Territorial Analysis of the Agricultural Terraced Landscapes of Tuscany (Italy): Preliminary Results

Abstract

Abstract:Terraced areas have existed in Italy since ancient times, and they continue to be characteristic elements of the cultural identity of the country. The progressive abandonment of rural areas and farmland that began in the 1960s has led to the disintegration and disappearance of many terraces, representing one of the problems connected with the deterioration of the historic Tuscan agricultural landscape. This research aims to provide a contribution to the territorial analysis of the agricultural terraced landscapes at a regional scale. The preliminary phase of the study involved setting up a working method in Geographic Information System (GIS) for the quantitative definition of the population. Afterwards, for the territorial analysis at a more detailed scale, a method was devised to identify the areas of greater significance in terms of a terracing intensity index. The final results concerned considerations on the distribution of the terraced landscapes and analyses related to land use and the main environmental parameters of the most representative terraced systems.

Environmental factors influencing the distribution of agricultural terraces: Case study of Horný Tisovník, Slovakia

“…In comparison, Swiechovicz (2002) indicated the density of terraces within the range from 0.8 km/ km 2 to 1.0 km/km 2 in a similar Carpathian sub-mountain agricultural landscape in the water catchment area of Stara Rzeka in Poland. In Italy, Agnoletti et al (2015) reported a high density of terraces in the Mediterranean Tuscany region (40 km/km 2 ), where terraces occur more frequently than in Carpathian countries. The comparison of a terrace density among similar agricultural landscapes, however, is problematic due to several reasons as noted by Varotto and Ferrarese (2008).…”

“…(v) Current land use: Based on the study of Agnoletti et al (2015) from the Mediterranean region, terraces can be found both in areas of utilised agricultural land use and in forests and semi-natural areas.…”

“…For example, McCane et al (2010), Fall et al (2012) and Quintus et al, (2015) have reported results on relationships among terraces and settlements. Agnoletti et al (2015) evaluated the influence of natural factors on terraces, while Bevan et al (2013) used a broad-spectrum approach. In this work, we focused on the assessment of relationships among terraces and selected factors from natural and human environments using multivariate analysis.…”

Terraced landscapes: an increasingly prominent cultural landscape type

“…In line with the rich Italian tradition of studying terraced landscapes (e.g., Barbera et al 2010;Tarolli, Preti and Romano 2014;Agnoletti et al 2015), pre-conference meetings were held in ten areas, each one highlighting a specific topic.…”

“…As an agricultural system, terracing has been known and used since the Neolithic (Agnoletti et al 2015). One can find agricultural terraces in different topographic conditions, e.g., coastal areas, hilly areas, and steeply sloping mountain landscapes (Tarolli et al 2015).…”