Abstract
Aim of study: to support landscape planning when soil-erosion control and water cycle regulation represent relevant issues for forest management. A methodological approach - based on simplified index – is proposed in order to assess the protective efficacy of forests on soils (indirect protection). This method is aimed at supporting technicians who are requested to define the most suitable management guidelines and silvicultural treatments.Area of study: Southern Apennines (Alto Agri district – Basilicata Region - Italy), where a landscape planning experimentation was implemented. Material and Methods: The data to estimate the parameters used for the simplified index calculation are retrieved from a non aligned systematic forest inventory. The method considers: 1) the tendency towards instability, 2) the protective action of forest cover and 3) different silvicultural options.Main results: For the analysed forest categories, the results indicate the situations in which hydrogeological hazard is high. The cross-reading of these data with the values based on years of partial and total uncovering of the ground according to different silvicultural options (for each forest category in the reference period of 100 years) has supported the definition of silviculture treatments and management options suitable for the considered forest formations.Research highlights: The proposed method can effectively support technicians in the field by highlighting situations of major hazard risk. Thanks to the joined assessment of different silvicultural options for each forest category, a series of silvicultural treatments, capable of better protecting the soil, can be already defined in the field survey phase.Key words: Alto Agri district (Italy); Forest Landscape Management Planning (FLMP); management; silvicultural treatment; protective function and soil erosion.
Highlights
In Europe, the protective role of forests was firstly acknowledged in the 3th Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) held in Lisbon in June 1998
Main results: For the analysed forest categories, the results indicate the situations in which hydrogeological hazard is high
Landscape planning addresses broad scale forest management, with special attention on land and environmental aspects that cannot be properly considered by referring to a single forest management unit (Paletto et al, 2012)
Summary
In Europe, the protective role of forests was firstly acknowledged in the 3th Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) held in Lisbon in June 1998. The 5th MCPFE, held in Warsaw in 2007, paid particular attention to water resources with special emphasis on coordination of forest and water resources management policies (Warsaw Resolution 2 “Forests and Water”) These important forest functions included: the protection of water quality and supply, the prevention of floods and landslides, the mitigation of drought effects and the struggle against soil erosion. Landscape planning addresses broad scale forest management, with special attention on land and environmental aspects (such as watersheds, biodiversity, hydrogeological protection, etc.) that cannot be properly considered by referring to a single forest management unit (i.e. single forest ownership) (Paletto et al, 2012) Since this level of planning requires a complex series of parameters to evaluate the different functions, it is important that the extensive analysis of the forest as an ecosystem be coupled with a reduction of the costs in the field survey phase. A gap was found in the definition of a quick method to assess the forest protection against hydrogeological risk
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
