11-12-2020

FOLIAGE, which stands for Forest Planning and Earth Observation for Well-Grounded Governance, is the name of the new project for monitoring European forests awarded to AlmavivA within the EU’s LIFE program, with the partnership headed by CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis) and together with the Arm of the Carabinieri - Command Unit for Environmental, Agri-Food and Forestry Protection, the Lazio Regional Authority - Environmental Policies and Waste Cycle Department, the Umbria Regional Authority - Forests, Mountains, Naturalistic Systems Service, and the University of Tuscia - DIBAF, Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest Systems.

Over the 40 months of work scheduled for the project, AlmavivA will complete most of the computer systems, in collaboration with researchers of CREA, with the main aim of creating an informative infrastructure—FEF, Forestal Environment Framework—to support public administrations in the governance of forests, in accordance with European regulations.

Besides computerization at a regional level of the management of forestry procedures, it will be possible to monitor the territory based on satellite observations capable of detecting disturbances stemming from anthropic causes (deforestation, changes in land use) and natural causes (fires, natural disasters). The platform will also feature a mobile application for informing the public, which will provide professionals engaged in field analyses with a powerful tool for recording their surveys.

The project’s ambitious long-term objectives include, among others, expanding the network to include the highest possible number of administration bodies, both Italian and European, and positively influencing European environmental policies.