Suchergebnisse

L'ecologia del paesaggio offre un ampio spettro di tecniche d'analisi applicabili a cartografie di uso e copertura del suolo per derivare informazioni quantitative su una varietà di aspetti della configurazione spaziale del mosaico paesistico; tra gli altri, misure relative alla estensione, forma, e livello di frammentazione spaziale delle superfici forestali (o di altre categorie di habitat naturali e seminaturali) sono ritenute utili a rispondere a requisiti informativi tipicamente formulati nel contesto di politiche di conservazione della biodiversità. Analisi della struttura del paesaggio possono anche supportare l'individuazione di ambiti territoriali omogenei per valore paesaggistico da individuare nel piano paesaggistico regionale, rispetto ai quali pianificare obiettivi di qualità paesaggistica e prescrizioni per la tutela e l'uso del territorio (vd. D. Lgs. 42/2004, Codice Urbani). Le metodologie di analisi e il monitoraggio della struttura spaziale del paesaggio agro-forestale sono ormai numerose e consolidate; tuttavia, solo di recente i risultati di questi studi hanno cominciato a supportare e orientare politiche di pianificazione del territorio per la formulazione di strategie di sviluppo territoriale differenziate in rapporto alle esigenze di conservazione degli habitat e della biodiversità e di salvaguardia del paesaggio calibrate in base alle specificità dei singoli territori. In particolare, il tema delle reti ecologiche, è divenuto oggetto specifico di pianificazione all'interno degli strumenti di area vasta. In questa prospettiva il presente contributo intende delineare alcune riflessioni su come raccordare le conoscenze dell'ecologia del paesaggio alla formulazione di obiettivi di salvaguardia e valorizzazione del paesaggio, tenendo conto della configurazione attuale del sistema delle pianificazioni aventi competenza in materia di governo del paesaggio. Focalizzando l'attenzione su le problematiche di governo del paesaggio più tipiche del paesaggio agro-forestale, vengono inoltre prospettate alcune considerazioni sul possibile ruolo della gestione forestale come strumento d'attuazione delle previsioni inerenti la tutela e la riqualificazione del paesaggio espresse dagli strumenti di pianificazione di area vasta.

Il continuo aumento della domanda di energia e la modesta autosufficienza energetica spingono le politiche energetiche dell'Italia, nel quadro degli impegni 20-20-20, verso un crescente impiego di biomasse forestali in progetti di produzione energetica delocalizzata e sostenibile. Per identificare opzioni progettuali in grado di soddisfare in modo sostenibile la domanda di energie rinnovabili è necessario produrre stime sufficientemente attendibili sulla disponibilità di biomasse forestali destinabili all'uso energetico, definendo criteri di sostenibilità nel prelievo calibrati sul contesto ambientale e socio-economico locale. In tale logica, il lavoro presenta un caso di studio finalizzato a quantificare nel comprensorio forestale di circa 27.000 ha dell'Alta valle dell'Aniene (Italia centrale) la quantità di biomassa forestale destinabile alla produzione di energia termica. La quantità annua di biomassa forestale destinabile alla produzione di energia, stimata attraverso un modello conservativo basato su criteri di utilizzazione forestale sostenibile, è pari a circa il 18% (21.000 t s.s. anno-1) della produttività annua delle foreste del comprensorio e i quantitativi unitari di biomassa ritraibile risultano pari a circa 2 t s.s. ha-1anno-1. La disponibilità complessiva di biomassa nelle aree maggiormente idonee sotto il profilo dell'accessibilità è di quasi 9.000 t s.s. anno-1, quantitativo sufficiente per implementare una filiera locale di produzione del cippato in grado di alimentare alcune decine di impianti di riscaldamento di edifici pubblici e privati. ; Italy's energy policy, in the framework of the 20-20-20 commitments, is oriented towards the increasing exploitation of wood biomass for local energy production projects; this is due to rising demand for energy and low self-sufficiency of the country. To support renewable energy targets in a sustainable way, reliable estimates on the wood biomass technically available for energy production are needed, taking into account local environmental and socio-economic constraints. This paper presents a case study aimed at assessing the wood biomass technically available for energy generation. The sample area is the forest (approximately 27.000 ha) of the Upper valley of Aniene River (Central Italy). The annual amount of wood biomass available for energy generation is estimated using a conservative model. It is based on environmentalcompatible and sustainable wood harvesting criteria. The available wood biomass is approximately 18% (21.000 t s.s. year-1) of the total forest productivity of the area, corresponding to about 2 t s.s. ha-1year-1. The overall biomass available in the most accessible areas is nearly 9.000 t s.s. year-1. This would be enough to support the development of a local wood-fuel energy chain, to feed several heating plants of public and private buildings.

