Effects of Climate Change on Vegetation in the Province of Macerata (Central Italy)

Climate change will have a major influence on vegetation, including crops. Thus, it is essential for a conscious spatial planning to analyse the environmental changes taking place. This research is focused on a small part of the west coast in Central Italy, the province of Macerata. The aim of this research is to highlight climate change and to relate it to the environmental changes taking place. The data of 30 rain gauges and 40 weather stations for temperature from 1961 to 2014 were analysed in order to assess climate change. The data were divided into two standard periods, 1961–1990 and 1991–2014, and through GIS software were calculated and spatialized some climatic and bioclimatic indices, in addition to the study of the hydrological water balance for the province of Macerata. Then, it was assessed the land use as well as the Landsat TM imagery, in the last 30 years. Through the GIS software, the differences were quantitatively evaluated, both for climatic indices and for vegetation through math between rasters. However, a substantial relationship has only been identified for normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in August for the years 1991, 2001, and 2011. These results were in agreement, and in fact, a decrease of precipitation in some months and an increase of maximum temperature lead to a decrease in vegetation. In conclusion, climate change can have a major impact on the natural environment and it is essential to know it, in order not to passively undergo the changes induced by the lack of human care for its habitat.