Ecological Systems

The map of ecological systems is constructed through typological and spatial aggregation, starting from the information contained in the Map of habitats at the scale 1:50.000.
 
The first step is to build a table of correspondences between the two "legends". This type of bundling is hierarchical in that it consists in the merging of habitats belonging to a common homogeneous macro-category, using a table of correspondences priorly defined. Only a few more combinations have been done after the verification of the first reclassified maps.
  
After this step of typological simplification that leads to a reassembled map of habitats, high levels of spatial heterogeneity still remain, which are not compatible with a cartography of ecological systems at the scale 1:250.000. Indeed, the two main types of variability that cannot be solved only by working on the typologies are the following:
a) the ariations determined by different levels of progression of the dynamic series (eg: carst land, bush and forest) that are referable to three or more main macro - categories of the legend;
b) the variation of the ecological parameters that  indicates mosaics of vegetation found only in some regional areas.

It is therefore necessary to set a second step, that is a spatial aggregation that aims to define the perimeters of the new ecological units based on some fundamental concepts that highlight the ecological characterization of the areas.
 
At the end of this second phase a cartography of ecological systems will be obtained (for more detail see the online document).