'laboratory' of landscape degradation: social and

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Int. J. Innovation and Sustainable Development, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2014

A ‘laboratory’ of landscape degradation: social and economic implications for sustainable development in peri-urban areas Luca Salvati* Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Centro per lo studio delle Relazioni Pianta-Suolo (CRA-RPS), Via della Navicella 2-4, I-00184 Rome, Italy E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author

Giuseppe Forino INEA – Veneto, Via dell’Università 14, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: The present paper debates on human-derived landscape degradation (LD) and sustainable development reviewing the main factors of soil and land degradation in northern Mediterranean peri-urban areas, taken as paradigmatic cases for Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Population growth and urban sprawl were found as the most important factors determining soil sealing, land consumption, biodiversity decline and loss in natural resources. The multifaceted interactions observed between socioeconomic and biophysical factors were also highlighted. The study discusses an integrated set of measures as a policy instrument for sustainable land management of Mediterranean peri-urban areas. Keywords: social inequalities; territorial disparities; agriculture; soil; urbanisation. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Salvati, L. and Forino, G. (2014) ‘A ‘laboratory’ of landscape degradation: social and economic implications for sustainable development in peri-urban areas’, Int. J. Innovation and Sustainable Development, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.232–249. Biographical notes: Luca Salvati is a Staff Researcher at CRA-RPS. The main research interests include: sustainable development, agriculture, desertification, socio-spatial and geo-economic issues. Giuseppe Forino is a Research Associate at INEA – Veneto. The main research interests include: rural development, economic geography, socio-economic aspects of land degradation, resilience and disaster risk reduction.

Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A ‘laboratory’ of landscape degradation

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Introduction

Urban expansion is a matter of concern for multi-scale planning and its environmental implications need to be considered in strategies promoting the sustainable development of peri-urban regions (Verhoef and Nijkamp, 2002; Christopoulou et al., 2007; Polyzos et al., 2008). In the last 50 years urban agglomerations in Europe, and especially in Mediterranean Europe, have featured massive population growth and economic development (Longhi and Musolesi, 2007), potentially determining the degradation of soil and water resources especially in agricultural and semi-natural areas on the urban fringe (Haase and Nuissl, 2007; Portnov and Safriel, 2004; Tu et al., 2007). Deregulated urban expansion was traditionally identified a driver of soil, land and ecosystem degradation (Loumou et al., 2000) and may increase the desertification risk in dry Mediterranean areas (Iosifides and Politidis, 2005). Processes of landscape degradation (LD) are relatively poorly studied in Mediterranean peri-urban areas, and specific approaches and indicators for this region are still lacking (Salvati et al., 2008). The few recent contributions dealing with this issue examined •

the relevance of land consumption in rural landscape transformations

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the loss of semi-natural vegetation at the fringe

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the increasing risk of soil and groundwater salinisation due to concurrent residential and agricultural uses

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the impact of urban sprawl determining LD in metropolitan regions (Salvati et al., 2012).

To the contrary, the effect of regional disparities on LD (Boyce, 1994; Slottje et al., 2001; Zuindeau, 2007), and the economic processes related to social inequality possibly impacting LD are not clear yet (Salvati and Zitti, 2007). In-depth analyses should also quantify the economic loss caused by the unsustainable use of land resources (e.g., Atis, 2006; Hein, 2007; Montanarella, 2007). On the basis of these premises, there is scope to investigate the causal chains triggering LD in peri-urban regions. Salvati and Zitti (2008) hypothesised that territorial disparities shape LD sensitivity in the Mediterranean Europe. This implies a divergence in land sensitivity, increasing along the urban gradient due to drier climate regimes and lower soil quality, combined with growing human pressure (Garcia Latorre et al., 2001). In peri-urban areas, an increasing LD sensitivity may be caused by droughts, poor land management, growth of water demand for civil and agricultural uses, forest fires, unregulated urban expansion and population pressure. These processes may reflect the polarisation in high- and low-quality landscapes possibly due to the unbalanced pressure on peri-urban areas, in turn contributing to unsustainable regional development (e.g., Tanrivermis, 2003). The present paper contributes to the debate on land degradation processes in Mediterranean Europe with a review of empirical studies carried out at both the regional and local scale with a specific focus on peri-urban areas. While rural areas have represented a traditional target for studies about soil degradation and desertification in the Mediterranean basin (e.g., Ferrara et al., 2012), the focus on rapidly expanding peri-urban regions in southern Europe is particularly challenging and innovative from sustainable development perspective. Findings are discussed with the aim

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to evaluate environmental and socioeconomic disparities along the urban gradient

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to describe the relationship among biophysical and socioeconomic processes typically occurring in Mediterranean peri-urban areas of Europe

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to identify their relationship with LD phenomena.

