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The increasing impacts of climate and land use change directly impact habitat quality and biodiversity. Monitoring the habitats quality can be a valuable tool for the conservation of biodiversity, as it is an indicator of biodiversity. This research work aims to ap-ply the InVEST Habitat Quality model to compare two different cases study from Portugal (Tomar) and Southern Italy (Potenza). Threats to biodiversity were considered taking into account the substantial territorial differences of the two areas considered: Tomar, an area particularly affected by forest fires-driven degradation phenomena; Potenza is, instead, an area particularly affected by the installation of wind farms. Results highlight how these tools can be considered a valuable support tool for spatial planning decisions for biodiversity conservation.

The main transformation dynamics in the province of Potenza territory (Basilicata region in the south of Italy) correspond to those of urban sprinkling. The urban sprinkling phenomena is typical of mainly mountainous internal areas with indices of settlement density and artificial coverage ratios very low. The temporal and spatial analysis of the urban sprinkling phenomenon gives a picture of the transformation dynamics of the territory, i.e. the phenomena of fragmentation and compaction of the urban territory. Through a logistic regression, the driving factors that have affected the dynamics of urban transformation and specifically the phenomena of fragmentation and compaction between 1998 and 2013 will be analyzed. The two transformation phenomena (dependent variables Y), will be analyzed separately and built on the basis of the variation of the sprinkling index in the analyzed period. In the model, eleven independent variables concerning physical characteristics, proximity analysis, socioeconomic characteristics and the urban policies or constraints, have been considered. The result of the logistic regression consists of two probability maps of change of the dependent variable Y from non-urban to fragmented or compacted. The indexes of the relative operational characteristic (ROC) of 0.85 and 0.84 respectively for compaction and fragmentation, testify the goodness of the model.

The Natura 2000 network was established as a tool to preserve the biological diversity of the European territory with particular regard to vulnerable habitats and species. According to recent studies, a relevant percentage of Natura 2000 sites are expected to be lost by the end of this century and there is widespread evidence that biodiversity conservation policies are not fully effective in relation to the management plans of the protected areas. This paper addresses the issue by analyzing a specific case in which there is a problem of integration between different competences and sectoral policies that leads to the lack of a monitoring system of territorial management performances. The study area, located in the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy), includes a Site of National Interest (SNI), for which several reclamation projects are still in the submission/approval phase, and a partially overlapping Natura 2000 network site. The tool used to monitor biodiversity in the study area is the degradation map obtained through the &ldquo, habitat quality and degradation&rdquo, InVEST tool which is used to assess the current trend and thus define a baseline for comparison with two medium and long-term scenarios applicable to the SNI&rsquo, s procedure of partial and total remediation. The proposed methodology is intended to be a part of a larger and more complex monitoring system that, developed within the framework of ecosystem services, allows for the overcoming of the limits related to fragmentation and contradictions that are present in land management by offering a valuable support to decision makers and the competent authorities in biodiversity conservation policy design.

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are part of the solution to tackle the global problems of climate change and carbon emissions. Programs and policies at different levels are continuing to promote new RES farms, posing a relevant challenge to regional planners and administrators: how to manage landscape transformation and territorial fragmentation to find a really effective sustainable arrangement for these kinds of technologies? Most effects induced by RES (land-use change, land take, diminishing aesthetic values, loss of habitat quality), without a doubt, depend on the location and the spatial pattern of the plants, the relative distance between them, the extension of secondary infrastructures and their technical characteristics. This work takes part in the debate, originating from the need to establish a monitoring system for this kind of new territorial transformation and discusses the implementation of a sprinkling fragmentation index (SPX) in order to assess the current regional settlement structure of RES farms. Our case study concerns the Basilicata region (in Southern Italy), a very low-density area which over the last decade has undergone a relevant increase in the installation of RES technologies, not supported by an effective planning framework. The evolution of the regional energy system has been strongly influenced both by incentive policies and by (weak) urban and territorial planning policies. This approach could be a valuable contribution both in identifying a fragmentation threshold beyond which the expected negative impacts outweigh the benefits, and in providing a useful procedure for the management of future installations.

