Daniela Tonti

Among the land use–land cover products, tree cover maps are essential tools for assessing forest functionality and ecosystem services, and implementing sustainable forest management. By combining open-source and ancillary high-resolution cartographic datasets, this study aims to map trees and forests in the Latium region in central Italy, highlighting their spatial configuration, function, and forest typology. The main findings show that trees cover 44.2% of the regional land area. Forests cover 508,056 ha, forming the core matrix of the Latium mountain landscape, providing significant ecological and socio-economic value for forest management and the regional wood supply chain. Although trees outside the forest represent only 3.1% of regional tree cover, they play a crucial role in enhancing ecological connectivity and landscape resilience. Approximately 2% of the tree and forest cover occurs in urban areas, contributing significantly to climate regulation and air quality in densely populated environments. The dominant forest types in Lazio include Turkey oak, temperate broadleaf, beech, downy oak, and Holm oak, which together account for 58.6% of the total tree cover. The accuracy tests confirm the feasibility of using open-source data for reliable, cost-effective forest mapping. Regular updates of these maps can support continuous monitoring and promote sustainable forest management practices.

Among LULC products, tree cover maps are crucial tools to assess forest functionality and ecosystem services (ES), and implement sustainable forest management. Advances in remote sensing technologies continue improving maps’ accuracy, detail and proficiency. This study focuses on a novel high resolution tree cover mapping of Latium region, central Italy, emphasizing spatial configuration, function and typology. Regional forests and trees covers 44.2% of Latium. Forests in mountain areas represent 38.3% of the regional mountain surfaces. Covering 469,593 ha, trees in hilly and floodplain areas plays a crucial role for biodiversity, environmental risks and other ES. We distinguished between forests, which comprise 96.9% of tree cover, and TOF, which contribute to ecological connectivity and landscape resilience. Although representing 2% of the total tree cover, urban forests are vital for climate and urban air quality. Major forest categories of Latium include Turkey oak, Temperate broadleaf, Beech, Downy oak and Holm oak forests. Proposed methodology was found to be reliable for similar purposes. Study has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of producing reliable and cost-effective regional forest maps using open-source data. The regular release of such data should enable rapid map updates, promoting their use for monitoring purposes.

Forest ecosystems functionality evaluation by multiscale and multitemporal analysis of ecological network