Italy: Land Abandonment and Depopulation
Location of Pilot Area
TERRASAFE’s Pilot Area in Southern Italy
TERRASAFE will work in Southern Italy, within two sub-areas about 100 km apart. The focus is on using social innovation to address depopulation and land abandonment in these regions.
The partners for this pilot area are: Rosanna Salvia, MEDES
Narrative analysis in Italy
Our methods will study changes in two sub-areas of Southern Italy over a 70-year period (1950 to 2024). This extensive timeframe allows us to identify both slow and rapid changes and understand how national and regional developments have impacted local socio-ecological systems. The changes observed in these areas reflect broader trends occurring in interior regions of Italy and Europe, including agricultural modernization, migration, urbanization, industrialization, and post-industrialization.
Understanding Changes
To understand the complex interactions between natural resources and social and economic factors, we will use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. This approach helps cross-check and validate findings from different sources, showing how and why local and regional contexts have changed. Our research team will create a narrative of the area’s history, drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary data sources. This narrative approach, as suggested by Becker (2000), helps capture the processes behind the changes over time.
TERRASAFE
Italy Pilot Area;
> Research stages
> Data Collection
> Research Stages
The research will be structured into three stages:
Exploring Evolution:
- Assessing the evolution of socio-ecological systems.
- Identifying periods of stability and transition.
Analysing Impacts:
- Examining how macro-, meso-, and micro-scale events have influenced land degradation and desertification.
Identifying Drivers:
- Pinpointing the economic, social, natural, cultural, and political factors affecting resilience to land degradation and desertification.
> Data Collection
We will collect detailed qualitative and quantitative data across three spatial scales (macro, meso, and micro) to understand the impact of events from different stakeholder perspectives. This includes identifying spatial variations in impacts to see if gradients of change existed in the socio-ecological systems.
Quantitative data from secondary sources, such as historical records, statistical data, official reports, and legislation, will help identify periods of stability or transition. These data will be used to trace changes in social, cultural, political, economic, and natural factors.
Qualitative analysis will provide deeper insights, avoiding simplistic and linear assessments. We will gather qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with community and regional stakeholders, followed by focus groups involving stakeholders with diverse interests and expertise.
By integrating this data, we aim to understand how various factors have shaped the resilience of these areas to land degradation and desertification, highlighting origins of imbalances leading to issues like erosion, landslide risk, and scrub encroachment.
Conclusion & Relevant information Links about desertification in Italy
Conclusion
Both SETA and MOMA regions face significant challenges related to depopulation and land abandonment. TERRASAFE’s pilot project aims to address these issues through social innovation, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable development practices, with the ultimate goal of revitalizing these areas and preventing further land degradation.
LINKS
https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2015.1047895
Forino, G., Ciccarelli, S., Bonamici, S., Perini, L., & Salvati, L. (2015). Developmental Policies, Long-Term Land-Use Changes and the Way Towards Soil Degradation: Evidence from Southern Italy. Scottish Geographical Journal, 131(2), 123-140.
https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies1030017
Magliulo, P.; Cusano, A.; Russo, F. Land-Use Changes in the Sele River Basin Landscape (Southern Italy) between 1960 and 2012: Comparisons and Implications for Soil Erosion Assessment. Geographies 2021, 1, 315-332.
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