Luca Salvati

Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis | CREA · Research center for the study of relationships between plant and soil (Rome) (CRA-RPS)

We presented an operational rationale grounded on complex system thinking to quantify structural and functional landscape transformations along three stages representative of post-war metropolitan development in Rome, Italy (urbanisation with population/settlement densification, 1949–1974; suburbanisation with medium-density settlement expansion, 1...

Urban growth may exert remarkably intense environmental impacts, e.g. as far as land resource depletion, pollution, and rising temperatures in built-up areas are concerned. The relationship between urban expansion and environmental degradation is complex and depends on spatial heterogeneity of biophysical conditions, closely intertwined with inhere...

Mixing peculiar socioeconomic conditions and demographic contexts, urban decline in Mediterranean Europe was less extensively documented than in other regions of the continent. Urbanization without industrialization or, more frequently, a ‘late and light’ industrialization prevented a specific interpretation of metropolitan dynamics in Mediterranea...

After years following the breakdown of the Great Recession in Europe, crisis-driven urban shrinkage can be adequately investigated considering changes over time in selected demographic indicators, with a specific focus on migration. Using official statistics and a literature review, the present study documents the inherent demographic decline in me...

Social dynamics and economic cycles have driven population growth in Europe toward heterogeneous and hardly predictable spatial patterns. To assess the role of economic expansion and recession, our study identifies contextual factors of population growth and decline at the prefectural scale in Greece, a peripheral economy in Europe, estimating the...

Assuming a high education level associated with a high probability of job occupancy and greater income, comparative exercises analyzing academic performances and socioeconomic dynamics at regional, country, or supra-national scales have intensified in recent years. As far as tertiary education is concerned, a great disparity in academic performance...

Today, Singapore is a thriving city-state representing a growth of almost eighty percent since 1990. A feasible combination of state authorities' planning, policy implementation, public-private partnerships, and international assistance has led to the city-state's development and sustainability. Urban economic fluctuations, demographic shifts, and...

Italy joined the so-called ‘Industry 4.0’ European framework in 2016, which designed and approved a national plan to regulate this key issue for regional development. To better support such a framework, the present study attempts to quantify the contribution of the Italian regions to the output formation process. More specifically, a multi-sectoral...

In the search for a better administrative functioning as a key dimension of economic performances, changes in municipal boundaries and the creation (or suppression) of local administrative units reflect a progressive adjustment to a spatially varying population size and density. With intense population growth, municipal size reflects the overall am...

The dynamics related to land take depend on the interaction of two factors: soil quality and anthropogenic actions and strategies. Soil as “living system” plays an active role in the phases of interaction between the components of ecosystems. Meanwhile, the soil is exposed to intense and constant human-induced degradation processes. The aim of this...

Assuming fertility variations across urban–rural gradients, our study focuses on the traditional polarization in urban and rural fertility, offering a refined interpretation of demographic processes associated with population density. More specifically, we tested the intimate relationship between local fertility and population density, comparing th...

Urban sprawl is among the most debated topics in the field of urbanism, regional science, ecology, economics, and geography. As this process involves different analysis' dimensions, sprawl is fascinating on the one side, but quite difficult to investigate on the other side. Having the objective to review the nature, dynamics, and consequences that...

A refined investigation of new trends in urban analysis assuming a sustainable design of Areas of Public Space and Meeting (APSM) is a fundamental response to the challenges of inclusive and efficient cities. Even though the APSM are districts regarded as urban structuring systems, there is a lack of territorial planning instruments and conceptual...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt break in economic, demographic and social dynamics, both in developing countries and advanced economies, perhaps with a more significant impact in the latter, though further evidence is needed to support this assumption. Unfortunately, earlier research on medium- and long-term impacts of the pandemic on ur...

Despite the wealth of micro–macro data on short-term demographic dynamics, the impact of metropolitan growth and economic downturns on local fertility is still under-investigated in advanced economies. Recent studies in low-fertility contexts have assumed suburban birth rates as being systematically higher than urban and rural rates. This assumptio...

