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Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy

Land quality, a key economic capital supporting local development, is affected by biophysical and anthropogenic factors. Taken as a relevant attribute of economic systems, land quality has shaped the territorial organization of any given region influencing localization of agriculture, industry and s...

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Autores principales: Salvati, Luca, Tombolini, Ilaria, Gemmiti, Roberta, Carlucci, Margherita, Bajocco, Sofia, Perini, Luigi, Ferrara, Agostino, Colantoni, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456058/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177853
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author Salvati, Luca
Tombolini, Ilaria
Gemmiti, Roberta
Carlucci, Margherita
Bajocco, Sofia
Perini, Luigi
Ferrara, Agostino
Colantoni, Andrea
author_facet Salvati, Luca
Tombolini, Ilaria
Gemmiti, Roberta
Carlucci, Margherita
Bajocco, Sofia
Perini, Luigi
Ferrara, Agostino
Colantoni, Andrea
author_sort Salvati, Luca
collection PubMed
description Land quality, a key economic capital supporting local development, is affected by biophysical and anthropogenic factors. Taken as a relevant attribute of economic systems, land quality has shaped the territorial organization of any given region influencing localization of agriculture, industry and settlements. In regions with long-established human-landscape interactions, such as the Mediterranean basin, land quality has determined social disparities and polarization in the use of land, reflecting the action of geographical gradients based on elevation and population density. The present study investigates latent relationships within a large set of indicators profiling local communities and land quality on a fine-grained resolution scale in Italy with the aim to assess the potential impact of land quality on the regional socioeconomic structure. The importance of land quality gradients in the socioeconomic configuration of urban and rural regions was verified analyzing the distribution of 149 socioeconomic and environmental indicators organized in 5 themes and 17 research dimensions. Agriculture, income, education and labour market variables discriminate areas with high land quality from areas with low land quality. While differential land quality in peri-urban areas may reflect conflicts between competing actors, moderate (or low) quality of land in rural districts is associated with depopulation, land abandonment, subsidence agriculture, unemployment and low educational levels. We conclude that the socioeconomic profile of local communities has been influenced by land quality in a different way along urban-rural gradients. Policies integrating environmental and socioeconomic measures are required to consider land quality as a pivotal target for sustainable development. Regional planning will benefit from an in-depth understanding of place-specific relationships between local communities and the environment.
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spelling pubmed-54560582017-06-12 Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy Salvati, Luca Tombolini, Ilaria Gemmiti, Roberta Carlucci, Margherita Bajocco, Sofia Perini, Luigi Ferrara, Agostino Colantoni, Andrea PLoS One Research Article Land quality, a key economic capital supporting local development, is affected by biophysical and anthropogenic factors. Taken as a relevant attribute of economic systems, land quality has shaped the territorial organization of any given region influencing localization of agriculture, industry and settlements. In regions with long-established human-landscape interactions, such as the Mediterranean basin, land quality has determined social disparities and polarization in the use of land, reflecting the action of geographical gradients based on elevation and population density. The present study investigates latent relationships within a large set of indicators profiling local communities and land quality on a fine-grained resolution scale in Italy with the aim to assess the potential impact of land quality on the regional socioeconomic structure. The importance of land quality gradients in the socioeconomic configuration of urban and rural regions was verified analyzing the distribution of 149 socioeconomic and environmental indicators organized in 5 themes and 17 research dimensions. Agriculture, income, education and labour market variables discriminate areas with high land quality from areas with low land quality. While differential land quality in peri-urban areas may reflect conflicts between competing actors, moderate (or low) quality of land in rural districts is associated with depopulation, land abandonment, subsidence agriculture, unemployment and low educational levels. We conclude that the socioeconomic profile of local communities has been influenced by land quality in a different way along urban-rural gradients. Policies integrating environmental and socioeconomic measures are required to consider land quality as a pivotal target for sustainable development. Regional planning will benefit from an in-depth understanding of place-specific relationships between local communities and the environment. Public Library of Science 2017-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5456058/ /pubmed/28574984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177853 Text en © 2017 Salvati et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Salvati, Luca
Tombolini, Ilaria
Gemmiti, Roberta
Carlucci, Margherita
Bajocco, Sofia
Perini, Luigi
Ferrara, Agostino
Colantoni, Andrea
Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title_full Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title_fullStr Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title_short Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy
title_sort complexity in action: untangling latent relationships between land quality, economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in italy
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456058/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177853
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