Revealing patterns and connections in the historic landscape of the northern Apennines (Vetto, Italy)

Abstract

In the Northern Apennines, significant modifications to the characteristic historical features of landscapes have occurred since the 1950s as agriculture declined in importance and villages were progressively depopulated. Today, European policies are promoting the repopulation of these regions to help preserve the cultural identity of territories and reduce demographic pressure inurban areas. Such initiatives increase the need for cultural and natural landscape management to be better integrated using interdisciplinary approaches. Sustainable landscape management is a dynamic process involving the formulation of strategies to underpin the preservation of landscape heritage and foster local development based on the values and opportunities provided by landscapes themselves. This study uses landscape archaeology and spatial statistics to provide insights into which parts of the historic landscape retain the greatest time-depth and which parts reflect the more recent radical change, enabling an understanding which goes beyond the basic spatial relationships between landscape components.

Keywords

• Landscape archaeology
• historic landscape characterisation
• spatial statistics
• local indicators for categorical data
• point pattern analysis
• landscape management