Mitigating Land Degradation Through Sustainable Urban Landscapes Planning

Land-take leads to the loss of natural and semi-natural areas. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the important role played by land-take and degradation mitigation to promote sustainable cities. This research aims to assess (1) the temporal dynamics of land-take and land degradation, (2) their spatial configuration, and (3) their ecological effects in three Italian urban landscapes. Spatial analyses from 2006 to 2022 reveal a significant urban sprawl, with an increase in land-take across all municipalities, with the highest land-take per capita in Nardò, higher than the national value. The land-take patterns showed the highest aggregation in Galatone, the smallest municipality. This municipality showed the highest percentage of degraded land (60% of the total area), followed by Lecce (about 47%) and then Nardò (about 42%), where it is possible to notice several areas of improvements (743 ha) scattered throughout the landscape. Degraded areas have increasingly impacted natural areas (25% in Lecce, 22% in Galatone, and 10% in Nardò). The results are discussed in terms of methodology limitations and policy-making implications, highlighting the important role of tools like Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in assessing the coherence of landscape plans with sustainable development targets.