Assessment of vegetation and naturalness: a study case in Southern Italy

The study of vegetation and naturalness in the province of Benevento (southern Italy) was conducted through a series of complementary steps starting from a preliminary phase of bibliographical research. To draw up the theme map, after the preparatory phase of GIS-based cartographic support, a photo-interpretation phase was conducted for the whole province of Benevento on the basis of orthophotos at a scale of 1:10.000 taken in 1997-1998 supplied by the Provincial Authority. We produced a map which chiefly takes account of the physiognomic features of vegetation alongside floristic data. Throughout the province of Benevento we identified 21 main floristic types grouped into four categories, which include three physiognomic categories and one category grouping the areas greatly affected by human impact. For each vegetation type we calculated the percentage of the area against the whole surface area of the province. Starting from the vegetation map, the vegetation types in the area were reclassified according to the scale of naturalness ordered according to the criterion of proximity to the mature vegetation phase. The conservation status of the plant landscape in the province of Benevento was thus assessed by using the ILC (Index of Landscape Conservation).