Human-induced land use worldwide has increased soil erosion and sediment transport by large rivers. Nevertheless, countertendencies have been recently recorded in wealthier countries, either through more favourable climatic conditions or erosion prevention measures. In the Mediterranean region, together with the natural soil loss susceptibility, human pressure has a long history and seem to be the main driver of changes in sediment supply during the Anthropocene. Badland areas in non-arid landscapes can be ideal sites to investigate the role of man in triggering erosion in the current context of global change, as their origin has been related to scenarios of widespread land degradation. So far, little attention has been given to the relationship between slope processes and river morphodynamics. In this context, the exploration of sediment connectivity in badland landscapes can be informative, considering their rapid evolution and off-site effects.
This research is aimed at exploring the Anthropocene hillslope morphodynamics and sediment connectivity of representative italian badland areas, in order to better delineate a) their recent morphodynamics; b) the role of man in the short-term evolution and how far it can be connected to the initiation and mitigation of water erosion processes; c) a badland evolution model which considers the effects of man-induced modifications to the landscape. In order to achieve these general purposes, the activities will include a multitemporal survey of the erosion dynamics and of the land transformations, the present erosion rate monitoring with innovative technologies and the geomorphometric modelling of the structural and functional connectivity on high resolution Digital Elevation Models. Outcomes of this project are expected to provide a deeper comprehension of the effects of catchment-scale man induced changes on fluvial systems and, in a wider context, support the decision making in a perspective of sustainable development.
Innovation of the proposed research is multiple.
The main expected progress of the proposed research is providing advances in the modelling of the Anthropocene morphodynamics of the widespread erosion hot-spots that characterize many Mediterranean sites. In particular, the comprehension of the effects of catchment-scale man induced changes are supposed to allow the explanation of the recent morphoevolution of these landscapes, such as the decrease of hillslope denudation and the changes on the level of connectivity of the fluvial system, independent or dependant on external or intrinsic factors. A nested approach will allow the connection between the fluvial and the hillslope morphodynamics.
The understanding of the impact of the land modifications induced by man on the erosion processes will support the formulation of future scenarios taking into account climate change and socio-economic changes, with the aim to determine the socio-economic costs related to future changes of land use. In a wider context, the expected results could aid decision making in areas more prone to erosion attributed to land mismanagement, supporting the formulation of best practices in a perspective of sustainable development of rural areas.
Although the project activities will provide results for key areas in central Italy, the expected outcomes will contribute to enhance the overall knowledge on the techniques for reconstructing the timing and style of the morphoevolution of rural landscapes at different space-time scales, in particular thank to the application of innovative techniques for erosion monitoring and landscape analysis.
Finally, the apparently vanishing badland landscape of the central Italy study sites, being a sort of "open-air laboratories" for studying erosion trends (e.g., Faulkner, 2008; Gallart et al., 2013; Aucelli et al., 2016, Bollati et al., 2016), and hence characterized by a high educational exemplarity, multidisciplinary scientific approaches, will allow to widen the opportunities of dissemination of concepts related to dynamics of landscapes (Del Monte, 2017). These landscapes have been already recognized of high value by UNESCO with the label of Cultural landscape (Zglobicki et al., 2019).