This review offers a benchmark to further develop interpretative frameworks and integrated approaches (e.g., Huby et al., 2007) to peri-urban LD processes. The study finally discusses an integrated set of measures aimed at preserving traditional rural landscapes and mitigating LD in peri-urban areas. These measures can be regarded as a contribution for sustainable land management of Mediterranean peri-urban areas.

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The contextual framework: recent urbanisation patterns in the Mediterranean region

Although urbanisation is inherently influenced by push- and pull-factors, economic structure and social development, population growth is a major driver for the rapid expansion of urban regions. In the Mediterranean basin, demographic data provided by United Nations Statistical Office indicate two main patterns: on the one hand, the population of the five southern European EU-member countries doubled in the period 1850–2000, while the population residing in the 12 EU dialogue partners (plus Libya) increased nine-fold; on the other hand, a declining population has been projected in the five Southern and South eastern European countries (except Albania) from 2000 to 2050, with slight increases in Cyprus and major increases in Northern Africa (+97 million) and the Eastern Mediterranean (+84 million). In the 12 Middle East and North African countries, more people will be added until 2050 than presently live in the five southern European EU countries (177 million). Settlement models diverged as well. Whereas in Mediterranean Europe the urbanisation rate has been projected to increase by 2030, in Northern Africa it is projected to grow more rapidly. According to the United Nations Urbanisation Prospects by 2030, projections estimate 71.6% of urban population in Greece, 76.1% in Italy, 81.6% in Portugal, 82.2% in France and 84.5% in Spain. These projections clearly evidence the growing pressure that southern European cities will experience in the near future (see also Barbero-Sierra et al., 2013). The northern Mediterranean coastal cities experienced a gradual increase in urbanisation rates during 1950–2000 (up to 118-fold) which is expected to stabilise by 2015. Nevertheless, the urbanisation trend of Mediterranean coastal cities is contradicted in some cases. For example, Istanbul was experiencing a rapid population growth (10-fold in the period 1950–2000) and future predictions do not expect a stabilisation of this rate.

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Sensitivity to degradation of peri-urban areas

In the Mediterranean region, a number of studies (Kosmas et al., 2003; de Groot, 2006; Montanarella, 2007; Salvati and Bajocco, 2011) demonstrated that land sensitivity to degradation is determined by multifaceted factors and processes of both biophysical and socioeconomic origin, embedded in a complex socio-environmental condition


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(Salvati et al., 2011). On the one hand, the relationship among land vulnerability, economic marginality, social inequality and territorial disparities has been explored extensively in rural areas (Iosifides and Politidis, 2005; Wilson and Juntti, 2005; Salvati and Bajocco, 2011) and in underdeveloped agro-pastoral landscapes (Helldén and Tottrup, 2008; Lorent et al., 2008; Polyzos et al., 2008). On the other hand, sprawl and increasing human pressure have been defined as powerful LD drivers in peri-urban areas, leading to the loss of fragile land and prime farmland, natural wetlands, core forests and wildlife habitats. Urban expansion may increase erosion rates and impervious surfaces (Johnson, 2001; Hasse and Lathrop, 2003; MacDonald and Rudel, 2005) and drastically convert forests, agricultural land and rangeland into built environment, beyond urban edges (Mundia and Anya, 2006). Additionally, it may affect water supply, biodiversity stock and habitat quality, consume natural habitats and fragment, degrade and isolate relict natural areas (Salvati et al., 2012). Examples of studies assessing LD issues observed around the main urban regions in southern Europe are listed in Table 1. The role of urbanisation in triggering environmental disparities at the regional scale is rather clear (Portnov and Safriel, 2004). This review identifies LD sensitivity as a candidate target for specific mitigation policies in peri-urban areas. On the basis of the bibliographic survey proposed here (see Table 1), a number of policy responses to LD applied along the urban-rural gradient in the European Mediterranean cities is listed in Table 2. Table 1

