Multidecadal Land-Use Changes and Implications on Soil Protection in the Calore River Basin Landscape (Southern Italy)

In Southern Italy, studies dealing with the analysis of multidecadal land-use changes at the basin scale are scarce. This is an important gap, considering the deep interrelationships between land-use changes, soil erosion, and river dynamics, and hazards at the basin scale and the proneness of Southern Italy to desertification. This study provides a contribution in filling this gap by analyzing the land-use changes occurring in an inner area of Southern Italy, i.e., the Calore River basin, between 1960 and 2018. Working to this aim, we conducted a GIS-aided comparison and analysis of three land-use maps of the study area from 1960, 1990, and 2018, respectively. We analyzed land-use changes at the basin, physiographic unit, and land-use class scale. We also interpreted the results in terms of variations in soil protection against erosion. Most of the detected land-use changes occurred between 1960 and 1990 and mainly consisted of the afforestation of agricultural lands. The latter was mainly concentrated in the alluvial plains and, to a lesser extent, on mountainous reliefs. In contrast, between 1990 and 2018, the land-use remained unchanged in more than 90% of the studied landscape. Artificial surfaces increased by about six times over a period of similar to 60 years; notwithstanding, they currently occupy about 4% of the basin area. The detected changes led to an overall increase in soil protection against erosion at the basin scale.

Automated summary

This study analyzes the land-use changes in the Calore River basin in Southern Italy between 1960 and 2018. The results show that most of the changes occurred between 1960 and 1990, with afforestation of agricultural lands being the main change. However, between 1990 and 2018, over 90% of the landscape remained unchanged. The increase in artificial surfaces contributed to an overall improvement in soil protection against erosion.