Gabriele Zanetto

The impact of agroforestry networks on scenic beauty estimation The role of a landscape ecological network on a socio-cultural process

The reintroduction of agroforestry networks (via a GIS-supported design procedure) is one of a number of strategies that some authorities of the lagoon of Venice drainage basin (in Italy) are planning to use in order to control lagoon pollution and to achieve landscape amelioration. While attention is paid to the conservation implications and environmental effects of an ecological network, socio-cultural impacts are not generally given the same consideration. The aims of this paper were (1) to assess the impacts of agroforestry network planning outputs on the perception of landscape in terms of scenic beauty (SB) estimation, (2) to analyze the influence of socio-economic variables on the agroforestry role in SB, (3) to analyze the relationships between SB and landscape variables as measured on the local and landscape scales, and (4) to assess the strength of an expert ratingSB empirical procedure utilized in the GIS system. The outcomes of the GIS planning procedure application were found to have a positive impact on the perceptive evaluation of landscape, but landscape sites preference did not appear to be significantly different between socio-economic groups: in all cases, sites with an optimized agroforestry network were preferred to the same sites without. A strong explanatory relationship was found to exist between citizens’ scenic beauty estimation (SBE) and the landscape metrics. The representative empirical procedure gave sound qualitative results for this kind of landscape, but can be efficiently substituted by the regression model tested at the “local” scale. At the “landscape” scale it appears that (1) the explanatory power of the landscape pattern metrics selected for the GIS procedure is high, even for the mean “social” SBE, (2) the main explanatory power among network metrics is expressed by connectivity and circuitry, and (3) it is reasonable to expect that the impact of an agroforestry network on citizens’ SBE could be predicted with the empirical models that were tested.

The role of agroforestry networks in landscape socioeconomic processes: the potential and limits of the contingent valuation method

Abstract Agroforestry networks can be a means to achieve landscape amelioration. Some authorities of the Lagoon of Venice drainage basin (Italy) are planning, amongst other actions to control pollution in the Lagoon, to reintroduce agroforestry by means of a GIS-supported design procedure. The goals of this paper were to assess (i) the contingent valuation (CV) (willingness to pay and willingness to accept) of agroforestry networks and its relationship with socioeconomic and agroforestry role variables, (ii) the coherence between agro-economic policies and farmers expectations, (iii) the relationship between the value of agroforestry as a “shared good” and water quality (non-point source pollution). Respondents associate a positive value/preference to the agroforestry network implementation, although this value is strongly affected firstly by their identity with the landscape and secondly by their income. The motivations of farmers’ evaluation are precise and the agroforestry network is considered not only as an “ethical object” but also as a concrete element of their own cultural and economic world. In this case the contingent value (in particular, in terms of acceptance) increases with the farmer’s economic capacity, and the farmer’s valuation is not linked only to the “good” but also to the “service” offered for implementing it. The expectations of farmers regarding an agroforestry plantation were lower than European Union incentives at the time of survey, and a lack of results in this field is probably linked to poor information and to bureaucratic difficulties. Even if there is general knowledge on water quality, there is little awareness on the non-point source pollution control effect of agroforestry buffer plantations, either in the common people or in those who are environmentally trained (e.g. planning university students). In every case the agroforestry “shared good” evaluation is high enough to permit efficient and supported intervention policies. These results confirm that landscape choices strongly involve issues of identity, perceived rights and evaluation capacity that cannot be simply resolved in terms of preference cost benefit analyses, but a clever use of the CV allows an identification of these same limitations and a partial estimation of them.

The evaluation of a planning tool through the landscape ecology concepts and methods

Purpose – Landscape ecology represents an area of theoretical and empirical support of spatial planning, providing parameters such as heterogeneity, connectivity and fragmentation. The aim of this study was to use these parameters to evaluate the choices of a real planning tool to protect the biodiversity, to evaluate the applicability limits of concepts and methods used.Design/methodology/approach – This was achieved by analysing the selected spatial indices and their dependency scale, and by the comparison of these results with regard to spatial biotic parameters estimations (birds and mammals).Findings – The study confirmed the scales effect on the indices, unstable at the adopted resolution for extensions up to 6,000‐7,000 meters. The selected indices permitted appreciation of the low effectiveness of the real planning tool in improving conservation of biodiversity. The paper suggests that empirical studies and predictive knowledge at different scales are urgent in this field. To preserve biodiversit...

An assessment of the principle of subsidiarity in urban planning to face climate change: The case of Martellago, Venice Province

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a case study, showing a local governments capacity in addressing energy consumptions and local greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in its administration areas. This case demonstrates some strengths and weaknesses in the actions of local institutions to complement the national and European efforts in addressing climate change problems.Design/methodology/approach – The paper starts by considering the need to address global changes by a multi‐level governance system, in line with the subsidiarity principle proposed by the European Commission for the implementation of its policies. According to this principle, different institutional levels should intervene through control and reduction of GHG emissions from their operational scale. In particular, this paper reports an ongoing activity of urban planning carried out by a local municipality of Northern Italy, Martellago (Venice Province), that has focused on the energy and GHG reduction as a priority.Findings – Th...

