The document analyzes land use and land cover changes between 1955 and 2006 in the municipality of Serra San Bruno, Italy based on aerial photographs and GIS analysis. It finds that agricultural areas decreased significantly over this period as land was abandoned or converted to forest use, driven by factors like agricultural intensification, abandonment of marginal lands, and more frequent forest fires. Overall forest areas increased substantially, now making up over 70% of the municipality's land cover.

1. EVOLUTION TRENDS OF LAND USE/LAND
COVER IN A MEDITERRANEAN FOREST
LANDSCAPE IN ITALY
Salvatore Di Fazio, Giuseppe Modica, Paolo Zoccali
‘Mediterranea’ University of Reggio Calabria

2. 11
INTRODUCTION and problem statement
 Though influenced by biophysical factors (soil
conditions, topography, climate, etc.), the result of Land Use/Land
Cover changes (LULCc) is mostly due to the human activity.
 The estimation of LULC status and change can provide crucial
ecological information for science-oriented resource management
and policy-making. Their analysis is one of the main research topics
of ecology and landscape ecology.
 Over the last decades, the most significant LULC changes have
occurred as a consequence:
 Urban sprawl;
 Agricultural intensification in the most suitable areas;
 Agricultural abandonment in marginal areas;
 More frequent and more intense summer forest fires.
 The present work is part of a broader research aimed at the
characterization, interpretation and valorisation of the forestry
landscape in a representative mountainous region of Southern Italy.
 The main goal of this paper is to interpret the forest landscape
dynamics occurred over the period 1955 2006 in the municipality of
Serra San Bruno, located in the centre of Calabria

3. 22
STUDY AREA - The Serra S. Bruno municipality (Italy)
The study area is the so called
Serre Vibonesi area, a
mountainous region including the
territory of four municipalities:
• Serra San Bruno,
• Mongiana,
• Stilo
• Bivongi.
The municipality of Serra San
Bruno has an area of ~ 4,000
ha, a residential density of 178.5
inhab.∙km-2 and is situated at an
average altitude of 980 m a.s.l.
(733-1418 m).
The high environmental value of
this area motivated the institution
of several protected areas.

4. 33
STUDY AREA - The Serra S. Bruno municipality (Italy)
The area of Serra S. Bruno is one Charterhouse of Serra S. Bruno Basilian monastery of Saint
of the most interesting areas of JohnTherestis
Calabria because of the presence
of many heritage resources of
great natural, historic and
architectural interest.
Count Roger II gave St Bruno of
Cologne the territories of Serre
Vibonesi plateau to build his
hermitage, the Charterhouse of
Santo Stefano del Bosco, first
Carthusian monastery in Italy and the
second most important in Europe after
Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse (near
Grenoble, France).
For centuries, the forests were
owned by the Charterhouse of
Serra San Bruno, founded by St
Bruno of Cologne in the 11th
century, and managed efficiently
and sensitively according to the
methods of the Carthusian monks

5. 44
STUDY AREA - The Serra S. Bruno municipality (Italy)
The local industrial archaeology
heritage is also very significant:
 Watermills;
 Old Royal iron factories;
 Hydroelectric power stations.
It is related to the utilization of
water and wood as energy
sources and dates back to the
time of Bourbon rule in Calabria
(XVIII-XIX centuries).
Presence of the charcoal-
production sites where many
traditional vertical mound
charcoal-kilns are still present
and active.
Radius: ~ 5 m; Height : ~ 4 m; Length of vertical mound charcoal-kiln’s building: 7 days.
Amount of wood employed: ~ 50÷60 t; Amount of charcoal produced: ~ 10 t.
Length of carbonization: 20÷22 days; Carbonization yields: 20% in summer; 16,5% in winter.
Wood species employed: mostly Holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) and Beech (Fagus Sylvatica L.).

