Consequence of land use changes into energy crops in Campania region

Abstract

Campania region is undergoing a new and important land use change (LUC). Large areas under tobacco are experiencing a severe economic crisis and cereal areas, especially in the hill, are cultivated with increasing difficulty, with poor economic results (yield value of 2.5 t/ha/year) and under the risk of erosion. No-food crops suitable in these contexts are the perennial and in this case, the land use change would certainly lead to a positive impact on reducing erosion, but also on the reduction of nutrient requirement, on fuel consumption and perhaps it would also lead to an increase in profitability. The aim of this work is to identify the areas in which the land use change could be realistic and ecologically compatible and to evaluate the main consequence of the LUC. The study area includes the entire Campania region. It has been assumed that the areas that will undergo the LUC will be the hilly, not-irrigated cereal crop, with altitudes between 400 and 750 m a.s.l., not included in natural parks, in the Site of Community Importance and in the Special Protection Areas. Through the climate model, inferred from the Ground Water Protection Plan, the area to be examined was classified as ‘cold Lauretum’, which is a good area for the Arundo donax crops up to 750 m a.l.s., with recoverable biomass yield of about 12.6 t/year. The erosion has been estimated with RUSLE applied to the whole region. Using the ESRI ArcGis 10.0 software, seven large areas, partially convertible, were identified. The area that is realistic to convert amounted to approximately 500 km2. The value of the biomass production has been evaluated in the order of 25 million euro a year; actual wheat production would be 33 million euro a year but the production costs are far greater. With LUC there is a reduction in soil erosion in the order of 300000 t/year. This would lead a saving, on global scale, in the order of 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year.