Cataloging of the territory, mapping systems, GIS, planning and town-planning

Ideas, themes and suggestions on method

Guideline

Territorial planning is a rather generic term to define all those technical and normative instruments aimed at its correct management.
The territory, however, is a complex whole which can be compared to a four-dimensional matrix (the three spatial dimensions + time) which is alive, evolves and becomes modified following the laws of thermodynamics.
These laws regulate, in an inseparable way, those processes which are at the base of all relationships in the ecosystem, relations between the biotic and abiotic systems, the very evolution of the dynamics of life.
Knowing the characteristics of the territory is the starting point for its correct use, the capacity to discriminate between its basic units is the starting point for its long term management, following the principles of Sustainable Development (Brundtland report, 1987). All modern doctrine on territorial planning, field plans, town planning models etc. can not ignore the correct way of cataloguing all the properties of the territory.
It must be pointed out that in the energy model of the future, the use of territorial resources will be increasingly under a system of monitoring and checks, seeing that the characteristic of being renewable will be a fundamental principle of sustainable development.
The processes of territorial planning, of any kind, will have to be sustained by systems of cataloguing, if possible dynamic ones (through GIS), and guarantee the professionalism of Doctors of Agronomy, Doctors of Forestry, Botanists, and experts in general, in cataloguing and classifying flora and fauna.
The need for a base of shared information which can be accessed at any time by different operators requires a system of standard procedures, without which the management of “Territorial Properties” becomes somewhat problematic.
At a European level, the CORINE (COoRdination de l’INformation sur l’Environnement) project was started by the Council of the European Community in 1985. Its primary aim is to verify, in a dynamic way, the state of the environment in the Community area in order to guide European policy, check its effect and propose any possible corrections.
Secondary aims, yet not in the least less worthy, include the formation and distribution of common standards and methodologies and the promotion of contacts and international exchanges in order to facilitate the development of initiatives within the community.
The CORINE Land Cover project aims to map land surface on a scale of 1:100,000, with a legend containing 44 entries on three hierarchical levels referring to homogeneous spatial areas, or composed of areas of elements belonging to the same class, which have a significant area of land with respect to the scale, which are clearly distinct from the areas surrounding them and which are sufficiently stable to be assigned to the gathering of more detailed information.
Given this premise, the minimum surface which can be mapped (on the scale of 1:100,000) is represented by 25 hectares and corresponds, on the selected scale of representation, to a square 5mm in length or a circle with a radius of 2,8 mm.
The final map, in numerical form, constitutes the basis for geographic and thematic reference in the CORINE Information System.
The project further aims to supply local operators with the cultural and methodological instruments needed for an initial elaboration and for successive updates.
The operational methodology adopted is constituted by 5 phases:
1. Preliminary work
2. Preparation for satellite images (usually Landsat D-TM Spot-HRV) in false colour, or, at most, in combination, for the Thematic Mapper of the band 4,5,3, which is the one that allows the best discrimination of the objects identified in the legend.
3. Photographic interpretations aided by a calculator. Delimitation-identification of the objects. 
Validation of the interpretation.
4. Digitalisation
5. Validation of the data bank.

For maps of greater detail (1:25,000; 1:10,000) a new hierarchy of the obtained data can be produced with a quarter level. Successively, an example of this is obtained for the Agricultural Areas (2) and for the Forests and semi-natural areas (3). 

The following table shows the three levels examined in the Corine program plus a fourth level whose hierarchy is greater, for example, for an Agricultural and Forestry Study.
In any case, any fourth level must have its origin in the corresponding class of the previous level.
The principal levels are:
1-Artificial surface; 2- Agricultural areas; 3- Forests and semi-natural areas; 4- Humid lands; 5-Bodies of water.                                                                           

It is clear that to a territorial study geared to a programme of territorial planning or a revision of town-planning must be added a series of further research which can be summarised in the following table:

• The territory and its history
  The agricultural system
  Statistical and socio-economical research
  Climate analysis
  Flora and vegetation analysis
  Fauna analysis
  A map which recognises the land
  A morphological map
  A map of land use (following the previous methodology)
  A map of the infrastructure
  A map of the Unity of the Landscape

Further maps and elaborations can give a more complete picture of the work in question but they must always be correlated to the particular aims set by the study.

Suggested rates of reference

To the aforesaid honoraria they go added repayable expenses according to the tariff official. In the case in which a greater detail is demanded, for the calculation of the following honorarium it is proceeded applying to the previous increases table:

Scale 1: 5.000 - more 30 %;
Scale 1: 2.000 - more 50 %.
The intermediate values are estimated obviously for linear interpolation. 

Guido Bissanti

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