Recent advances in the monitoring of environmental variables for analysis of agroecosystems’ resilience and the sustainable management of natural resources

Abstract

Agricultural production is a critical economic factor for regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. However, climate change and the increasing demand for water for multiple uses (drinking, irrigation, industry) pose major challenges to public authorities, particularly in terms of water availability and food security. In addition, the sometimes overly rapid changes in land use are also raising some sustainability issues in the development of rural landscapes, if only one considers increased soil erosion or degradation of groundwater used for irrigation and drinking purposes. Consequently, the development of effective water and land resource management strategies is imperative to ensure sufficient agricultural production in the medium and long term. This article reviews the most modern and advanced aspects of environmental monitoring applied to agricultural and forestry systems, emphasizing the importance of implementing these techniques in an integrated manner to achieve efficient and sustainable management of land and water resources. To illustrate this point, we present and discuss the case of the agro-environmental observatory Alento, which is located in southern Italy and is representative of many pedoclimatic situations found in Mediterranean catchments. This review concludes with a discussion of geophysical applications when archaeological sites are found in rural areas and provides the reader with some future perspectives for the development of these issues.