Elisabetta Carfagna

A methodology for the analysis of dimensional features of traditional rural buildings to implement the FarmBuiLD model.

The FarmBuiLD (Farm Building Landscape Design) research model aims at defining farm building design criteria that can combine improved architectural and landscape quality with functional efficiency. FarmBuiLD moves from the consideration that historic rural buildings are broadly associated with widespread semiologic and aesthetic values. This work focuses on the phase of quantitative physiognomic characterization of historic rural buildings. Such an approach calls for high-detail, systematic surveys of the main geometric features of buildings, thus often entailing considerable costs, which are also due to the high density of the rural built environment over wide regions in Europe. The general goal of this article is to define and test a repeatable, flexible, and efficient methodology that allows the results of the above-mentioned dimensional analyses to meet the precision standards of the model. With reference to an Italian study area, we define a stratified random sampling method for historic rural buildings. The stratification was based on the typological classification and location of the buildings. GIS implementation allowed us to calibrate the method and define a pilot sample suitable to carry out the analyses through photogrammetric surveys. The average values of length, width, and height of the sample buildings appeared to be differentiated among the classes identified, and certain significant volumetric arrangements were recognized. The analysis method proved suitable for the physiognomic investigations of historic rural buildings as defined within the FarmBuiLD research model.

Continuous Innovation of the Quality Control of Remote Sensing Data for Territory Management

This chapter deals with the problem of assessing the quality of land-cover databases, since only high-quality products are useful for gaining knowledge about and managing territory. After a brief analysis of the main aspects of quality control and validation of land-cover databases, the main concepts of statistical quality control methods are recalled in order to show how some quality control procedures for land-cover databases can be formalized and improved by taking advantage of statistical quality control methods. Then, sequential and two-step adaptive procedures with various quality indices are proposed that continuously improve the quality of land-cover databases during the production process, in order to satisfy the user’s needs.

Efficient statistical sample designs in a GIS for monitoring the landscape changes

The process of land planning, addressed to operate the synthesis between development aims and appropriate policies of preservation and management of territorial resources, requires a detailed analysis of the territory carried out by making use of data stored in Geographic Information Systems (GISs). A detailed analysis of changes in the landscape is time consuming, thus it can be carried out only on a sample of the whole territory and an efficient procedure is needed for selecting a sample of area units. In this paper we apply two recently proposed sample selection procedures to a study area for comparing them in terms of efficiency as well as of operational advantages, in order to set up a methodology which enables an efficient estimate of the change in the main landscape features on wide areas.