Selected studies on peri-urban land degradation in southern Europe

City (Region, country)

Main sources of LD

Source

15 European cities Soil sealing due to built-up areas

Kasanko et al. (2006)

Rome (Italy)

Salvati et al. (2012)

Land vulnerability to degradation tends to rapidly increase in peri-urban areas

Coimbra (Portugal) Artificial areas replacing agricultural areas

Tavares et al. (2012)

Coastal areas (Portugal)

Pressure from new artificial surfaces

Freire et al. (2009)

Istanbul (Turkey)

Soil sealing due to illegal urbanisation and migration Kucukmehmetoglu and Geymen (2008, 2009)

Adana (Turkey)

Loss of agricultural and semi-natural land due to permanent immigration and urban development strategies

Alphan (2003)

Spain

Soil sealing and land consumption

Barbero-Sierra et al. (2013)

Athens (Greece)

Informal settlements consume high-quality soils in peri-urban areas

Salvati et al. (2013)

Callosa, Benidorm Overexploitation and modification of available water Bellot et al. (2007) (Spain) resource, soil sealing due to new built-up areas Alt Empordà (Spain)

Water flooding, pollution, socio-environmental conflicts due to soil sealing, coastalisation, tourism activities

Pavon et al. (2003)

Southern Italy

Population growth and long-term demographic dynamics

Salvati (2012)


236 Table 2 Region

A selection of policy responses to LD in southern European peri-urban areas Policy prescription

Urban fringe Reducing urban sprawl and land fragmentation through urban containment policies Increasing the number and extent of protected areas along the urban fringe and in lowland peri-urban municipalities Preserving peri-urban forests from fire risk Promoting organic farming and water saving practices by reducing the concurrent use of water from residential and productive units Supporting part-time farmers through financial incentives Promoting agri-tourism and sustainable eco-touristic activities, coupled to the traditional urban tourism Peri-urban Promoting sustainable farming practices areas at large Supporting sustainable irrigation and water saving Increasing agri-environmental incentives to eco-compatible farms Promoting agri-tourism and sustainable eco-touristic activities Increasing the number and extent of protected areas by preserving relict forests and traditional cropland Promoting sustainable infrastructure planning to reduce urban sprawl Strictly rural Increasing incentives to young farmers areas Promoting sustainable farm practices reducing soil erosion surrounding Enhancing soil protection by effective in situ and local actions cities Incrementing agri-tourism as a form of economic activity Promoting sustainable eco-tourism activities Increasing participation of citizens in environmental management and fire monitoring Source: Authors’ own elaboration

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Land degradation drivers in peri-urban areas

4.1 The ‘coastalisation’ of the northern Mediterranean region In Mediterranean countries, more than 60% of the population live in urban areas. On coastal regions, it increased from 285 to 427 million in the period 1970–2000 and will probably reach 524 million by 2025 according to Blue Plan trend scenarios (Gargiulo Morelli and Salvati, 2010). Drivers of urban growth are becoming endogenous, fed by internal redistribution and inter-urban migration. Over one-third of this growth will take place in coastal regions, more specifically in already consolidated urban regions. ‘Coastalisation’ (the concentration of population and economic activities in the coastal spaces) thus explains a considerable part of Mediterranean urbanisation. Coastalisation in the Mediterranean started in the last century and intensified in the recent decades also due to growing international tourism. Furthermore, the globalising economy and the consequent de-structuring of traditional rural economies and societies in inland areas contributed to coastal urban growth (Leontidou, 1990).


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Urban consolidation in coastal areas was also reinforced by major interventions developed on the coastal plains, such as irrigation and drainage systems, de-mosquitoising and large-scale transport infrastructures. Although the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development attempts to produce fit strategic proposals, while national governments intervene at regional level, policy results seem to be still vague (Salvati and Zitti, 2012). Practices promoting the sustainable conservation of coastline, wetlands and farming land and integrating tourism with agriculture should be strengthened.