6. 55
MATERIALS AND METHODS - Aerial image processing and GIS database preparation
1955 and 1983 aerial Characteristics of the aerial photographs and orthophotos used in the research
photographs consisted of 9 Year Frame data Flight data Source
contact copies (23 cm x 23 cm) Sheet n° 246
Height: 6000 m
scanned at 600x600 dpi 1955
Strip/Frames: 241/ 10369 10370 10371
Scale: 1:36000
Strip/Frames: 242/ 10418 10419 10420 Italian Military
resolution by IGM Format: Digital – 600dpi Date: 02 July 1955
Geography Institute
Provided in non-georeferenced Sheet n° 246 (IGMI)
Height: 4800 m http://www.igmi.org
Strip/Frames: 16/ 534 535 536 537 538
and non-compressed TIFF 1983 Strip/Frames: 17/ 573 573 575 576 577
Scale: 1:30000
graphic format. Format: Digital – 600dpi Date: 06 Sept. 1983
Date: May 1994
Aerial photographs georeferenced B/W Aerial Orthophotos via GIS
1994 Server catalogue
Spatial resolution: 1 m
by 20 30 GCP each. (only for consultation) National Cartographic Portal
Spatial resolution  1.37 m Date: 18 May 2006 www.pcn.minambiente.it
Colour Aerial Orthophotos via GIS
RMSE  < 6.5 m 2006 Server catalogue
Spatial resolution: 0.5 m
(only for consultation)

7. 66
MATERIALS AND METHODS - LULC mapping
LULC Classes used
In order to improve the CORINE Land Cover Classes
for data analysis
interpretation of the results, the
Historical buildings Continuous urban fabric
original 44 LULC classes of the
Continuous urban fabric (Urb-Cont)
CORINE classification system at
III level of detail were Artificial Discontinuous urban fabric Discontinuous urban fabric
aggregated in 9 classes so as to surfaces Green urban areas (Urb-Disc)
interpret changes as change
types Industrial or commercial units Industrial, commercial and
Mining areas transport units (Ind)
Land principally occupied by
agriculture, with significant areas of
Agricultural natural vegetation Agricultural areas (Agric)
areas Pastures
Non-irrigated arable land
Coniferous forest
Coniferous forest (Con-For)
Coniferous Reforestation
Broad-leaved forest
Correspondence between Forests and Broad-leaved mix forest Broad-leaved forest (Blv-For)
CORINE legend nomenclature
semi-natural Broad-leaved Reforestation
and LULC classes used for Mixed forest
detecting LULC changes. areas Mixed forest (Mix-For)
Rows of trees
In brackets, the symbols utilized in Transitional woodland shrub
Shrub and/or herbaceous
figures and tables in the following Open spaces with little or no
vegetation associations (Shrub)
slides. vegetation
Water bodies Water bodies Inland waters (Waters)

8. 77
MATERIALS AND METHODS - LULC mapping
Photointerpretation made at a
fixed scale of 1:1,000 1:1,500 for
all periods under investigation.
The LULC 2006 map has been
the reference map; the other
LULC maps were produced by
updating it.
Minimum mapping unit  0.2 ha
The thematic accuracy of the
2006 LULC map was assessed
by means of a stratified random
sampling
Overall classification
accuracy  95.85%
Kappa coefficient (Khat)  0.94

9. 88
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Analysis of LULC Changes
Agricultural and forest areas as a
whole occupied the most part of
the study area, even though they
were differently distributed.
1955
Agric  41.19%
Mix-For  47.51%
Blv-For  5.39%
The urban fabric was almost
completely continuous (Urb-
Cont) and coincided with the
historical nucleus (0.89%).
2006
Agric  20.98%
Mix-For  49.31%
Blv-For  ~ 18%
The total amount of forest areas
passed from 54.25% in 1955 to
73.34% of the total area in 2006.
Landscape composition in Serra St. Bruno in the four periods under
investigation. Data in [ha] and in [%]

