This work describes the ongoing design and development of the METRIQA platform, hosting the Italian agrifood data space.Both are key components that the Italian National Research Centre for Agricultural Technologies is putting forward in its activities.We present a high-level description of the platform, which is designed to provide web-like access to digital resources and services following an approach called Web of Agri-Food, to support the digital transformation of the sector in Italy.To show its potential, we also present a real case study demonstrating both the benefits and impacts of the proposed architecture, connecting stakeholders and authorities at different levels.

Designing systems that account for sustainability concerns demands for a better understanding of the impact that digital technology interventions can have on a certain socio-technical context. However, limited studies are available about the elicitation of impact-related information from stakeholders, and strategies are particularly needed to elicit possible longterm effects, including negative ones, that go beyond the planned system goals. This paper reports a case study about the impact of digitalisation in remote mountain areas, in the context of a system for ordinary land management and hydro-geological risk control. The elicitation process was based on interviews and workshops. In the initial phase, past and present impacts were identified. In a second phase, future impacts were forecasted through the discussion of two alternative scenarios: a dystopic, technology-intensive one, and a technology-balanced one. The approach was particularly effective in identifying negative impacts. Among them, we highlight the higher stress due to the excess of connectivity, the partial reduction of decision-making abilities, and the risk of marginalisation for certain types of stakeholders. The study posits that before the elicitation of system goals, requirements engineers need to identify the socio-economic impacts of ICT technologies included in the system, as negative effects need to be properly mitigated. Our study contributes to the literature with: a set of impacts specific to the case, which can apply to similar contexts; an effective approach for impact elicitation; and a list of lessons learned from the experience.

The domain of rural areas, including rural communities, agriculture, and forestry, is going through a process of deep digital transformation. Digitalisation can have positive impacts on sustainability in terms of greater environmental control, and community prosperity. At the same time, it can also have disruptive effects, with the marginalisation of actors that cannot cope with the change. When developing a novel system for rural areas, requirements engineers should carefully consider the specific socio-economic characteristics of the domain, so that potential positive effects can be maximised, while mitigating negative impacts. The goal of this paper is to support requirements engineers with a reference catalogue of drivers, barriers and potential impacts associated to the introduction of novel ICT solutions in rural areas. To this end, we interview 30 cross-disciplinary experts in digitalisation of rural areas, and we analyse the transcripts to identify common themes. According to the experts, main drivers are economic, with the possibility of reducing costs, and regulatory, as institutions push for more precise tracing and monitoring of production; barriers are the limited connectivity, but also distrust towards technology and other socio-cultural aspects; positive impacts are socio-economic (e.g., reduction of manual labour, greater productivity), while negative ones include potential dependency from technology, with loss of hands-on expertise, and marginalisation of certain actors (e.g., small farms, subjects with limited education). This paper contributes to the literature with a domain-specific catalogue that characterises digitalisation in rural areas. The catalogue can be used as a reference baseline for requirements elicitation endeavours in rural areas, to support domain analysis prior to the development of novel solutions, as well as fit-gap analysis for the adaptation of existing technologies.