THE STUDY OF VEGETATION FOR A DIAGNOSTICAL EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES. SOME EXAMPLES FROM LOMBARDY

Considering that a landscape is much more than a set of spatial characters, I tried to focus its ecological elements and processes, proposing (a) new concepts (e.g. ecocenotope, ecotissue), (b) new functions (e.g. biological and territorial aspects of vegetation) (c) new applications (e.g. evaluation of vegetation, etc.). To verify these applications, a study on the landscape agricultural units of the hinterland of Milan (about 45° 26’N - 09° 17E, 100 m osl) is in process in these years. The characters of some forested tesserae along a transect between the Adda river and the Ticino river (East to West, passing through Milan) have been expressed, using the biological integrated method of vegetation survey proposed by Ingegnoli (2002). An example of how to use the ecological characters of all the different types of vegetation existing within a landscape unit is given by the study of corridors and crop fields. A comparison among 3 landscape units has been done, to demonstrate the diagnostic evaluation method, after a parametric analysis based on landscape ecological indexes.