Multi-criterial approaches for the inventory and the evaluation of traditional cultural landscapes

The Mediterranean environment is characterized by an high variability in ecological features and by a rich biodiversity, whose interaction has generated complex agro-forestry systems. The resulting cultural landscapes can represent a remarkable trait of Italian landscape. Nonetheless, since several decades they are at risk mainly owing to the consequences of cultural intensification, that has turn out in new cultural models, i.e. specialized high density agronomic plantation, or in a progressive abandonment of agricultural land. In order to prevent the degradation or loos of these particular ecosystems, it becomes a priority to adopt measures for their preservation and promotion. Regardless of this necessity, up to now it lacks in Italy an exhaustive classification of the traditional landscapes that necessitate to be preserved. The inventory is the first step to be considered in order to elaborate a successive global evaluation of their function and conservation requirements. The present study reports on an holistic multidisciplinary methodology formulated and proposed for the classification and the analysis of cultural landscapes. As far the inventory is concerned, it has been evaluated the concomitant presence of a plurality of characterizing descriptors, represented and implemented in a GIS system, such as geomorphological parameters, pedoclimatic features, land use typology and history of the territory. As far as the evaluation of cultural landscape significance is concerned, it has been proposed a global value obtained by integrating particular values, like the biological, historical, socio-economic, artistic, emotional ones.