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Plastic materials used in agriculture mostly derive from synthetic petro-chemical polymers. They require at the end of their lifetime a suitable waste management system for the collection and treatment. A research was carried out in order to define a GIS methodology for mapping the agricultural plastic waste on the land. The use in agriculture of plastics in Barletta-Andria-Trani Province – Apulia Region – was investigated by applying orthophotos analysis and remote sensing survey. Besides purposed Plastic Waste Indexes were created to release land use to waste generation. The data were organized in a specific geo-database. The analysis showed that the agricultural plastic waste yearly produced from covering films was 627 kg ha−1, from the anti-hail nets was 159 kg ha−1, from nets for crop protection was 192 kg ha−1, from shading nets was 131 kg ha−1, from irrigation pipes was 104 kg ha−1. Through GIS, the areas with high density of plastic wastes were pointed out and the suitable location of collection centres was defined. The produced maps and the GIS database can be always updatable tools, useful for monitoring and optimizing the collection of agricultural plastic waste from the farms and their transport to the recycling companies.

The use of plastic materials in agriculture involves several benefits but it results in huge quantities of agricultural plastic waste to be disposed of. Input and output data on the use of plastics in agriculture are often difficult to obtain and poor waste management schemes have been developed. The present research aims to estimate and map agricultural plastic waste by using satellite images. Waste was evaluated by means of the indexes relating waste production to crop type and plastic application as defined by the land use map realized by classifying the Landsat 8 image. The image classification was carried out using Support Vector Machines (SVMs), and the accuracy assessment showed that the overall accuracy was 94.54% and the kappa coefficient equal to 0.934. Data on the plastic waste obtained by the satellite land use map were compared with the data obtained by using the institutional land use map; a difference of 1.74% was identified on the overall quantity of waste.

The current intensification of the use of plastic materials in agriculture, although has increased significantly the productivity, is also generating growing adverse effects on the environment of the agro-ecosystem. The agriculture is responsible for a massive use of plastic materials, in addition to energy and water inputs, chemical fertilizer and pesticides. Besides the pollution generated during the manufacture, at the end of their lifetime plastic materials used for crop covering, soil mulching, packaging, containers, pots, irrigation and drainage pipes, may became a pollution source when improperly disposed, leaved on the ground or burned. Instead the agricultural plastic waste (APW), if correctly collected, can be used as a new secondary raw material or as an energy source. An adequate APW management can prevent economical losses and environmental damages. The territory of the Barletta, Andria, Trani Province (BAT), in the Apulia Region, South Italy, is an agricultural area characterized by vineyards, olive groves, orchards and vegetables; it represents an area of intense production of plastic wastes and with a widespread problem linked to the application of unacceptable disposal practices. The goal of this study is to define and quantify the different types of plastic waste produced by the agricultural practice in a restricted area of the municipal area of Trani and Barletta, to localize the points where the most remarkable quantities of them are generated, and to provide the local Authorities and the decision makers of a useful tool for implementing an efficient and effective waste management. A dedicated geo-referenced database was designed using land use maps in a GIS environment and applying a methodology that can be functional for any kind of agricultural plastic waste. The resulting database gives updated and complete information on the plastic waste generation, over the land, related to the cultivation kind.

Plastic materials have been worldwide applied in agriculture for soil mulching, greenhouse covering, irrigation and drainage pipes, bags, containers, pots, and agrochemical containers. All of these plastic materials require, at the end of their lifetime, suitable collection and treatment systems. Agricultural activities in some areas of the Apulia Region, Southern Italy, are characterized by huge quantities of plastic wastes and local authorities and farmers associations have been interested in solving this problem by applying modern land management tools such as Geographical Information System (G.I.S.). In this paper a G.I.S. methodology is applied to an area of 10,200 ha in the Trani municipality, included in the Province of Barletta, Andria, Trani (BAT) - Apulia Region, in order to assess the agricultural plastic waste generation. The use of plastics at the agricultural farms has been investigated and related to the land use by applying statistical analysis, orthophoto analysis and remote sensing surveys. These data were introduced in a specific geo-database, and the agricultural plastic waste quantity and localization were defined. Vineyards and olive groves are scattered in this area, so the agricultural plastic waste mostly consists in irrigation pipes, after-use covering films and anti-hail nets used on vineyards. The analysis carried out showed that up to 614 kg ha-1 of covering films waste are yearly produced in some areas while the estimation of waste from the anti-hail nets was up to 159 kg ha-1 and the waste yearly produced from irrigation pipes was up to 83 kg ha-1. Through the use of the G.I.S., the areas with high density of plastic wastes were pointed out thus allowing to determine the suitable location of temporary storage areas and collecting points, in order to optimize the transport of agricultural plastic waste from the farms to the collecting points and to the recycling firms.

