Assessment of Land Use Changes Through an Indicator-Based Approach: a Case Study from the Lamone River Basin in Northern Italy
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Ecological Indicators 10 (2010) 4–14 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Assessment of land use changes through an indicator-based approach: A case study from the Lamone river basin in Northern Italy Lorenzo Benini *, Vittoria Bandini, Diego Marazza, Andrea Contin Environmental Management Research Group, Interdepartmental Center for Research in Environmental Science (CIRSA), University of Bologna, via Sant’Alberto 163, 48123 Ravenna, Italy ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: This study has been performed in order to evaluate the land use changes and related environmental Received 22 September 2008 impacts which occurred in recent decades in the Lamone river basin (Northern Italian Apennines). Using Received in revised form 25 February 2009 the DPSIR indicator-based approach, agricultural land use changes and conversions occurred within the Accepted 3 March 2009 periods 1976–1994 and 1994–2003, have been associated with the shortage of water in the river and the modification of the landscape structure. Results show that Lamone river basin in 1976 was mainly Keywords: dominated by forest (27.4%) and cropland (32.3%) and through the entire period the valley presented a Land use change strong persistence of land uses and the main conversions detected are afforestation and agricultural DPSIR framework intensification. The hydrological balance analysis results indicate that the agricultural intensification Landscape 3 Multi-criteria decision analysis process produced a water deficit in summer periods equal to 0.89 mln m in 2003. The landscape of the Lamone valley became more homogeneous, showing a decrease in diversity (Shannon Diversity Index values decreased from 1.81 to 1.58) and the riparian corridor became more human-dominated (Human Habitat values increased from 0.61 to 0.77). An integrated assessment of possible management options has been conducted, using the MULINO-DSS software as a support. Thirteen different management scenarios have been produced in order to solve the water balance issue and to enhance the riparian corridor. Attributing equal weight to the environmental, social and economical criteria, the best solution corresponds to the sole creation of artificial basins and the actual situation is placed at position 8 (out of 13). ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction driven intensification has been the predominant trend in most EU regions for several decades, but since 1990 there are signs of a trend Changes in land use and land cover are among the major drivers towards a more efficient use of agricultural inputs (EEA, 2006). For of terrestrial ecosystem transformations (Houghton, 1994; Lam- these reasons the EU is assigning great importance to the establish- bin, 1997; Petit and Lambin, 2002), as they have an impact on the ment of a complete set of integrated indicators that reflect the global carbon cycle (Houghton et al., 1999), the climate (DeFries relationship between agriculture and the environment, and support et al., 1997; Luvall, 1997), the biodiversity (Sala et al., 2000) and the the political programme of ‘sustainable agriculture’, including the landscape ecology (Reid et al., 2000; Wickham et al., 2000). preservation of landscape and habitats, biodiversity, water and air Agricultural practices are one of the major causes of human- quality (Bastian and Lu¨ tz, 2006; Ja¨nicke and Zieschank, 2004). induced land use changes and exert a significant pressure on In the Mediterranean region, one of the major issues concerning natural resources through the consumption of water, the use of agriculture-driven land use changes and the environment is water chemical fertilisers and pesticides, their influence on soils, water scarcity. The European Commission states that all Mediterranean quality and greenhouse gases emission (EEA, 2007a). EU Member States are affected by water scarcity, which is defined At the European level, the past impact of agriculture on as: ‘‘a situation where insufficient water resources are available to landscapes and biodiversity was positive, but modern, intensive satisfy long-term average requirements. This refers to long-term agriculture is often a threat to biodiversity (EEA, 2007a). Market- water imbalances, combining low water availability with a level of water demand exceeding the natural recharge’’ (EC, 2007). Many rivers in Middle and Northern Italy also show water scarcity problems due to local water management, where consumptions * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0544937334; fax: +39 0544937411. due to irrigation and cool cycling activities reduce river discharge E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L. Benini), [email protected] (V. Bandini), [email protected] (D. Marazza), [email protected] (Canobbio et al., 2008) and, coupled with pollutants, impact the (A. Contin). river ecosystem. 1470-160X/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2009.03.016 L. Benini et al. / Ecological Indicators 10 (2010) 4–14 5 The European Water Framework Directive and guidelines (EC, periods 1976 to 1994 and to 2003. In particular, the landscape 2000, 2003) identify the need for a cause-responses approach for structure, the Human Habitat–Natural Habitat values at the the evaluation of pressures on the environment caused by human- riparian corridor level and the evaluation of the hydrological related activities and their associated impacts, in order to protect balance for the whole study area have been object of this study. water resources, promote sustainable water use, enhance protec- Moreover, in order to support the decision-making process at river tion and improvement of the aquatic environment. In this context basin scale, a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) focused on the DPSIR framework (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impact, and possible management scenarios related to the hydrological Response) proposed by the European Environment Agency (EEA, balance issue and the riparian corridor enhancement, has been 1999), makes it possible to formalize all policy-making and performed (problem-solving level of the analysis). The objectives management processes by identifying cause and effects links of the problem-solving level consist on the identification of the between the elements of the chain of human–environment best management scenario and the comparison between the no- interaction (Giupponi and Vladimirova, 2006) and it emphasizes action scenario (actual situation) and the other options, while the interaction between society (human activities in the river taking into account both environmental, social and economical basin) and environment in integrated river basin management. aspects. This framework has been used to represent the causal link between agricultural activities and their effects on ecosystems and land- 2. Materials and methods scapes (Bastian and Lu¨ tz, 2006; EEA, 2006; Mander and Koduvere, 2003; Wascher, 2000) and it has been used in several river basin 2.1. Study area management studies (Borja et al., 2006; Fassio et al., 2005; Giupponi and Vladimirova, 2006; La Jeunesse et al., 2003; Mysiak A sub-basin of the Lamone river basin has been selected as the et al., 2005). study area. This is because there is growing interest from the local In order to obtain a sustainable management that includes authorities, farmers and citizens concerning the environmental water resource management and landscape planning, the identi- quality of the Lamone river, in particular regarding the issue of fication of variables that exert a role on the system is required. The summer water scarcity. Moreover, the area of this case study is DPSIR approach makes it possible to represent them as indicators, representative of a sub-regional set of conditions that can occur all because indicators should enable or promote information, along the northern and central Apennines and locally in some simplifying a complex realty (EEA, 1999). The design of spatially regions of the southeast of Europe and it is considered by the targeted policies requires the support of robust methodologies, Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Emilia Romagna extensive data bases and elaboration tools, such as models, (ARPA-ER) as one of the first northern Italian river basin affected by geographical information systems (GIS) and decision support desertification process. systems (DSS) (Fassio et al., 2005), so geographical information has The selected study area (geographical coordinates: been collected and scenarios have been analysed using MULINO 44806043.0900N11835004.0100E) represents the hill area of the Decision Support System software mDSS (Giupponi, 2007; Mysiak Lamone river catchment which is located in the Northern Italian et al., 2005). Apennines, between the Toscana and Emilia Romagna regions. The In order to identify how land use changes and agricultural water body is 88 km long from the river spring to its mouth on the conversions have affected the environment of the Lamone river Adriatic Sea and the study area is 12318 ha, mainly located in the basin (Northern Apennines, Italy), a land use changes (LUC) upper part of the basin (Fig. 1), representing the 24% of the whole assessment, a landscape analysis and a hydrological analysis have catchment area. The area has been chosen because the major been performed (analytical and impact assessment level of the environmental threats act on the middle part of the valley and data analysis). The objectives of the