A Century of Studies on Bioclimate and Natural Capital in Sicily: Drought, Aridity, Desertification, Biodiversity, Land Consumption

Journal title ARCHIVIO STORICO PER LA SICILIA ORIENTALE
Author/s Rachele Castro, Federico Maria Jelo di Lentini, Pietro Monforte, Vincenzo Piccione
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2023/1-2
Language Italian Pages 25 P. 57-81 File size 185 KB
DOI 10.3280/ASSO2023-002-003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The subject of the work is the bioclimate and natural capital in Sicily, analyzed over a broad time span with data starting from 1921. The central theme is the impacts of socio-ecological interactions on Sicilian landscapes. There is a focus on specific environmental issues: drought, aridity, desertification, biodiversity, and soil consumption. The research uses methodologies like MEDALUS and ESPI, developed by Vincenzo Piccione’s research team, to analyze historical environmental data such as rainfall and temperature. Crucial results highlighted by the study include a 27% reduction in precipitation between 1921 and 2000 and an increase of over 1°C in temperatures between 1921 and 2000. The consequent increase in the intensity and duration of aridity has made the island more vulnerable. The risk of desertification is slightly reduced. This reduction is attributed to reforestation and protected areas, despite the worsening climate and high soil consumption. The study provides data at the municipal scale, showing differentiated vulnerabilities. It also emphasizes the gap between research and concrete actions.

Keywords: Bioclimate; Aridity; Desertification; Climate crisis; Afforestation.

