Dry-Stone Wall Terraces for Sustainability to Counteract Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Since ancient times, humans have deeply modified the natural environment of mountainous areas by cutting steep slopes to obtain strips of cultivable land retained by dry-stone walls. This system of agricultural terracing can have several geometrical features, and it was generally built by employing local rock materials. Among the wide spectrum of available agricultural practices, dry-stone wall terraces offer important benefits to the territory by favoring water infiltration and controlling surface run-off, thus promoting soil conservation and providing ecological advantages. The historical, architectural, and environmental value of dry-stone wall agricultural terraces has been recognized worldwide. Moreover, “the art of dry-stone walls” was recently inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Starting from the 20th century, several eco-environmental (e.g., desertification, climate change) and socioeconomic factors (e.g., intensive agriculture, rural areas depopulation) have led to widespread farmland abandonment, especially in mountainous marginal areas, with serious consequences on dry-stone wall terraces. The lack of maintenance of dry-stone wall terraces directly related to abandonment negatively affects their hydrogeomorphological functions. Changes after abandonment can involve dry-stone wall collapses associated with the development of erosion processes and mass movements, by promoting the re-establishment of natural landscape morphologies.

Climate change scenarios predict decreasing trends in precipitation at regional and local scales. This will reduce agricultural productivity, giving rise to further land abandonment. On the other hand, the frequency and intensity of rainfall is most likely expected to increase globally, exacerbating the effects of erosion processes. Therefore, in the absence of effective and sustainable management strategies, the landscape of dry-stone wall terraces is likely to undergo significant impacts in terms of geo-hydrological risk and loss of potentially arable land.

This Special Issue aims to gather recent and innovative research on the role of dry-stone wall terraces in increasing the resilience of rural territories and in counteracting the impacts of climate change. In this Special Issue, we would like to invite papers presenting multidisciplinary approaches and case studies, with contributions from different fields, such as geomorphology, hydrology, engineering geology, agronomy, and landscape and urban planning. Contributions addressing the analysis of dry-stone wall terraces under a climate change perspective, at different scales in space (e.g., from experimental terraced slopes to wide terraced areas) and time (e.g., from single events to several decades), and based on different methodologies (e.g., geotechnical monitoring, remote sensing techniques, and modeling approaches) are particularly welcome.

The Special Issue covers but is not limited to the following topics:

• Dry-stone wall terraces as green infrastructures for mitigating and adapting to the consequences of climate change;
• Sustainable management of both abandoned and cultivated dry-stone wall terraces;
• Climate change impacts on dry-stone wall terraces;
• Innovative and sustainable solutions to increase the resistance of the dry-stone wall retained soil systems and the resilience of agricultural ecosystems (e.g., agricultural practices, land management measures) to the effects of climate change.

Prof. Dr. Marco Firpo
Dr. Andrea Mandarino
Dr. Giacomo Pepe
Guest Editors

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• terraced landscape
• drystone-walls
• slope instability
• agriculture
• climate change
• natural hazards
• land management
• anthropogenic geomorphology
• ecosystem services
• mitigation and adaptation strategies
• green infrastructures
• sustainability