Ilda Dreoni on "Compensating local governments for ecological services: a proposed naturalness index"

1. COMPENSATING LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS FOR ECOLOGICAL
SERVICES: A PROPOSED
NATURALNESS INDEX
Ilda Dreoni
University of Turin

2. INTRODUCTION
The dominant economic development model ignores the
limits resulting from the finiteness of natural resources.
One of the main issue concerns the artificial
transformations of land which have a strong impact on
the balance of the ecosystem and that reduces its ability
to supply ecological goods and services.
In this context, the function of spatial planning is crucial in
the management of environmental purposes and affects
decisively the degree of naturalness of the national
territory.
The environmental protection function produces positive
externalities that local authorities, responsible for land
management, can not fully internalize.

3. OBJECTIVE
Develop new policies to reverse the perverse economic
incentives that lead to degradation of the Italian territories.
For this purpose it is necessary to develop new methods
to integrate environmental benefits into market
mechanisms.
The proposed naturalness index, based on land cover
datas, may be used for the development of market-based
instruments that permit the internalization of
environmental externalities.
The final purpose is to orient the land-use planning
towards environmental sustainability and to strengthen
environmental policies implemented at sub-national levels
of government.

4. NATURALNESS MEASUREMENT
The degree of naturalness of the land is directly
connected to the existing biodiversity.
However, this assessment requires knowledge, acquisition
and processing of a large number of information and data
given the complex set of relationships that characterize
natural ecosystems.
The development of a synthetic index, which involves
modest costs in its elaboration, is essential to promote a
real integration of environmental issues within the policies
implemented at all levels of government.

5. NATURALNESS INDEX
Three indicators were analyzed to develop a representative
naturalness index:
- the Net Landscape Ecological Potential Index proposed
by the European Environmental Agency;
- the Landscape Conservation Index proposed by
Pizzolotto and Brandymar (1996);
- the Naturalness Land Index proposed by Osservatorio
Città Sostenibili (2002).

6. NATURALNESS INDEX
The index proposed is based on cardinal rating techniques
of classes of indicators corresponding to the ecological
value of existing biotopes.
According to the reclassification proposed for the
calculation of Naturalness Land Index an ecomosaic map
was created and for each category of biotope was
assigned values ranging from 0 (maximum level of
artificiality) to 1 (maximum level of naturalness).
The indicator proposed by Osservatorio Città Sostenibili
was further improved introducing considerations related to
the designated areas for nature protection and to the land
fragmentation.

7. Fig. 1 Naturalness map of Emilia Romagna

8. Fig. 2 Naturalness map of Sardegna

9. NATURALNESS INDEX
Summarizing, the calculation of the final naturalness index (N) for each
province is based on the following steps:
- creation of the naturalness map (ecomosaic map) relate to each
province j and weighting of the each biotope (i) area (S) based on the
naturalness value (n):
Vi j= ni x Si
- calculation of the total naturalness value (VT) of the province j as the
sum of the naturalness values of the biotopes that constitute it:
VTj = Ʃ Vij, for i = 1,....,n
- calculation of the total weighted naturalness value (VN) as a product of
the total naturalness value relate to each province j and the fragmentation
factor (F):
VNj=VTj x Fj
- calculation of the final naturalness index (N) relate to each province j as
the ratio between the total weighted naturalness value (VN) and the
provincial area (S):
Nj = VNj/Sj

10. Tab. 1 Calculation of the final naturalness index
for the provinces of Emilia Romagna and
Sardegna
Total Fragm e n ta Total n atu ral n e ss
Are a (S j) Natu ral n e ss
n atu ral n e ss ti on factor we i gh te d val u e
Ha i n de x (Nj)
val u e (VTj) Ha (Fj) (VNj) Ha
B ol ogn a 363,946 133,399 0.94 125,813 0.35
Fe rrara 255,434 68,787 1 68,787 0.27
Forl ì -C e se n a 235,036 114,240 0.95 108,762 0.46
Mode n a 263,589 91,809 0.96 88,283 0.33
Parm a 336,658 172,213 0.96 164,570 0.49
Pi ace n z a 252,470 107,930 0.97 104,282 0.41
Rave n n a 181,422 43,315 0.94 40,574 0.22
Re ggi o n e l l 'Em i l i a 224,829 82,488 0.95 78,772 0.35
Ri m i n i 51,535 8,013 0.85 6,829 0.13
Total e 2,164,920 822,195 786,673 0.36
C agl i ari 452,031 257,163 0.96 248,083 0.55
C arbon i a-Igl e si as 148,801 90,823 1 90,823 0.61
Me di o C am pi dan o 151,343 64,868 0.99 64,535 0.43
Nu oro 391,985 279,659 0.97 269,911 0.69
O gl i astra 184,377 142,631 0.97 137,713 0.75
O l bi a-Te m pi o 337,791 216,246 0.98 212,497 0.63
O ri stan o 302,096 152,218 0.95 145,157 0.48
S assari 425,897 216,560 0.98 212,770 0.50
Total e 2,394,321 1,420,168 1,381,489 0.58

11. Fig. 3 Final naturalness index of the provinces of
Emilia Romagna

12. Fig. 4 Final naturalness
index of the provinces of
Sardegna

13. LIMITS
- Exclusion from the assessment of the aquatic
ecosystems.
- Influences on the degree of naturalness of each biotope
depending on the context in which it is inserted.
- Influences on the degree of naturalness of the
designated areas for nature protection depending on the
intensity of protection.
- Availability of thematic maps related to cover and land
use at a level of detail suitable for local applications
(1:25.000).

14. CONCLUSION
The methodology presented represents a first stage of
research for the implementation of biodiversity
conservation policies based on market-based
instruments.
The implementation of funding mechanisms for
environmental services offered by local authorities within
the Italian local finance system would allow a better
integration between economic development and
environmental policies improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of biodiversity conservation policies.