Matteo Piccinno

Thanks to their ability to produce ecosystem services, forest ecosystems have a significant social, economic and environmental impact on the development of many regions in the world, especially when located in urban and peri-urban areas. Today, increased forest vulnerability is being reflected in a larger number of severe decline episodes associated mainly with drought. In this context, the Mediterranean area shows high forest vulnerability and a subsequent decline in its natural renewal rate. In this scenario, the aim of the present research is to assess sustainability of a protected pristine deciduous oak forest near Rome, developing a forest health condition monitoring tool based on the application of multispectral satellite data, and through the identification of silvicultural models appropriate for promoting natural forest renewal. The preliminary results of this research indicate how the exclusion of wildlife through fenced areas significantly favors the natural renewal of the forest, especially when silvicultural actions such as thinning are carried out. It has also been ascertained through the use of multispectral satellite data that there is a widespread decline in the health vegetative state of the deciduous oak surfaces, due to a widespread senescence of the forest. In the addressed study area, the Natural State Reserve of Castelporziano (Rome), data and results from this research can work as an important decision tool for sustainable forest management.

Due to the concomitance of several factors related to progressive climate changes and to increased water management for anthropogenic usage, drastic fall in level of Bracciano Lake, a volcanic lake, 30 km northwest of Rome, was reported. In November 2017 the water level decreased 1.98 m below the hydrometric zero. Vulnerability to eutrophication was investigated by determination of the lake water volume and the related phosphorus concentration. At this purpose, the bathymetry layer of the water body and the application of supervised classification of Sentinel-2 images allowed to quantify the water body and to define the coastline shape. Once calculated the hydrometric reduction in water body after the hydrometric crisis, occurred in 2017, Vollenweider model allowed to estimate nutrient concentration (around 100.93 µg/l) and the relative increase of the eutrophication status (+2.3% per liter). According to the lake water quality classification proposed by the OECD, we classified the lake as a very eutrophic lake with a hypertrophic level in the period of water crisis. The proposed methodology represents an efficient monitoring tool for assessing the vulnerability of water bodies influenced by eutrophication.