10. 99
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
2006
Spatial comparison of LULC made by Urb-Cont Urb-Disc Ind Agric Con-For Blv-For Mix-For Shrub Waters Sum 1955
1955
means of post-classification
Urb-Cont 30.98 - - - - - - - 0.36 31.34
comparison technique that can
Urb-Disc - 4.48 - - - - - - - 4.48
provide a complete matrix of change
Ind - - 1.97 - - - - - - 1.97
directions
Agric 24.68 72.21 27.39 789.43 87.51 484.82 133.14 41.07 2.92 1663.18
The rows display the categories of t1 Con-For - - - - 12.86 0.36 39.90 1.20 - 54.38
Blv-For - 0.74 - 29.28 1.02 160.78 25.29 0.33 - 217.44
The columns display the categories of t2.
Mix-For 0.27 - 0.75 8.82 138.18 18.10 1749.21 2.93 - 1918.27
Shrub 2.76 0.28 - 14.71 5.48 50.99 42.44 5.25 - 121.91
Row vector shows the evolution of a
land use type in the period t1 t2. Waters 1.07 2.76 0.25 - - 10.41 0.78 0.76 3.61 24.64
Sum 2006 59.76 80.47 30.41 847.24 245.05 725.46 1990.77 51.55 6.89 4037.60
Column vector shows the land use
type at time t1, from which another 1983
Urb-Cont Urb-Disc Ind Agric Con-For Blv-For Mix-For Shrub Waters Sum 1955
land use type generated at time t2. 1955
Urb-Cont 27.27 1.13 - 1.66 - - - - 1.28 31.34
The data of the main Urb-Disc - 4.47 - - - - - - - 4.47
diagonal, indicate the area of Ind - - 1.97 - - - - - - 1.97
persistence.
Agric 8.95 45.85 33.15 991.46 78.83 335.52 128.63 39.34 1.45 1663.18
Con-For - - - 1.91 12.17 1.20 39.10 - - 54.38
Relative and absolute changes for Blv-For - 0.16 - 36.48 1.05 135.07 43.18 1.44 - 217.44
each of the 9 land cover types Mix-For 1.70 - 1.02 15.06 48.56 21.16 1829.93 0.84 - 1918.27
were calculated from 9x9 Shrub - - - 23.55 5.59 47.95 40.64 4.21 - 121.91
Transition matrices according to Waters 0.39 1.69 - - - 8.73 0.84 0.28 3.44 24.63
the 4 time-intervals defined. Sum 1983 38.32 53.31 36.19 1079.35 146.20 549.63 2082.31 46.11 6.16 4037.60

11. 10
10
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
1 At2
The mean annual rate of r ln 100
change was calculated for each t2 t1 At1
LULC class by means of the
index r as proposed by At1 = Area of the land use type in time t1 At 2 = Area of the land use type in time t2
Puyravaud.
This index represents the rate LULC
1955÷1983 1983÷1994 1994÷2006 1955÷2006
classes
of the compound interest law.
Urb-Cont 0.73 1,63 2,17 1,26
Urb-Disc 8.84 4,70 -0,86 5,67
Ind 10.39 -0,46 -0,97 5,38
Agric -1.54 -1,74 -0,42 -1,32
Con-For 3.53 0,33 4,01 2,95
Blv-For 3.31 1,98 0,50 2,36
Mix-For 0.29 0,02 -0,40 0,07
Shrub -3.48 0,32 0,64 -1,69
Waters -4.92 0,94 0,00 -2,50

12. 11
11
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
In the period under
investigation, the agricultural
areas were the most
concerned by the changes
occured in the study area.
In particular, the agricultural
area was incorporated in the
forestry classes.
These dynamics are due to the
intensification of silvicultural
activities.
These LULC changes described
above are combined with those
related to the abandonment of the
Agric class, consequently
occupied by Shrub class.
LULC dynamics concerning agricultural areas in the period 1955 2006

13. 12
12
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
These dynamics are confirmed
by the Agricultural Censuses
conducted by ISTAT for the
years 1970, 1982, 1990 and
2000.
The analysis of data shows that
the number of farms has
halved, passing from 503 in
1970 to 228 in 2000 (-54.7%).
Correspondingly, UAA (Utilized
Agricultural Area) has
dropped, though less
dramatically, from 1027.63 ha in
1970 to 716.74 ha in 2000 (-
30.25%), with a consequent
increase (+53.9%) in the
average area per farm (from
2.04 ha to 3.14 ha). LULC dynamic networks of 1955 2006 changes.
The sequence of percentage in each LULC class type indicates its share on the
entire landscape composition analysed in 1955 and in 2006, respectively.
Numbers of [ha] marked above the arrows represent the surface changed from
one LULC class type to another

14. 13
13
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
URBAN SPRAWL
The urban sprawl of the study
area has concerned and is still
concerning almost flat areas
(slope ≤10%).
1955 2006
Urb-disc 4.48 80.56
Urb-Cont 31.34 59.65
Moreover, the discontinuous
urban fabric is still changing:
since the „80s, it has been
tending to be incorporated in
the Urb-Cont class.

