An estimation of urban fragmentation of natural habitats. Case studies of the 24 italian national parks

Italy is a densely populated country, where most of the land is actively used by its human population. As a result, many of the remaining natural areas are subject to different typologies of human pressures that generally cause habitat fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation, unanimously considered as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity conservation, is due to a variety of factors related to land use changes, such as urban sprawl, increasing of transport infrastructures, and the intensification of agriculture and forestry practices. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate levels of natural habitat fragmentation due to the presence of human settlements in the Italian National Parks through the use of the Urban Fragmentation Index (UFI). All the results were recorded in a GIS database (Geographic Information System), elaborating a new method for a comparative spatial analysis of these records in order to achieve a critical scale of the habitat fragmentation levels in each of the 24 Italian National Parks. The results represent an important indicator for the prioritization of biodiversity conservation interventions in the Italian National Parks. Copyright © 2013, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.