The evolution of marine protected areas (MPAs): the North Adriatic case

Purpose – This study seeks to consider the recent evolution of the Italian policy in the field of marine protected areas (MPAs). In particular, it aims to point out the increasing role played by Italian regions in establishing and managing MPAs. This evolution is to be described by focusing attention on the North Adriatic case.Design/methodology/approach – After a brief introduction on the legislative framework, points of weakness and strength of the Italian experience in the field of MPAs are discussed. Different initiatives for promoting and implementing an MPA strategy are analyzed through the North Adriatic case study, pointing out the increasing role played by the regions in the design and implementation of protection policies.Findings – The analysis shows how regions direct greater attention to the involvement of the public and economic sector in the design and implementation of protection policies, and to the definition of more flexible management tools. This element clearly confirms the general an...

Linee del dibattito recente sull'area metropolitana centro-veneta

La questione metropolitana ha avuto nel nostro paese fasi alterne di discussione. I recenti provvedimenti normativi hanno riportato all’attenzione di amministratori, politici e ricercatori il tema della definizione degli ambiti delle aree metropolitane. Il paper intende proporre un breve excursus sulle vicende relative alle proposte di definizione e costituzione, in particolare, dell’area metropolitana veneziana anche attraverso la disamina delle indicazioni contenute negli strumenti di pianificazione d’area redatti nel corso degli ultimi decenni. La proposta contenuta nel paper e di individuare l’ambito metropolitano a partire da parametri che riescano a coniugare aspetti quantitativi, qualitativi e di relazione tra i soggetti coinvolti, e di guardare all’area metropolitana come opportunita per un territorio che necessita di trovare forme diverse ed alternative di sviluppo.

Validation of a new tool for seafood safety and traceability: the case of Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum

Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum represents an important economic resource of Italian aquaculture. However, especially for Venice lagoon, health and environmental risks should be evaluated. A multidisciplinary approach was used. In particular, local production chain analysis and end-user requirements were investigated to assess manila clam safety and traceability in Northern Adriatic Sea. Moreover, the molecular and biochemical techniques demonstrated a good quality of the investigated farming sites, due to the absence of biotoxins. Molecular markers provided informations on the population genetics and specific genetic traits of Ruditapes philippinarum in Northern Adriatic Sea, which was investigated for the first time. The complexity of all these informations was simplified in a single useful tool: a database containing all the informations about the seafood product.

Reducing air emissions from tanneries with tradable permits

Purpose – Tanneries present heavy environmental impacts due to air emissions. Specific quality objectives are fixed by European Directives concerning air and, in particular, volatile organic compounds. The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the management of air emissions with a view to achieve quality standards in the Italys largest tannery district by means of a tradable emissions permits (TEPs) system. Design/methodology/approach – A methodological approach is presented and analysed. The proposed system is based on the “bubble” configuration, which appears to be an effective and feasible application based on the total maximum daily load criterion, supported by the air quality standards or the environmental risk assessment (ERA) procedure. Findings – The TEP system favours technological improvements in the reduction of emissions. The system may not provide a solution to the unpleasant odours deriving from the tanneries, but its application supported by ERA will make it possible to defin...

Misiones: how to support an approach to sustainable tourism

If on one hand tourism represents an undeniable aptitude able to stimulate the economic development of a local system (this is essentially due to its sectorial athwart, its capacity to generate small and medium enterprises that well adapted themselves as a cluster, to the creation of an added value, and furthermore to its multiplying effect), on the other hand it uses rare and limited resources as production factors, on which it exerted a high pressure often leading to their disjointing, until their capacity of perpetration is thrown into crisis. These resources are essentially identified in the territory (that in the tourism, and especially in the mass one, it is subjected to a functional hierarchization; for this reason, decisionmaking and economic centers are located outside the leisure area, activating dependence processes, subordination and progressive impoverishment), in the landscape (that is deeply altered not only in the intrinsic and perceived quality, but also in its capacity of translation and hand down of a sign complex – therefore of significance strongly linked to a community and its history), and in the environment (that is put under stress in its physical component by an added human pressure generally handled through an internalization of economies and an externalization of diseconomies, but that probably presents more huge damages in its anthropological component as for the loss of the traditional management relationship between community and place, which cannot be substituted by a coherent system of interactions). These considerations led to the formulation of the “sustainable tourism” concept as cultural and economic antidote to negative impacts induced by the growth of the one that is rapidly going to be the most important economic sector of the world (exceeding the 10% of global GDP); however, in the dedicated area it often represents a “monoculture” that rejects or adapts any other activity. In 1988 the OMT (Word Organization of Tourism), assuming the “sustainable development” approach defined in the previous year by WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development), proposed a discriminative value that hardly cannot be shared as for its extreme clearness: “Tourist activities are sustainable when develop in order to maintain themselves as vital as possible in a tourist area for a limitless

La conquista del mare e la modernità

L’appropriazione del mare da parte della cultura e l’economia nazionali italiane ha comportato la destrutturazione di un rodato rapporto col mare da parte delle culture lo- cali e regionali. Il caso di Venezia suggerisce che queste potevano essere recuperate pur in un contesto a diversa scala geografica.