Map of the Vegetation of the Natural Reserve of Monte Catillo (central Italy)

Map of the Vegetation of the Natural Reserve of Monte Catillo (central Italy) Authors: Sabina Burrascano, Lorenzo Caucci, Giulio Ferrante Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome Maria Vinci Città metropolitana di Roma Capitale Reference system: EPSG 3004 - Monte Mario / Italy zone 2 Spatial scale: the map was drawn at 1:2,000 Minimum Mapping Unit: 0.2 hectares Provided styles: use "Carta_vegetazione_aprile2024.qml" for Italian legend; or "Carta_veg_ENG.qml" for English legend Vegetation maps has the purpose of assessing and representing the distribution and extension of the types of vegetation of an area, after investigating it through field surveys, both physiognomic (annotation of the dominant species) and floristic-vegetational (complete censuses of all vascular plant species). Vegetation maps have gained a major role in the Geographical Information Systems of national and local administrations, especially in protected areas, due to their usefulness as tools for environmental monitoring, management and territorial planning. The collaboration between the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital and the Department of Environmental Biology of Sapienza University of Rome has led, among other results, to the creation of a novel map of the vegetation of the Monte Catillo Natural Reserve, updating the pre-existing one which dates back to 20051. The new map was created at a spatial scale of 1:2,000 based on both orthophotos, i.e. aerial photos taken in 2014, and satellite images taken in 2022 and 2023. The minimum mapping unit was set at 0.2 hectares. A EUNIS code was assigned to each type of vegetation based on the correspondence between field observations and the habitat descriptions reported in the EUNIS database. EUNIS (European Nature Information System) is a classification system developed by the European Environmental Agency for the description and categorization of habitat types in Europe to facilitate the exchange of information between European countries and improve the management and conservation of biodiversity at the continental level. The EUNIS system is used to classify natural, semi-natural and artificial habitats, as well as species and habitat types of importance for biodiversity conservation. It follows a hierarchical scheme that allows different levels of detail to be applied to each habitat based on the degree of correspondence between what was detected in the field and what is described in the classification. For example, a Mediterranean scrub habitat dominated by Pistacia lentiscus and Phyllyrea sp. could be classified as follows: Level 1: S - Heaths, scrub and tundra; Level 2: S5 - Maquis, shrub matorral and thermo-Mediterranean maquis; Level 3: S51 - Mediterranean scrub and shrubby matorral; Level 4: S512 - Shrubby matorral of Olea europaea and Pistacia lentiscus; Level 5: S5123 - Pistacia lentiscus and Phillyrea shrub matorral. If the species composition detected in the field does not reflect any of the features described at level 5, the habitat will be reported with a level 4 and so on. Due to the biogeographical peculiarities of the Monte Catillo Natural Reserve, a lack of correspondence was found for several vegetation types occurring within the Reserve. For example, no code has been found in the EUNIS system that identifies the cork oak (Quercus suber) forest with Styrax officinalis understorey. The same was true for the pseudomaquis vegetation for which the most detailed code indicates strictly Balkan species not present in Italy. The map was developed in a GIS (Geographic Information System) environment, and allows the extraction and analysis of quantitative data, such as the extension of the main types of vegetation which can thus be monitored over time even in response to specific disturbances such as intense fires that periodically affect the Reserve. References 1. Provincia di Roma, (2006). Piano di assetto della Riserva Naturale di Monte Catillo. Approvato con Deliberazione del Commissario ad acta del 26 Novembre 2015 pubblicato sul BURL del 19 Gennaio 2016, n. 5, supplemento 2.