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How to improve the distribution maps of habitat types at national scale

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Abstract

Annex I habitat types are a key factor for biodiversity conservation in Europe and distribution maps are essential for assessing their conservation status.

We aim to increase the responsiveness to habitat knowledge needs and to propose the use of data collected at local scale for assessing a key indicator such as the Area of Occupancy (AOO) of habitats. In this paper, starting from the 4th Report of Habitats Directive data, we present a multi-source approach that allows national habitat distribution maps to be refined and their AOO estimated, by combining certified available information on habitat maps and vegetation databases.

For the first time a comprehensive up-to-date knowledge on habitat distribution at national scale is now available; our approach will be an essential tool for the implementation of the Habitats Directive and to achieve the goals of EU biodiversity strategy in Italy.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was developed and realized within the project “Creation of a National database of the Habitat of Community Interest for the improvement of the Environmental Statistics for cohesion policies 2014–2020 CUP: I52E18000040002”, within the “NOP Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014–2020” CCI: 2014IT05M2OP002.

Funding

"CUP: I52E18000040002”, within the “NOP Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014–2020” CCI: 2014IT05M2OP002.

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Author notes

  1. E. Carli and M. Massimi equal contribution.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, IT-00185, Rome, Italy

    E. Carli, M. Massimi & F. Attorre

  2. Department for Biodiversity Conservation, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), via Vitaliano Brancati, 48, 00144, Rome, Italy

    P. Angelini & L. Casella

  3. Operational Center for Environmental Monitoring, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), via Vitaliano Brancati, 48, 00144, Rome, Italy

    E. Agrillo

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  1. E. Carli
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  2. M. Massimi
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  4. L. Casella
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Correspondence to M. Massimi.

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Carli, E., Massimi, M., Angelini, P. et al. How to improve the distribution maps of habitat types at national scale. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 31, 881–888 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-020-00917-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-020-00917-7

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