The Langhe Landscape Changes

Agricultural policies and socioeconomic constraints are strong drivers of change in human-dominated rural landscapes of Mediterranean Europe. Changes in rural landscapes can have a strong influence on the perspectives of protection and improvement of the natural and cultural heritage. A shift towards quality production, favoured by institutional financial support, has been recently observed in hilly productive Mediterranean sites. An example of this situation is the Langhe region (NW Italy), where woody plantations such as vineyards and orchards have been cultivated on hillslopes for centuries. In this chapter, we assess the landscape evolution occurred in this study site. Land use changes in the 1954–2000 period were assessed by object-oriented analysis of aerial photographs and quantified by spatial statistics capturing and measuring different elements of landscape change. The expansion of orchards from 1954 to 2000 caused an increase of landscape heterogeneity and the fragmentation of field crops. Orchards expansion has reduced other land uses occupying up to 55 % of former field crops, 24 % of vineyards and 15 % of forests. Changes in rural landscapes, traditionally dominated by vineyards, field crops and forests, were so observed in the Langhe region.