Agricultural terraces are among the most visible and extensive human signatures on different landscapes of the world. Terraces are generally built to retain soil and water, to reduce erosion, and to support irrigation. They reduce slope gradient and length, and facilitate the infiltration of water in areas with a moderate to low soil permeability by controlling the overland flow velocity. Thereby, they create positive effects on agricultural activities. Since ancient times, agricultural terraces have been built in different topographic conditions (e.g. coastal area, hilly, and steep slope mountain landscapes) and used for the cultivation of various crops (e.g. vineyards, fruit and olive groves, cereals, tea). Their management however arises relevant critical issues. Historical terraces are often of the bench type with stone walls and require adequate maintenance. Poorly designed and controlled terraces can lead to slope failures, often due to walls collapsing, increasing potential soil water erosion. Also, terraced areas are often served by agricultural roads that can profoundly influence surface hydrologic processes and erosion. Land abandonment and ageing of the local population, which affected several regions of the world during the last decades, are among the main reasons for the poor maintenance of terraced landscapes. As a consequence, a progressive increase of land degradation and loss of soil functions (e.g. food production, environmental interaction such as water storage, filtering and transformation, biological habitat, physical and cultural heritage) is observed. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the main critical issues of terraced landscapes, providing a few case studies, and a possible solution for proper long-term management.
Derelict mining districts represent anthropogenically influenced landscapes that are often characterized by important geological, ecological, environmental, industrial, cultural, and archeological values. Nevertheless, after mining activities cease, several environmental problems are left behind, associated with soil and water pollution, hydrogeological instability, subsidence, ecosystem damages, and landscape degradation or devastation. In this article we present a case study focused on a sulfide mining district (Petronio and Gromolo valleys, Genova) located on the ophiolitic sequences of the Northern Apennines (Eastern Liguria, Italy), with the aim of applying a GIS (Geographic Information System)-based model for the complete census of derelict mines and for the assessment of their geoheritage and geotourist values, potential risks, and environmental impact. All information has been integrated to produce a multicriteria approach for the evaluation of hazards and/or critical issues and geoheritage values. Based on the results obtained in this pilot area, an integrated cultural and touristic route has been proposed, which combines several points of interest (POIs) chosen within an area of about 8 km2.
Abstract-The Liguria region (NW Italy) is characterized by a wide geodiversity, which is strictly correlated with a huge variety of landscapes. This article reports and discusses the results of a multidisciplinary research performed to investigate the relationships among the "geological fingerprint" of soils and the quality of wines, going beyond the classical italian quality labels, such as the DOC (Controlled Designation of Origin), the DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) and the IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) labels. We applied an innovative multidisciplinary approach (geological, geomorphological, geochemical, mineralogical, ecological and vegetational) aimed to demonstrate the close relationships between the "geological fingerprint" of an area and the organoleptic properties of agricultural products.. Index Terms-DOC ligurian vineyards, FP-EDXRF, geological labelof the product®, terraced landscapes.
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