Integrating Prediction Models, Evaluation Methodologies and GIS: The Assessment of Agriculture-Environment Relationships in the Trasimeno Watershed

Summary

This study is part of a broader research project whose aim is to assess the impacts of the introduction of environmentally sound agricultural techniques in the area of the Trasimeno Lake watershed, in Umbria.

In this chapter the methodological path used in this study is explained. It is composed of different steps, each one of them with a specific methodological core, but all directed to get the same final result.

The first step is the economic and environmental assessment of the production practices at a single crop and farm level, both for the present situation, and for the alternatives (in terms of crops, but also practices) coming from field experimentation. To develop this step the Planetor computer program has been used. The output data from Planetor, together with other indicators, has been incorporated into a multicriteria matrix to get a comparative assessment of the different alternatives.

The second step is the economic and environmental assessment of different scenarios at the whole watershed level. To develop this step a combination of linear programming and multiobjective analysis has been used, to generate the optimal combination of all the different factors.

The third step is the assessment of land vulnerability and environmental risk of the watershed, developed through the implementation of regional environmental data in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The result is a number of vulnerability and risk maps.