1,721,070 research outputs found
Toward a new planning identity? Sustainable development, crisis landscapes and urban sprawl
No full textA scientific debate developed on how to manage peri-urban land quality, agricultural and productive activities at the fringe, reconnecting urban-rural relations in a truly 'sustainable development' vision. Peripheral urban land may be regarded as multifunctional areas, favoring diversified economies and promoting agriculture-related uses of land containing urban expansion. The present work brings a reflection on periurban landscapes under recession, integrating different disciplinary visions. Non-urban, non-rural (degraded) landscapes are the objective of this study, going beyond the aesthetic-visual approach typical of landscape studies and reflecting a regional science perspective. When reading territorial complexity, a stronger integration between quantitative methodologies and qualitative approaches is needed. Evaluating latent landscapes under crisis requires an in depth understanding of historical, cultural and political implications of economic recession, suggesting an action plan triggering virtuous processes of sustainable development and revitalizing degraded environments in a time of reduced public budgets and increasing social inequalities of metropolitan regions
What Type of Soil Was Consumed in the Metropolis of the Mediterranean Area? Land Quality and the Forms of Urbanization
No full textMediterranean European cities have undergone a transition from compact growth to a more discontinuous and dispersed spatial pattern during the last decades. It is characterized by the irregular expansion of low-density settlements. In many urban areas, the expansion of compact settlements first consumed low-quality soils and moderately degraded landscapes (pastures, abandoned fields and low-intensity agricultural areas) bordering large cities. Also, a progressive increase of the consumption of fertile and in good environmental condition agricultural land has been observed, more and more distant from the urban nuclei, as a result of the sprawl not only causing the fragmentation of natural ecosystems and semi-natural, but also deteriorating the productive capacity and potential of the agrosystems, and the esthetical value of the rural landscape. Representing these dynamics a serious threat to the cohesion and stability of local communities as well as to the quality and diversity of the landscapes. In this chapter, we explore the link that exists between the spread of urbanized soil and the context in which it occurs, investigating how the various forms of urban expansion affect land quality at the metropolitan scale. This exploratory analysis will be treated in the following sub-paragraphs, illustrating the methodology, the study area and the results that emerged
Planning for City Regions: A Mediterranean Perspective
No full textRenewed theoretical frameworks for planning, permanent monitoring and quantitative indicators based on official statistics, geographic information systems and remote sensing allow an inclusive and holistic representation of socioeconomic systems worldwide. By specifically focusing on metropolitan regions, this book offers a comprehensive analysis and interpretation of socioeconomic and territorial processes hampering spatial planning in Southern Europe, offering a theoretical and practical overview of topics and problems of great interest in the urban debate. Cities in the most advanced economies are progressively abandoning spatially additive, radio-centric patterns of urban expansion. The notion of 'city-regions' is meaningful for the understanding of contemporary urban agglomerations and modern patterns of urban growth, adopting a specific, 'Mediterranean' perspective. Understanding the reasons and causes behind this transition provides for a better comprehension of economic dynamics in Europe. Addressing the role of sustainability and resilience for urban management, this book offers a thorough reflection on how to manage large city-regions and to support the planning practices and governing action of policy makers and stakeholders. Through practical examples and case studies, the book finally proposes new statistics, indicators, and interpretative approaches, stimulating a thorough reflection on interrelation and complexity of local development mechanisms from different disciplinary perspectives
Preserving Land Quality in European Metropolis
No full textThe initiatives of the Member States of the European Union aimed at soil protection vary and focus on the degradation processes that each of them considers as priorities. Mediterranean countries have adopted national action programs to combat land degradation, to which they are particularly sensitive both for climatic conditions (drought, water scarcity, intense rainfall) and for anthropic activities (such as deforestation). In their programs, they identify the actions necessary to address the problem of land degradation and which, therefore, are implicitly in favor of land quality. In this chapter, we discuss some management and governance aspects considering the study cases of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece or France. In addition, we propose a wide range of cultural and good practices, which are nowadays implemented by some countries or should be taken into account
Mediterranean Europe, a Fragile Landscape: Metropolitan Growth and Urban Sprawl
No full textIn addition to having a high degree of freedom and self-organization, the Mediterranean city has been outlined as the place where a high degree of spatial, cultural, but also institutional disorder is achieved. The city is sometimes read in its many components as represented by a “difficult order to understand”. Therefore, in this chapter, we try to define and describe the main aspects and issues of this fragile landscape. We will discuss the difference between the formation of the metropolis and the settlement disorder, paying attention to some examples from Easter Mediterranean, Italy, Spain, Southern France or Greece. Moreover, the socio-economic structure of Barcelona, Rome and Athens will be used as an example to explain the metropolitan growth and urban sprawl. They appear very different, although they are all located in the Mediterranean basin. Each one has a unique and different territorial configuration and the phenomenon of urban sprawl has adapted differently, following the economic and social connotations of the countries under investigation
Toward a Sustainable Use of Land: Urbanization, Policies and (Mis)Understanding of Degradation Processes
