Towards a socioeconomic profile for areas vulnerable to soil compaction? A case study in a Mediterranean country

The present study assesses the spatial distribution of 133 socioeconomic indicators compared with indexes of land vulnerability to natural/human-induced soil compaction in 8101 municipalities in Italy using an exploratory data analysis. The aim is to ascertain if local municipalities classified at high soil vulnerability are also characterized by a specific territorial profile. More than 30 indicators correlated with soil vulnerability to compaction reflecting the long-established interactions between rural communities and the landscape in turn shaped by latest socioeconomic changes. The present study has showed that factors discriminating vulnerable from non-vulnerable areas include demographic and socio-spatial processes (population concentration and aging), economic factors (specialization in tourism, industry and agriculture), environmental variables (i.e. soil erosion, salinization and sealing, forest fires and overgrazing) and landscape attributes (agricultural land-use diversity, crop intensity, land tenure). Land-use intensity, crop fragmentation, population density in rural areas and, more generally, human pressure variables are the factors mostly associated with high levels of (both natural and human-induced) soil vulnerability to compaction. Assessing latent relations between socioeconomic factors and soil vulnerability to compaction provides an in-depth understanding of the overall risk for soil compaction. Soil conservation strategies may benefit from improved knowledge of socio-ecological systems informing a more sustainable land management against soil degradation.