The Italian Forest Inventory in Brief: L’inventario forestale nazionale italiano in breve

Abstract

Large-scale forest inventories are important sources of forest information at the national level in individual countries. These surveys have undergone strong development in recent times, driven by new information needs and by advances in statistical-mathematical theory and in survey methods and techniques. In Italy, the first national forest inventory was carried out in the mid-1980s. A thorough review of the sampling design and survey protocols was carried out in the second inventory, and the third survey has just been completed. This chapter briefly describes the history and organisational structure of the Italian National Forest Inventory and summarises its content and products.