- •Series Editor’s Preface
- •Contents
- •Contributors
- •1 Introduction
- •References
- •2.1 Methodological Introduction
- •2.2 Geographical Background
- •2.3 The Compelling History of Viticulture Terracing
- •2.4 How Water Made Wine
- •2.5 An Apparent Exception: The Wines of the Alps
- •2.6 Convergent Legacies
- •2.7 Conclusions
- •References
- •3.1 The State of the Art: A Growing Interest in the Last 20 Years
- •3.2 An Initial Survey on Extent, Distribution, and Land Use: The MAPTER Project
- •3.3.2 Quality Turn: Local, Artisanal, Different
- •3.3.4 Sociability to Tame Verticality
- •3.3.5 Landscape as a Theater: Aesthetic and Educational Values
- •References
- •4 Slovenian Terraced Landscapes
- •4.1 Introduction
- •4.2 Terraced Landscape Research in Slovenia
- •4.3 State of Terraced Landscapes in Slovenia
- •4.4 Integration of Terraced Landscapes into Spatial Planning and Cultural Heritage
- •4.5 Conclusion
- •Bibliography
- •Sources
- •5.1 Introduction
- •5.3 The Model of the High Valleys of the Southern Massif Central, the Southern Alps, Castagniccia and the Pyrenees Orientals: Small Terraced Areas Associated with Immense Spaces of Extensive Agriculture
- •5.6 What is the Reality of Terraced Agriculture in France in 2017?
- •References
- •6.1 Introduction
- •6.2 Looking Back, Looking Forward
- •6.2.4 New Technologies
- •6.2.5 Policy Needs
- •6.3 Conclusions
- •References
- •7.1 Introduction
- •7.2 Study Area
- •7.3 Methods
- •7.4 Characterization of the Terraces of La Gomera
- •7.4.1 Environmental Factors (Altitude, Slope, Lithology and Landforms)
- •7.4.2 Human Factors (Land Occupation and Protected Nature Areas)
- •7.5 Conclusions
- •References
- •8.1 Geographical Survey About Terraced Landscapes in Peru
- •8.2 Methodology
- •8.3 Threats to Terraced Landscapes in Peru
- •8.4 The Terrace Landscape Debate
- •8.5 Conclusions
- •References
- •9.1 Introduction
- •9.2 Australia
- •9.3 Survival Creativity and Dry Stones
- •9.4 Early 1800s Settlement
- •9.4.2 Gold Mines Walhalla West Gippsland Victoria
- •9.4.3 Goonawarra Vineyard Terraces Sunbury Victoria
- •9.6 Garden Walls Contemporary Terraces
- •9.7 Preservation and Regulations
- •9.8 Art, Craft, Survival and Creativity
- •Appendix 9.1
- •References
- •10 Agricultural Terraces in Mexico
- •10.1 Introduction
- •10.2 Traditional Agricultural Systems
- •10.3 The Agricultural Terraces
- •10.4 Terrace Distribution
- •10.4.1 Terraces in Tlaxcala
- •10.5 Terraces in the Basin of Mexico
- •10.6 Terraces in the Toluca Valley
- •10.7 Terraces in Oaxaca
- •10.8 Terraces in the Mayan Area
- •10.9 Conclusions
- •References
- •11.1 Introduction
- •11.2 Materials and Methods
- •11.2.1 Traditional Cartographic and Photo Analysis
- •11.2.2 Orthophoto
- •11.2.3 WMS and Geobrowser
- •11.2.4 LiDAR Survey
- •11.2.5 UAV Survey
- •11.3 Result and Discussion
- •11.4 Conclusion
- •References
- •12.1 Introduction
- •12.2 Case Study
- •12.2.1 Liguria: A Natural Laboratory for the Analysis of a Terraced Landscape
- •12.2.2 Land Abandonment and Landslides Occurrences
- •12.3 Terraced Landscape Management
- •12.3.1 Monitoring
- •12.3.2 Landscape Agronomic Approach
- •12.3.3 Maintenance
- •12.4 Final Remarks
- •References
- •13 Health, Seeds, Diversity and Terraces
- •13.1 Nutrition and Diseases
- •13.2 Climate Change and Health
- •13.3 Can We Have Both Cheap and Healthy Food?
- •13.4 Where the Seed Comes from?
