Abstract
Urbanization and related land consumption are one of the main causes of ecosystem services loss. This is especially the case for soil-related services affecting ecosystem functions and limiting accessibility to natural resources. Satellite remote sensing and environmental databases enable in-depth analysis of urban expansion and land changes, which can be used to monitor trends in the provision of ecosystem services. This work aims to describe a multilayered approach to the assessment of biophysical loss of ecosystem services flows in Italy caused by an increase in land consumption in the period 2012–2020. The results show higher losses in wood production, carbon storage, hydrological regime regulation, and pollination in the northern regions of Italy, as well as in some southern regions, such as Campania and Apulia. Habitat quality loss is widespread throughout Italy, whereas crop production loss varies on the basis of the locations in which it occurs and the crop types involved. Loss of arable land and fodder production mainly occurs in northern regions, whereas southern regions have experienced a drop in permanent crop production. This study highlights the importance of using integrated data and methodologies for well-founded approaches, with a view to gaining a thorough understanding of ecosystem services-related processes and the changes connected therewith.
Highlights
Compact and dispersed patterns of urban expansion [1,2] are a global phenomenon and are one of the most important factors in landscape change [3,4]
Land consumption can be considered to be the change from non-artificial land cover to artificial land cover, with a distinction having to be made between permanent consumption and non-permanent consumption [6,7]
This study is the result of a first attempt to present an assessment of nationwide biophysical loss ecosystem services (ES) flows caused by land consumption as an indicator of urbanization in
Summary
Compact and dispersed patterns of urban expansion [1,2] are a global phenomenon and are one of the most important factors in landscape change [3,4]. The main effects consist of the loss of fertile soils [10], the adverse impact on water balance [11], the increase in surface water runoff and flood risk [12], the negative influence on local microclimates due to urban heat islands [13,14], landscape fragmentation, and the loss of biodiversity [15,16] Such effects limit the accessibility to natural resources and the provision of ecosystem services (ES), defined as the goods and benefits that people derive from ecosystems [17,18]. ES provision is a dynamic process and can be measured, in terms of flow, as the annual potential number of services provided by ecosystems [19,20]
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