Search results for "Agricultural landscape"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
How Universal Is the Relationship between Remotely Sensed Vegetation Indices and Crop Leaf Area Index? A Global Assessment
2016
This study aims to assess the relationship between Leaf Area Index (LAI) and remotely sensed Vegetation Indices (VIs) for major crops, based on a globally explicit dataset of in situ LAI measurements over a significant set of locations. We used a total of 1394 LAI measurements from 29 sites spanning 4 continents and covering 15 crop types with corresponding Landsat satellite images. Best-fit functions for the LAI-VI relationships were generated and assessed in terms of crop type, vegetation index, level of radiometric/atmospheric processing, method of LAI measurement, as well as the time difference between LAI measurements and satellite overpass. These global LAI-VI relationships were evalu…
Climate Aridity and the Geographical Shift of Olive Trees in a Mediterranean Northern Region
2021
Climate change leverages landscape transformations and exerts variable pressure on natural environments and rural systems. Earlier studies outlined how Mediterranean Europe has become a global hotspot of climate warming and land use change. The present work assumes the olive tree, a typical Mediterranean crop, as a candidate bioclimatic indicator, delineating the latent impact of climate aridity on traditional cropping systems at the northern range of the biogeographical distribution of the olive tree. Since the olive tree follows a well-defined latitude gradient with a progressive decline in both frequency and density moving toward the north, we considered Italy as an appropriate case to i…
BioCultural Landscapes per la rigenerazione innovativa dei territori di montagna
2017
Simplification of agricultural systems, farmland abandonment, uncontrolled urbanization, together with global scale drivers, determine fast and unpredictable phenomena of hydrogeological instability, biodiversity decline and identity loss. Men should hence promote socio-economic resilience and place identity, using biocultural landscapes as a resource. These landscapes are the outcome of the historical relationship between man and nature, resulting from complex interactions between biodiversity (at all levels, including species richness, ecosystem and biotope diversity) and cultural diversity, including material and immaterial aspects (architectural heritage, traditions, customs, local trad…
Architettura e agricoltura. Figure simboliche di incorporazione, 1960-1972
2022
Nel secondo dopoguerra, la reazione dell’Architettura ai dogmi modernisti ha avuto come denominatore comune un rinnovato interesse per l’uomo, inteso come origine di un progetto situato. E’ in questo quadro che, negli anni Sessanta del Novecento, l’architettura ha dato nuovo spazio all’agricoltura, individuando in essa l’atto fondativo di ogni civiltà. Letti in ordine cronologico, alcuni esempi di quegli anni mostrano l’estensione della scalarità della disciplina ai territori produttivi e il debito linguistico nei confronti della biologia cellulare organica e della botanica. Il saggio discute alcuni progetti di Kurokawa, Superstudio, 9999, Archizoom, che, oscillando fra ultime utopie, atrof…
Enhancing the Endogenous Potential of Agricultural Landscapes: Strategies and Projects for a Inland Rural Region of Sicily
2018
This paper focuses on the potential of the rural landscape of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, taking into particular account the critical need to deal with the problem of depopulation of the small inner areas by leveraging the “integrated exploitation” of local resources. The rural landscape is considered to be capable of playing an essential role in many fields: ecology, production, culture and tourism. In this regard, guidelines are set by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the EU guidelines and the experience from Italy’s Rural Development Plans, the latter of which aim at achieving the much sought-after multi-functionality of agriculture. This …
North African hybrid sparrows (Passer domesticus, P. hispaniolensis) back from oblivion – ecological segregation and asymmetric mitochondrial introgr…
2016
A stabilized hybrid form of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Spanish sparrow (P. hispaniolensis) is known as Passer italiae from the Italian Peninsula and a few Mediterranean islands. The growing attention for the Italian hybrid sparrow and increasing knowledge on its biology and genetic constitution greatly contrast the complete lack of knowledge of the long-known phenotypical hybrid sparrow populations from North Africa. Our study provides new data on the breeding biology and variation of mitochondrial DNA in three Algerian populations of house sparrows, Spanish sparrows, and phenotypical hybrids. In two field seasons, the two species occupied different breeding habitats: Spa…
A spatially explicit model to simulate soil microbial communities’ dynamics at an agricultural landscape scale
2021
Soil microorganisms play a major role in soil functions and are an efficient indicator to evaluate the impact of agricultural practices on soil quality. Biogeographical studies over wide scales ranging from landscape to countries have concluded that soil microbial abundance and soil prokaryotic richness is following a heterogeneous distribution in space under the dependence of soil properties (e.g. pH, soil texture, organic matter content) and agricultural practices. The goal of this study is the creation of a model that can predict dynamics of soil microbial communities depending on the agricultural management over time. For this, we focus on a monitored landscape (Fénay landscape, 1.200 h…
Il patrimonio "cavo". Architetture ipogee e spazio idraulico nella piana di Palermo
2018
The valorisation policies and protection of “visible” architectural heritage are often promoted by the public opinion, that immediately perceives in the artefacts or landscape degradation the risk of an irreparable loss. Conversely, the safeguard of the underground built heritage is ever more difficult to achieve. It is the case of the "hollow architecture" functional to ensuring water provisioning in the Plain one of Palermo, the so-called “horizontal wells”. The most interesting aspect is the complex dense network of canals for the abstraction of groundwater resources. These artefacts date back to the sixteenth century – though an older dating is not to be excluded – and they outline the …
Arable weeds in agricultural landscapes: new paradigms and emerging challenges
2008
National audience
DIVERSITÀ BIOCULTURALE DI ALCUNI PAESAGGI MEDITERRANEI DI MONTAGNA
2016
The work presents a biocultural diversity interpretation of traditional Mediterranean agricultural landscapes. These landscapes are the result of complex interactions between biodiversity (at all levels, including species richness, ecosystem and biotope diversity) and cultural diversity, including material and immaterial aspects (architectural heritage, traditions, customs, local traditional agricultural practices, dialectal culture, etc.). The main theme is the traditional use of water related to traditional hydraulic systems, which in some areas date back to medieval times. Traditional agricultural landscapes grant a variety of ecosystem services and play a key role in biodiversity conser…