Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon Analysis Soil Matters? A Multivariate Analysis of Socioeconomic Constraints to Urban Expansion in Mediterranean Europe Ilaria Zambon a , Anna Benedetti b , Carlotta Ferrara c,⁎ , Luca Salvati c a Department DAFNE, University of Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, I-01100 Viterbo, Italy b Council for Agricultural Research and Economics - Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via della Navicella 2-4, I-00184 Rome, Italy c Council for Agricultural Research and Economics - Research Centre for Forestry and Wood, Viale S. Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Urbanization Soil consumption Forests Multivariate techniques Mediterranean region ABSTRACT Urban expansion and socioeconomic transformations of metropolitan regions may negatively impact environ- mental quality and functions of peri-urban landscapes. In the present study, the role of continuous and dis- continuous urban expansion as a driver of high-quality soil consumption has been investigated in 66 southern European metropolitan regions. Landscape metrics and socioeconomic indicators were considered together in a multivariate exploratory analysis with the aim to assess the intensity of recent urban expansion (2000 -2010) and the consequent depletion of different soil types in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Greek cities. Overall, urban expansion involved preferentially high-quality soils in the study area. A Principal Component Analysis identified diverging city profiles as far as spatial patterns of soil consumption are concerned. Per-capita declared income, income growth rate, population density and landscape diversity were highest in metropolitan regions where urban expansion consumed soils with lower quality than non-urban soils. Urban expansion consumed high-quality soils in metropolitan regions with low per-capita built-up area, low soil quality index and peri-urban landscapes dominated by forests. Results of our study inform policies for urban containment. Design of effective measures mitigating loss of high-quality peri-urban soils requires a comprehensive understanding of multiple impacts of local socioeconomic contexts on land consumption processes. 1. Introduction Representing a vital, limited and non-renewable natural resource, Soil supports ecosystem functions such as biological productivity, water purification and carbon cycling, demonstrating ability to recovery even in contexts where land-use mosaics have determined spatially-hetero- geneous human disturbance (Verburg et al., 2008). Soils play a key role in ecosystem services' provision, depending on their physical, chemical and biological attributes which are shaped by a mix of natural and anthropogenic factors (Karlen et al., 2003). However, if anthropogenic pressure exceeds a given limit, soils would be unable to perform pivotal tasks and become ecologically vulnerable (Lorent et al., 2008). Humans are among the most influential agents and directly or indirectly impact the performance characteristics of soil, thus limiting or enhancing its productive capacity (Amundson et al., 2003). Preserving soil quality is considered a primary target of any environmental protection strategy at various spatial scale, from local to continental (e.g. Salvati et al., 2012); soil health management and conservation was recently recognized as a relevant issue in the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (see http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable- development-goals/), contributing directly to four goals (‘no poverty’, ‘zero hunger’, ‘clean water and sanitation’ and ‘life on land’) and in- directly to most of the remaining goals. With soils being inherently variable over space and susceptible to multiple uses for the benefit of human beings, soil and land capitals assume a fundamental role in local development (Robinson and Lebron, 2010; Roseta-Palma et al., 2010; Ferrara et al., 2016). For centuries, fertile soils have ensured the maintenance of a viable agriculture and rural settlements, promoting industrial growth in suitable areas (Hubacek and van den Bergh, 2006). In recent decades, urbanization processes, including urban sprawl and city shrinkage, have caused an increased consumption of soil resources with negative environmental impacts (Paul and Tonts, 2005; Aguilera et al., 2011; Inostroza et al., 2013; Salvati et al., 2015). Historically-produced and place-specific processes have traditionally shaped landscape transformations, often resulting in divergent socioeconomic outcomes (McCauley et al., 2015). At the global scale, urban dispersion is a key socioeconomic issue (Couch et al., 2007) and a serious concern for sustainable development (Longhi and Musolesi, 2007). Being primarily driven by urban sprawl (Scalenghe and Ajmone Marsan, 2009), sealing of high-quality soils is http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.10.015 Received 14 March 2017; Received in revised form 14 August 2017; Accepted 12 October 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: carlotta.ferrara@crea.gov.it (C. Ferrara). Ecological Economics 146 (2018) 173–183 0921-8009/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. MARK