Hydrological response to ~30 years of agricultural surface water management

Amongst human practices, agricultural surface-water management systems represent some of the largest integrated engineering works that shaped floodplains during history, directly or indirectly affecting the landscape. As a result of changes in agricultural practices and land use, many drainage networks have changed producing a greater exposure to flooding with a broad range of impacts on society, also because of climate inputs coupling with the human drivers. This research focuses on three main questions: which kind of land use changes related to the agricultural practices have been observed in the most recent years (~30 years)? How does the influence on the watershed response to land use and land cover changes depend on the rainfall event characteristics and soil conditions, and what is their related significance? The investigation presented in this work includes modelling the water infiltration due to the soil properties and analysing the distributed water storage offered by the agricultural drainage system in a study area in Veneto (north-eastern Italy). The results show that economic changes control the development of agro-industrial landscapes, with effects on the hydrological response. Key elements that can enhance or reduce differences are the antecedent soil conditions and the climate characteristics. Criticalities should be expected for intense and irregular rainfall events, and for events that recurrently happen. Agricultural areas might be perceived to be of low priority when it comes to public funding of flood protection, compared to the priority given to urban ones. These outcomes highlight the importance of understanding how agricultural practices can be the driver of or can be used to avoid, or at least mitigate, flooding. The proposed methods can be valuable tools in evaluating the costs and benefits of the management of water in agriculture to inform better policy decision-making

The geomorphology of humanity

For millennia, natural processes such as tectonic uplift, volcanic, climate, erosion, sediment transport and deposition have shaped the Earth surface. The Earth science community also started to consider biota as a geomorphological agent that has a role in shaping the Earth surface, even if at a different scale and magnitude than that of other major forcings. In the recent history, a different global force of geomorphic change has risen: humanity. Human activities ranging from agriculture to mining, road networks, and urbanization are leaving their fingerprints on the landscapes as evident topographic signatures. These signatures have the capability to affect Earth surface processes. In this work, different landscapes, significantly characterized by such anthropogenic signatures, are analyzed

Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Floods in the Floodplain of Northern Italy

Practices for reducing the impacts of floods are becoming more and more advanced, centered on communities and reaching out to vulnerable populations. Vulnerable individuals are characterized by social and economic attributes and by societal dynamics rooted in each community. These indicators can magnify the negative impacts of disasters together with the capacity of each individual to cope with these events. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) provides an empirical basis to compare social differences in various spatial scenarios and for specific environmental hazards. This research shows the application of the SoVI to the floodplain of northern Italy, based on the use of 15 census variables. The chosen study area is of particular interest for the high occurrence of flood events coupled with a high level of human activity, landscape transformations, and an elevated concentration of assets and people. The analysis identified a positive spatial autocorrelation across the floodplain that translates into the spatial detection of vulnerable groups, those that are likely to suffer the most from floods. In a second stage, the output of the index was superimposed on the flood hazard map of the study area to analyze the resulting risk. The Piemonte and Veneto regions contain the main areas prone to flood \u201csocial\u201d risk, highlighting the need for a cohesive management approach at all levels to recognize local capacities and increase communication, awareness, and preparedness to mitigate the undesirable effects of such events

The importance of a multi-temporal approach to assess climate change impacts in Northern Italian agriculture

The territory of north-eastern Italy, crossed by the Po River, which flows eastward into the Adriatic Sea, is home to flourishing agricultural production. The area is among Europe's most important rural regions and is crucial for food production. However, the sector is facing the impact of climate change. Among the most worrying phenomena is an increase in the frequency of more severe and longer drought periods, leading to progressively arid climatic conditions. The summer of 2022 was one of the most critical times on record, with the combination of extreme temperatures and severe water shortages. The effects severely impacted agriculture, with crop loss, irrigation problems, and saltwater intrusion into the Po River delta. Emerging multi-temporal satellite remote sensing technologies and the application of big data-based algorithms allow in-depth knowledge of phenomena occurring on Earth and the subsequent research of mitigation solutions. Specifically, monitoring the impacts of extreme drought in the region can be useful in understanding which areas are most at risk in the short term, while the use of future climate models can guide more resilient agricultural management in the future. This research first proposes the application of multi-temporal MODIS satellite indices to assess the agricultural drought that affected north-eastern Italy in the summer months of 2022 and secondly analyses the possible traces of climatic aridification. In addition, we present a study on the relationship between agricultural lands and current & future climates, carried out using high-resolution climate zone maps (RCP8.5 scenario). The aim is to understand the potential future climate in the currently cultivated fields. Mapping present and future critical areas and knowing which farming systems are most at risk due to climate change can be valuable information for managing agricultural assets under the threat of climate change. Acknowledgements - This study was carried out within the Agritech National Research Center and received funding from the European Union Next-GenerationEU (PIANO NAZIONALE DI RIPRESA E RESILIENZA (PNRR) – MISSIONE 4 COMPONENTE 2, INVESTIMENTO 1.4 – D.D. 1032 17/06/2022, CN00000022)

introduction to the special issue high resolution topography quantitative analysis and geomorphological mapping

n/

Agriculture in Hilly and Mountainous Landscapes: Threats, Monitoring and Sustainable Management

n/

Evaluation of the GreyWater Footprint Comparing the Indirect Effects of Different Agricultural Practices