Improving communities and the urban built environment to promote good health, wellness, and wellbeing has become a top priority globally. This growing trend, evident also in the Sustainable Development Goals’ urgent call for action, has a significant influence on the real estate sustainable development process, which is mostly expressed through des...

Desertification risk depends on the interplay of biophysical and socioeconomic drivers, among which climate change, soil depletion, landscape modifications, and biodiversity decline are key factors of change in Southern Europe. The present study introduces a diachronic analysis of desertification risk in Italy adopting a multidimensional approach b...

Interdisciplinary narrative studies are of great importance in several disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Cultural tourism and its sub-disciplines, including the complex issue of ‘literary tourism’, is an interdisciplinary field of investigation, positioned in between geography and urban–rural studies. In Iran, this form...

Taken as a classical issue in applied economics, the notion of ‘convergence’ is based on the concept of path dependence, i.e., from the previous trajectory undertaken by the system during its recent history. Going beyond social science, a ‘convergence’ perspective has been more recently adopted in environmental studies. Spatial convergence in non-l...

Building on the well-established relationship between economic dynamics and political processes, we focus on the most important element of the political process, namely, general (or national) elections, and look into their effects on public finance and total economic output. In this vein, the present study has three objectives: (i) to investigate p...

The present study investigates long-term urbanization and suburbanization trends - and the consequent impact on economic expansion and social change - in a divided region of Mediterranean Europe (Attica, Greece) by performing a time series (1965–2008) dynamic factor analysis of 14 socioeconomic indicators that reflect different aspects of metropoli...

The present study introduces an econometric test of mono-centric urban development using spatially explicit building activity data between 1981 and 2020 in metropolitan Athens (Greece), one of the most characteristic mono-centric regions in Europe. Diverging intensity and spatial direction of building activity over time allow identification of dist...

The present work analyzes trends over time and spatial patterns of an indicator of efficiency in sustainable governance of woodland (per capita forest land) over a sufficiently long time interval (1960–2010) in a Southern European region (Attica, Greece). The results of our study revealed how forest land per capita in Attica had a general and progr...

Natural population growth is an intrinsic property of demographic systems that depends on (spatially) non-stationary processes of fertility and mortality. Assuming distinctive demographic dynamics as a characteristic attribute of urban, suburban and rural systems, analysis of spatial variability in natural population growth delineates nonlinear sta...

Initially considered a ‘luxury’ good and now becoming a more popular and diffused landmark, the spatial distribution of residential swimming pools reflects the socio-spatial structure in Mediterranean cities, offering a kaleidoscopic overview of class segregation and economic disparities. The present study hypothesizes that economic downturns, resu...

The European Union Rural Development Program (RDP) is a major driver of landscape change over time in Europe. In a context of climate and land use changes and consequent fire risk exacerbation, understanding the possible contribution of RDP measures to wildfire risk mitigation could help planning subsidies allocation criteria in a more efficient wa...

Despite intense efforts, information systems for Land Degradation assessment need extensive research implementation at both regional and country scale. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification identified critical hotspots of land degradation worldwide recognizing the joint action of drivers such as soil depletion, landscape transform...

The environmentally friendly behaviors (EFBs) play a conspicuous role achieving sustainable development due to encouraging citizens using green transportation modes. Assessing EFB among university students is one of the little-known subjects and important research area since they are not only likely to have leading roles in the future society, but...

Vulnerability to land degradation in Mediterranean Europe increased substantially in the last decades because of the latent interplay of climate and land-use change, progressive soil deterioration, and rising human pressure. The present study provides a quantitative evaluation of the intrinsic change over time in the level of vulnerability to land...

Immigration flows and social inequalities reflect increased social and multi-ethnic segregation in contemporary urban Europe. For a better understanding of these processes, the present study investigates the main strengths of the multi-group residential indices, testing sensitivity and reliability under different metropolitan contexts in five Europ...

Recent urbanization trends reflect an increasing dependence on regional economic transformations, local population dynamics, and planning constraints, becoming intrinsically complex and nonlinear. Following this assumption, the present study proposes a new approach for the analysis of long‐term urban expansion in a compact metropolitan region (Athe...

