Impact of Agricultural Plastics on Rural Landscape: A Case Study in the “Metapontino” Agri-Food District (Southern Italy)

Over the past century, the agricultural production has benefited from several factors that have exponentially increased its efficiency. One of the most significant aspects has been the growing use of novel materials, such plastics, which have made it possible to increase manufacturing in a straightforward and cost-effective manner. Different polymer kinds are utilized at various stages of the agricultural production cycle, but when their use is improperly controlled, it can have a variety of negative effects on the environment. In the present study, a practical and summarized system for managing agricultural plastics monitoring and plan-ning has been proposed. The adopted method are based on the quantification of areas covered by plastics for crop protection, deducted by various datasets of observed data (orthophotos and satellite pictures). Then, through an inductive approach-based on farmer interviews and statistical data – these two approaches have been cross-linked, and an agricultural plastic coefficient (APC) has been proposed, implemented and spatialized in a GIS environment, to produce a database of Agricultural Plastic Wastes (APWs).