A GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM IN TUSCAN COASTAL WETLANDS: LAND USE CHANGES IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY AGE

Margherita Azzari, Camillo Berti, Tiziana Pileggi, Giulio Tarchi

Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici (IT)

Coastal wetlands stand for a remarkable ecosystem in terms of environmental wealth (geomorphologic distinctive features, typical vegetation or faunal associations) and cultural heritage as evidence of human activities related to this singular environment. Tuscan coastal wetlands preserve interesting environmental contexts but are menaced by urban and industrial expansion and stressed by pollution. Due to these remarks these zones have been selected as study areas with the aim of setting up a GIS.
The phases of the research are: reconstruction of time series about land use from historical cartography (15th to 19th centuries), documentary sources, aerial photos (1937-2000), data in digital format (the CORINE project, Territorial Informative System of Tuscany Region; Tuscany Forestry Inventory, RENATO project, etc.); census and mapping of environmental and cultural heritage; input of data in a GIS to analyze landscape changes.
The methodology adopted is based on the integration and comparative analysis of different sources of archeological, historical and geographical data. In particular we have acquired historical cadastral maps preserved in the National Archives of Tuscany. The complex set of data taken into consideration have been archived and related by means of a GIS. The comparability of information regarding past and present phenomena allows for the understanding of some transformation of the wetland and ex-wetland landscape focusing in particular on the land use changes.
The analysis conducted in the zones chosen as study areas (the northern Tuscan coast, the Pisa and Grosseto Maremma) has pointed out, apart from a few exceptions, the radical transformation of these coastal ex-wetlands, but has also permitted us to register for assessment some significant remains of past territorial settlements, as well as individual environmental wealth (monumental trees, rare floral and faunal species, morphological appearances, etc.) and cultural heritage (monuments, old factories and rural buildings, traces of the historic road networking, toponyms, constructions linked to the hydraulic works of the past, etc.).
The term soil use has been taken into consideration as a principal indicator of landscape transformations. In addition, those transformations which interested settlement systems, the road and hydrographical networks as well as the coast line have been considered.
The most significant fact is without a doubt represented by the almost total disappearance of all the vast wetlands which constituted the characterizing stretch of landscape in the first half of the 1800s (the marshes of the Apuan coast except for the Area Naturale Protetta di Interesse Locale del Lago di Porta, the southern Padule di Massaciuccoli, the Padule Maggiore and Stagno in the Pisa plain and the large Lago di Castiglione on the Grosseto coast). The result of the mechanical land reclamation operations using water-scooping machines conducted in the 1920s and 1930s in the Pisa and Grosseto Maremma is a landscape dominated by wide and flat stretches of fields fit for seed, almost bare of any trees and marked by the regular succession of canals and straight roads. Only recently flourishing horticulturist farming has been introduced which has rapidly reached notable dimensions.
As regards the Apuan area, instead, the ex-wetlands have been occupied by industrial activity and residential settlements and only some hilly areas have maintained, at least in part, the landscape settlement photographed by 19th-Century cadastral cartography with olive trees, grapevines, fruit trees and small settlements, often well preserved in their topographic structure, on the hills overlooking the plain and on the cones.
The notable expansion of the edified and urbanized areas in general, that has taken place mostly since the 1950s, has interested the entire coast. This phenomenon regards both the growth of the historical urban areas (Carrara, Massa, Pietrasanta, Viareggio, Pisa and Grosseto), whose suburbs have expanded into the surrounding countryside, and the ex-novo development of bathing seaside resorts (marinas) along the coast - at first almost completely uninhabited and now massively filled with cement constructions and, finally, the realization of road network infrastructures, railroads and airports along the Tyrrhenian coast.
Rather, we might interpret although not always, in the sign of a substantial preservation the tendency relative to the wooded areas, as a confirmation of quantitative datum, corresponding to the good quality of forest environment which has been variously altered by human activity. A positive exception among the study areas is represented by the areas of the Parco Naturale Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli, where the remaining farms have limited transformation interventions.
For some decades the tendency toward the re-naturalization of some environments has brought about the reformation of circumscribed wetlands or the extensions of small areas which have survived the reclamation operations. The phenomenon was probably favored by the consolidating of territorial policies more knowledgeable and more attentive to environmental problems which, with planning norms oriented toward the defense of natural areas, have disciplined interventions on the territory. The institution of the two parks of Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli, and Maremma and some natural reserves (Diaccia Botrona and Lago di Porta) proves this trend.
In addition, we wish to indicate a significant advancement of the coastline evidenced by the comparison between the 19th Century and present-day cartography which confirms the contribution that the analysis of historical cartographic documents can offer to the study of the dynamics of the coast.
In conclusion, the methodological approach being followed and, in particular, the acquisition of historical informative levels from past cartography and their successive integration in a GIS have evidenced the importance of the contribution that the studies of historical geography can offer for a deeper knowledge of the territory, considering the historical values deposited upon the present form of the landscape with the object of activating more harmonious and sustainable local development policies.

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