Analysis of the evolution of landscape and land use in a GIS approach.

The use of Geographical Information Systems facilitates spatial analysis and allows the understanding of the evolutionary processes that occurred over the years and have led to the current conditions. Thanks to a comparison between an historical cartographic map with recent ortophotos, it was possible to evaluate the meaningful elements present in an area and their changes over time. A compared analysis, started early 1800, found that the study area, mainly its rural and forestry land, have been affected by deep transformations, due to natural events, human intervention, and changes in natural cycles, that resulted difficult to understand. The historical map represents the entire municipality of Ruoti (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy), traditionally devoted to arboreal cultivation or wood-sheep farming,. The map reports the town and the surrounding area in the Year 1812, showing the main rivers, the land use of the area, the different type of vegetations, expressed with different colors and symbols. The spatial analysis of this study area showed a succession of land use changes, influenced by the modern cultivation techniques, while vegetation changes give variations of the agro-forestry landscape over the years, and cultivation conversion caused a loss of CO2 fixation value.