Monitoring urban growth evolution by multi-temporal dynamics analysis in a southern italy area

A quantitative and qualitative weakening of natural environments occurs recently in some Italy areas invalidating ecological and agricultural capacities of soils in favor of urbanization and expansion of artificial surfaces. This study reports the assessment of the urban sprawl on a southern Italy territory in order to estimate the land cover changes from 1990 to 2015 and offer to policy makers a basemap for a more sustainable system of land use. The analysis involves a time of 25 years during which spatial and temporal changes were monitored, through a selection of indicators aimed to evaluate the land use/cover transition, land take per capita, rapidity of the transformation, incidence of the transformation compared to the original land cover stock. The results indicate an urban expansion and a soil consumption recorded in growing urban tissue, industrial areas and artificial surfaces as shown by increase of number of patches and by the intensity of soil consumption equal to 56.7% from 1990 to 2015. Local environmental conditions and human wellness have been negatively impacted by the consumption of fertile soil occurred at the expense of arable land, which reduced meaningfully over considered period.