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To assist spatial planning and environmental management policies in coastal areas, the monitoring of urban sprawl and the characterization of the evolution of built-up areas are essential prerequisites. In this perspective, the production of land use data sets on a large-scale is necessary and many governmental and research initiatives have been engaged for this purpose. Taking as a case study the coastal zone of the Côte bleue, in Provence, this paper reports on an experiment of land use mapping on a large-scale, based on a classification made of 44 urban classes compliant with Corine Land Cover. Available with four versions (1998, 2003, 2008 and 2011), the resulting database allows an accurate characterization of the recent evolution of the urbanization. Urban sprawl and urban densification can be studied using spatial analysis. Thus, the transformation of artificial areas appears much higher than urban sprawl. However, urban areas composed of single houses still prevail.

Investigations on pastoral resources are mainly represented by surveys aimed to assess the main characteristics of pastures in order to obtain useful information on the carrying capacity of a pastoral surface. At a territorial level, different approaches can be used, involving also remote sensing and use of geographical information systems. The study presented here has been carried out in a National Park in Tuscany, central Italy (Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna) on a pastoral surface of about 1500 ha, with the aim of evaluating the potential stocking rate in the studied area. The whole investigated territory was subdivided into three wide districts, and inside each of them a photointerpretation was performed to classify the occurring pastoral resources into different classes of quality, based on the percentage of ground covered by trees and shrubs encroaching the pastures. Inside each district and class of pasture, botanical relevés were conducted to assess the presence of different herbaceous species and to compute the pastoral value, a key parameter used to determine the potential stocking rate of a pastoral resource. Photointerpretation allowed an easy and efficient classification of different pastures in relation to shrubs encroachment and to quantify the surfaces occupied by each identified class. Vegetation assessment confirmed the accuracy of the followed method to rank pastures, in terms of presence of herbaceous species and of pastoral value, which resulted highly related to the presence of woody species in the pastures. Moreover, average pastoral value and carrying capacity of each quality category were very similar for all districts, thus demonstrating the validity of the utilized method and the representativeness of chosen areas.

The Parties that have signed the Kyoto Protocol must reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) during the First Commitment Period (2008 - 2012) by at least 5% with respect to 1990. This share is 6.5% for Italy. The Kyoto Protocol lays down some measures for reducing GHG emissions, which include actions in agriculture and forestry. it will thus be possible to take emissions and absorptions resulting from land use changes into account in the National Balances. Given the widespread forests in Italy, it is very important to have an assessment of the aptitude of this sector to act as a carbon sink. In this study we analysed the variation of forestland cover in a mountain area of the Veneto Region (NE Italy). The analysis was done by comparing aerial photos taken in 1991 with orthophotos reported to 2003, by photointerpretation of points with casual distribution on sample areas, according to a stratified sampling. We estimated a statistically relevant increment of about 0.095% of forest land only up to 1500 m compared to the estimated forest cover for 1990 (about 42 ha), underlining how this low increase is mainly due to forest management. The second step was to estimate the fixed carbon in the areas where forests increased. This was achieved by collecting biometrical data in the field, and then using allometric functions. The annual carbon sink was estimated as 0.69 Mg ha-1 year-1. Comparing these results with previous studies done in the pre-alpine region we estimate the annual increment of the forest area in the whole Veneto region to be about 409.94 ha and that the total carbon sink is about 282.86 Mg C year-1. A method for estimating carbon sink in afforestation/reforestation areas is proposed that could also be applied to other sites in Italy.

In Italy, reliable updated data on forest expansion on a national or regional scale are not available. The aim of this note is to present a probabilistic estimation approach based on land cover classification repeated on the same sample points for two successive occasions. The approach was experimented in the Abruzzo region (Central Italy), where the rate of forest expansion was assessed by multitemporal classification of permanent sample points on orthocorrected aerial photos. The forest area at the year 1990, a figure of high relevance for reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, was also assessed. The proposed procedure proved to be relatively easy to implement and able to provide precise estimates, given the adopted sampling intensity (the same of the Italian national forest inventory). It is stressed that statistical figures of forest areas on wide territories obtained by estimation approaches like the proposed one are scientifically more defensible than those traditionally based on the complete mapping, being more objectively repeatable.

The aim of this study is to test the Spot 5 satellite imagery for the cartography of terrestrial vegetation in the prospect of a monitoring of coastal zones. Two methods are used. The first method is based on a photointerpretation of a 2.5 meters multipectral image with the european EUNIS habitat classification. A comparison with aerial orthoimages is realised. The results show that Spot 5 satellite imagery is quite suitable for vegetation mapping at a local scale. The majority of the habitats are identified with very few exceptions (patchy habitat of particular texture and of small size). The second method is based on the updating of existing data through the classification of the 10 meters multispectral image into a GIS. This process implies the development of a dynamic vegetation model. A map is produced in a short delay. It may be useful for the large-scale monitoring of dynamic vegetation processes.

Investigations on pastoral resources are mainly represented by surveys aimed to assess the main characteristics of pastures in order to obtain useful information on the carrying capacity of a pastoral surface. At a territorial level, different approaches can be used, involving also remote sensing and use of geographical information systems. The study presented here has been carried out in a National Park in Tuscany, central Italy (Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna) on a pastoral surface of about 1500 ha, with the aim of evaluating the potential stocking rate in the studied area. The whole investigated territory was subdivided into three wide districts, and inside each of them a photointerpretation was performed to classify the occurring pastoral resources into different classes of quality, based on the percentage of ground covered by trees and shrubs encroaching the pastures. Inside each district and class of pasture, botanical relevés were conducted to assess the presence of different her - baceous species and to compute the pastoral value, a key parameter used to determine the potential stocking rate of a pastoral resource. Photointerpretation allowed an easy and efficient classification of different pastures in relation to shrubs encroachment and to quantify the surfaces occupied by each identified class. Vegetation assessment confirmed the accuracy of the followed method to rank pastures, in terms of presence of herbaceous species and of pastoral value, which resulted highly related to the presence of woody species in the pastures. Moreover, average pastoral value and carrying capacity of each quality category were very similar for all districts, thus demonstrating the validity of the utilized method and the representativeness of chosen areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vegetation mapping of the South Corsica coastal area (Sartène - Porto-Vecchio) is done within the context of the International Park of Bouches de Bonifacio Project. Its main purpose is to study vegetation types and to assess the natural diversity of the site. The methodology is based on interpretation of aerial photographs at a scale of 1 : 25000 associated with field investigations and Geographical Information System technologies.

The Tricastin region (France - Drôme and Vaucluse Departments) is one of the regions for which the most information on the ancient agrarian structure is available. It is the only region of the Roman Empire for which there exists a rural cadastral plan drawn up during antiquity (the B Cadastre of Orange), and of which fragments have been found engraved on marble slabs. This incomplete but extremely precise cartography represents a regular breakdown of the land into square units (centuries), still partially perceptible in the landscape, transferred onto a summary geographical backdrop on which the water courses are distinguished from the major roads. This exceptional and unique information has been supplemented by an archaeological map drawn up from field and air surveys, and from recent observations made during the archaeological survey carried out along the layout of the future Mediterranean TGV railway line.Given this situation, it is interesting to determine the specific contribution that satellite remote sensing can make towards the information obtained from the geo-archaeological investigation and the archaeomorphology based on cartography and photointerpretation. The result of the interpretation of certain processing operations shows the advantage and the capacity of remote sensing to supplement information obtained from photointerpretation and archaeological digs.