No full textThe structure and composition of the landscape continuously evolve in space and time, influencing the physical, chemical and biological processes of the soil. These influences contribute significantly to the complex interactions between the natural environment and anthropic activities, shaping the characteristics and properties of the lands in various ways (the spatial diversification of the properties of the soil and its compaction are typical examples). In this chapter, land degradation and land quality concepts will be defined and discussed considering the issues that processes represent a threat to the sustainability and production capacity of agricultural activity. In a context in which the economy, society and the environment tend to become increasingly integrated and interconnected dimensions, issues related to sustainable development are becoming increasingly important. For this reason, we also discuss the different policies emitted by the European Union on soil protection. Soil is not subject to a complete and coherent set of rules in the Union. Existing EU policies in areas such as agriculture, water, waste, chemicals and the prevention of industrial pollution contribute indirectly to soil protection. The European Union's agenda for research and innovation policy on nature-based solutions and the renaturalization of cities aims to position the EU as a leader in the process of “innovation with nature”, for more sustainable societies and resilient. Also, the concept of “Nature-Based Solutions” (NBS), which is relatively new and has been introduced to promote nature as a means of providing solutions in mitigation measures and adaptation challenges to climate change was defined. Finally, the case of Italy was analyzed to demonstrate how land degradation processes and land quality can be estimated
Soil hydrology for a sustainable land management: Theory and practice
No full textSoil hydrology determines the water-soil-plant interactions in the Earth's system, because porous medium acts as an interface within the atmosphere and lithosphere, regulates main processes such as runoff discharge, aquifer recharge, movement of water and solutes into the soil and, ultimately, the amount of water retained and available for plants growth. Soil hydrology can be strongly affected by land management. Therefore, investigations aimed at assessing the impact of land management changes on soil hydrology are necessary, especially with a view to optimize water resources. This Special Issue collects 12 original contributions addressing the state of the art of soil hydrology for sustainable land management. These contributions cover a wide range of topics including (i) effects of land-use change, (ii) water use efficiency, (iii) erosion risk, (iv) solute transport, and (v) new methods and devices for improved characterization of soil physical and hydraulic properties. They involve both field and laboratory experiments, as well as modelling studies. Also, different spatial scales, i.e., from the field-to regional-scales, as well as a wide range of geographic regions are also covered. The collection of these manuscripts presented in this Special Issue provides a relevant knowledge contribution for effective saving water resources and sustainable land management
Correction to: Long-term changes in rainfed olive production, rainfall and farmer’s income in Bailén (Jaén, Spain) (Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration, (2021), 6, 2, (58), 10.1007/s41207-021-00268-1)
No full textThe article Long‐term changes in rainfed olive production, rainfall and farmer’s income in Bailén (Jaén, Spain), written by Jesús Rodrigo‐Comino, José María Senciales‐Gonzalez, Yang Yu, Luca Salvati, Antonio Gimenez‐Morera and Artemi Cerdà, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 18 June 2021 without open access. With the author(s)’ decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on 3 July 2021 to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4.0. The original article has been corrected
Soil degradation and socioeconomic systems’ complexity: Uncovering the latent nexus
Full text linkUnderstanding Soil Degradation Processes (SDPs) is a fundamental issue for humankind. Soil degradation involves complex processes that are influenced by a multifaceted ensemble of socioeconomic and ecological factors at vastly different spatial scales. Desertification risk (the ultimate outcome of soil degradation, seen as an irreversible process of natural resource destruction) and socioeconomic trends have been recently analyzed assuming “resilience thinking” as an appropriate interpretative paradigm. In a purely socioeconomic dimension, resilience is defined as the ability of a local system to react to external signals and to promote future development. This ability is intrinsically bonded with the socio-ecological dynamics characteristic of environmentally homogeneous districts. However, an evaluation of the relationship between SDPs and socioeconomic resilience in local systems is missing in mainstream literature. Our commentary formulates an exploratory framework for the assessment of soil degradation, intended as a dynamic process of natural resource depletion, and the level of socioeconomic resilience in local systems. Such a framework is intended to provide a suitable background to sustainability science and regional policies at the base of truly resilient local systems
Long-term changes in rainfed olive production, rainfall and farmer’s income in Bailén (Jaén, Spain)
No full textEconomic, social, and climatic conditions affect agricultural production. Those changes are relevant to the rainfed agricultural areas of the Mediterranean Belt, including Spain—the largest producer of olive oil in the world. However, little is known about the effect of the climate on olive production and farmer income. In this study, the correlation between changes in rainfall and total olive production was examined using a long-term dataset (28 years) on conventional rainfed production and tillage soil management. The dataset focused on different olive groves in the municipality of Bailén (Jaén, Andalusia) that have been owned by the same farmer since 1966. The province of Jaén is the region of Spain with the highest production of olive oil and the largest area of olive groves. The data included annual rainfall, production per plot and the price of olives. After calculating missing data to complete the rainfall series, pairwise correlation analysis with nonparametric Spearman's rank coefficients and principal component analysis were used to process the data. The results showed that higher production coincided with increased rainfall during August and December. Therefore, we concluded that the impact of rainfall on olive production is variable and depends on drought intensity and the monthly rainfall distribution. An economic study showed that farmer income was highly dependent on the seasonal distribution of the rainfall among other factors such as the price of olives. Farmer income was low during drought periods, indicating that rainfed agriculture is perceived by farmers as unsustainable due to the resulting highly variable income. This study could help to prevent risks to food security in the future. We recognise that other key factors have also been important influences on the fluctuations in olive production over the years, such as soil properties and plant status. However, cultivating olives without irrigation—depending only on the total rainfall amount and rainfall intensity to supply all of the water consumed by the plants—is very risky too. This research demonstrates that the subsistence of Mediterranean rainfed olive farmers can be highly dependent on the rainfall conditions
- …
