MULTI-TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF LAND USE PATTERNS IN A SITE OF COMMUNITY IMPORTANCE IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The importance of surveying a Site of Community Importance (SIC) lies in ensuring the maintenance of natural habitats of threatened or rare species of flora and fauna. This paper addresses the importance of gathering information on landscape changes for improved estimates of the development and dynamics within a European Union SIC in southern Italy. The main objective is to study spatial and temporal change over the last 50 years, in order to identify the characteristics of change and development and find potentially more sustainable systems of land use. The spatio-temporal changes of agro-forestry and urban conditions were investigated by comparing aerial photographs and through GIS spatial analysis. Landscape heterogeneity obviously changed from 1954 to 2001. The changing patterns in the landscape are the results of long-term interaction between people and nature. The unprecedented growth in the human population in the last centuries translates into increased resource consumption, as manifested in high rates of agriculture and food production, and urbanization, which increased from about 0.9 hectares in 1954-55, to 120 hectares in 2001. Conversely, important elements of the landscape ecology declined by 115 hectares. The proposed study will allow landscape planners to access ecological information through a readily accessible visual format.