The Water Abstraction License Regime in Italy: A Case for Reform?

The current Water Abstraction License (WAL) regime in Italy is no longer flexible enough to cope with the challenges posed by human-induced climate and global environmental changes. The cornerstones of the current regime were laid down in the 1930s and have remained essentially unchanged ever since. The sole noteworthy reform of the Italian WAL regime was the decentralization of the regulatory competences from the state to the regional authorities in the late 1990s. In this paper, we review the WAL regimes across the administrative regions comprising the Po River Basin District (PRBD), the largest and economically most important in Italy. PRBD's WAL regime includes a rigid and scattered WAL normative that hinders the performance of bottom-up conflict resolution mechanisms at a basin scale; a water pricing scheme that does not reflect the cost of water conveyance and use, and does not encourage efficient water allocation; and the lack of a central WAL register, which delays and in some cases impedes an environmental impact assessment for issuing new licenses or renewing existing ones, and does not allow prioritizing applications according to their full economic value. We argue these deficiencies may compromise both the integrity of riverine and water dependent ecosystems and the economic uses of water. This paper offers insights that can inform reform of water allocations in the PRBD and elsewhere in Italy and in Europe

Priorities and interactions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with focus on wetlands

Wetlands are often vital physical and social components of a country's natural capital, as well as providers of ecosystem services to local and national communities. We performed a network analysis to prioritize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for sustainable development in iconic wetlands and wetlandscapes around the world. The analysis was based on the information and perceptions on 45 wetlandscapes worldwide by 49 wetland researchers of the GlobalWetland Ecohydrological Network (GWEN). We identified three 2030 Agenda targets of high priority across the wetlandscapes needed to achieve sustainable development: Target 6.3-'Improve water quality'; 2.4-'Sustainable food production'; and 12.2-'Sustainable management of resources'. Moreover, we found specific feedback mechanisms and synergies between SDG targets in the context of wetlands. The most consistent reinforcing interactions were the influence of Target 12.2 on 8.4-'Efficient resource consumption'; and that of Target 6.3 on 12.2. The wetlandscapes could be differentiated in four bundles of distinctive priority SDG-targets: 'Basic human needs', 'Sustainable tourism', 'Environmental impact in urban wetlands', and 'Improving and conserving environment'. In general, we find that the SDG groups, targets, and interactions stress that maintaining good water quality and a 'wise use' of wetlandscapes are vital to attaining sustainable development within these sensitive ecosystems. © 2019 by the authors

Atti del XXIII Convegno Nazionale di Agrometeorologia Agricoltura 4.0 e cambiamento climatico: il ruolo dell’Agrometeorologia

Con il termine Agricoltura 4.0 si indica la più recente evoluzione tecnica e tecnologica che interessa il settore dell’agricoltura. Grazie all'impiego delle attuali tecnologie come Remote Sensing, Internet of Things, Intelligenza Artificiale, Big Data, Cloud Computing ecc., è possibile oggi migliorare significativamente l'efficienza delle attività agricole, e la loro resilienza ai fattori di stress. La quantità di dati di interesse agronomico che possono essere analizzati e processati grazie agli strumenti dell’Agricoltura 4.0 è davvero enorme: dati meteorologici, pedologici, stato fisiologico e fitosanitario delle colture possono essere accuratamente monitorati su ampia scala, consentendo di fornire agli agricoltori un sistema di supporto decisionale così dal mettersi al riparo il più possibile dalle intrinseche incertezze dell’attività di impresa nel settore agricolo, in un frangente storico in cui tali incertezze sono esacerbate dagli effetti del Cambiamento Climatico, il quale rappresenta sicuramente la principale sfida che oggi gli enti di ricerca in ambito agronomico, i consorzi e gli imprenditori agricoli sono chiamati ad affrontare. Il rapporto tra Agrometeorologia e Agricoltura 4.0 è quindi strettissimo, e di vitale importanza per l’evoluzione del settore. Tale evoluzione, nello specifico, è orientata verso gli obiettivi fondamentali di adattamento al Cambiamento Climatico e di mantenimento di rese alte e soddisfacenti con un impiego di risorse razionale e sostenibile. L’Agrometeorologia ha un ruolo chiave nel raggiungimento di questi ambiziosi obiettivi: non si può infatti parlare di agricoltura di precisione senza una attenta e professionale gestione delle risorse idriche e la modellistica agrometeorologica svolge un ruolo chiave anche nella difesa delle colture dagli stress di origine biotica e abiotica (malattie fungine, danni da caldo, danni da gelo ecc.). È inoltre essenziale che tutte queste applicazioni raggiungano efficacemente gli utilizzatori finali, ossia gli imprenditori agricoli, e non possono quindi esimersi da una analisi di accessibilità, fruibilità, interoperabilità e scalabilità dei protocolli e dei servizi messi a disposizione. In questo contesto l’AIAM propone, per il 23° convegno Nazionale, l’analisi di questi temi, conducendo una disamina del ruolo attuale dell’Agrometeorologia e dell’Agricoltura 4.0 nella gestione delle risorse naturali, nella difesa delle piante e nell’implementazione di sistemi e strumenti per l’elaborazione e la divulgazione delle informazioni, al fine di creare un servizio per gli agricoltori

