title: Soil resources, land cover changes and rural areas: towards a spatial mismatch?
abstract: The present study analyzes the impact of long-term urban expansion on soil depletion in Emilia-Romagna, an agricultural-specialized region of northern Italy. Using settlement density maps at three points in time (1945, 1971 and 2001) dense and diffused urbanization trends were assessed and correlated with soil quality. Non-urbanized land decreased from 11.8% in 1945 to 6.3% in 2001. Urbanization dynamics between 1945 and 1971 reflect the increase of dense settlements around pre-existing urban centers. To the contrary, a discontinuous, low- and medium-density urban expansion along the road network and in the most fertile lowland areas was observed between 1971 and 2001. Overall, urbanization consumed soils with progressively higher quality. However, a diverging trend was observed in the two investigated time intervals: soil with high quality was occupied by compact and dense settlements during 1945-1971 and by discontinuous, medium- and low-density settlements during 1971-2001. These findings document the polarization in areas with low and high soil capital and may reflect disparities in agricultural production and increasing environmental degradation. Moreover, the analysis shows a diverging trend between land and soil consumption patterns suggesting that the edification of pervious land is an unreliable indicator of soil quality depletion. Taken together, the results of this study illustrate the (increasing) spatial mismatch between agricultural land and high-quality soils as a consequence of urbanization-driven landscape transformations and may inform measures to contain soil depletion driven by economic growth.
authors: Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari ed Ambientali, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell'Ateneo Lucano 10, I-85100 Potenza, Italy.
authors: Agostino
authors: A
authors: Ferrara
authors: Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Centre for Plant-Soil Relationships (CRA-RPS), Via della Navicella 2-4, I-00184 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: luca.salvati@entecra.it.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Salvati
authors: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT), Via C. Balbo 16, I-00184 Rome, Italy.
authors: Alberto
authors: A
authors: Sabbi
authors: Università degli studi di Viterbo, Dipartimento di Science e Tecnologie per l'Agricoltura, le Foreste, la Natura e l'Energia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, I-01100 Viterbo, Italy.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Colantoni
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D007558:Italy; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D014507:Urbanization / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D012987:Soil
keywords: Agro-forest systems; Compact growth; Italy; Low-density settlements; Territorial disparities