IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v65y2022i3p441-460.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban sprawl and desertification risk: unraveling the latent nexus in a mediterranean country

Author

Listed:
  • Gianluca Egidi
  • Giovanni Quaranta
  • Rosanna Salvia
  • Luca Salvati
  • Renata Včeláková
  • Pavel Cudlín

Abstract

The Mediterranean region is exposed to desertification risk because of the joint impact of soil degradation, land-use change and global warming, although the individual role of such drivers has been occasionally investigated. The present study clarifies the spatial linkage between desertification risk and urbanization, intended as a pervasive form of landscape transformation in Southern Europe, by analyzing trends over time in the Environmentally Sensitive Area Index (1960–2010) at different settlement densities in Italy. Seven density classes, representing a vast range of local contexts from pristine, natural sites to peri-urban conditions with moderate (or high) human pressure, were considered. While land surface with medium-high settlement density increased between 1960 and 2010, reflecting semi-dense urban growth (1960–1990) and settlement sprawl (1990–2010), the spatial distribution and extent of land sensitive to desertification in Italy followed more complex dynamics over both time and space. Divergences in the level of desertification risk along the settlement density gradient increased markedly in 1990 and 2010. The highest level of risk was observed for land with intermediate settlement density, representing economically dynamic rural contexts with high (and possibly increasing) human pressure. Despite some exceptions, a lower level of risk was observed in urban and peri-urban areas with denser settlements. The spatially asymmetric increase in the level of desertification risk contributed to alter the polarization in affected and non-affected areas characteristic of early-1960s Italy. A rising impact of settlement density on desertification risk has been recorded in more recent years. Based on the empirical results of this study, National Action Plans to combat desertification in Mediterranean Europe are definitely required to incorporate specific measures of urban containment and mitigation of the negative effect of sprawl on land degradation at a local scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianluca Egidi & Giovanni Quaranta & Rosanna Salvia & Luca Salvati & Renata Včeláková & Pavel Cudlín, 2022. "Urban sprawl and desertification risk: unraveling the latent nexus in a mediterranean country," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 65(3), pages 441-460, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:65:y:2022:i:3:p:441-460
    DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2021.1886913
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2021.1886913
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640568.2021.1886913?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salvati, Luca, 2023. "Two wrongs don't make a right: A multi-step decomposition of latent dimensions of sustainable development and desertification risk in Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Emma Bruno & Rosanna Salvia & Giovanni Quaranta & Pavel Cudlin & Gennaro Punzo & Luca Salvati, 2024. "Identifying On-Site and Off-Site Drivers of Land Degradation in Advanced Economies: A Spatial Approach for Italy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(9), pages 2429-2453, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:65:y:2022:i:3:p:441-460. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.