An analytic network process approach for the evaluation of second order effects of agricultural landscape management on local economies

Agricultural landscape is a complex system composed by interrelated ecological, economic and social sub-systems. Disentangling interactions and mechanisms in such a context is, therefore, difficult and involves knowledge and methodologies developed in different scientific fields. In this paper we propose a multicriteria approach – namely the Analytic Network Process (ANP)- with three objectives. a) to present the application of the ANP method to the agricultural landscape topic in 8 EU case study areas; b) to underline strenghts and weaknesses of that method; c) to discuss evidences and possibilities for the improvement of the method. Main results highlighted the possibility to employ the ANP as a structured integrated tool able to cross-compare similarities and dissimilarities between different case studies characterized by different biophysical features and socio-economic conditions. Building upon the results, our analysis underlined that the ANP technique confirmed the existence of local differences between case studies (for instance between EU countries and Turkey). However, these differences were not so emphasized at this scale of analysis as evidenced by other studies. The ANP could serve as a new approach, able to provide a ”snapshot” of the system and the underneath cause-effect mechanisms.