Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

0544764 - ÚVGZ 2022 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Bianchini, L. - Egidi, G. - Alhuseen, Ahmed - Sateriano, A. - Cividino, S. - Clemente, M. - Imbrenda, V.
Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy.
Land. Roč. 10, č. 7 (2021), č. článku 749. E-ISSN 2073-445X
Research Infrastructure: CzeCOS III - 90123
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : urban sprawl * european cities * landscape evolution * forest landscape * cover changes * urbanization * city * expansion * patterns * form * metropolitan expansion * per-capita urban area * per-capita cropland * land mismatch * population * Italy
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)
Impact factor: 3.905, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/7/749

The spatial mismatch between population growth and settlement expansion is at the base of current models of urban growth. Empirical evidence is increasingly required to inform planning measures promoting urban containment in the context of a stable (or declining) population. In these regards, per-capita indicators of land-use change can be adopted with the aim at evaluating long-term sustainability of urbanization processes. The present study assesses spatial variations in per-capita indicators of land-use change in Rome, Central Italy, at five years (1949, 1974, 1999, 2008, and 2016) with the final objective of quantifying the mismatch between urban expansion and population growth. Originally specialized in agricultural productions, Rome's metropolitan area is a paradigmatic example of dispersed urban expansion in the Mediterranean basin. By considering multiple land-use dynamics, per-capita indicators of landscape change delineated three distinctive waves of growth corresponding with urbanization, suburbanization, and a more mixed stage with counter-urbanization and re-urbanization impulses. By reflecting different socioeconomic contexts on a local scale, urban fabric and forests were identified as the 'winner' classes, expanding homogeneously over time at the expense of cropland. Agricultural landscapes experienced a more heterogeneous trend with arable land and pastures declining systematically and more fragmented land classes (e.g., vineyards and olive groves) displaying stable (or slightly increasing) trends. The continuous reduction of per-capita surface area of cropland that's supports a reduced production base, which is now insufficient to satisfy the rising demand for fresh food at the metropolitan scale, indicates the unsustainability of the current development in Rome and more generally in the whole Mediterranean basin, a region specialized traditionally in (proximity) agricultural productions.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0321579