- •13.5 The Case of Yemen
- •13.7 Conclusions
- •References
- •14.1 Introduction
- •14.2 Components and Features of the Satoyama and the Hani Terrace Landscape
- •14.4 Ecosystem Services of the Satoyama and the Hani Terrace Landscape
- •14.5 Challenges in the Satoyama and the Hani Terrace Landscape
- •References
- •15 Terraced Lands: From Put in Place to Put in Memory
- •15.2 Terraces, Landscapes, Societies
- •15.3 Country Planning: Lifestyles
- •15.4 What Is Important? The System
- •References
- •16.1 Introduction
- •16.2 Case Study: The Traditional Cultural Landscape of Olive Groves in Trevi (Italy)
- •16.2.1 Historical Overview of the Study Area
- •16.2.3 Structural and Technical Data of Olive Groves in the Municipality of Trevi
- •16.3 Materials and Methods
- •16.3.2 Participatory Planning Process
- •16.4 Results and Discussion
- •16.5 Conclusions
- •References
- •17.1 Towards a Circular Paradigm for the Regeneration of Terraced Landscapes
- •17.1.1 Circular Economy and Circularization of Processes
- •17.1.2 The Landscape Systemic Approach
- •17.1.3 The Complex Social Value of Cultural Terraced Landscape as Common Good
- •17.2 Evaluation Tools
- •17.2.1 Multidimensional Impacts of Land Abandonment in Terraced Landscapes
- •17.2.3 Economic Valuation Methods of ES
- •17.3 Some Economic Instruments
- •17.3.1 Applicability and Impact of Subsidy Policies in Terraced Landscapes
- •17.3.3 Payments for Ecosystem Services Promoting Sustainable Farming Practices
- •17.3.4 Pay for Action and Pay for Result Mechanisms
- •17.4 Conclusions and Discussion
- •References
- •18.1 Introduction
- •18.2 Tourism and Landscape: A Brief Theoretical Staging
- •18.3 Tourism Development in Terraced Landscapes: Attractions and Expectations
- •18.3.1 General Trends and Main Issues
- •18.3.2 The Demand Side
- •18.3.3 The Supply Side
- •18.3.4 Our Approach
- •18.4 Tourism and Local Agricultural System
- •18.6 Concluding Remarks
- •References
- •19 Innovative Practices and Strategic Planning on Terraced Landscapes with a View to Building New Alpine Communities
- •19.1 Focusing on Practices
- •19.2 Terraces: A Resource for Building Community Awareness in the Alps
- •19.3 The Alto Canavese Case Study (Piedmont, Italy)
- •19.3.1 A Territory that Looks to a Future Based on Terraced Landscapes
- •19.3.2 The Community’s First Steps: The Practices that Enhance Terraces
- •19.3.3 The Role of Two Projects
- •19.3.3.1 The Strategic Plan
- •References
- •20 Planning, Policies and Governance for Terraced Landscape: A General View
- •20.1 Three Landscapes
- •20.2 Crisis and Opportunity
- •20.4 Planning, Policy and Governance Guidelines
- •Annex
- •Foreword
- •References
- •21.1 About Policies: Why Current Ones Do not Work?
- •21.2 What Landscape Observatories Are?
- •References
- •Index
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12.1Introduction
The terracing of slopes is universally used to obtain cultivable land in steep areas since ancient times, today being one of the major morphological transformations implemented by humans in the world (Tarolli et al. 2014). The cultivable flat land is obtained by reducing the overall slope angle with the construction of soil reservoirs usually supported downstream by a dry-stone wall (terracing) or, in other cases, contained by clods (embankments). Building techniques are presented in detail in many texts (e.g. Brancucci et al. 2000; Rizzo 2008). The reduction of the slope has a positive feedback on the landscape regarding the reduction of the erosive power of the surface water flow and, consequently, of hydrogeological-related problems (Tarolli et al. 2014). Moreover, the decrease of the slope improves the pedogenetic processes. A necessary precondition to preserve such benefits is to guarantee the maintenance with the presence of farming. A terrace system can “resist” to erosive agents only thanks to the constant support of its components that include dry-stone walls and painstaking water regulation structures. Since the First World War, and definitely after the end of the Second World War, the development and promotion of the industrial activities accelerated the progressive abandonment of agriculture, especially in these highly demanding and poorly mechanised farming systems. The abandonment of terraced areas results in a new interference with the geomorphic system. As the lack of maintenance of a human-altered landscape persists the more, the geomorphic system gets the control causing erosion processes and land degradation. The final result is the increase of hazards with diffuse problems of instability and huge solid transport in the rivers (Brancucci and Paliaga 2006). In this chapter, we address the Liguria Region (Northern Italy) as a paramount example of the complex balance between the pristine morphology and the anthropic modifications. On these premises, we then highlight some potential hazards to propose, finally, key recommendations for designing suitable management strategies.