Increasing global food demand and economic growth result in increasing competition over scarce freshwater resources, worsened by climate change and pollution. The agricultural sector has the largest share in the water footprint of humanity. While most studies focus on estimating water footprints (WFs) of crops through modeling, there are only few experimental field studies. The current work aims to understand the effect of supposedly better agricultural practices, particularly precision agriculture (variable rate application of fertilizers and pesticides) and conservation agriculture (minimum, strip, or no-tillage), on water deterioration and water pollution. We analyzed the results from an experimental field study in the northeast of Italy, in which four different crops are grown across three years of crops rotation. We compared minimum, strip, and no-tillage systems undergoing variable to uniform rate application. Grey WFs are assessed based on a field dataset using yield maps data, soil texture, and crop operations field. Leaching and associated grey WFs are assessed based on application rates and various environmental factors. Yields are measured in the field and recorded in a precision map. The results illustrate how precision agriculture combined with soil conservation tillage systems can reduce the grey water footprint by the 10%. We assessed the grey Water Footprint for all the field operation processes during the three-year crop rotation

Estimating soil degradation in montane grasslands of North-eastern Italian Alps (Italy)

Grasslands cover a large portion of the terrestrial ecosystems, and are vital for biodiversity conservation, environmental protection and livestock husbandry. However, grasslands are degraded due to unreasonable management worldwide, i.e., soil erosion indirectly due to the damage of overgrazing on vegetation coverage and soil texture. An in-depth investigation is necessary to quantify soil erosion in alpine pastures, in order to manage grasslands more sustainably. In this work, we collected freely available satellite images and carried out intensive field surveys for the whole Autonomous Province of Trento (Northeastern Italian Alps) in 2016. The area (and volume) of soil erosions were then estimated and shown in maps. The average of the depths of soil erosion measured in field was used as a reference for estimating soil erosion of the entire study area. High-resolution DEMs difference in soil surface conditions was also computed in two representative areas between pre- and post-degradation to estimate the volume and the average depth of eroded soils. The degradation of soil in the study areas has been estimated in 144063 m2 and an estimated volume of 33610 ± 1800 m3. Results indicate that our procedure can serve as a low-cost approach for a rapid estimation of soil erosion in mountain areas. Mapping soil erosion can improve the sustainability of grazing management system and reduce the risk of pastureland degradation at large spatial scales

Geomorphometric characterisation of natural and anthropogenic land covers

Abstract The scientific community has widely discussed the role of abiotic and biotic forces in reshaping the Earth's surface. Currently, the literature is debating whether humans are leaving a topographic signature on the landscape. Apart from the influence of humans on processes, does the resulting landscape bear an unmistakable signature of anthropogenic activities? This research analyses from a statistical point of view the morphological signature of anthropogenic and natural land covers in different topographic context, as a fundamental challenge in the emerging debate of human-environment relationships and the modelling of global environmental change. It aims to explore how intrinsically small-scale processes, related to land use, can influence the form of entire landscapes and to determine whether these processes create a distinctive topography. The work focusses on four study areas in floodplains, plain to hilly, hills and mountains, for which LiDAR-derived Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) are available. Surface morphology is described with different geomorphometric parameters (slope, mean curvature and surface peak curvature) and their frequency distribution. The results show that the distribution of geomorphometric indices can reveal anthropogenic land covers and landscapes. In most cases, different land covers show statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in their morphology. Finally, this study demonstrates the possibility to use a geomorphic analysis to quantify anthropogenic impact based on land covers in different landscape contexts. This provides useful insight into understanding the impact of human activities on the present morphology and offers a comprehensive understanding of coupling human-land interaction from a geomorphological point of view

The Role of Gender in Preparedness and Response Behaviors towards Flood Risk in Serbia

Adverse outcomes from 2014 flooding in Serbia indicated problematic response phase management accentuated by a gender imbalance. For this reason, we investigated the risk perceptions and preparedness of women and men regarding these types of events in Serbia. Face-to-face interviews, administered to 2500 participants, were conducted across 19 of 191 municipalities. In light of the current findings, men seemed to be more confident in their abilities to cope with flooding, perceiving greater individual and household preparedness. By contrast, women displayed a deeper understanding of these events. Perhaps owing to a deeper level of understanding, women demonstrated more household-caring attitudes and behaviors and were more prone to report a willingness to help flood victims at reception centers. Emergency management agencies and land planners should account for these differences in gender awareness and preparedness. Based on these findings, doing so may increase citizen participation and shared responsibility under flood hazard scenarios