The assessment of crown condition in Italy: new challenges and perspectives.

The assessment of crown conditions is practiced in Europe from ’80 of past century both at extensive (Level I) and intensive (Level II) scale within the international programs of long term forest monitoring (ICP-Forests). The original goal of such surveys was to evaluate the spread and intensity of defoliation, assumed as proxy of the impact of pollutants on forests. In recent years the rationale of the assessment changed, including also climate change and pathogen invasions among the causal factors of defoliation. Because of financial constraints, the continuation of crown monitoring is seriously questioned in Italy and in other countries. For this reason it is necessary to revise the overall organization of these activities in order to reduce the costs but, at the same time, producing clear and useful knowledge for forest management in a changing environment. These results will be achieved within the ongoing Life+ project Smart4Action (Sustainable Monitoring and Reporting to Inform Forest and Environmental Awareness and Protection), headed by the Italian National Forest Service (CFS). This presentation shows the concepts and the goals to pursue with the revision of the Italian program of crown condition assessment, with special reference to the following topics: (1) To assure reliable data for the statistics (at regional, national and European level) and for institutional use (for ex., sustainable forest management); (2) To explore the main factors inducing defoliation, with special reference to ecological features (climate and site conditions) and pathogenic attacks, in order to improve the forecasts of forest evolution and change; (3) To explore the role of the structure and composition of forest cover as factors inducing resilience or sensitivity, in order to define the most appropriate models of forest management for adaptation to climate change.