  1. Assessorato Agricoltura e Foreste - https://www.regione.sicilia.it/istituzioni/regione/strutture-regionali/assessorato-agricoltura-sviluppo-rurale-pesca-mediterranea
  2. Barbera B., Niccoli R. & Piccione V., Caratterizzazione del Clima in Calabria. Pubbl. ArpaCal (2005)
  3. Barbera B. Niccoli R. & Piccione V. Carta delle Aree Sensibili alla Desertificazione in Calabria. ArpaCal Rubbettino Editore. (2005).
  4. Castro R., Costa R., Monforte P., Piccione V., Seminara M. & Veneziano V., Desertificazione in Sicilia. I comuni della Provincia di Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina versante ionico, Messina versante tirrenico, Palermo est, Palermo ovest, Ragusa, Siracusa, Trapani, 11 Quaderni, pp. 1.880, Irssat, 2020. http://www.siciliasostenibile.org/collana-desertificazione-sicilia/.
  5. Castro R., Costa R., Monforte P., Piccione V., Seminara M. & Veneziano V. Desertificazione in Sicilia. Qualità climatica I comuni della Provincia di Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina versante ionico, Messina versante tirrenico, Palermo est, Palermo ovest, Ragusa, Siracusa, Trapani. 11 Quaderni Irssat (2023 in stampa)
  6. Castro R., Lanucara S., Piccione V., Pioggia G., Modica G., & Ragusa M. A. Medalus Model Evolutions and Prospects Case Study Sicily, in International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, «Springer Nature Switzerland», Cham 2023, pp. 310-326.
  7. Castro R., Costa, R., Monforte, P., Mussumeci, G., Piccione, V., Ragusa, M.A., Seminara, M., Veneziano, V.: Desertificazione: revisione metodologica del protocollo Medalus, Società Italiana di Geologia Ambientale, 4/2021, Issn 1591-5352 (2021).
  8. Castro R. et alii. Cruscotto Land Degradation Sicily - https://www.irssat.it/progetti/cruscotto/
  9. Duro A., Piccione V., Ragusa M. A. & Veneziano V. New Environmentally Sensitive Patch Index (Espi) for Medalus protocol. Aip Conference Proceedings 1637; (Aip) American Institute of Phisics http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4904593 pp 305-312. (2014).
  10. Duro A., Piccione V., Ragusa M. A. & Veneziano V. The Environmentally Sensitive Index Patch applied to Medalus Climate Quality Index. Additional Information on Aip Conference Proceedings 1738, 480113;
  11. Duro A., Piccione V., Ragusa M. A., Rapicavoli R. V. & Veneziano V. An index monitoring the sensitivity to desertification: Espi. Seventh Workshop Dynamical Systems Applied to Biology and Natural Sciences, Évora, Portugal, February 2-5, pp 43-44. (2016).
  12. Duro A., Piccione V., Ragusa M.A., Rapicavoli R.V. & Veneziano V. Enviromentally Sensitive Patch Index of desertification risk applied to the main habitats of Sicily. International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (Icnaam 2016), Aip Conf. Proc. 1863, 510005-1–510005-4;
  13. Kosmas C.: The desertification issues in the Mediterranean European Countries. According to the Desertlinks Project, http://www.kcl.ac. uk/kis/schools/hums/geog/desertlinks/index.htm (2004).
  14. Kosmas C., Ferrara A., Briassouli H., Imeson A. Methodology for mapping Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Esas) to Desertification. In “The Medalus project MEditerranean Desertification And Land Use. Manual on key indicators of desertification and mapping environmentally sensitive areas to desertification”, edited by: Kosmas C. Kirkby M., Geeson N., European Union 18882 pp. 31-47. (1999).
  15. Kosmas C., Kirkby M., Geeson N.: The Medalus project. Mediterranean Desertification and land use. Manual on key indicators of Desertification and mapping environmentally sensitive areas to desertification.
  16. EUR 18882, Bruxelles, Belgium, (1999).
  17. Kosmas C., Kirbky M. Physically based top-down approaches to sensitive areas. in The Medrap Concerted Action to support the Northern Mediterranean Action Programme to Combat Desertification, edited by: Enne G., Peter D., Zanolla C., Zucca C., Sassari. Second Workshop on Identification of Sensitive Areas in the northern Mediterranean, Troia, Portugal), pp. 358–374. (2004)
  18. Kosmas C., Tsara M. Control of soil crusting. in The Medrap Concerted Action to support the Northern Mediterranean Action Programme to Combat Desertification. Edited by: Enne G., Peter D., Zanolla C., Zucca C., Sassari. First Workshop on Sustainable Management of soil and water resources, Athens, Greece, pp. 88–104. (2004)
  19. Kosmas C., Tsara M., Moustakas N., Kosma D., Yassoglou N.: Environmental Sensitive areas and Indicators of Desertification. In: Desertification in the Mediterranean Region. A Security Issue. Edited by:
  20. W.G. Kepner, J.L. Rubio, D.A. Mouat and F. Pedrazzini, Nato Security through Science Series, Vol. 3, Springer Publishers, Germany (2005).
  21. ISPRA, Rapporto Nazionale “Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici”. Edizione 2022.
  22. Piccione V., De Leonardis W., Guerrini A. & Aiello M. Palcomp-90. Generatore di schede Palinologiche. In: Guerrini A (Ed.) Collana Progetto Strategico “Clima, Territorio ed Ambiente nel Mezzogiorno”. C.N.R. Roma. p 1-155. (1990).
  23. Piccione V., Duro A., Scalia C. & Zampino D. Precipitazioni e temperature medie mensili in Sicilia relative al sessantennio 1926 - 85. Atti del 5° Workshop del P.S. Clima, Ambiente e Territorio nel Mezzogiorno. Amalfi 28-30 Aprile 1993. Cnr - Roma, 1: 17-103. (1996).
  24. Piccione V., Duro A., Scalia C. & Zampino D. Fitoclima della Sicilia. Contributo alla caratterizzazione del fattore aridità. Atti del 5° Workshop del P. S. Clima, Ambiente e Territorio nel Mezzogiorno. Amalfi 28-30 Aprile 1993. Cnr - Roma, II Tomo: 133-149. (1997)
  25. Piccione V., Zampino D., Duro A. & Scalia C. Fitoclima della Sicilia. Termoudogrammi secondo Walter e Lieth delle stazioni pluviometriche della Sicilia occidentale. Atti del 6° Workshop del P. S. Clima, Ambiente e Territorio nel Mezzogiorno. Taormina 13-15 Aprile 1995. Cnr, I Tomo. (1997).
  26. Piccione V., Veneziano V. Malacrinó V. New aggregate index to calculate and represent in multiscale the Territorial Incidence of Desertification Sensitivity (Itsd) according to the protocol Medalus. Quad. Bot. Amb. Appl. 19 pp.153–160. (2009).
  27. Piccione V., Veneziano V., Malacrinó V., Campisi S. Desertification Risk Region of Sicily (Medalus Protocol). Maps of sensitivity and territorial incidence at the municipal scale of the process in progress. Quad. Bot. Amb. Appl. 20 (1) pp.3–250. (2009)
  28. Piccione V., Veneziano V. & Piccione A. Progetto geodatabase rischio desertificazione in Sicilia. Caratterizzazione bi-temporale dei territori comunali della provincia di Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina, Palermo, Ragusa, Siracusa, Trapani. Accademia Gioiena di Catania, Volume 44, n. 373, ISSN: 0393-7143. (2011). https://www.gioenia.unict.it/bollettino_anno_2011
  29. Sistema Informativo Territoriale Paesistico della Regione Siciliana - https://www2.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/dirbenicult/bca/ptpr/sitr.html
  30. Zampino D., Duro A., Piccione V. & Scalia C. Fitoclima Della Sicilia. Termoudogrammi secondo Walter e Lieth. Atti del 5° Workshop del P. S. Clima, Ambiente e Territorio nel Mezzogiorno. Amalfi 28-30 Aprile 1993. CNR, II Tomo. (1996).

Rachele Castro, Federico Maria Jelo di Lentini, Pietro Monforte, Vincenzo Piccione, Un secolo di studi su bioclima e capitale naturale in Sicilia. Siccità, aridità, desertificazione,biodiversità, consumo suolo in "ARCHIVIO STORICO PER LA SICILIA ORIENTALE" 1-2/2023, pp 57-81, DOI: 10.3280/ASSO2023-002-003