4.2 From compact to dispersed cities In Mediterranean Europe, urban dispersion advances rapidly where urbanisation expands faster than population. Examples of this trend can be found in several cities such as Porto and Lisbon in Portugal, Barcelona in Spain, Marseilles and the Rhone valley in France, Milan, Bologna, Rome and the Veneto region in Italy, Athens in Greece. According to the MOLAND research project, 6 out of the 10 investigated cities where sprawl is growing fastest in Europe (Istanbul, Palermo, Porto, Iraklion, Lyon and Milan) are located in southern Europe (European Environment Agency, 2006). Urban dispersion leads towards a horizontal rather than vertical growth at the expense of farming and forested areas, semi-natural environments and wetlands. Although this trend attenuates the process of over-densification in central districts, it homogenises the urban environment and landscape and increases the hazard vulnerability (Salvati and Zitti, 2008). In the last decades, several Mediterranean cities have pursued a scattered spatial organisation by promoting sub-centres, strengthening metropolitan poles, stimulating economic activities on the fringe and re-localising urban functions. In planners’ vision, these measures contribute to the shift from the traditional mono-centric and compact city’s organisation towards polycentrism (Munafò et al., 2010). Although polycentric growth is currently in the ‘normative agenda’ of the European regional policy (Davoudi, 2003; Salvati et al., 2012), the social and productive characteristics of Mediterranean cities of Europe differ from those observed in northern and central Europe (Leontidou, 1990); this makes the polycentric development a driver of (instead of a solution to) land consumption. The degradation of urban environments and the fragmentation of peri-urban landscapes indicate the need to rethink socioeconomic models and planning practices towards a balance among equity, social cohesion, economic competitiveness and environmental security. To integrate these different targets with the specific traits of Mediterranean cities and regions is a key planning issue with the aim to control informal urban growth (Chorianopoulos et al., 2010). It was demonstrated how urban sprawl impacts the environment, the economic system and the life quality in cities (Bruegmann, 2005). Major consequences of sprawl include •

ever growing cost of urban infrastructures and mobility

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loss of farming and natural land along the coasts

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disappearance of wetlands and coastal erosion

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destruction of high-value natural habitats

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intensification of natural hazards impact.

These consequences refer specifically to coastal areas and can be expanded including the regional impacts of low-density urbanisation, which are, among others: •

a constant increase in demand for travel, linked to the commutes home-work

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the traffic congestion along the main transport arteries, and a consequent drop in travel speed

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a constant rise in greenhouse gases emissions linked to the transport sector, mainly road transport which is heavily dependent on fossil energy

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an increased per capita land consumption

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high dependency on fossil fuels

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the loss of economic attractiveness of peri-urban landscapes (Bruegmann, 2005).

4.3 Soil sealing Soil consumption (i.e. its conversion to built-up areas from natural or agricultural land uses) is an indirect consequence of the expansion of urban areas and infrastructure, generally superimposed on rural settings and traditional landscapes (Losada et al., 1998). Monitoring urban growth and sprawl within and outside metropolitan regions, loss in cultivated and natural lands as well as landscape fragmentation, is crucial in urban and regional planning (European Environment Agency, 2006). A typical expression of soil consumption is soil sealing, a phenomenon of land depletion drastically increasing in Mediterranean Europe (Munafò et al., 2010; Scalenghe and Ajmone Marsan, 2009) and leading to land degradation and sometimes to desertification (Salvati and Zitti, 2007). In coastal and lowland areas, soil sealing shows increasing rates in the most recent years due to seasonal tourism concentration and the consolidation of city networks (Alphan, 2003; Freire et al., 2009; Kucukmehmetoglu and Geymen, 2009; Pavon et al., 2003). Scalenghe and Ajmone Marsan (2009) estimate that the European surface area covered with impermeable materials is around 9%; soil sealing increases by 10% in regions such as Mediterranean coastal areas during the 1990s. Several indicators have been proposed to measure urban growth and sprawl (Hasse and Lathrop, 2003; Schneider and Woodcock, 2008) and some of them have been used to monitor the efficacy of land management and soil protection strategies (Couch et al., 2007). A simplified index to measure soil sealing trends was the amount of per-capita impervious land (Salvati et al., 2013). Figure 1 illustrates the ranking of the European capital cities according to this criterion. All Mediterranean cities considered are grouped in the lowest part of the rank, showing a low per-capita sealed area due to their compactness. Although city-suburb land consumption differential varies among cities, the general trend is that urban sprawl consume more land per capita.