The main objective of the present study was to integrate a logistic regression (LR) model and a geographic information system (GIS) technique to analyze the urban transformations patterns and investigate the relationship between urban transformation dynamics and its various determinant forces. The case study concerns the territory of the province of Matera, in the region of Basilicata (southern Italy) where the main transformation phenomenon corresponds to the dynamics of urban sprinkling. The definition of the variables, corresponding to the dynamics of urban fragmentation and compaction, will be carried out through spatial analyses concerning the temporal variation of the sprinkling index. The relationships between the dependent variables (Y) fragmentation and compaction and the independent variables (X) referring to different factors will be analyzed through two logistic regressions. The time interval considered is 1998-2013 and the determining factors (driving forces) refer to physical characteristics, proximity analysis to roads or cities, socioeconomic factors and land use policies. The results consist of two maps showing the probability of variation of the dependent variables whose accuracy will be evaluated using the Relative Operational Characteristic Index (ROC).

Social, demographic and economics transformations occurred in Basilicata Region (Italy) since 1950’s, have been developed transformations not always linked to effective and sustainable urban planning tools. A general research gap regards the tools for assessing such effectiveness of planning. In this work we describe the preliminary design of a thematic Atlas presenting Basilicata Region results achieved in previous researches concerning urban growth and consequently land use changes. On the bases of a territorial information system developed by LISUT research group we analyzed urban growth since 1950 comparing it with recent phenomena of RES (renewable energy sources) plants settlement occurred since 2000. Such spatial information, evaluated through fragmentation indexes, are compared with socio-economic data at municipal scale. The results are a comprehensive picture of local settlement development trends that allows to communicate evidences of current planning system including urban planning tools, sectorial planning (operating at regional scale), public investments program evidences. The Atlas will be published for Basilicata Region area (Italy) as a model in order to analyze and compare other European Regions.

The conservation of soil and multiple ecosystem services it provides, is crucial for human well-being, for pursuing many of the Sustainable Development Goals and for addressing some of the most important challenges of our society. However several factors contribute to soil degradation, including climatic characteristics, lithological and morphological features and transformation processes. Only the last ones can be governed and that is the reason why spatial planning needs tools and analyses to interpret the role of land use changes in complex dynamics such as the erosive phenomena. This work presents the results obtained from the implementation of the InVEST SDR module on the territory of Basilicata Region and considering the evolution occurred between 1990 and 2018. Our outcomes show an intensification of erosion phenomena mainly along the Apennine chain and the coastal area of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Although this area corresponds to the higher average rainfall erosivity over the entire period, the most significant soil loss occurs in correspondence with unfavorable land use changes. The negative connotation typically associated with deforestation, conversion of agricultural soils to arable lands and thinning or total loss of vegetation becomes a measurable quantity, at least from one of several points of view.

Territorial transformations are currently influenced by the combination of multi-scale processes that generate complex change dynamics. In particular, we focus on the emerging conflicts between CO2 reduction policies and the preservation of natural and ecosystem values on a the local scale. Global policies stimulate a generalized effort in promoting the transition towards a low carbon economy, and a relevant component of such a development process is connected with Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Such technological settlement processes in low density areas generate relevant impacts. This paper discusses an ex-post-impact assessment methodology based on cumulative ecosystem services losses in a specific study area: the Melfi municipality in the Basilicata region (Italy). The proposed methodology, starting from a temporal evolution of RES plants, considers the ecosystem services estimation based on InVEST tools in order to deliver spatial multicriteria maps of the resulting territorial impacts. These results allowed to clarified the limits of a local sectorial planning approach and highlighted the opportunities offered by performance-based planning in assessing alternative transformation scenarios. The conclusions regard policy implications towards a multidimensional performance-based planning system where alternative low carbon transition scenarios could be compared in order to take into account territorial specializations and identity assets as a tool to drive decision-making in a sustainable planning perspective.

Economic, social and environmental aspects have led local, regional and national governments to promote policies to increase the spread of renewable energy (especially wind energy). The transformation into an energy system based on renewable sources is therefore already underway. In this context, the effects of renewable energy sources on ecosystems are to be analyzed. In this regard, the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), promoted by the United Nations, is an international reference for the development of a global environmental assessment approach. One of its most innovative contributions is to promote a structured approach in which the value of the ecosystem in the decision-making process should be based on the idea of the services it provides to humans.

Agricultural production in Basilicata Region is strongly characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, the large percentage of small family businesses and a generalized low propensity to entrepreneurship. Although there are productive realities that are suited to entrepreneurship, going beyond the local market dimensions. The low propensity of agricultural producers to associate in consortium or any other formal collaboration is also a factor to be reinforced in order to improve the competitiveness of the respective supply chains.

