What is it about?
We propose an innovative methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on ecosystem services (in particular, C loss) under multi-scale contexts. The devised approach was tested in two areas with similar sizes, but different land take levels during the time-span 1990–2008. The estimates of total coverage of built up areas were calculated using point sampling. The area of the urban patches including each sampling point classified as built up areas in the year 1990 and/or in the year 2008 is used to estimate total abundance and average area of built up areas. Biophysical and economic values for carbon loss associated with land take were calculated using InVEST.
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Why is it important?
Land take due to urbanization triggers a series of negative environmental impacts with direct effects on quality of life for people living in cities. Changes in ecosystem services are associated with land take, among which is the immediate C loss due to land use conversion. Land use change monitoring represents the first step in quantifying land take and its drivers and impacts.
Perspectives
The accounting of the economic value related to C loss could act as an additional tool to inform policy makers on urban growth impact on ecosystem services. Our results strongly encourage the joint use of monitoring approaches of land take with ecosystem services assessment and valuation to better understand the concept of sustainability in urban areas and its implications on other ecosystems.
Piermaria Corona
CREA Research Centre for Forestry and Wood
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Assessing land take by urban development and its impact on carbon storage: Findings from two case studies in Italy, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, September 2015, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2015.05.006.
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