Detection of fast landscape changes: The case of solar modules on agricultural land

Abstract

Fast land changes may lead to new unadaptive structures and functions and may remain unnoticed causing national as well as local land survey agencies to be ineffective. This argument will be displayed by means of a real case in central Italy and by focusing on the booming sprawl of photovoltaic solar modules on arable land. In Marche Region such a change has come about with an exponential pace in terms of area coverage. The figure emerging from our experimental survey shows 800 ha of arable lands sealed over the overall regional area in less than 7 years. So far, planning permissions to install solar modules are no longer acknowledged with ease on agricultural land and the subsidies have declined. Since solar technologies are a new promising land use frontier in agricultural land, a "standstill" may not be the best policy response. Land use policies should be able to respond to rapid changes, but this starts with rapid update of the effective land use practices. A positive feedback would come from open and volunteered geo-information. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.