15. 14
14
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
URBAN
SPRAWL
The trend of the total number of buildings contributes in explaining the urban dynamic: 331 in
1955, 1011 in 1983, 1829 in 1994 and, finally, 2057 in 2006.
Resident population passed from 8,517 inhabitants in 1961 (the highest value since 1861) to 6,955 in 2010.
The highest rate of housing construction was recorded, when, owing to the temporary lack of effective
planning regulations, many buildings were constructed in unsuitable areas.

16. 15
15
URBAN SPRAWL
In those years housing
construction did not meet a
residential need, but rather it
answered the purpose to invest
in the property market in a
period of high monetary
inflation.
At present, many of them are let
during summer for the so-called
“Tourism of return” (or “Roots-
Tourism”) and, to a lesser
extent, for exogenous tourism
Number of houses per typology of occupation in Serra S. Bruno municipality
in 1971 2001 period (source: Italian National Institute of Statistics).

17. 16
16
Conclusions and future research directions
 Understanding the evolution trends of landscape, particularly
those related to urban/rural relations, is crucial for a sustainable
landscape planning.
 In order to better quantifying and interpreting LULC changes, the
spatial - historical (aerial photographs) and recent (orthophotos) -
data with socio-economic data in a geodatabase at a detailed
scale are integrated.
 The analysis of LULC changes allows the temporal verification
of the positive (e.g. reforestation of agricultural areas, land
consolidation, etc.) or negative (lack of landscape planning tools,
effects of agricultural abandonment, etc.) effects of past territorial
policies.
 These analyses can allow to implement landscape management
tools and sustainable landscape planning so as to direct future
changes towards those which had positive effects and to contrast
the actions which had negative effects on the landscape in the past.
 Future developments of the research will include the use of VHR
satellite remote sensing data and landscape metrics.

18. EVOLUTION TRENDS OF LAND USE/LAND COVER IN A
MEDITERRANEAN FOREST LANDSCAPE IN ITALY
Salvatore Di Fazio, Giuseppe Modica, Paolo Zoccali
giuseppe.modica@unirc.it

19. 18
a18
Additional slides
Thematic routes based on the
“nature-culture” and “nature-
spirituality” connection
1 - Charcoal itinerary
Focuses on the interpretation of
charcoal production sites and, in
particular, of the traditional vertical
mound charcoal-kilns.
2 - Spirit and Nature trail
designed to favour a contemplative
and spiritual experience by offering a
simple and beautiful contact with
woods and St. Bruno charterhouse.
3 - Wood and Water itinerary
Pathway running through the
Ferdinandea forest, belonged to
Ferdinand de Bourbon (~ 3500 ha).
4 - Industrial archaeology itinerary
connects the ruins of the Mongiana
Royal Foundry to a weapon factory of
the Bourbon age.
5 - Monastic sites itinerary
offers a series of “cultural bridges”
connecting different sites of the Logical and organizational scheme interlinking the main cultural/natural heritage
historic monastic settlements in resources to favour their integrated tourism use in Serra San Bruno District.
Calabria.