12.2Case Study
12.2.1Liguria: A Natural Laboratory for the Analysis of a Terraced Landscape
Liguria is a Northern Italian region that covers about 5400 km2, distributed in a thin strip of land ranging from East to West for about 250 km, bounded on the South by the Ligurian Sea, to the North by the Alpine and Apennine chains. Altogether, Liguria presents a very complex geology (Fig. 12.1).
The region is crossed by valleys, inherited from the local tectonic events, with East–West and North–South direction across the Tyrrhenian side and Po Valley. The climate is Mediterranean, characterised by heavy rainfall events occurring
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Fig. 12.1 Simplified geological map of Liguria (Brancucci and Ghersi 2018). Base map from http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
mainly in late summer and during the autumn. The rainfall events are becoming more intense in recent years (cf. Vallebona et al. 2015). High steep slope and rainfall are the primary agents of the erosion processes. Such processes do not allow to generate top soils suitable for farming practice. In the last centuries, terracing agricultural practice has reshaped entirely the Liguria landscape. For several years, the presence of humans, who tenaciously maintained efficiently such land, has prevented any hydrogeological criticalities. However, the changed socio-economic conditions of the last century determined a progressive land abandonment that appears difficult to revert. People migrated from the mountains to the coastal areas where industrial and tourist activities could guarantee economic prosperity. Such land abandonment was related also to an increase in soil erosion processes and landslide events (Fig. 12.2).
In several situations, the lack of proper vegetation management (such as chestnut coppices) exacerbated such instability. The complex morphological context makes farming hard, by increasing the costs of production and consequently the prices of products. The consequence is that only a few traders are willing to invest in these areas. Terraces are perceived as part of the “identity” of the Ligurian landscape; in such area the Cinque Terre National Park is the most “representative image”. It is unlikely to recover the whole system, but it is imperative to break apart the problem into its various components to be able to provide adequate support to land planners and let them being constantly updated and updateable.
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Fig. 12.2 View of the coastline of the Cinque Terre National Park: erosive forms of abandoned terraces near Volastra (SP) © Google, DigitalGlobe
12.2.2 Land Abandonment and Landslides Occurrences
The lack of maintenance of terraced systems results in progressive land degradation (Brandolini et al. 2018; Tarolli et al. 2014). Surface water infiltrates in subsoil due to altered permeability mainly caused by agricultural improper practices (Brancucci and Masetti 2008). Consequently, the continuous soil saturation can destabilise the dry-stone wall (Fig. 12.3).
Fig. 12.3 Different kinds of terrace disorders, from bulging (left) to series of collapses (right). Source Brancucci et al. (2000) adapted in Rizzo (2009)
12 Terraced Landscapes: Land Abandonment, Soil Degradation … |
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Fig. 12.4 Landsliding and terrace failures (white rounded arrows) within vineyards triggered by the intense rainfall event of 25 October 2011 (Liguria, Italy) (Agnoletti et al. 2012; after Tarolli et al. 2014)
This coincides with an increase in the occurrence of small landslides in the steps between terraces, which can evolve downslope as debris flows (Tarolli et al. 2014) (Fig. 12.4).
A similar mechanism occurred on 24 November 2000 in Ceriana (province of Imperia) where intense precipitation affected an entire terraced area triggering several mass movements and causing two fatalities. The mitigation of such phenomena demands tremendous efforts especially where the land tenure is fragmented. The ownership of terraced fields is frequently divided into small plots owned by multiple stakeholders in which the property is difficult to document. This situation leads to an obvious and additional difficulty of the system management.
12.2.3Ancient Terraces: A “Soil Reservoir” to Be Monitored
Figure 12.5 shows an ancient terrace system located in the inland of Liguria Region (Italy). This terrace has been built at the end of the eighteenth century for cultivating mainly potatoes and grapes. However, the very steep slope did not provide a suitable place. The structure is quite complex; it is characterised by a dry-stone wall of 7 m in height, complemented by an underground hydraulic system to drain water