Integrated assessment of agro-ecological systems: The case study of the “Alta Murgia” National park in Italy

Published Date
May 2016, Vol.144:144–155, doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2016.02.007

Author 

Michele Moretti ^a,b,,

Annalisa De Boni ^a

Rocco Roma ^a

Mariano Fracchiolla ^a

Steven Van Passel ^b,c

aUniversity of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Department of Agro-environmental and Territorial Sciences, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy

• bHasselt University, Faculty of Business Economics, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium
• cUniversity of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics, Department of Engineering Management, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Received 1 July 2015. Revised 17 February 2016. Accepted 19 February 2016. Available online 27 February 2016.

Highlights

• The integration of biophysical and monetary methodologies helps to avoid perverse decision.
• •
  Life Cycle Assessment and the Sustainable Value Approach are used to evaluate agro-ecosystems sustainability.
• •
  Crop farms have on average a higher sustainability performance than mixed farms in the Alta Murgia National Park.

Abstract 

Several indicators and methods are already applied for sustainability assessment in agriculture. The links between sustainability indicators, agricultural management and policies are not well explained. The aim of this study is to combine biophysical and monetary sustainability assessment tools to support agriculture policy decision-making. Three methodological steps are considered: i) the environmental impacts of farms are assessed using terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, soil and freshwater ecotoxicity as well as natural land transformation; ii) the most relevant indicators of agriculture damages on ecosystems quality are aggregated into an index; iii) the farms' index scores are integrated with farm assets, land and labor, into the Sustainable Value approach (SVA), as indicator of natural resources used by farms. As a case study, the methodology was applied to arable farms with and without animal husbandry of the “Alta Murgia” National Park. The crop farms, in our sample, have a higher sustainable value using their economic and environmental resources. Mixed farms need to improve their resources use efficiency. Although crop farms have lower land-use efficiency compared to mixed farms, our results suggest supporting, by means of policy options, the specialized crop farms that, on average, perform better in terms of ecosystems quality preservation. Finally, we find that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to soundly measure the environmental impacts clearly enriches the SVA.

Keywords

Farm sustainability

Ecosystem quality damage

Sustainable value

Integrated assessment

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  Corresponding author at: University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Department of Agro-environmental and Territorial Sciences, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy.

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