Policy makers have recently begun to agree on environmental, economic and social aspects of rural areas that are enhanced according to the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and in particular in the national Rural Development Programmes (RDPs). Greenways are an acknowledged tool within the CAP because they help to protect and manage environmental heritage, promote economic activities and enhance the social assets of rural areas; furthermore, given their natural ability to simultaneously connect these resources, greenways promote Rural Sustainable Development (RSD). Nevertheless, several issues can create difficulties for policy makers in the implementation of greenways for promoting RSD, and the research about greenway planning shows that government agencies do not adopt a collaborative approach with each other or with stakeholders. Thus, our research aims to provide a common decision making framework enabling both greenway implementations by policy makers (top-down strategy), and the choice among various alternatives evaluated by different stakeholders (bottom-up strategy). This helps policy makers to identify the greenway that best promotes the objectives of RSD, and therefore facilitates planning and management of the 2014–2020 RDP funds reserved for greenway implementation. This decision making framework consists of a Multiple Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) that integrates a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) technique “Group Analytic Hierarchy Process” (GAHP). The validity of this MC-SDSS was tested on three rural municipalities of Apulia Region (Southern Italy). In particular, a GIS was used to detect the rural resources and existing linear elements, which were used to perform overlay mapping to identify four greenways. We then established a hierarchy consisting of four groups of stakeholders, seven criteria and twenty-one sub-criteria. Finally, GAHP was applied to aggregate the preferences of stakeholders and obtain the ranking. Specifically, Greenway 4 is the preferred alternative for every stakeholder, because it best connects cultural heritage, land use and urban centers and it scored the highest preference concerning route characteristics. The second alternative is Greenway 1, because it best links the interchange nodes, and the third alternative is Greenway 3, preferred for its panoramic scenery. Greenway 2 is the last alternative, because it performs worst in connecting urban centers, land use and interchange nodes, and scored the lowest preference for route characteristics. The above results were easily understood and accepted by the stakeholders and Local Action Groups (LAG) policy makers, because the methodology provided clear outcomes that completely reflect their opinions.

Rural Sustainable Development (RSD) is promoted by the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014–2020, and in particular by the national and regional Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), which are mainly supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). At the sub-regional level, a part of the EAFRD is managed by Local Action Groups (LAGs), which decide how to use their own budget within their municipalities via a bottom-up approach, according to the most suitable projects available within the RDP. Requalification of traditional farm buildings is a possible RSD project for achieving various objectives, including creation of new jobs and economic activities, protection of the natural environment, promotion of rural tourism, preservation of rural culture and traditions, encouragement of a sense of community, improvement of the viability of rural villages, and also to contrast the abandonment of rural areas. Nevertheless, European projects and research show that the different types of requalification carried out are often not related to RSD objectives and that requalification does not usually combine the sustainability dimensions and spatial features of rural areas. Furthermore, the opinions of various stakeholders should be considered to support the generation of RSD policies and strategies. Thus, this research aims to provide a RSD decision making framework that makes it possible to tackle the above issues for identifying which type of requalification to assign to certain traditional farm buildings. Therefore, the results should facilitate the work of LAG policy makers in planning and managing the EAFRD 2014–2020. The framework combines the Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) methods “Analytic Network Process” (ANP) and “Dominance-based Rough Set Approach” (DRSA). This framework was applied to a LAG territory in Apulia Region (Southern Italy) that includes 176 traditional farm buildings. The ANP application identified the optimal quota for each type of requalification and showed that the highest quota is allocated to Facilities and Accommodations for Rural Tourism. The second preferred requalification is Centres for Environmental Education, Recreational and Social Facilities, while the third is Facilities for the Transformation and Sale of Agricultural Products. The DRSA was then applied in a Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to choose the most suitable traditional farm buildings for each type of requalification, helping the LAG policy makers to fill each quota.

Rural Sustainable Development is a very important topic under the European Union policy, and it is currently promoted through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014–2020. This fund is managed at sub-regional level by the Community-Led Local Development approach that involves Local Action Groups in order to promote the objectives of Rural Sustainable Development within rural municipalities. Each Local Action Group applies the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis in order to identify for its own rural municipalities the strategic elements to which it will allocate the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development budget. Nevertheless, this analysis has some general shortcomings, including difficulties in managing a large number of Strength and Weakness factors. In addition, the importance of each factor cannot be measured quantitatively, and the same factor may be characterized both as a Strength and a Weakness. Further difficulties may occur in the case of partnerships between different Local Action Groups, such as disagreement about whether a given factor is a Strength or a Weakness, lack of information about the relationships between Strength and a Weakness factors and decision alternatives, as well as impossibility of ranking the decision alternatives. Thus, this research aims to overcome the drawbacks of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis and to support Local Action Group partnerships in the sustainability evaluation of their rural municipalities, and therefore to aid the identification of a common Rural Sustainable Development strategy to allocate the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development budget. This decision problem was tackled by applying a Multiple Criteria Spatial Decision Support System that integrates a Geographic Information System with the Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding methods “Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution” and “Dominance-based Rough Set Approach”. In order to demonstrate the validity of this methodological approach, this Multiple Criteria Spatial Decision Support System was applied to a study area of thirteen rural municipalities located in Apulia Region (Southern Italy); these municipalities belong to the same landscape unit, but they are managed by five different policy makers that represent the Local Action Groups. The results provided the maps of environmental, economic and social sustainability rankings of rural municipalities as well as their overall sustainability value. Based on these rankings, a specific Rural Sustainable Development strategy was identified for the allocation of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. This methodology provided a common decision making framework that can also be applied to Local Action Group partnerships within the European Union.

