Land Resource Depletion, Regional Disparities, and the Claim for a Renewed ???Sustainability Thinking??? under Early Desertification Conditions

The present contribution discusses recent findings in environmental issues dealing with desertification risk and regional disparities in the Mediterranean basin. By focusing on key socioeconomic factors underlying land and soil degradation (population growth, urban sprawl, coastalization, agricultural intensification, and land abandonment), this commentary highlights the intimate linkage between socioeconomic processes, rural poverty, and territorial disparities based on complex dynamics of demographic and economic factors. The increasing complexity in the spatial distribution of land vulnerable to degradation has also been pointed out with special reference to post-war Italy, a Mediterranean country considered as particularly affected in the UNCCD Annex IV, as the results of non-linear biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics. The lack in multi-target and multi-scale policies approaching land degradation and territorial disparities together is finally discussed as an original contribution to the study of Mediterranean desertification

A bio-economic model to simulate farmers behaviour in a Mediterranean desertification risky area: data needs and empirical evidences

Farmers, actors that use soil at most, take decision on land use considering many aspects, from the strictly economics to the biological ones. Traditionally, behavioural models only consider markets factors combined such a manner to maximize a farm profit function. Differently from many other sectors, most European farms are managed by family, which often own the land they use. Given the small size, many of these family farms allow some of the family members to work outside the farm. Their decision on resource allocation is even more complex than the usual maximization process, tipycal of any enterprise. When soil degradation, or other environmental concerns, coming into account, then the behavioural patterns of this farmers became a very difficult task. By using the theory of Agricultural household model and empirical evidences on vegetation impact on soil degradation, a theoretical model has been developed and pre-assessed in a typical Mediterranean risky area. Then the interpreting and simulation ability and data need have been described

Model integration with economist perspectives

Models integration and possible contrasts with up-scaling activities has received increasing attention in recent years especially with respect to the relationship between farm-economics and biophysical assessments. Current bio-economic models that analyse the trade-offs between farm income and interventions on eco-bio-environmental parameters such as maintenance of biodiversity, reduction of erosion and nitrate pollution and more, include static models. Agricultural systems are facing a series of threats, including climate change, land degradation, price volatility and intensification processes, which put their long-term sustainability into question. The University of Basilicata in collaboration with local representatives from various sectors of production in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy has developed an integrated study to define a model system to assess the dynamics at play in rural territories. The study tested the explanatory usefulness of resilience theory for the Basilicata agricultural social-ecological system, applying the adaptive cycle as a diagnostic tool to explore the dynamics and trajectories of change in the coupled social-ecological systems, and evaluating the performance of social, economic and social capitals, which are subject to the same dynamics. The use of dynamic analysis of the social, economic and natural capitals as the key to interpret the various phases of the adaptive cycle of the two agricultural systems proved a powerful tool in analysing the relationships between resilience and sustainable development in rural territories. The adoption of capitals and their inter-relations proved fundamental to the elaboration of adaptation strategies which were compatible with patterns of sustainability. The adaptive cycle heuristic, despite some methodological difficulties, remains useful to describe processes of change in rural socio-ecological systems. There could be enormous potential in adopting these instruments to help identify of the needs of different territories and help the framing and implementation of rural policies

Designing a Public Web-Based Information System to Illustrate and Disseminate the Development and Results of the DESIRE Project to Combat Desertification

Until around 1995 it was challenging to make the scientific results of research projects publicly available except through presentations at meetings or conferences, or as papers in academic journals. Then it began to be clear that the Internet could become the main medium to publish and share new information with a much wider audience. The DESIRE Project (desertification mitigation and remediation of land—a global approach for local solutions) has built on expertise gained in previous projects to develop an innovative online ‘Harmonized Information System’ (HIS). This documents the context, delivery and evaluation of all tasks in the DESIRE Project using non-scientific terminology, with much of it also available in the local languages of the study sites. The DESIRE-HIS makes use of new possibilities for communication, including video clips, interactive tools, and links to social media networks such as Twitter. Dissemination of research results using this approach has required careful planning and design. This paper sets out the steps that have culminated in a complete online Information System about local solutions to global land management problems in desertification-affected areas, including many practical guidelines for responsible land management. As many of those who are affected by desertification do not have Internet access, printable dissemination materials are also available on the DESIREHIS

Mixed Land Use as an Intrinsic Feature of Sprawl: A Short-Term Analysis of Settlement Growth and Population Distribution Using European Urban Atlas

This study investigates the land-use/population mix over time as the base to derive an indicator of urban sprawl. Land-use individual patches (provided by Urban Atlas, hereafter UA, with a detailed spatial geometry at 1:10,000 scale) were associated with the total (resident) population based on official statistics (census enumeration districts and other public data sources), providing a comprehensive mapping of the spatial distribution of population density by land-use class in a representative case study for the Mediterranean region (metropolitan Athens, Greece). Data analysis adopted a mix of statistical techniques, such as descriptive statistics, non-parametric curve interpolation (smoothing splines), and exploratory multivariate statistics, namely hierarchical clustering, non-metric multi-dimensional scaling and confirmative factor analysis. The results of this study indicate a non-linear gradient of density decline from downtown (dominated by compact settlements) to peripheral locations (dominated by natural land). Population density in agricultural land was locally high and increasing over time; this result suggests how mixed land use may be the base of intense sprawl in large metropolitan regions. The methodology implemented in this study can be generalized over the whole sample of European cities included in Urban Atlas, providing a semi-automatic assessment of exurban development and population re-distribution over larger metropolitan regions

Reporting land degradation sensitivity through multiple indicators: Does scale matter?

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BUILDING VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR EXPLOSIVE AND CBR TERRORIST ATTACKS

Assessing the vulnerabilities of a building/site for a specific threat is one of the key issues in the risk assessment process. A vulnerability is defined as any weakness that can be exploited by an aggressor to make an asset susceptible to damage. The purpose of the vulnerability assessment process discussed in this paper is to identify the main vulnerabilities which influence a building’s risk level when a specific explosive or chemical, biological, radiological (CBR) threat arises. Vulnerability assessments are designed to provide an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of a facility and its associated elements to identify building weaknesses and lack of redundancy, as well as to determine protective or corrective actions that can be designed or implemented to reduce building vulnerabilities. This work proposes an innovative building vulnerability assessment method (BVAM), comprised of three steps. The first step, building criticality analysis (BCA), seeks to verify the criticality of several building aspects elaborated from best practices on the analysis of building structure and function. The result of this BCA determines if critical building components or systems, designed for the deterrence, detection, and limitation of damages, can continue to function properly during a crisis, and to ensure the correct operation of the emergency systems. The second step aims at characterising the application of a given number of specific threats to the building. The third step focuses on a final assessment of the level of vulnerability associated with the various applied threats, for the specific building and the specific assets to be protected. This result is achieved by employing a proposed seven-level vulnerability scale. The result of the evaluation of the level of vulnerability can be used for the final risk assessment phase