Desperately Seeking Sustainability: Urban Shrinkage, Land Consumption and Regional Planning in a Mediterranean Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Land degradation has expanded in the Mediterranean region as a result of a variety of factors, including economic and population growth, land-use changes and climate variations. The level of land vulnerability to degradation and its growth over time are distributed heterogeneously over space, concentrating on landscapes exposed to high human pressure. The present study investigates the level of land vulnerability to degradation in a shrinking urban area (Rome, Italy) at four points in time (1960, 1990, 2000 and 2010) and it identifies relevant factors negatively impacting the quality of land and the level of landscape fragmentation. A multi-domain assessment of land vulnerability incorporating indicators of climate quality, soil quality, vegetation quality and land management quality was carried out based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) framework. The highest rate of growth in the level of land vulnerability was observed in OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 11981 low-density suburban areas. The peri-urban mosaic formed by coastal woodlands and traditional cropland preserved high-quality land with a stable degree of vulnerability over time. Evidence suggests that the agro-forest mosaic surrounding Mediterranean cities act as a "buffer zone" mitigating on-site and off-site land degradation. The conservation of relict natural landscapes is a crucial target for multi-scale policies combating land degradation in suburban dry regions.

In-Between Sprawl and Neo-Rurality: Sparse Settlements and the Evolution of Socio-Demographic Local Context in a Mediterranean Region

“…Progressive urbanization has contributed to altering the traditional relationships between farmers and the related territory, giving rise to new forms of 'rurality'. Since the late 2000s, Attica has experienced an intense economic crisis, in line with what happened in other Mediterranean cities [10,26,51,65,66]. In this socioeconomic context, counter-urbanization was sometimes observed [49], fueling social movements that promote a coming back to the land for young unemployed and poor working classes [60,67].…”

“…Transformation of agricultural landscapes-and particularly farmland abandonment-are widespread land-use changes in many European regions, due to increasing yields on productive land, conservation policies and the increasing import of agricultural products from other regions [14,[19][20][21][22][23]. Among the most relevant consequences, land consumption due to residential development and economic growth Sustainability 2018, 10, 3670 2 of 14 became one of the most thoughtful environmental pressures on landscapes, especially in metropolitan areas [24][25][26].…”

“…Since the early 1980s, Mediterranean cities have experienced a rapid transition from mostly compact and dense settlement models to various steps of a more discontinuous morphology characterized by huge expansion around inner cities [33]. Trends toward 'compact growth' observed up to the early 1990s and the following 'discontinuous urbanization' have affected land-use structure and peri-urban farming in a different way [5,16,26,28,34]. How the changing land-use represents a target for policies mitigating soil consumption and promoting peri-urban agriculture in Mediterranean fringes has been discussed [16,25,27,[35][36][37][38][39], although empirical evidence from different socioeconomic contexts is still required.…”

Application of the Socio-Ecological System Framework to Forest Fire Risk Management: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In this case, the authors chose a set of 40 indicators for the characterisation of their case studies and classified them into 9 dimensions, with 3 in the "water runoff and fires" category. A similar approach was adopted in a previous study by Salvati et al [70] and by Aretano et al [37], who mapped the land vulnerability through evaluation and combination of a number of quality indicators.…”

Spatio-Temporal Evolution Dynamic, Effect and Governance Policy of Construction Land Use in Urban Agglomeration: Case Study of Yangtze River Delta, China

“…Urban construction land change in urban agglomerations is the most active, dramatic, obvious and complex spatial phenomenon in the region, and it has a comprehensive impact on the country's economic growth, social development, ecological construction and environmental protection [1]. While urban land use has contributed to economic growth and social progress, it has also led to a series of "urban agglomeration diseases" such as loss of arable land, ecological damage, environmental pollution, and landscape fragmentation, posing a great challenge to the sustainable development of urban agglomerations [2,3]. Trying to figure out spatio-temporal change characteristics and evolution patterns of urban construction land in urban agglomerations and analyzing their economic, social, ecological and environmental effects will help reveal the spatial change patterns of urban agglomerations and also provide a basis for decision making in planning and policy design for high-quality development of urban agglomerations [4].…”