Reporting land degradation sensitivity through multiple indicators: Does scale matter?

Ecological Indicators

Sirio Cividino¹  Luca Salvati²  Giovanni Quaranta³  Rosanna Salvia³  Pavel Cudlin⁴  Samaneh Sadat Nickayin⁵ 

[1] Department of Agriculture, University of Udine, Via del Cotonificio 114, I-33100 Udine, Italy;Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Via Armaroli 43, I-62100 Macerata, Italy;Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics, University of Basilicata, Viale dell'Ateneo Lucano, I-85100 Potenza, Italy;Global Change Research Institute CAS, Lipova 9, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic;Planning and Design Faculty, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, 311 Borgarbyggð, Iceland;

关键词: Statistical robustness;    Multi-scale validation;    Environmental reporting;    Southern Europe;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This work provides a multi-scale, multi-temporal assessment of the robustness of 6 indicators of land degradation aggregated at various spatial domains relevant to environmental reporting. Based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) approach – widely used for environmental reporting of land degradation in Europe – we tested six indicators including (i) the average ESA score, (ii) the maximum ESA score, (iii) the coefficient of variation in the ESA scores, (iv) the normalized range in the ESA scores, as well as the extent of (v) ‘fragile’ and (vi) ‘critical’ areas based on a standard land classification developed on behalf of the ESA framework. Statistical robustness and intrinsic stability of these indicators were verified at six spatial domains (administrative regions, provinces, elevation belts, homogeneous economic districts, rural districts, municipalities) separately for three time points (early-1960s, early-1990s, and early-2010s). Results of a mixed parametric/non-parametric correlation analysis indicate that pair-wise relationships between indicators were mostly linear. A Principal Component Analysis identified two non-redundant dimensions associated with the average level of land degradation sensitivity and its intrinsic variability over space; indicators resulted to be associated exclusively with one of these two dimensions for all study years. Average level of sensitivity and variability over space provide, together, a comprehensive and statistically robust assessment of land degradation at vastly different planning levels, irrespective of the territorial domain adopted for environmental reporting.

【 授权许可】

Unknown