Using chorographic sources to reconstruct past agro-forestry systems. A methodological approach based on the study case of the northern Apennines

ABSTRACT

Historical-geographical (chorographic) descriptions provide some of the earliest formal documentation about landscape. We propose a methodological approach aimed at reconstructing a spatial-explicit picture of the agroforestry system of a eighteenth-century landscape, detecting the main land-use drivers, and analysing existing legacies of past agro-forestry productivity in the present landscape. The study area was the Bologna Apennines, and our data source was a chorographic dictionary from 1781–83. We obtained a matrix of 240 administrative units per 18 agro-forestry products with related productivity indices. Multivariate analysis showed that environmental constraints influenced products and productivity. Agricultural areas (and related products) mainly shaped the hillside, while forests and semi-natural areas (and related products) characterized the mountainside. Such former clustering is still recognizable: agricultural land mostly changed to artificial land-cover, whereas semi-natural areas and forests still exist. The proposed approach confirms that chorography can be a useful tool as a primary source in landscape research.

KEYWORDS:

• Land cover changes
• historical ecology
• landscape history
• provisioning ES
• geographical weighted regression (GWR)

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the Archiginnasio public library, which provided the end of eighteenth-century map “Anonimo, Comuni della provincia di Bologna” (BCABo, GDS, Raccolta piante del territorio, Cartella 4, n. 35). We acknowledge prof. Enrico Dinelli and prof. Alessandro Buscaroli (Bologna University) for helping us in interpreting geological and soil data. We thank professor Renzo Zagnoni for precious suggestions. We also thank the two anonymous Reviewers for the helpful comments they provided on our manuscript, and Al Laius and Michael Webb, who kindly revised the original English text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.