The contribution of plant sociology to the ecosystem service approach in urban and peri-urban areas: Evidences from a Mediterranean metropolis case study (Rome, Italy)

In this paper, we promote the use of vegetation and land cover data as biodiversity indicators of pressure, state and impact for ecosystem goods and services in urban and periurban landscapes. In the case study of the Municipality of Rome, a Mediterranean metropolis with a long history of care for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, recent landscape researches have been addressed towards typification of plant communities, modelling of vegetation series, ecological land classification, design of land ecological network and analysis of land cover change. The results of these investigations have been employed for the identification and ecological evaluation of some locally relevant ecosystem services - such as habitat provision, conservation of species diversity, urban climate regulation, and educational values - and provide experimental evidence of the bioindication potential of plant communities and vegetation series.