorial
and socio-economic dimensions of local food networks, starting from the point of view of
farmers. The methods has been applied on 14 livestock producers and on the processors
and different sellers and distributors they are related to. The case study is the periurban
area of Pisa, in Italy. Seven Local Food Networks Types result from the first step of
analysis, showing a high degree of initiatives organised by farmers to maintain the
products locally. Especially while the production and the sale of the product is located at
the local area, most of the processing is done outside the local area, demonstrating that
different actors provide a different definition of what is “local”; moreover the
spatialisation demonstrates the high degree of fragmentation of the local food supply
from local farmers to local spaces of sale (groceries, restaurants, etc..). Finally the
constraints analysis applied on farmers, processors, and sellers demonstrate a lack of
coordination of individual initiatives which may undermine the future sustainability of
local food system
Assessing food production capacity of farms in periurban areas
No full textThe assessment of food production capacity is particularly important in small- and medium-sized cities, which have greater chances to develop local periurban farming. To date the literature has been focused on niche sectors of the food market, such as alternative food networks and public procurement for school canteens, but less attention has been paid to urban food production. We present a method to assess the food production capacity in periurban areas, which we tested on meat production (beef and lamb) in the urban region of Pisa, a medium-sized Italian city. The capacity of periurban livestock farms for meat production to fulfil urban demand was assessed on the basis of meat supply and demand. We derived meat demand from statistical data, whereas we calculated meat supply on the basis of three estimates (i.e. potential, current, actual meat supply) taking into account both statistical and on-farm survey data. In particular, the potential meat supply was estimated from statistical data on slaughtered livestock, the current meat supply was estimated from meat production data of on-farm surveys, while the actual meat supply was estimated from the amount of meat sold by farmers on the local market from onfarm surveys. For the urban region of Pisa, we estimated that the potential meat supply met is equal to 16% of the beef demand and 62% of the lamb demand. This data could change, if the on-farm data is taken into account in the current supply, as was the case with lamb, which decreased to 37%, whereas beef remained almost unchanged (14%). The actual supply was 70% and 10% of the current supply for beef and lamb respectively. We identified some gaps between the three estimates, particularly for lamb production, suggesting that it may have some constraints in terms of production and commercialisation. Our results can contribute to assess local food systems and their drivers at the farm level. Furthermore these results also highlight the need for an agronomical approach to food systems based on the analysis of farm activities located in periurban areas in order to quantify the food supply that is actually produced for the local market. Food planning policies, as well as studies at the local level, could take advantage from this method
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