The use of plastic materials in agriculture, for greenhouse covering, soil mulching, irrigation pipes, containers and bags, generates a huge amounts of plastic waste that must be properly disposed of. An adequate waste management and disposal system requires the knowledge of the waste generation on the land. This paper presents the results of a research, based on the application of a Geographical Information System, for mapping the waste generation in the municipality of Trinitapoli, Italy. Aim of the research is to identify the points of waste generation and to quantify the waste. A dedicated geo-referenced database with data on the spatial distribution and amount of the plastic wastes was created; waste density ranged from 3.3 kg ha-1yr-1 to 861 kg ha-1yr-1. L’uso di materiali plastici in agricoltura, quali film per la copertura di serre, film per la pacciamatura del terreno, tubi d’irrigazione, contenitori di pesticidi e sacchetti di fertilizzanti, genera un enorme quantita di rifiuti plastici che devono essere correttamente smaltiti. Un sistema adeguato di gestione e smaltimento delle plastiche presuppone la conoscenza della produzione dei rifiuti sul territorio. Questo lavoro presenta i risultati di una ricerca, basata sull’applicazione di un Sistema di Informazione Geografica, per la mappatura della produzione di rifiuti nel comune di Trinitapoli, in Italia. Lo scopo della ricerca e quello di identificare i punti di generazione dei rifiuti plastici e di quantificarli. E stato creato un database georeferenziato dedicato, con i dati sulla distribuzione spaziale e la quantita di rifiuti di plastica generati. La densita dei rifiuti prodotti varia da 3,3 kg ha-1 a 861 kg ha-1 per anno.

Human settlements often originate from the presence of such natural sustaining water bodies as springs, rivers, or rather from the proximity of relevant infrastructure (roads, harbours, etc.). Rural residential buildings, however, are generally closely linked to the cultivated fields of a farm. A significant example of rural buildings, that particularly identifies some national or regional areas, is that of the Apulian farmhouses known as “masserie”, which are considered as an important cultural heritage in the rural territories of that region. These buildings, featuring relevant architectural and landscape characteristics, encompass several functions within them and often host more than one family living there permanently. Territorial distribution of rural buildings and farmhouses in Apulia is diversified and, in general and as already stated, it can depend on the close relationship between the building and its adjacent agricultural lot. Moreover, in the case of the Apulian farmhouses, owing to their specific role in overseeing the territory and asserting land tenure rights, this distribution may have “genetic” origins influenced by other elements, too. The efforts of the present work regarding this issue are to investigate the existing relationships between the Apulian farmhouses system and the “historical” roads already existing when they were built (XII-XIX centuries). Particularly, the study proved if there are any correlations among the Roman roads, the sheep’s paths (tratturi) crossing the Apulia region and the farmhouses, both from the point of view of the distance from the roads and the importance of the individual farmhouses. Using GIS software and overlay mapping procedures it was possible to quantify the amount of farmhouses and their concentration within the catchment areas of the aforementioned historical roads, while through historical and territorial in-depth analysis those elements characterizing the most interesting farmhouses from the historical and architectural point of view were identified. The research provided interesting information on the existing relations between historical roads and farmhouses, leading to further considerations on the possibility to enhance some of these monuments, located in rural areas, through the promotion of the “integrated” asset represented by the historical road system, with particular reference to the sheep’s paths (tratturi).

A precise category of Apulian farmsteads, known as masserie, is a significant example of rural buildings featuring relevant architectural and landscape characteristics. Their territorial distribution is diversified and often depend on the close relationship between the building and its adjacent agricultural lot. Moreover, owing to their specific role in overseeing the territory and asserting land tenure rights, Apulian masserie distribution may have genetic origins influenced by other elements, too. The aim of this work is to investigate the existing relationships between masserie and historic roads crossing the Apulia region (Roman roads and sheep’s paths called tratturi), considering both their mutual distance and the individual rural buildings importance. Overlay mapping procedures allow to quantify the amount of masserie falling within the catchment areas of the aforementioned historical roads, while historical and territorial in-depth analysis helped to identify those elements characterising the most interesting masserie from cultural and architectural points of view. The research provided interesting qualitative and quantitative information on the existing relations between these assets, leading to further considerations on the possibility to enhance them through the promotion of their integrated recovery.