A ‘laboratory’ of landscape degradation Figure 1

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Per capita soil sealing (m2) in the European capital city (2006)

Source: Elaboration on European Environment Agency data

4.4 Other soil degradation processes Several Mediterranean cities developed on very fertile land. With growing metropolitan areas, cropland has been replaced by apartment blocks owing to the suitability of agricultural soils for commercial and residential development. Therefore, competition for available land is intense, with conversion to urban uses providing the most immediate economic returns (Pavon et al., 2003; Tanrivermis, 2003; Atis, 2006). To compete with alternative uses, farmers in peri-urban areas must work the remaining agricultural land more intensively, change to more profitable crop, or shift to operations that require less investment in infrastructure (Alphan, 2003; Christopoulou et al., 2007; Salvati et al., 2012). Moreover, peri-urbanisation alters landscapes and fragments prior patterns of land-use and land cover, drastically reducing the amount of habitats, the size of the remaining habitat patches and the degree of connection among the remaining patches (Barlow et al., 1998). Further consequences are light and noise pollution, and the closure or the re-location of quarries further away from urban centres. This aspect can be problematic due to several reasons. First, industrial minerals, such as limes, sands and gravels used to make cement and for building, are commodities sensitive to transportation costs. If these must be “transported from the originating pit to the building site, then transport costs can readily come to be even higher than the original purchase price” (Legget, 1973). Secondly, shifting operations to other sites can compromise and destroy the ecological and aesthetic integrity of remaining open spaces. Finally, impacts related to natural resource consumption by spreading urban centres include •

poor water quality stemming from urban ‘non-point’ sources of pollution

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destabilisation of stream channels and flooding due to stormwater runoff from developed areas

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the alteration of local climate including the urban heat island effect and increases in extreme summer heat hazard (Haase and Nuissl, 2007).

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4.5 Climate variations on a local scale Urban regions, particularly those with more than 1 million inhabitants, present climatic conditions significantly different from the surrounding natural environments. The increase of transport and greenhouse gas emissions related to urban expansion, contributes to global warming and climate change, with extreme weather events and flooding being the most typical consequences (Matzarakis et al., 2007). Although this is not a specific issue generated by sprawl, managing these risks and planning for adaptation measurements is complicated in case of uncontrolled urban expansion. Furthermore, urban growth has indirect effects on the atmosphere at the local scale. The uniqueness of urban climate regimes is mainly determined by the effects of so-called ‘Urban Heat Island’ (UHI: Arnfield, 2003), which configures the urban environment as a ‘bioclimatic island’ of peculiar events climate and not just heat. The UHI has multiple originating causes, but the most relevant are the albedo percentage on urban surfaces, the thermal capacity of urban ground and structures, the conformation and orientation of the buildings in relation to direction and wind speed, the reduction of evaporating surfaces. These factors contribute to create a dome of heat, usually 150–200 m high, especially in winter and at night, resulting in a temperature inversion at high altitude. Further factors of UHI actively contributing to produce heat are air conditioning systems, especially for domestic heating, vehicular traffic and the related production of flue gases and the metabolic activities of the residents (Figure 2). Figure 2

Illustration of an urban heat island profile (see online version for colours)

Source: Elaboration on Natural Resources Canada materials

Additionally, the proximity of industrial poles to the city represents a relevant source of emissions and accumulation of heat. Similarly, in the winter months the domestic heating emits further energy in the urban atmosphere, while in the already superheated summer the spread of air conditioning systems adds heat to the air. This results in a synergic effect consolidating the heat island phenomenon in peri-urban areas. The human presence and related activities also produce additional heat emissions, water vapour and pollutants,


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consequently aggravating the effects on the air quality. On slightly larger scales, urbanisation can also lead to changes in precipitation upwind and downwind.

