Sprawl Dynamics in Rural–Urban Territories Highly Suited for Wine Production. Mapping Urban Growth and Changing Territorial Shapes in North-East Italy

Green balance in urban areas as an indicator for policy support: a multi-level application

Green spaces are increasingly recognised as key elements in enhancing urban resilience as they provide several ecosystem services. Therefore, their implementation and monitoring in cities are crucial to meet sustainability targets.

In this paper, we provide a methodology to compute an indicator that assesses changes in vegetation cover within Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI). Such an indicator is adopted as one of the indicators for reporting on the key area “nature and biodiversity” in the Green City Accord (GCA).

In the first section, the key steps to derive the indicator are described and a script, which computes the trends in vegetation cover using Google Earth Engine (GEE), is provided.

The second section describes the application of the indicator in a multi-scale, policy-orientated perspective. The analysis has been carried out in 696 European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs), considering changes in vegetation cover inside UGI between 1996 and 2018. Results were analysed for the EU and the United Kingdom. The Municipality of Padua (Italy) is used as a case study to illustrate the results at the local level.

Over the last 22 years, a slight upward trend characterised the vegetation growth within UGI in European FUAs. Within core cities and densily built-upcommuting zones, the trend was stable; in non-densely built-up areas, an upward trend was recorded. Vegetation cover in UGI has been relatively stable in European cities. However, a negative balance between abrupt changes in greening and browning has been recorded, affecting most parts of European cities (75% of core cities and 77% of commuting zones in densely built-up areas). This still indicates ongoing land take with no compensation of green spaces that are lost to artificial areas.

Focusing on the FUA of Padua, a downward trend was observed in 33.3% and 12.9% of UGI in densely built-up and not-densely built-up areas, respectively. Within the FUA of Padua, most municipalities are characterised by a negative balance between abrupt greening and browning, both in non-densely built-up and densely built-up areas.

This approach complements traditional metrics, such as the extent of UGI or tree canopy cover, by providing a valuable measure of condition of urban ecosystems and an instrument to monitor the impact of land take.

Young Farmers’ Perceptions of Sustainability in a Wine Region in Hungary

Emerging evidence has shown that a sustainable mode of farming contributes to the sustainability of societies. However, agricultural modernization and land concentration have resulted in a decreasing role of agriculture in rural societies everywhere in Europe and also in Hungary. Governmental funds and agendas increasingly focus on the regeneration of rural areas with a special interest in the new generations of farmers. This paper analyses a small wine region in Hungary to explore the perceptions and activities of young farmers regarding sustainability. The paper is based on qualitative sociological research, including 20 semi-structured interviews with wine producers and other key actors of rural development in the region. The analysis focuses on generational change both in wine producer farms and in the wine region. How do farmers approach sustainability, and how does the concept of sustainability contribute to family wine production? How can generational change affect farming approaches and activities, especially changes toward a more sustainable way of farming? Our results show that rural regeneration can be understood not only as a generational renewal; it also includes endogenous development processes and new approaches targeting a more sustainable rural milieu.

Farming System Transformation Impacts on Landscape: A Case Study on Quality Wine Production in a Highly Contested Agricultural Landscape

This paper is an attempt to synthesize the conclusions of a series of consecutive research projects along a common thread. It focuses on the landscape impacts of a gradual transformation undergone by a low input and bulk wine producing system into a quality wine system. This transformation took place on the island of Santorini, in Cyclades, Greece, during the last four decades in a highly contested landscape. A polarization in the power game has been identified, with two poles having different priorities and perceptions about the two issues at stake: agricultural landscape and wine quality. In the course of this process, both synergistic and antagonistic transition dynamics are encountered, transforming significantly the balance of driving forces. Our analysis suggests that market forces influenced landscape change to a far greater degree than policy measures implemented on the island. Developments in the international markets for tourism and quality wine have played a crucial role in land use change and farming intensity. Public intervention in the form of both regulatory land use planning policy and incentive measures like Rural Development Policy, including an agri-environmental measure, targeted to the vineyards of Santorini, did not seem to have an equally important impact. Integration of landscape maintenance practices within the wine quality regime could create beneficial synergies.