AUTHOR=Rettore Valentino Giorgio , Codato Daniele , De Marchi Massimo 

TITLE=How can GIS support the evaluation and design of biodiverse agroecosystems and landscapes? Applying the Main Agroecological Structure to European agroecosystems

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1259419

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2023.1259419

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Agrobiodiversity plays a central role in fostering the stability, resilience, and sustainability of European farming systems. Nonetheless, there is currently a lack of comprehensive methods to describe its spatial arrangement inside farms, its connectivity with the surrounding landscape andmost crucially -how the perceptions and actions of human communities have an impact on it. The Main Agroecological Structure (MAS) has recently been proposed as an environmental index aiming to tackle such challenges by promoting a dialogue between landscape ecology and agroecology, encompassing criteria that focus both on landscape parameters and on variables of cultural order.Geographic information systems (GIS) can play a key role in the measurement of the index by leveraging public geodata and engaging with the direct participation of communities to map the territories they inhabit and cultivate. Still, their use in this context has not yet been studied. We propose here a new GIS-based approach for estimating the Main Agroecological Structure: landscape criteria are assessed through the hybrid use of free and open-source GIS tools, field samplings and participative mapping methods; cultural parameters are evaluated through semi-structured interviews. Contextually to the definition of such methodological foundations, the present study tests the relevance of the index to European agroecological contexts by applying the proposed workflow to three Italian farms characterized by different territorial and organizational forms.Along a few modifications to the original proposal, we highlight the relevance of GIS in making agrobiodiversity visible at a landscape level in the context of the index, and eventually suggest some future applications in the field of local empowerment and agroecosystems mapping.