20. 19
a19
Additional slides
o Coppices of Holm oak in the study
area;
1. Preparation of the place for the
mound kiln building (radius ~ 5 m);
2. Woodpile preparation according to
the wood size;
3. Scaffolding of the tree stumps and
building of the central chimney
(square section with side of 30 cm)
4. Laying of the internal strata using
wood with 8-10 cm in diameter;
5. Laying of the external strata using
wood with 3-5 cm in diameter;
6. Covering using straw and earth
(thickness  10 cm);
7. Lightning and slow combustion (with
very high temperatures and
restricted quantity of oxigen 
pyrolysis) for 20-22 days (dependig
on the season);
8. Cooling, Earth and straw removal
and Charcoal extraction.
9. The final product: charcoal (in
photo, high quality holm oak
charcoal).
10. Packaging of the charcoal in bags of

21. 20
a20
Additional slides RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
1994
Spatial comparison of LULC made by Urb-Cont Urb-Disc Ind Agric Con-For Blv-For Mix-For Shrub Waters Sum 1983
1983
means of post-classification
Urb-Cont 33.90 2.65 - - - 0.91 0.95 - - 38.40
comparison technique (using data
Urb-Disc 2.60 48.87 - 1.39 - 0.45 - - - 53.31
in vectorial format) that can provide a
Ind - - 22.92 7.40 0.94 1.42 0.26 3.19 - 36.13
complete matrix of change directions
Agric 6.17 34.21 8.09 823.58 22.35 134.77 38.20 8.16 3.81 1079.36
Relative and absolute changes for Con-For - - - 2.40 96.29 20.05 26.37 0.96 - 146.06
each of the 9 land cover types were Blv-For 1.99 2.00 2.47 34.91 5.57 466.08 18.95 17.60 - 549.59
calculated from 9x9 Transition Mix-For - - 0.48 19.53 26.00 31.14 2002.68 2.63 - 2082.48
matrices (or Cross-tabulation Shrub - - 0.25 1.52 0.51 28.36 0.26 15.16 - 46.06
matrices) according to 4 time- Waters 1.48 1.63 - - - 0.11 - - 2.99 6.21
intervals. Sum 1994 46.14 89.37 34.22 890.72 151.65 683.31 2087.68 47.71 6.80 4037.60
Each transition matrix is built for the
2006
time interval t1 to t2. Urb-Cont Urb-Disc Ind Agric Con-For Blv-For Mix-For Shrub Waters Sum 1994
1994
The rows display the categories of Urb-Cont 45.51 - - 0.45 - - - - - 45.96
time 1 and the columns display the Urb-Disc 10.59 77.52 - 1.26 - - - - - 89.37
categories of time 2. Ind - - 24.01 0.73 - 5.25 0.61 3.73 - 34.34
Agric 2.41 1.91 4.73 814.54 0.10 47.35 7.40 12.47 - 890.92
Row vector shows the evolution of a
Con-For - - - - 135.26 - 16.26 - - 151.52
land use type in the period t1 t2.
Blv-For 1.14 1.14 1.25 20.21 0.97 648.96 1.60 7.95 - 683.22
Column vector shows the land use Mix-For - - 0.13 5.55 108.68 8.03 1964.69 0.60 - 2087.68
type at time t1, from which another Shrub - - 0.43 4.54 - 15.67 0.29 26.77 - 47.71
land use type generated at time t2. Waters - - - - - - - - 6.89 6.89
Sum 2006 59.65 80.56 30.55 847.29 245.02 725.27 1990.85 51.53 6.89 4037.60
The data of the main diagonal,
indicate the area of persistence.

22. 21
a21
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS - Area changes and change rates of LULC classes
1 At2
The mean annual rate of r ln 100
change was calculated for each t2 t1 At1
LULC class by means of the
index r as proposed by At1 = Area of the land use type in time t1 At 2 = Area of the land use type in time t2
Puyravaud.
This index represents the rate LULC
1955÷1983 1983÷1994 1994÷2006 1955÷2006
classes
of the compound interest law.
Urb-Cont 0.73 1,63 2,17 1,26
Urb-Disc 8.84 4,70 -0,86 5,67
Ind 10.39 -0,46 -0,97 5,38
Agric -1.54 -1,74 -0,42 -1,32
Con-For 3.53 0,33 4,01 2,95
Blv-For 3.31 1,98 0,50 2,36
Mix-For 0.29 0,02 -0,40 0,07
Shrub -3.48 0,32 0,64 -1,69
Waters -4.92 0,94 0,00 -2,50
In the population dynamics, the
rate at which a population
increases in size, if there are no after integration
density-dependent forces
regulating the population, is
known as the intrinsic rate of
increase