Agricultural “greening” and cropland diversification trends: Potential contribution of agroenergy crops in Capitanata (South Italy)

Massimo Monteleone, Anna Rita Bernadette Cammerino and Angela Libutti

Land Use Policy, 2018, vol. 70, issue C, 591-600

Abstract: Cropland diversity was the focus of this work to support regional policy in a land planning perspective for the development of both the agriculture and renewable energy sectors. Considering the Capitanata region (South of Italy) as a case study, the land share-out in agricultural crops have been assessed by using two different approaches: a) multi-year census data and b) land use/land cover digital maps through GIS assisted techniques. In the first case, the smallest land unit was the administrative municipality while in the second, it was the cell of a grid having a regular sized mesh (3km) superimposed to the digital map. The share of the cultivated surfaces among the main crop categories was computed with reference to the region as a whole and its geographical sub-regions, the latter statistically determined according to the main characters in their crop composition. Thereafter, the Shannon’s Diversity Index was applied to the crop share of cultivated areas. Finally, a potential scenario of possible land use changes due to the introduction of energy crops was presented, according to defined land conversion criteria, in order to improve the crop spatial diversity, particularly in those sub-regions where lower diversity levels were previously detected.

Keywords: Agricultural landscape; Land use change; Shannon’s index; Crop diversity; Land planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:70:y:2018:i:c:p:591-600

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.10.038

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