Strategic Environmental Assessment of Port Plans in Italy: Experiences, Approaches, Tools

Evaluation is increasingly important in decision-making processes for the sustainable planning and design of port plans. It acts as a support for plan preparation, for making values, interests and needs explicit, and for exploring the components of the decision-making process itself. Evaluation can be likened to an "implicit tool" that can integrate approaches, methodologies and models, adapting to the many needs revealed during the decision-making process. New sustainability challenges call for new approaches to creating frameworks for the analysis and evaluation of plans and projects that allow the integration of multidimensional goals and values. Utilizing some selected case studies of port plans in six Italian cities, this paper explores how environmental assessment can become a tool for dialog and interaction among different fields of expertise to support dynamic learning processes, knowledge management and the creation of shared choices, using suitable approaches and tools. In this view, Integrated Spatial Assessment (ISA) can be useful in supporting decision-making processes on different scales and institutional levels to stimulate dialog between technical and political evaluations, referring to complex values that are part of conflicting and changing realities in which it has become imperative to operate according to sustainability principles

Spatio-temporal analysis of the urban–rural gradient structure: an application in a Mediterranean mountainous landscape (Serra San Bruno, Italy)

The most recent and significant transformations of European landscapes have occurred as a consequence of a series of diffused, varied and often connected phenomena: urban growth and sprawl, agricultural intensification in the most suitable areas and agricultural abandonment in marginal areas. These phenomena can affect dramatically ecosystems' structure and functioning, since certain modifications cause landscape fragmentation while others tend to increase homogeneity. Thus, a thorough comprehension of the evolution trends of landscapes, in particular those linked to urban-rural relations, is crucial for a sustainable landscape planning. In this framework, the main objectives of the present paper are: (a) to investigate Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) transformations and dynamics that occurred over the period 1955–2006 in the municipality of Serra San Bruno (Calabria, Italy), an area particularly representative of the Mediterranean mountainous landscape; (b) to compare the settlement growth with the urban planning tools in charge in the study area; (c) to examine the relationship between urban–rural gradient, landscape metrics, demographic and physical variables; (d) to investigate the evolution of urban–rural gradient composition and configuration along significant axes of landscape changes. Data with a high level of detail (minimum mapping unit 0.2 ha) were obtained through the digitisation of historical aerial photographs and digital orthophotos identifying LULC classes according to the Corine Land Cover legend. The investigated period was divided into four significant time intervals, which were specifically analysed to detect LULC changes. Differently from previous studies, in the present research the spatio-temporal analysis of urban–rural gradient was performed through three subsequent steps: (1) kernel density analysis of settlements; (2) analysis of landscape structure by means of metrics calculated using a moving window method; (3) analysis of composition and configuration of the urban–rural gradient within three landscape profiles located along significant axes of LULC change. The use of thematic overlays and transition matrices enabled a precise identification of the LULC changes that had taken place over the examined period. As a result, a detailed description and mapping of the landscape dynamics were obtained. Furthermore, landscape profiling technique, using continuous data, allowed an innovative and valuable approach for analysing and interpreting urban–rural gradient structure over space and time

Ecosystem services, sustainable rural development and protected áreas

Enhancing social and economic development while preserving nature is one of the major challenges for humankind in the current century. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment showed an alarming degradation of ecosystems and exacerbated poverty for many groups of people across the world due to unprecedented changes in ecosystems caused by human activities in the 20th century. Sustainable Rural Development is key to maintaining active local communities in rural and semi-natural areas, avoiding depopulation, and preserving high-ecological-value sites, including protected areas. Establishing protected areas is the most common strategy to preserve biodiversity around the world with the advantage of promoting the supply of ecosystem services. However, depending how it affects economic opportunities and the access to natural resources, it can either attract or repel human settlements. The convergence of development and conservation requires decision-making processes capable of aligning the needs and expectations of rural communities and the goals of biodiversity conservation. The articles compiled in this Special Issue (nine research papers and two review papers) make important contributions to this challenge from different approaches, disciplines and regions in the world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Evidence of Links between Landscape and Economy in a Rural Park

The objective of the present work is to verify the existence of relationships between specific features of the agrarian landscape of ancient olive trees in the park territory of six municipalities in the Region of Puglia, Italy and the economic activity of the areas concerned. This has the scope of exploring developmental opportunities, whether already put into place, or potentially active. In this context, it seeks to develop and verify theoreti-cal approaches and empirical experiences which propose processes of territorial exploita-tion and local development as pathways for the identification of and the utilization of both the differences and distinctive characteristics of the territory itself, towards the creation of a "value added territory" as the basis for new development. Agriculture, when working in this direction, tends to be presented in terms of the "care and culture" of the territory: not only the appropriate production of primary goods, ecological and locally characterized but also the contextualized production of land and environment. In this paper we use the concept of the park from the perspective of innovation: no longer referring to the concept of environmental protection and preservation as a defensive action, but creating a synthesis between the productive enhancement of open spaces alongside the upgrading of environmental systems, the built environment and environmental and cultural development

The Evidence of Links Between Landscape and Economy in a Rural Park

The objective of the present work is to verify the existence of relationships between specific features of the agrarian landscape of ancient olive trees in the park territory of six municipalities in the Region of Puglia, Italy and the economic activity of the areas concerned. This has the scope of exploring developmental opportunities, whether already put into place, or potentially active. In this context, it seeks to develop and verify theoreti-cal approaches and empirical experiences which propose processes of territorial exploita-tion and local development as pathways for the identification of and the utilization of both the differences and distinctive characteristics of the territory itself, towards the creation of a "value added territory" as the basis for new development. Agriculture, when working in this direction, tends to be presented in terms of the "care and culture" of the territory: not only the appropriate production of primary goods, ecological and locally characterized but also the contextualized production of land and environment. In this paper we use the concept of the park from the perspective of innovation: no longer referring to the concept of environmental protection and preservation as a defensive action, but creating a synthesis between the productive enhancement of open spaces alongside the upgrading of environmental systems, the built environment and environmental and cultural development