Land-Use Changes in the Sele River Basin Landscape (Southern Italy) between 1960 and 2012: Comparisons and Implications for Soil Erosion Assessment

Abstract

In river basins, the deep interrelationships between land-use changes, soil erosion and rivers and shoreline dynamics are clearer than at a national or regional scale. Southern Italy is an ecologically fragile, desertification-prone territory where land-use changes in the last decades were significant. Notwithstanding this, studies dealing with multidecadal land-use changes in large-sized river basins of Southern Italy and their implications on soil erosion are missing. In this study, we assessed the land-use changes that occurred between 1960 and 2012 in the 3245 km2-wide Sele River basin. We carried out GIS-aided comparisons and analysis of two land-use maps and interpreted the results in terms of soil erosion intensity based on a detailed review of the scientific literature. The results confirmed the trend of the inner areas of Italy and, in particular, of the Campania region moving towards more pristine conditions, with an increase in forest cover, mainly at the expense of grasslands. Agricultural areas remained substantially unchanged, while the area of urban settlements increased. The diffuse afforestation of slopes suggested an overall decrease in soil erosion intensity, which was fully coherent with the geomorphological evolution of both the Sele River and local shoreline reported in literature.

Spatial and Temporal Change of Land Cover in Protected Areas in Malawi: Implications for Conservation Management

“…Such analyses highlight the relevance of remote sensing data and methods for providing detailed information needed for conservation management decisions in protected areas. The results of the classification produced acceptable accuracies (see Table 2) that are generally consistent with other studies involving Landsat image classification [83,84], with the Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS images producing the highest accuracy. According to Poursanidis [58], the higher overall accuracy of the OLI/TIRS image is likely because of the better quality of the Landsat 8 sensor.…”

“…Additionally, the rapid rate of deforestation has a relay effect on other forms of environmental degradation, primarily higher erosion rates, ref. [84] which could, in turn, reduce the sustenance and ability of biodiversity to regenerate and the release of carbon stored in soils into the atmosphere. Cumulatively, these interactions and feedbacks will jeopardize current poor management regimes.…”

Changes in Land-Cover/Land-Use Pattern in the Fortore River Basin (Southern Italy) and Morphodynamic Implications

“…This harmonization was possible only at the third level of the Corine land cover, due to the differences in scope, years, and methods of production between CNR-TC and CLC maps (Table 1). According to Magliulo et al [24,25], the differences in the responses of the LULC classes to soil-erosion processes, widely accepted in the literature ( [38,39], and references therein), were used as additional harmonization criteria. The harmonization also took into account the suggestion by Falcucci et al [40] to reduce the former number of classes and define a few new classes that represent markedly distinct LULC types.…”

“…The results consisted of digital maps in which each polygon represented areas that experienced LULC changes or persistence. Each polygon, i.e., each LULC change or persistence, was classified according to Di Gennaro et al [37] and Magliulo et al [24,25] (Figure 3). Finally, the extension of each polygon was automatically calculated by means of the "Calculate Geometry" ArcGIS ® tool.…”

“…Notwithstanding this observation, previous research on this topic in a geomorphologically dynamic and vulnerable territory such as southern Italy is extremely scarce. Only very recently, two studies [24,25] focused on LULC changes over a period of about six decades in two large-sized river basins in southern Italy (i.e., the Calore River and the Sele River basins), also exploring the implications of the detected changes in terms of soil erosion and/or protection. However, we are currently very far from providing an exhaustive framework of the multidecadal LULC dynamics at the basin scale in southern Italy, as most of the river basins in this area still remain uninvestigated from this point of view.…”