Marginal areas identification to support bio-energy supply chains in Southern Italy contexts

Abstract. Amongst European landscape there are wide areas without simple or easily definable characters and structure, in spatial, functional, and perceptive terms. These areas generally characterized by close interactions urban/rural, or fragmentation, abandonment, pollution or low level of productivity, etc., were in first studies identified as “marginal lands” with a negative meaning. Nevertheless, they are increasingly recognized as important areas providing solutions and opportunities in landscape maintenance and management, thanks to landscape care of traditional social structures, as well as a multifunctional basis for other economic sectors. As a consequence, their environmental, social and economic sustainability assessment is needed. Many studies deal with the definition of marginality and the possible recovery of marginal territories without achieving a common framework for their identification. The present work intends to contribute to the definition of the criteria for identifying marginality condition in support of the bio-energy supply chains. The study area extends on three regions of southern Italy. A specific action framework was developed, which, based on typical land-use planning approaches -the Spatial-MultiCriteria Decision Analysis- integrates various factors and clusters of criteria. The results show that almost 15% of the study area can be classified as marginal, allowing identifying macro-areas suitable for the establishment of dedicated supply chains. The approach aims to support: i. decision-makers in identifying possible critical areas and their conversion into strategic resources; ii. landowners in new opportunities assessment. The present work proved to be useful in the meta-analysis study-phase for identifying marginal land with a significant reduction in costs and times. Further developments will concern the validation of the proposed framework and the definition of specific intervention lots, through site-specific surveys. Although the study is focused on a specific Mediterranean context, the methodology used can also be extended to other contexts, thanks to scientific approach which integrates the different landscape aspects (environmental and socio- economic ones).