Revealing patterns and connections in the historic landscape of the northern Apennines (Vetto, Italy)

Abstract

In the Northern Apennines, significant modifications to the characteristic historical features of landscapes have occurred since the 1950s as agriculture declined in importance and villages were progressively depopulated. Today, European policies are promoting the repopulation of these regions to help preserve the cultural identity of territories and reduce demographic pressure inurban areas. Such initiatives increase the need for cultural and natural landscape management to be better integrated using interdisciplinary approaches. Sustainable landscape management is a dynamic process involving the formulation of strategies to underpin the preservation of landscape heritage and foster local development based on the values and opportunities provided by landscapes themselves. This study uses landscape archaeology and spatial statistics to provide insights into which parts of the historic landscape retain the greatest time-depth and which parts reflect the more recent radical change, enabling an understanding which goes beyond the basic spatial relationships between landscape components.

The Evolution of Historic Agroforestry Landscape in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and Its Consequences for Slope Geomorphic Processes

“…Among the most distinctive characteristics of this historic landscape are relics of traditional alberata emiliana and well-preserved stone walls and earth banks that have been used extensively between steeply sloping fields to delimit tenurial boundaries and to face agricultural terraces [48]. Among the most distinctive characteristics of this historic landscape are relics of traditional alberata emiliana and well-preserved stone walls and earth banks that have been used extensively between steeply sloping fields to delimit tenurial boundaries and to face agricultural terraces [48].…”

Modelling the impact of historic landscape change on soil erosion and degradation

“…The first regards the collection and digitisation of cartographic material and remote sensing data within the open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software QGIS 3.22 45 . These data sources were interpreted in GIS to create the HLC mapping of the study area 19 . Secondly, the resulting HLC dataset was employed to develop the RUSLE parameters and models within the software system for statistical computing in R 46 through the visual interface of Rstudio 47 .…”

“…For instance, in mountainous regions of the Mediterranean, the decline in the importance of agriculture has led to a significant reduction of activities in rural areas, with progressive depopulation of villages and changes to the characteristic historic features of landscapes 17 . Since the 1950s, the widespread application of mechanised agriculture has resulted in major transformations of the landscape by enlarging fields, removing their physical boundaries and replacing traditional multi-cropping practices with monoculture systems which have enabled farmers to increase efficiency, productivity and profit 18 , 19 . Nevertheless, recent environmental studies and policies have recommended maintaining cultural and archaeological landscape features such as intercropping, agroforestry and cross slope barriers (e.g.…”

“…Landscape archaeology has the potential to fill this gap in the data about soil conservation practices using a GIS-based tool called Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) 19 , 35 , 36 . HLC is an archaeological approach which is used to map landscapes with particular reference to their long-term development by systematically interpreting their components (e.g.…”

“…Among the most distinctive characteristics of the area are well-preserved stone walls that have been used extensively between steeply-sloping fields to delimit tenurial boundaries and to face agricultural terraces (Fig. 2 ) 19 .

Figure 2 The most common historic landscape features in the study area.

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