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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Sensitivity to desertification risk of Sicilian forests

subject

description

Sicilian forests can be considered at high decay risk because of more and more frequent wildfires and, even more, because of climate change effects, like floods, draught, heat waves, snow and wind storms. They are worrying processes, contributing at making ecosystems weaker and intensifying the potential desertification risk in Sicily, one of the most threatened of Italian regions by this form of soil degradation. The most effective approach to mitigate the effects of the climate change has been developed through the following action: cartographic identification, on a regional and landscape scale, of the forest areas subject to desertification risk.