Forest accessibility, Madonie mountains (northern Sicily, Italy): implementing a GIS decision support system

Abstract

Valorisation and sustainable exploitation of woody biomass from cultivation interventions might be an important opportunity to track alternative development trails for rural communities in natural protected areas. The governance of Mediterranean protected areas is characterized by overlapping, sometimes conflicting institutions, stakeholders and regulations, causing negative impacts on decision-making processes. We present an open source GIS-based decision support system tool for mapping forest accessibility and optimizing woody biomass extraction. Two models were implemented to support forest managers during the decision-making process in designing and managing wood-energy supply chains. The optimal grid resolution to run the models was determined via a Least Cost Path analysis. The models were executed at different scales, performing satisfactorily when distances between recorded and modelled paths were lower than the grid unit. The higher the scale, the more the percentile of distances lower than the grid unit. The models were validated in Madonie mountains, Sicily, Italy.