The Effect of Rural Buildings on Landscape Fragmentation in Natura 2000 Sites: A Case Study in Sardinia

Antonio Ledda, Vittorio Serra and Andrea De Montis
Additional contact information
Antonio Ledda: Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Vittorio Serra: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Andrea De Montis: Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Landscape fragmentation (LF) is the process where habitat patches tend to become smaller and more isolated over time. It is mainly due to human activities and affects habitats, biodiversity, ecosystem balance, and ecological networks. Transport and mobility infrastructures and urbanized areas—also in the form of suburban and rural sprawl—contribute to LF and can be localized close to (or included in) Natura 2000 sites (N2000 sites). N2000 sites are set according to the Habitats and Birds Directives and consist of special protection areas, sites of community importance, and special areas of conservation, where LF may threaten habitat quality and species survival and dispersal. Then, new rules and planning approaches are called for defining effective protection measures. The knowledge of the context appears to be a priority to achieve such aims. Therefore, this study focuses on LF in N2000 sites. We apply the rural buildings fragmentation index (RBFI) and the effective mesh density (Seff) in six landscape units in Sardinia (Italy). Then, we report on the least and the most fragmented N2000 sites and assess if there is correlation between RBFI and Seff. In this study, RBFI and Seff provide not trivial outcomes, as they are weakly and positively correlated.

Keywords: Italy; Sardinia; rural buildings; protection and conservation areas; landscape fragmentation; habitat loss; rural buildings fragmentation index (RBFI); effective mesh density (Seff); comparative analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4695/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4695/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4695-:d:261908

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().