Spatial analysis methods and land-use planning models for rural areas

Abstract

The work presents a brief report of the main results of a study carried out by the Spatial Engineering Division of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering of the University of Bologna, within a broader PRIN 2005 research project concerning landscape and economic analysis, planning and programming. In particular, the study focuses on the design of spatial analysis methods aimed at building knowledge frameworks of the various natural and anthropic resources of rural areas. The goal is to increase the level of spatial and information detail of common databases, thus allowing higher accuracy and effectiveness of the analyses needed to achieve the goals of new generation spatial and agriculture planning. Specific in-depth analyses allowed to define techniques useful in order to reduce the increase in survey costs. Moreover, the work reports the main results regarding a multicriteria model for the analysis of the countryside defined by the research. Such model is aimed to assess the various agricultural, environmental and landscape features, vocations, expressions and attitudes, and support the definition and implementation of specific and targeted planning and programming policies.

Keywords

• areal sampling techniques
• land-use and landscape change assessment
• multicriteria model for the analysis of rural areas
• spatial and agricultural planning
• knowledge frameworks of landscape resources.