A Quantitative Prediction of Soil Consumption in Southern Italy

Landuse/cover evolution dynamic is a subject widely and thoroughly investigated, especially concerning consumption of natural and other lands, due to anthropogenic activities. This paper focuses on a region in southern Italy, where soil consumption is known to represent a urging matter of concern. However, although negative impacts of soil consumption are well known, to our knowledge there are no case studies presenting a precise quantitative measurement of the intensity of such phenomenon for the region of interest. This study aims at forecasting the development of urban settlements through the application of the cellular automata model SLEUTH; the first region to be investigated has been the Municipality of Altamura (Apulia region, Italy). This area has been used as a pilot case study to explore many difficulties and advantages in applying such a methodology to the whole southern Italian region. The final goal was to frame and populate an atlas of soil consumption in southern Italy, which intends to offer useful support to sustainable planning and policies.