The Analysis of Rural Land Consumption through Areal Sampling Techniques

The present paper discusses the initial results of a broader research project, which is still in progress, aimed at developing a methodological approach for the analysis of land resources. The work has been inspired by the ever greater emphasis being placed, within land management and economic planning policy-making, on evaluating changes in the main landscape systems. The general aim of the research project is to work out a sampling methodology that can be applied to different territorial contexts and over various survey time intervals. This paper describes the principal steps in the development of an inferential statistical process, based on a stratified landscape sampling design of a 800 km2 study area located in the province of Bologna. The purpose is to assess the changes in land-use patterns and in the built environment that have occurred between the Second World War and today. The developed methodology, calibrated with reference to the built-up system, was used to extract and analyze a pilot sample of survey areas on the basis of specific statistical criteria. The general validity of the developed methodology means it can be applied to a variety of study areas and time intervals.