Agricultural land drainage is an instrument for growing production and a tool for the conservation of land resources. The performance of land drainage systems is thus critical for achieving sustainable agricultural production Recently, many types of software have been developed in this field for modeling and simulating the performance of these syst...

The reduction of waste amounts, mainly Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), has not been successful in many parts of Southern Europe, including Greece. Looking ahead, much more needs to be done and Circular Economy (CE) can address this challenge. Nowadays, emerged from the growing interest to boost ‘green’ growth in EU, CE and, by extension, waste managem...

The European Union aims to provide as much as one quarter of its transportation fuels via biofuels derived from renewable sources by 2030. To put this into perspective, the Italian government has recently established an ambitious goal to support the wider uptake of advanced second-generation biofuels, including cellulosic biofuels for the transport...

Earlier studies relating form and functions of cities address an intriguing and complex research issue, especially for specific urban typologies. Although with inherent differences on a local scale, Mediterranean cities represent diversified settlement morphologies and multifaceted socioeconomic contexts. The present study investigates the socioeco...

El manejo del suelo es un tema clave para la correcta conservación del territorio, que permite contribuir al cuidado del medioambiente y garantizar la seguridad alimentaria. Su gestión poco sostenible, debido al uso de herbicidas, el laboreo o la intensificación de las plantaciones, dificulta la compleción de dichas metas. En la costa meridional de...

The present study tests if the spatial variability in endogenous and exogenous components of population growth (natural balance and migration balance) reflects the transition from a mono-centric (compact-dense) settlement structure towards a more polycentric agglomeration based on sub-centers. The spatial distribution of population growth rates acr...

Relocating activities along the fringe, redesigning economic functions, and remodelling settlement structures across larger regions and broader spatial scales, reflect the inherent shift toward complex metropolitan systems. A refined understanding of urban change requires the adoption of a 'complex thinking' that focuses on adaptive behaviour of ke...

In addition to having a high degree of freedom and self-organization, the Mediterranean city has been outlined as the place where a high degree of spatial, cultural, but also institutional disorder is achieved. The city is sometimes read in its many components as represented by a “difficult order to understand”. Therefore, in this chapter, we try t...

Mediterranean European cities have undergone a transition from compact growth to a more discontinuous and dispersed spatial pattern during the last decades. It is characterized by the irregular expansion of low-density settlements. In many urban areas, the expansion of compact settlements first consumed low-quality soils and moderately degraded lan...

The structure and composition of the landscape continuously evolve in space and time, influencing the physical, chemical and biological processes of the soil. These influences contribute significantly to the complex interactions between the natural environment and anthropic activities, shaping the characteristics and properties of the lands in vari...

The initiatives of the Member States of the European Union aimed at soil protection vary and focus on the degradation processes that each of them considers as priorities. Mediterranean countries have adopted national action programs to combat land degradation, to which they are particularly sensitive both for climatic conditions (drought, water sca...

The cost of suppressing fires is known to be highly significant and increasing over time as a result of the indirect effects of climate change and rising human impacts. Their quantification is an essential component of an environmental accounting system, capable of providing updated information for policy design and implementation. The goal of this...

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) assumes spatial disparities in land resources as a key driver of soil degradation and early desertification processes all over the world. Although regional divides in soil quality have been frequently observed in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, the impact of landscape configuration on t...

Moving toward a land-use approach that focuses on settlement structure, the present study introduces an indicator of compactness based on the evolution over time of the number of detached buildings in total stock at local scale. Assuming the modalities of settlement expansion as dependent on the interplay among socioeconomic aspects, territorial co...

Although sustainable development and desertification risk are hegemonic concepts in environmental economics, their intimate relationship was occasionally studied and made spatially explicit. The present study contributes to fill this knowledge gap by delineating a statistical procedure that investigates, at the municipal scale in Italy, the associa...

Polycentric development is one of the fundamental components of the European Spatial Planning and Development (ESPD) strategy and substantiates the legitimacy of a decentralized governance framework. Spatial planning in polycentric regions has often been found to be ineffective in achieving a truly sustainable development. Relatively few studies ha...