SPATIAL ANALYSES AND REMOTE SENSING FOR LAND COVER CHANGE DYNAMICS: ASSESSING IN A SPATIAL PLANNING

ABSTRACT (EN) Spatial planning is a crucial discipline for the identification and implementation of sustainable development strategies that take into account the environmental impacts on the soil. In recent years, the significant development of technology, like remote sensing and GIS software, has significantly increased the understanding of environmental components, highlighting their peculiarities and criticalities. Geographically referenced information on environmental and socio-economic components represents a fundamental database for identifying and monitoring vulnerable areas, also distinguishing different levels of vulnerability. This is even more relevant considering the increasingly significant impact of land transformation processes, consisting of rapid and frequent changes in land use patterns. In order to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, the role of environmental planning is crucial in addressing spatial problems, such as agricultural land abandonment and land take, which cause negative impacts on ecosystems. Remote sensing, and in general all Earth Observation techniques, play a key role in achieving SDG 11.3 and 15.3 of Agenda 2030. Through a series of applications and investigations in different areas of Basilicata, it has been demonstrated how the extensive use of remote sensing and spatial analysis in a GIS environment provide a substantial contribution to the results of the SDGs, enabling an informed decisionmaking process and enabling monitoring of the results expected, ensuring data reliability and directly contributing to the calculation of SDG objectives and indicators by facilitating local administrations approaches to work in different development and sustainability sectors. In this thesis have been analyse the dynamics of land transformation in terms of land take and soil erosion in sample areas of the Basilicata Region, which represents an interesting case example for the study of land use land cover change (LULCC). The socio-demographic evolutionary trends and the study of marginality and territorial fragility are fundamental aspects in the context of territorial planning, since they are important drivers of the LULCC and territorial transformation processes. In fact, in Basilicata, settlement dynamics over the years have occurred in an uncontrolled and unregulated manner, leading to a constant consumption of land not accompanied by adequate demographic and economic growth. To better understand the evolution and dynamics of the LULCCs and provide useful tools for formulating territorial planning policies and strategies aimed at a sustainable use of the territory, the socio-economic aspects of the Region were investigated. A first phase involved the creation of a database and the study and identification of essential services in the area as a fundamental parameter against which to evaluate the quality of life in a specific area. The supply of essential services can be understood as an assessment of the lack of minimum requirements with reference to the urban functions exercised by each territorial unit. From a territorial point of view, the level of peripherality of the territories with respect to the network of urban centres profoundly influences the quality of life of citizens and the level of social inclusion. In these, the presence of essential services can act as an attractor capable of generating discrete catchment areas. The purpose of this first part of the work was above all to create a dataset of data useful for the calculation of various socio-economic indicators, in order to frame the demographic evolution and the evolution of the stock of public and private services. The first methodological approach was to reconstruct the offer of essential services through the use of open data in a GIS environment and subsequently estimate the peripherality of each municipality by estimating the accessibility to essential services. The study envisaged the use of territorial analysis techniques aimed at describing the distribution of essential services on the regional territory. It is essential to understand the role of demographic dynamics as a driver of urban land use change such as, for example, the increase in demand for artificial surfaces that occurs locally. Social and economic analyses are important in the spatial planning process. Comparison of socio-economic analyses with land use and land cover change can highlight the need to modify existing policies or implement new ones. A particular land use can degrade and thereby destroy other land resources. If the economic analysis shows that the use is beneficial from the point of view of the land user, it is likely to continue, regardless of whether the process is environmentally friendly. It is important to understand and investigate which drivers have been and will be in the future the most decisive in these dynamics that intrinsically contribute to land take, agricultural abandonment and the consequent processes of land degradation and to define policies or thresholds to mitigate and monitor the effects of these processes. Subsequently, the issues of land take and abandonment of agricultural land were analysed by applying models and techniques of remote sensing, GIS and territorial analysis for the identification and monitoring of abandoned agricultural areas and sealed areas. The classic remote sensing methods have also been integrated by some geostatistical analyses which have provided more information on the investigated phenomenon. The aim was the creation of a quick methodology that would allow to describe the monitoring and analysis activities of the development trends of soil consumption and the monitoring and identification of degraded areas. The first methodology proposed allowed the automatic and rapid detection of detailed LULCC and Land Take maps with an overall accuracy of more than 90%, reducing costs and processing times. The identification of abandoned agricultural areas in degradation is among the most complicated LULCC and Land Degradation processes to identify and monitor as it is driven by a multiplicity of anthropic and natural factors. The model used to estimate soil erosion as a degradation phenomenon is the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). To identify potentially degraded areas, two factors of the RUSLE have been correlated: Factor C which describes the vegetation cover of the soil and Factor A which represents the amount of potential soil erosion. Through statistical correlation analysis with the RUSLE factors, on the basis of the deviations from the average RUSLE values and mapping of the areas of vegetation degradation, relating to arable land, through statistical correlation with the vegetation factor C, the areas were identified and mapped that are susceptible to soil degradation. The results obtained allowed the creation of a database and a map of the degraded areas to be paid attention to