All programs and policies that stimulated and continue to promote the construction of renewable energy production plants, pose a growing challenge to regional planners and administrators: how to manage the transformation of the landscape to find an effective sustainable arrangement for renewable energy technologies? In fact, while RES plants contribute to solve the global problem of climate change and to reduce emissions, at the local level they imply significant impacts on several components such as: land use, land take, diminishing aesthetic values, deterioration of habitat quality. The intensity of these effects depends on the location of the plants, the distance between the plants, the extension of the ancillary infrastructures and the technical characteristics. It is questionable whether the intensity of the negative impacts at the local level is more related to the technical characteristics of each installations or their dislocation on the territory. The present work is part of this debate, discussing fragmentation index resulted from the assessment of the current regional settlement structure of RES plants.

From the beginning of the 21st century, following major European and global initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity, the idea that Ecosystem services could be used as a decision support tool, gained considerable importance in several fields: from economy to public policy, from territorial planning to environmental assessment. This research is part of the methodological framework of an important strategic reference: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an international project that defines ecosystem services and assesses the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. According to the MA, ecosystem services are grouped into four categories: supplying services, regulation services, cultural services, and support services. Starting from this, the present work contributes to build interpretative models for the evaluation of a relevant part of the fourth class of ecosystem services: the territorial touristic attractiveness. The InVEST model, an open source toolkit, has been applied to assess attractiveness of the Basilicata Region considering both natural and cultural heritage in order to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the investigated methodology.

Artificial land use trends could represent an effective indicator of the settlement process quality and could also provide information about the efficacy of protection and exploitation policies in natural and rural areas. This work discusses an analytic procedure for the time series investigation of urban settlement development at the regional scale to verify the nexus between urban growth and demographic trends connected with the phenomenon of land take. In Italy, since 1950, the land take phenomenon has been a consequence of several factors: urbanization, realization of transport infrastructures including ports, airports, and highways, and the enhancement of industrial and productive systems. We analyzed all these territorial transformations that create waterproof soil, and more generally, a transition from natural and semi-natural uses toward artificial land use. After World War II, the demographic growth and the consequent housing demand generated a strong urbanization process in the main poles of economic development areas in Italy. Since the early 2000s, the situation has completely changed and the land take phenomenon is no longer mainly based on real need for new urban expansion areas based on effective urban planning tools, but is strongly related to a scattered demand for new housing in a weak territorial spatial planning system not able to drive effective urban development that minimizes speculative real estate initiatives. This uncontrolled occupation of soil generated, in Italy, a landscape fragmentation called the urban sprinkling phenomenon, different from urban sprawl, which is a wider phenomenon characterized by disordered urban growth. The present document aims to assess how uncontrolled expansion in areas characterized by low settlement density can generate fragmentation. To define if the territory is affected by the urban sprinkling phenomenon, two 50-year time series concerning urban expansion of buildings and demographic trends are analyzed calculating population and building density indices and their variation over the years. The sprinkling index is used to analyze the variation in the fragmentation degree at two different scales (regional and municipal). Finally, we discuss the context where this phenomenon has developed, analyzing the buildings located in hydrogeological risk zones and protected areas, and the correlation between demographic changes and the degree of territorial fragmentation variation.

It is widely recognized that tourism sector plays an important role in territorial analysis both because of its economic and employment potential and its environmental and social implications. Investigating dynamics that influence tourist attractiveness and receptivity is fundamental in territorial planning sector in order to monitor regional and sustainable development policies, above all with a view to pursuing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1].

The increase of artificial land use represents a relevant indicator in land management policies and practices. It is a useful tool in assessing the quality of settlement processes and the protection and enhancement policies in rural and natural areas. Over time land take processes have been caused by different phenomena: urban or industrial expansion, realization of infrastructures, the development or the productive exploitation of territorial areas characterized by the presence of specific resources (natural, mining, etc.). This phenomenon is no longer a direct consequence of a real need of new expansion areas throughout Italian national territory. In the past the phenomenon was mainly due to residential, productive or tertiary sector needs, and it was generated by demographic growth and the consequent urbanization process. In the last two decades land take is more and more related to a weak territorial governance, generally linked to an inefficiency of urban and territorial planning instruments and sometimes of speculative real estate initiatives. In this paper a spatial analysis procedure oriented to calculate indicators of urban fragmentation for Basilicata Region has been presented. Such indicators could drive to the identification of two phenomena: urban-sprawl and urban-sprinkling according to the literature classification proposed in several researches by Romano et al. The results represent a useful contribution in order to improve regional normative system concerning urban development. The research is part of a wider project on environmental and territorial indicators (INDICARE) promoted by FARBAS (Environmental Observatory Foundation of Basilicata Region) in collaboration with the University of Basilicata.