This study reviews carbon stocks and carbon dynamics in different types of forest land in Italy: ordinary managed forests, forest plantations, old growth forests, and trees outside forests. Forest management, combined with global environmental changes, increases the capacity of carbon uptake of ordinary managed forests. Forest plantations, particularly the ones subject to short-rotation forestry systems,potentially have high soil carbon accumulation, especially in agricultural lands. Old growth forests, recently discovered as a carbon sink, cover a significant surface area in Italy. Moreover, the trees outside forests may represent a sensible carbon stock, especially in the context of urban environments. Our study points out the management actions that can be implemented in Italy to increase the carbon stocks of different forest ecosystems, such as increasing the mean annual increment in managed forests, enhancement of the national network of old growth forests, and expansion of forest plantations in suitable areas. These aspects have important implications after the recent recognition of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector in the EU target within the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework.

L'articolo è disponibile sul sito dell'editore www.sisef.it ; Land use inventories are sound measures to provide information on the area occupied by different land use or land cover types and their changes, although less widespread than traditional mapping; as such, they are distinctively wellestablished tools for generating statistics on the state and the dynamics of land use in the European Union. Italy has recently set up a land use inventory system (IUTI) as a key instrument for accounting removals and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) associated to land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities elected by Italy under the Kyoto Protocol. IUTI adopts a statistical sampling procedure to estimate the area covered by LULUCF land use categories in Italy, and associated uncertainty estimates. Estimates of land use have been so far processed for the period 1990-2008 and highlight three interlinked land use change patterns in Italy: (i) increase in forest land for a total uptake of 1.7% of the Italian territory; forest cover estimates, with a standard error of 0.1%, indicate an annual increase of forestland higher over the period 1990-2000 (32 901 ha year-1) than in 2000-2008 (22 857 ha year-1); surprisingly, also a significant deforestation rate is observed (-7000 ha year-1), due to forest land conversion mainly into artificial areas; (ii) consumption of arable land (-4.2% of the Italian territory) primarily due to land uptake by urban areas and to conversions to permanent crops (mainly orchards and vineyards); (iii) urban sprawl uptakes 1.6% of the Italian territory in this period, with a total coverage of settlements reaching 7.1% of total land surface in Italy in 2008. Overall, land use dynamic results in land uptake by forest land is of the same magnitude of land uptake by urban areas, but the effects of these processes on GHG removals (by forest sinks) and emissions (by urban areas) is expected to be significantly different. In a broader perspective, IUTI methodology, by providing reliable estimates and well-defined levels of statistical uncertainty for assessing stocks and flows of land use at national level, can be further implemented to frame other key questions for sustainable development policies, like the set up of environmental-economic accounting systems.

Forest condition, biodiversity, and ecosystem services are strongly interlinked. The biodiversity levels depend to a large extent on the integrity, health, and vitality of forests at the same time as losses of forest biodiversity lead to decreased forest productivity and sustainability. Under this conceptual framework, this study presents a methodology for mapping forest condition at European scale supporting the attainment of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Target 5 "the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests, is at least halved and where feasible brought close to zero, and degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced" and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as well as the EU forest strategy since the sustainable forest management is oriented to support the provision of forest services and to enhance the condition of biodiversity forests' host. The work presents the developments of an operational indicator at European scale. This spatially explicit information on forest condition can be the baseline map with a 1 km resolution to monitor the state and changes of condition by exposition to pressures and threats. This condition indicator considers structural, functional, and compositional aspects of forest with relevance for health and vitality of species and habitats hosted by forest ecosystems. The methodology implemented used harmonized, published and open datasets. It provided confident results for the assessment of the condition within hemiboreal, temperate and alpine forests, showing the Carpathian, Dinaric Alps and Alps, among others, as hotspots with pre-dominantly good condition. The results were validated with data derived from the reporting for the EU Habitat Directive and explicit dataset on known primary forests in Europe. However, this method underestimated the forest condition in the Mediterranean and Boreal forest types due to data gaps, regional specific characteristics, and design limitations. (.) ; This work is part of the support provided by the ...

The European Union Rural Development Program (RDP) is a major driver of landscape change over time in Europe. In a context of climate and land use changes and consequent fire risk exacerbation, understanding the possible contribution of RDP measures to wildfire risk mitigation could help planning subsidies allocation criteria in a more efficient way for fire prevention. However, little is known on the links between the spatial allocation of RDP subsidies, relevant for wildfires prevention, and the spatial distribution of fire activity. Our study aims to fill this knowledge gap through an exploratory analysis carried out in Italy and based on fire activity indicators of the period 2007–2017, RDP expenditure at municipal level in the period 2017–2013, and a series of ancillary indicators. We selected RDP measures specifically addressing wildfires (direct prevention) and those whose implementation has an impact on fire regime (indirect prevention). Our results suggest a low association between RDP expenditure for fire-related measures and subsequent reduction of wildfire activity. Principal Component Analysis suggests a role of managed rural areas in mitigating fire activity, as well as a spatial mismatch between wildfire prevention expenditure and high fire activity contexts. We claim the need for a deeper integration of territorial planning information within the RDP funding allocation criteria. Also, integrating RDP indirect pre- vention measures within fire management plans would be a cost-effective approach to leverage the impact of public policies on wildfire risk management, by allocating the limited financial resources to high-risk areas.