Climate change and landscape transformation have led to rapid expansion of peri-urban areas globally, representing new ‘laboratories’ for the study of human–nature relationships aiming at land degradation management. This paper contributes to the debate on human-driven land degradation processes by highlighting how natural and socioeconomic forces...

Southern Europe is a hotspot for desertification risk because of the intimate impact of soil deterioration, landscape transformations, rising human pressure, and climate change. In this context, large-scale empirical analyses linking landscape fragmentation with desertification risk assume that increasing levels of land vulnerability to degradation...

Being a relatively less known driver of land vulnerability to degradation in Southern Europe, the net impact of urban expansion on land quality depletion requires a comparative investigation in peri-urban and rural districts. An empirical approach based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area Index (ESAI) was illustrated here with the aim at assessin...

The present study illustrates an operational approach estimating individual and aggregatevineyards’ canopy volume estimation through three years Tree-Row-Volume (TRV) measurement sand remotely sensed imagery acquired with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Red-Green-Blue (RGB) digital camera, processed with MATLAB scripts, and validated through ArcGIS t...

Metropolitan fringes in Southern Europe preserve, under different territorial contexts, natural habitats, relict woodlands, and mixed agro-forest systems acting as a sink of biodiversity and ecosystem services in ecologically vulnerable landscapes. Clarifying territorial and socioeconomic processes that underlie land-use change in metropolitan regi...

Urbanization is a dynamic process performed at the expense of natural and/or semi-natural areas, with direct impacts on the ecosystem services provided to human society. The increasing population density in urban areas and the associated demand for housing and public services have led to progressive changes in the structure, architecture, and desig...

European cities underwent long-term socioeconomic transformations resulting in a shift from centralized demographic growth typical of late industrialization to a more recent (and spatially uncoordinated) de-concentration of population and economic activities. While abandoning traditional compact models and moving toward settlement dispersion, popul...

Seasonal hunger persists as the most common food insecurity experience for millions of small dryland farmers. This study tests the inter-relationships among food insecurity, farm forests and biomass poverty using a longitudinal data set from the Amahara region of Ethiopia. These data form part of the Ethiopia Socio-economic Survey data that collect...

This study examines the intrinsic relationship between land degradation and the accumulation of wealth at various planning scales in Italy, a desertification hotspot in Southern Europe. Local development was scrutinized at four planning scales (administrative regions, provinces, economic districts, and municipalities) to verify if land sensitivity...

Business cycles in wealthier countries reflected a continuous transformation of spatial organizations of both countries and regions, possibly strengthening social inequalities and polarization in more and less productive areas. Local job markets are particularly sensitive to changes in both settlement forms and socioeconomic functions, being in tur...

Empirical studies demonstrated the existence of political budget cycles in many countries, although mechanisms underlying such cycles remain substantially unclear. The present work investigates this mechanism using data from the Greek economy encompassing four decades (1980–2018). Results of regression models indicate that opportunistic political a...

Land sensitivity to degradation is a spatially varying attribute of local systems that experience rapid changes in socio-ecological conditions. To answer the increasing demand of quantitative risk assessment of land degradation and desertification - taken as a final stage of land degradation - in non-affected countries, our study estimates land sen...

Globally, processes that drive urbanization have mostly evolved within economic downturns. Economic crises have been more severe and frequent, particularly in the Mediterranean region. However, studies on the recession effects on urbanization are limited. The present study explores possible differences in spatial direction and intensity of land-use...

Multifaceted social processes have shaped long-term economic dynamics in Europe with apparent spatial outcomes. The construction sector has been one of the industries with the most evident (crisis-driven) change in Greece, likely the most affected country in Europe. With the aim at providing a comprehensive knowledge of short-term dynamics in real...

Economic, social, and climatic conditions affect agricultural production. Those changes are relevant to the rainfed agricultural areas of the Mediterranean Belt, including Spain—the largest producer of olive oil in the world. However, little is known about the effect of the climate on olive production and farmer income. In this study, the correlati...