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Grant support

The project was funded by the University of Padua, 60A08-8725/15 Analysis of relationships between mountain livestock farming, environment and landscape. Georgia Faccioni was partially supported by the Borsa Gini scholarship awarded by the Fondazione Aldo Gini, Padua, Italy. The Foundation Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo (Cariparo) financed the PhD project of Georgia Faccioni.

Analysis of institutional authors

Alberto Bernués JalAuthor

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September 11, 2019
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Socio-economic valuation of abandonment and intensification of Alpine agroecosystems and associated ecosystem services

Publicated to:Land Use Policy. 81 (81): 453-462-462 - 2019-02-01 81(81), DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.10.044

Authors: Faccioni, G; Sturaro, E; Ramanzin, M; Bernues, A

Affiliations

Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón - Author
Inst Agroalimentario Aragon, Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon, Avda Montanana 930, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author
Univ Padua, DAFNAE, Viale Univ 16, I-35020 Legnaro, PD, Italy - Author

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse, using the ecosystem services framework, the sociocultural and economic value of a number of positive functions of Alpine agroecosystems (in north-eastern Italy) in a context of simultaneous processes of intensification and abandonment. Firstly, we used qualitative methods (interviews with farmers and other local stakeholders) to explore the relationships between the dairy livestock systems and the environment. Secondly, we used a choice model to rank and value the most important functions of the current agroecosystems (dairy livestock systems and permanent crops) according to the views of local (residents of the study area) and general (residents of the six neighbouring provinces) populations in three policy scenarios. We found that all the local stakeholders had a positive opinion of the outcomes of the mountain dairy livestock system. Within the current agroecosystems, regulation services (water quality) were found to be the most valuable for the well-being of society. Moreover, people were willing to compromise on production (quality products) rather than cut back on environmental services in a hypothetical sustainable development scenario. The current trend of intensification of permanent crops and dairy production, with the consequent abandonment of summer pastures, was rejected by respondents. The Total Economic Value of a set of four ecosystem services of an Alpine agroecosystem was 159.30 per person per year, which clearly exceeded current expenditure on agroenvironmental programmes.

Keywords

AgricultureBiodiversityDairy cattleDairy systemsGrasslandHigh quality productsLand-use changesLandscapeLandscape changeLivestock farming systemsManagementPerceptionsPolicy scenariosSociocultural valuationWater quality

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Land Use Policy due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 28/123, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Studies.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 3.27. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.13 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 10.27 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-05, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 72
  • Scopus: 74

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 157.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 168 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 6.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Italy.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (Bernues Jal, Alberto).