A spatial multi-criteria analysis model to identify intervention strategies for the recovery of abandoned olive groves. The case study of Lucca Hills

In Italy, human knowledges and skills in shaping territories applied toareas characterized by different morphological, geographical, cultural and social features, have brought about a large variety of rural landscapes. Rural landscape is a fundamental part of the cultural heritage of an area. Traditional rural landscapes are not only an expression of cultural identity, but also examples of sustainable management of cultivated land. When full of historic-identity, ecological and environmental values, landscape represents also a resource for rural development. This resource is presently threatened in mountainous and hilly areas, where the progressive abandonment of agricultural land is one of the main causes of the degradation of both traditional rural landscapes and cultural heritage. In order to prevent these phenomena and to protect traditional rural landscapes, it is necessary to identify governance models aiming at the restoration and enhancement of the characteristics of rural areas, while remaining coherent with the present socio-economic structures. This study describes a method for assessing the degree of suitability to a productive re-conversion of abandoned hilly farmland and for the identification of strategies aiming at their productive and landscape requalification. The method is based on a spatial multi-criteria analysis and it has been tested in Compitese (Lucca, Tuscany), a hilly rural area where terraced olive groves with both high historic-identity and landscape value are predominant, but where there are evident processes of “re-naturalization”.