The bioremediation of polluted areas as an opportunity to improve ecosystem services

The intensive urban development characterizes the European context, demonstrating existing dynamics generally orientated toward the increasing of urban population in cities and in the coastal areas, and the reduction of rural landscape (abandonment, underutilization, deterioration, pollution, inappropriate utilization, etc., of agricultural areas and marginal lands). The main impact of such dynamics is the loss of territorial maintenance and the phenomenon of land abandonment (landslides, burning, wastes disposal, together with socio economic degradation). This land downgrade, despite it not, necessarily, correspond to a severe soil pollution, could impulse to a land requalification, basically based on a land use change, passing from intensive agricultural use toward no-food cropped areas or (if possible) areas for recreational use. European Community policies, jointly with industrial stakeholders in the field of the biomass production, could be an important support such conversion. Due to the use of decision support software, the gradual evolutions of land use change (LUC) scenarios are conceivable. Scenarios comparison will be based both on a productivity criterion and on the evaluation of Ecosystem Services (ESs). ESs indeed provide better condition for human wellbeing, qualitative livelihoods and efficiency for the human habitat (Costanza, 1997). Since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2003 and 2005) scholars consider ESs an essential topic for improve urban and peri-urban resilience and a key concept for updating the planning framework. Moreover ES are useful tools for the assessment of planning policies and of the outcome of the EU funds. In Campania Region (Southern Italy), both PON Biopolis and the European LIFE/ENV/IT/275 Ecoremed projects work for providing scientific proofs in the using of no food crops to prevent marginalization or abandonment in large areas. In such framework the aim of the study is to find out a set of consistent scenario for testing the impacts of LUC for such widespread polluted areas that could become an opportunity for a positive change of the ESs values, improving the biodiversity of the territory. The here presented evaluation, made through the ESs approach are now under comparison with the first results of the LUC on the ecological networks and local wildlife.