Assessment of Tuscany Landscape Structure According to the Regional Landscape Plan Partition

Martina Venturi, Francesco Piras, Federica Corrieri, Beatrice Fiore, Antonio Santoro and Mauro Agnoletti
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Martina Venturi: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy
Francesco Piras: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy
Federica Corrieri: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy
Beatrice Fiore: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy
Antonio Santoro: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy
Mauro Agnoletti: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Florence, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: The landscape is considered a strategic asset by the Tuscan regional government, also for its economic role, meaning that a specific Landscape Plan has been developed, dividing the region into 20 Landscape Units and representing the main planning instrument at the regional level. Following the aims of the Landscape Plan and the guidelines of the European Landscape Convention, it is necessary to develop an adequate assessment of the landscape, evaluating the main typologies and their characteristics. The aim of this research is to carry out an assessment of the landscape diversity in Tuscany based on 20 study areas, analyzing land uses and landscape mosaic structures through the application of landscape metrics: number of land uses, mean patch size (MPS), Hill’s diversity number, edge density (ED), patch density (PD), land use diversity (LUD). The results highlight a correlation between the landscape typologies (forest, agricultural, mixed, periurban) and the complexity of the landscape structure, especially in relation to MPS and PD, while the combination of PD and LUD calculated on the basis of a hexagonal grid allows obtaining landscape complexity maps. Despite the phenomena of reforestation and urban sprawl of recent decades, Tuscany still preserves different landscape typologies characterized by a good level of complexity. This is particularly evident in mixed landscapes, while agricultural landscapes have a larger variability because of different historical land organization forms. The methodology applied in this study provided a large amount of data about land uses and the landscape mosaic structure and complexity and proved to be effective in assessing the landscape structure and in creating a database that can represent a baseline for future monitoring.

Keywords: rural landscape; territorial planning; landscape complexity; patch density; landscape mosaic; landscape metrics; edge density; mean patch size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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