The ethics of isolation, the spread of pandemics, and landscape ecology

The debate around the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has raised multiple and incompletely answered questions regarding how zoonoses are transmitted from wild populations to humans, how they spread within human communities, over regions and across continents, how countries and societies can fight or counter pandemics and how landscapes will have to be effectively managed for limiting the spread of diseases keeping communities safe and healthy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estimating stand volume and above-ground biomass of urban forests using LiDAR

Assessing forest stand conditions in urban and peri-urban areas is essential to support ecosystem service planning and management, as most of the ecosystem services provided are a consequence of forest stand characteristics. However, collecting data for assessing forest stand conditions is time consuming and labor intensive. A plausible approach for addressing this issue is to establish a relationship between in situ measurements of stand characteristics and data from airborne laser scanning (LiDAR). In this study we assessed forest stand volume and above-ground biomass (AGB) in a broadleaved urban forest, using a combination of LiDAR-derived metrics, which takes the form of a forest allometric model. We tested various methods for extracting proxies of basal area (BA) and mean stand height (H) from the LiDAR point-cloud distribution and evaluated the performance of different models in estimating forest stand volume and AGB. The best predictors for both models were the scale parameters of the Weibull distribution of all returns (except the first) (proxy of BA) and the 95th percentile of the distribution of all first returns (proxy of H). The R2 were 0.81 (p < 0.01) for the stand volume model and 0.77 (p < 0.01) for the AGB model with a RMSE of 23.66 m3·ha−1 (23.3%) and 19.59 Mg·ha−1 (23.9%), respectively. We found that a combination of two LiDAR-derived variables (i.e., proxy of BA and proxy of H), which take the form of a forest allometric model, can be used to estimate stand volume and above-ground biomass in broadleaved urban forest areas. Our results can be compared to other studies conducted using LiDAR in broadleaved forests with similar methods

L’esperienza delle Community Forests in Inghilterra

Community Forests can be described as multi-purpose forests that are close to people and that deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. Community Forests involve local communities in the planning, design, management and use of trees, woodland and associated green-spaces. In England, Community Forests are a national programme of environmental regeneration reaching half of the England’s population, enhancing the countryside around major towns and cities, creating beautiful landscapes, rich in wildlife with associated opportunities for recreation and education. Overall, Community Forests cover an area of over four hundred and fifty thousand hectares in England: one of the largest environmental initiatives in Europe. After twenty years, the great involvement of people shows the importance of this new strategy for environmental planning and management.

Tipologie strutturali e caratteristiche funzionali delle aree verdi periurbane: il caso di studio della città di Bari

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Air Pollution Removal by Green Infrastructures and Urban Forests in the City of Florence

Abstract We investigated the potential performance of air pollution removal by the green infrastructures and urban forests in the city of Florence, central Italy, with a focus on the two most detrimental pollutants for human health: particulate (PM 10 ) and ozone (O 3 ). The spatial distribution of green infrastructures was mapped using remote sensing data. A spatial modeling approach using vegetation indices, Leaf Area Index, and local pollution concentration data was applied to estimate PM 10 and O 3 removal. The results are discussed to highlight the role and potential of green infrastructures and urban forests in improving air quality in Southern European cities

Integrated forest management to prevent wildfires under Mediterranean environments

This review presents a multidisciplinary framework for integrating the ecological, regulatory, procedural and technical aspects of forest management for fi res prevention under Mediterranean environments. The aims are to: i) provide a foreground of wildfi re scenario; ii) illustrate the theoretical background of forest fuel management; iii) describe the available fuel management techniques and mechanical operations for fi re prevention in forest and wildland-urban interfaces, with exemplifi cation of case-studies; iv)allocate fi re prevention activities under the hierarchy of forest planning. The review is conceived as an outline commentary discussion targeted to professionals, technicians and government personnel involved in forestry and environmental management