Exploring rural land cover changes through multiway analysis: a case study in Latium, central Italy

Land cover change (LCC) is an environmental process which involves ecological, social, and economic conditions. In Mediterranean Europe, agro-ecosystems are an important component of the landscape. Intensification and simplification of the rural landscape in many areas, such as in plains, coupled with spreading of ecologically fragile zones, are very harmful in environmental terms. The aim of this paper is to provide an example of integrated evaluation of agricultural LCC (ALCC) occurring in a region characterised by urban growth and environmental degradation. The evaluation was based on administrative inventories for the period 1970 - 2000) at the municipal level. Descriptive statistics of land use and a statistical indicator of land quality were coupled with a multiway data analysis (MDA) in order to depict stability or changes of the ALCC between 1970 and 2000. An integrated evaluation of ALCC based on statistical inventories can give evidence or may quantify the "environmental degradation", and as such can be interesting for policy