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The paper elaborates on the relationship between land cover changes and transformation drivers, by analysing the dynamics that took place between 1990 and 2010 in Mt. Matese area (Italy). Mt. Matese is an interesting case study which was included as a pilot area in the Italian Strategy for Inner Areas. Drivers related to land cover changes include population characteristics, the agricultural and production system, tourist offer, location and settlements dynamics. Land cover changes and the dynamics of studied drivers are analysed in-depth, through a descriptive and multivariate analysis. Results highlight the difficult situation of the study area for many drivers. However, the slow changes in land cover and the potentialities offered by the natural environment, as well as by the agriculture and tourism sectors, outline some development prospects. The paper outlines the current scenario in the area and provides useful references for future policies aimed at setting up this area as National Park and at implementing the Strategy for Inner Areas.

The landscape has always been a fundamental factor in defining tourist flow attraction for local development. In this paper, landscape related to tourism have been analysed using three different measurements through appropriate performance indicators and rationalised with the aim of identifying a scheme of mutual relations. Applying advanced statistical methods of ranking and data synthesis, the area investigated (Molise, Italy) has been divided into different zones. Each area described has a specific relation between tourism and landscape useful in the implementation of optimal promotion strategies and valorisation of the area. In marginal areas, tourism can have an excellent growth potential, since they are characterized by the high quality of the landscape. However, the analysis highlights some gap areas, which means the existence of areas with high quality of the natural and agricultural landscape is not associated with an appropriate tourism development, or areas where the high tourism development is not associated with an appreciable quality of the landscape.

The main challenge in the durum wheat production chain is to capture as much as possible of the yield potential, whilst supporting long-term sustainability. The present work mainly aims at assessing the environmental performances of organic, biodynamic and conventional farming systems by adopting the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Old durum wheat cvs. Senatore Cappelli and Saragolla cultivated in biodynamic and organic farming, respectively, and a commercial durum wheat cv. Antalis cultivated in conventional farming in the same area were evaluated. Midpoints and endpoints impacts of the Recchia et al., 2019 method refer to three different units relating to crop yield (1 Mg yield), cultivated surface (1 ha surface) and farm gross income (1 K € GI). The total impact of biodynamic farming for 1 Mg yield was by 22% and by 19% greater than conventional and organic farming systems, respectively. As to an equal cultivated surface, biodynamic and organic farming systems are high performing, with impacts constantly lower (by −52% and −56%, respectively) than those of conventional farming. In relation to an equal gross income, the organic and biodynamic farming systems showed lower impacts than the conventional one in view of higher prices of organic and old cultivars heritage that increase farm profitability. LCA provides valuable comprehensive information on the environmental performance of durum wheat cultivation in different farming systems. • Impacts of different wheat production systems were assessed using LCA. • For an equal yield, impacts of sustainable systems are higher than conventional ones. • Conventional system show highest impacts per surface and income units. • We argue to exploit different FU in LCA analysis for food sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]