4.6 Increasing natural hazards and disasters associated to increasing rates of urbanisation While climate change, desertification and the hydrological cycle contributed to environmental degradation in the Mediterranean region during the XX century, humaninduced demand factors are mostly increasing the pressure on the environment during the 21st century. These trends impacted on the urban vulnerability to natural disasters in Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa. Mitchell (1999) noted that megacity hazards, such as floods, earthquakes and windstorms, are the most common damaging phenomena, followed by other hazards towards disasters. Major changes were also noted in interactivity, risks, change in exposure, vulnerability and in the efficacy of hazard management. Evidence shows how a rapid urbanisation increases the vulnerability to disasters, especially in poor and informal neighbourhood and flood-prone areas. This result is of particular concern as the probability and intensity of, for example, hydro-meteorological disasters have been projected to increase due to climate change impacts. In particular, illegal and poorly constructed peripheral settlements contribute to increase the vulnerability of cities to climate changes (Salvati et al., 2013).

4.7 Degradation of vegetation cover Urban sprawl can impact differently on the quality of Mediterranean vegetation, homogenising rural landscapes and stressing the polarisation in areas with high and low land quality (Salvati and Sabbi, 2011). Previous analysis (Le Houerou, 1993; Kosmas et al., 2000; Shalaby and Tateishi, 2007; Salvati and Zitti, 2012) showed also that LD and vegetation are strictly inter-related: in urban environments, vegetation provides for ecosystem functions such as air filtering, temperature amelioration and water storage, filtration and drainage (Williams et al., 2009). Urbanisation can alter the local climate and the chemical composition of air, soil and water, and generate disturbances to vegetation communities, such as trampling, accelerated erosion, dumping of rubbish, garden clippings and building rubble, ground disturbance by animals and removal of organisms or components of ecosystems by humans (Williams et al., 2005). Main sources of vegetation in urban areas are: •

native species originally present in the area

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regionally native species originally absent from the area that colonise new habitats created by urbanisation

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alien species introduced by humans, establishing wild populations in urban environments.

From this pool, four simultaneous filters have been identified as potential contributors to gain or loss vegetation, to set the final urban floras: •

habitat transformation

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habitat fragmentation

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•

environmental conditions

•

human preference specific of urban environments (Pauleit et al., 2005).

Anthropogenic pressure can lead to non-random gain and loss of species, change in species abundances and alteration of plant functional traits. Furthermore, these filters can also naturally select the populations of urban plants, for example through soil and atmospheric pollution, increase of temperatures due to the urban heat island and water stress (William et al., 2009).

4.8 Socioeconomic drivers The previous paragraphs examined the relationship among biophysical factors and LD in peri-urban areas. Socioeconomic factors, in terms of population structure, consumption, production, institutions, migration, resource extraction, poverty and land fragmentation can be also drivers of LD (Iosifides and Politidis, 2005; Abu Hammad and Tumeizi, 2012). The analysis of these factors should be carried out together with a thorough investigation of the most relevant biophysical factors (Boardman et al., 2003). Classifications of socioeconomic factors related to LD have been developed from the seminal work by Blaikie (1989) to more recent applications proposed in Boardman et al. (2003) and adapted from Stocking and Murnaghan (2001), Salvati and Zitti (2008) and Salvati (2010). Underdevelopment and poverty are crucial in determining the increase in LD risk (Ibanez et al., 2008; Iosifides and Politidis, 2005; Rubio and Recatala, 2006), particularly in agro-pastoral landscapes (Helldén and Tottrup, 2008; Lorent et al., 2008; Polyzos et al., 2008). Resource management and cultivation practices depend on a series of political, socioeconomic and ecological factors. Particularly, the social structure is relevant because it directly affects the productive structure. In fact, when social inequality and poverty substantially characterise the socioeconomic structure, the prevailing production and cultivation methods can be unsustainable. Furthermore, such conditions limit an efficient formulation and implementation of environmental-friendly policies (Salvati and Zitti, 2007). Additionally, tourism growth affects the degree of LD in combination with other socioeconomic factors. As an example, tourism in urbanised coastal areas impacts land-use patterns, and the lack of planning for tourism expansion can result in the shortage of basic services, such as water supply (Bellot et al., 2007; Venezian Scarascia et al., 2006). Generally, summer tourism on coastal areas impacts ecologically fragile, dry zones. In the long term, this causal chain may subtract fertile agricultural land (Petrov et al., 2009).

