Lorenzo Piacquadio

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources is a key goal for the European Union, among others. Despite significant progress, Italy lags far behind the EU’s target of generating 55% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The Apulia region in Italy needs to achieve an additional 7.4 GW of installed renewable energy capacity compared to 2021. Renewable energy installations, particularly photovoltaic systems, require land that may compete with other uses like agriculture. This can lead to land-use changes that disrupt agricultural activities. Agrivoltaics (AV) offer a possible solution by allowing energy production and food growing on the same land, which can help alleviate conflicts between energy and food needs, although concerns about landscape impact remain. This study emphasizes the need for effective spatial planning to manage these risks of land use changes and quantify possible agricultural land occupation. A GIS-based analysis was conducted in Apulia using a three-step approach to assess land use and potential AV opportunities: (a) the land protection system identified by the Apulian Landscape Plan was used to obtain a Constraint Map; (b) the agricultural land use and capability classification together with land slope and exposure was used to obtain the AV Availability Map; and (c) agricultural land conversion scenarios were developed to quantify the potential capacity of future AV installations. The results showed that a 0.25% occupation of utilized agricultural land would allow a regional installed AV capacity of 1.3 GW, while doubling this percentage would double the installed capacity to 2.6 GW. The areas potentially involved by AV installations would be 3.25 and 6.50 thousand hectares, reaching 17.5% and 35.0% of the 2030 total renewable energy target. These figures should be considered a reasonable range of AV development in the region, which can contribute both to the energy transition and the support of the agricultural sector, especially in marginal areas.

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables is part of a more general ecological transition that the European Union (EU), among others, is actively pursuing. Despite significant progress, Italy lags far behind the EU's target of generating 55% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, compared to 36% today. Renewable energy is a very spatially dispersed form of energy, and land-use change is a particular issue that needs to be addressed if a significant number of renewable energy installations are to be located on agricultural land. In agrivoltaic systems, energy production is coupled with food production on the same land unit, thus ensuring crop yields. In this way, the conflict between energy and food may be reduced, but the impact of these installations on the landscape remains, and community discontent and unrest are on the rise. These land-use conflicts and impacts recall the need for rigorous spatial planning which must play a leading role in managing this transition. Prior to planning, the availability of resources should be known and evaluated. To this end, a GIS-based analysis was applied, taking into account a set of criteria in a three-step approach: a) the entire protection system identified by the Apulian Landscape Plan was used to obtain a Constraint Map; b) the agricultural land use and capability classification together with land slope and exposure was used to obtain the Availability Map; c) agricultural land conversion scenarios were developed to quantify the achievable capacity of agrivoltaic installations.Pressures undermining the agricultural sector leading to the conversion of land to other uses. The energy sector should be a leverage factor to promote rural development and support agriculture, not the other way around.

Wild edible plants, botanically defined as phytoalimurgical species, have historically been a useful source of food to cope with recurrent famines and poor farming conditions. If properly identified, harvested, transformed and promoted, alimurgical plants could further enhance the wellbeing of rural and urban communities and the multifunctional productivity of agriculture. The research aimed to survey alimurgical species in a wetland, map their location, detect their spatial richness, and develop a monitoring plan for ongoing vegetation succession. The study area is the King’s Lagoon, a wetland that has recently undergone a radical restoration of its natural layout. A satellite image was used to create a land cover map and interpret the relationship between plant species and land cover. The survey provided a snapshot of the wetland’s current ecosystem status and used botanical analysis and ecological indices to investigate biodiversity levels. The alpha, beta and gamma levels of biodiversity were explored and interpreted through the statistical processing of a comprehensive dataset of species occurrence and abundance, together with the calculation of Shannon’s, Simpson’s and Jaccard’s indices. It was observed that biodiversity in the wetland is developing gradually following restoration and is expected to increase over time as successional stages take hold. Biodiversity is more pronounced along the banks of the canals and watercourses connecting the basins and open ponds, while it is less pronounced in areas where the soil has been disturbed by previous excavations. Salicornia spp., Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima and Suaeda vera were identified as the most common and interesting species found in the study area. The potential for cultivation of some of the halophyte species that were monitored was also highlighted, with particular reference to the selection of the most commercially interesting species, the best species associations and intercropping practices in a wetland context, which must always prioritize the conservation of wild biodiversity. The spring surveys should be repeated in the coming years in order to accurately trace the dynamics of the ecological succession of this particular ecosystem, once it has returned to its natural development.

A relatively new planning tool in Italy is the Local Forest Plan, which stands at a broader level in the land planning scale compared to the Forest Management Plan but at a finer scale considering a Regional or even National Forest Plan. This intermediate scale was considered the most appropriate for working out a planning process based on a multi-criteria assessment of forest functions. The proper functioning of forest ecosystems can provide services conceived as benefits people can obtain through ecological processes that sustain and satisfy essential needs of human life. Four particular forest functions providing services were identified: protective, productive, naturalistic and touristic, respectively. A set of functional criteria, as well as attributes within criteria, were recognized to perform an “Analytic Hierarchy Process” (AHP). A specific application of this methodological approach was selected as a case study. This multi-criteria decision-making process involved the participation of five selected experts in a preliminary phase, followed by the participation of thirty representative stakeholders who contributed to the forest planning process and the subsequent selection of actions to be taken. Data related to forest types and management, physical and morphological features of the forested terrain and infrastructure such as forest roads, touristic trails and hiking pathways, together with natural protected areas or wildlife preservation areas, were explicitly located in space by using a “geographical information service” (GIS) software. The combined application of AHP and GIS can be considered as a significant methodological innovation presented in the case study, together with the implementation of a participative process aimed at the management of forest resources and the creation of possible new professional and entrepreneurial forest activities for the benefit of the entire residential community.