Delineating the Intrinsic, Long-Term Path of Land Degradation: A Spatially Explicit Transition Matrix for Italy, 1960–2010

Vulnerability to land degradation in southern Europe has increased substantially in the last decades because of climate and land-use change, soil deterioration, and rising human pressure. The present work focuses on a quantitative evaluation of changes over time in the level of vulnerability to land degradation of a Mediterranean country (Italy) using a composite indicator, the environmentally sensitive area index (ESAI), which is the final outcome of a complex model conceived to assess land vulnerability on the basis of climate, soil, vegetation, and human pressure. Considering four different levels of vulnerability to land degradation (not affected, potentially affected, fragile, and critical), the main trajectories of this index were highlighted in a long-time perspective (1960–2010), discriminating dynamics over two sub-periods (1960–1990 and 1990–2010). The empirical results at a very detailed spatial scale (1 km(2) grid) reflect spatial consolidation of degradation hot-spots over time. However, aggregated trajectories of change indicate an overall improvement in the environmental conditions between 1990 and 2010 compared with what is observed during the first period (1960–1990). Worse environmental conditions concerned southern Italian regions with a dry climate and poor soil conditions in the first time interval, large parts of northern Italy, traditionally recognized as a wet and affluent agricultural region, experienced increasing levels of land vulnerability in the second time interval. Being classified as an unaffected region according with the Italian national action plan (NAP), the expansion of (originally sparse) degradation hot-spots in northern Italy, reflective of an overall increase in critical areas, suggests a substantial re-thinking of the Italian NAP. This may lead to a redesign of individual regional action plans (RAPs) implementing place-specific approaches and comprehensive measures to be adopted to mitigate land degradation.