4.9 Land abandonment on the fringe Living standards of rural population are partially determined by access to natural resources. Farmers are among the principal victims of LD as the natural resources such as soil and crops are severely affected by desertification. One of the main consequences of LD is the abandonment of marginal agricultural lands (Rey Benayas et al., 2007) coupled with an unbalanced demographic dynamics between inland and coastal regions (Salvati and Zitti, 2007). Generally, industrialisation leads to land abandonment through the


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increase of agricultural costs, decreasing of profits, and changes in international trade regulation (Le Houerou, 1993). The densification of coastal and lowland zones leads to the potential increase of unemployment rates in dense areas, especially acting on weaker social classes and contributing to social marginalisation. Local labour markets, especially those traditionally linked to the primary sector, are potentially sensitive to changes in crop production due to LD, but even the employment in tourism sector may be negatively affected by aridity, water scarcity and environmental degradation (Barbier, 2000; Chopra and Gulati, 1997; Harte, 2007). Low productivity of soil resources on the fringe, coupled with fluctuating yields caused by scarce precipitation and droughts (Basso et al., 2010), tends to discourage investments and to provide for scientific inputs to conserve and increase land productivity (Barbier, 2000). Notwithstanding the prioritised allocation of development funds in more productive areas may seem economically justifiable (Monarca et al., 2009), this often actuates a vicious circle whereby dry areas lack of adequate financial and technological investments, thus perpetuating backward management and weak economic performances due to the breakdown of land resources. This distorts and makes insufficient the crop production, enlarging gaps within the rural sector, for example between ‘favourable’ and ‘less favourable’ areas, generating locally disruptive pressures (Gagliardo, 2004).

5

Conclusions

The most serious effects of urbanisation on agricultural and semi-natural areas surrounding the major cities in the Mediterranean basin include •

the consumption and degradation of fertile soils

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the impoverishment of groundwater resources due to overexploitation

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the land abandonment in built-up neighbourhoods, with the consequent increase of marginal, degraded and unproductive land (Portnov and Safriel, 2004).

Fire severity and tourism/industrial activities concentrated in urban and coastal areas further enhance the environmental impacts of LD (Garcia Latorre et al., 2001; Iosifides and Politidis, 2005; Loumou et al., 2000). Finally, sprawl-induced land fragmentation reduces the connectivity among natural patches with a direct effect on biodiversity (Khresat et al., 1998; Puigdefabregas and Mendizabal, 1998; Incerti et al., 2007). By reviewing studies carried out on Mediterranean peri-urban areas, the present study highlights the outstanding interest of the environmental issues related to resource unbalance, socioeconomic polarisation and regional disparities in a sustainable development perspective. A comprehensive and multidisciplinary framework is thus required to assess these issues (Glenn et al., 1998; Herrmann and Hutchinson, 2005). The role of urbanisation in triggering environmental disparities at the regional scale is rather clear (Portnov and Safriel, 2004). This review identifies LD sensitivity as a candidate target for specific mitigation policies in peri-urban areas. Up to now policies mitigating LD have been especially designed for (and applied to) rural areas (Briassoulis, 2004, 2005, 2011; Glenn et al., 1998; Wilson and Juntti, 2005). This review suggests that hotspots for LD should be identified as effective policy targets also in peri-urban areas (Christopoulou et al., 2007), within mitigation measures designed for a sustainable urban

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development (Simon, 2008) and capable to reduce ecological and socioeconomic disparities (Ezcurra and Rapun, 2006; Mukherjee and Kathuria, 2006; Tumpel-Gugerell and Mooslechner, 2003). To calibrate specific measures against LD, different land-use classes could be identified according to the degree of environmental disturbance: •

built-up areas

•

seriously compromised areas with patches of rural land, adjacent to urban areas affected by LD

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moderately compromised areas, with plots partially under-cultivation and other lands potentially used for part-time agriculture and recreational activities.

Policies based on the degree of disturbance of each land unit may contribute to rationalise land conservation, mitigate LD and reduce desertification risk.

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