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A. Migliozzi et al. 2010. Land-use management and changes in Campania Region (Southern Italy)
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Land-use management and changes in Campania Region (Southern
Italy): examples from ten regional State Forests
A. Migliozzi 1 , F. Cona 1 , A. di Gennaro 2 , A. Mingo 1 , A. Saracino 1 & S. Mazzoleni 1
1
Department ARBOPAVE, University of Napoli “Federico II”, Via Università 100,
80055 Portici (NA), Italy
2
Risorsa s.r.l., Via Raffaello 15, 80129 Napoli, Italy
Abstract
In the last 50 years the Italian territory has undergone a remarkable transformation as a
consequence of anthropogenic activity . In the Campania Region, the main causes of change are
urban expansion, abandonment of mountainous and marginal agricultural areas and expansion
of industrial settlements. We document land use variation during the last 50 years and the
changes occurred in ten Regional Forests which contain mainly natural land use patches
The main problems of land and forest management are discussed in the light of actions
promoted by the promulgation of two important legislative instruments, the “Piano Territoriale
Regionale (PTR)” and the “Piano Forestale Generale (PFG)”, for the socio-economic
revitalization of rural areas and for the sustainable management of agro-forestry systems.
Keywords: Systems of Lands, Urban Sprawl, Forestry, GIS
1. Introduction
In the last fifty years the agro-forestry landscape of the Campania Region (Southern Italy) has
undergone a remarkable transformation under the pressure of two opposing forces: urban sprawl
(almost fivefold) and intensification and specialisation of agriculture in the coastal plains and
hills, contemporary to land abandonment in the mountain areas and in the inland hills (Di
Gennaro and Innamorato, 2005, Mazzoleni et al. 2004, Motti et al.2004, Migliozzi et al. 2001).
The key areas of major landscape transformation are situated along the sea coast, where the
rapidly increasing urbanisation eroded the cultivated land areas and the residual plain forests.
The consequent congestion of the flat areas is a completely unbalanced use of soil, water and
land resources. This is highlighted by the centrifugal expansion of urban areas at the expense of
cultivated fields and natural vegetation and the contemporary centripetal recolonisation by
wildland vegetation of the abandoned cultivated land.. The soil loses its primary function and
becomes a free building space. The areas recolonised by natural vegetation, tends to interface
directly with the expanding urban areas. Therefore water supply, pollution, management and
transport of solid and liquid waste increase. Furthermore natural vegetation dynamics on the
abandoned crops determines a homogenisation of the landscape and modifies of the
hydrological processes, leading to an increase of the hazard management issues (fire and
landslide) at the urban-forest interface (Mazzoleni et al. 2004). The epochal dimension of this
change, is the following: from 1960 to 2000 the urban space has increased from 20,000 ha to
about 93,000 ha and the LUW ( Land Used Wholly) has decreased by 16%.
The urban centers of the coastal strip has welded together in a metropolitan continuum that
extends to approximately 15% of the region, from Caserta (North Campania) to Battipaglia
(South Campania), but hosts 72% of the population of the Campania Region. The result was the
abnormal consumption and waste of soil in the more fertile areas, as well as the loss of rural
landscapes of inestimable value. Several factors contributed to this unbalanced outcome: the
inadequacy of public policies, a lack of participation of the public opinion, the influence of
organized lawlessness (Totò 1952; di Gennaro, 2005).
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.