TITLE:
Indicators Engineering for Land Uptake and Agricultural Loss. A Study in European Countries
AUTHORS:
Francesco Zullo, Cristina Montaldi, Bernardino Romano
KEYWORDS:
Land Uptake, Agricultural Loss, Urban Areas, Indicators Engineering
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.9 No.4,
December
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: Soil and its associated ecosystem services are indispensable resources for human survival on the
planet. Current models of economic and social development exert unprecedented pressures and demands on the land, creating an unsustainable imbalance. The objective of this
work is to assess the land use changes
that have occurred in EU countries from 1990 to 2018 through CORINE Land Cover. Particular attention has been paid to
the urban conversion of soils to agricultural use, as primary production
represents one of the most tangible ecosystem services provided by soils, the
quantification of which is complex due to the synergistic effect between them.
The study has analyzed and evaluated the agricultural losses resulting from urbanization
for all EU countries and produced an economic estimate of these losses. The
results show that the prevailing transformations are those of anthropogenic
origin and in particular urbanization at the expense of agricultural areas,
although with different drive forces in the various countries. The importance of knowing the extent of this
phenomenon lies in the possibility of implementing targeted corrective actions
aimed at limiting, mitigating and compensating the effects of anthropogenic
soil transformations.