Conservation Tillage Systems in the Southeast: Production, Profitability and Stewardship

Conservation Tillage Systems in the Southeast: Production, Profitability and Stewardship is a comprehensive guide on conservation tillage systems for farms in the southeastern United States, providing information on the core components of conservation tillage systems as well as addressing regional considerations. The geographic coverage of the book examines these systems from southern Virginia to the panhandle of Florida and from the Atlantic Coast to eastern Mississippi (excluding the Mississippi Delta). The book takes an agricultural systems approach to understanding conservation tillage systems, recognizing that the different components of conservation tillage systems are interrelated. It includes chapters on the management of cover crops, water, nutrients, weeds, insect pests and nematodes, as well as crop selection and rotation, livestock integration and economics

Human-Managed vs. Natural Grazing Systems: Exploring Effects of Livestock and Wildlife Grazing at Multiple Scales

Grazing by large herbivores is the most prevalent land use on grassland ecosystems, which cover greater than 40% of the earth\u27s land surface and provide critical ecological and economic benefits. As such, understanding how grazing impacts different aspects of the ecosystem is of especially great importance. This study uses a range of approaches to explore the potentially contrasting effects of grazing across human-managed, livestock-grazed systems and natural, wildlife-grazed systems. The first chapter uses a short-term, small-scale approach in assessing differences across management type in plant community composition following a relaxation of grazing. Results reveal that livestock and wildlife grazers may not be functionally different, but rather exhibit different effects due to the way they are managed (free-ranging vs. herded, etc. which affects grazing pressure and its spatial and temporal distribution). The second study explores how herders make livestock movement decisions and reveals that while individual variation in herd movement decisions is related to factors such as herd size, purpose for keeping livestock, and number of herders, the chief drivers influencing herd movement seem to be limited available grazing space and a lack of options. The third study uncovers global patterns regarding environmental and other influences on grazer effects on soil carbon storage. And finally, the last chapter synthesizes these results and suggests recommendations for policy and management. These results have implications for rangeland and wildlife management as well as future ecological studies

Surface uplift and sea level change: constraints from Late Pleistocene paleoshorelines

A morphostratigraphic and morphotectonic study on raised paleoshorelines along the Tyrrhenian side of southern Apennines integrated by U-series datin

Evaluating the sustainability of urban agriculture projects

Evaluating the sustainability of urban agriculture projects. 5. International Symposium for Farming Systems Design (AGRO2015