RURAL LANDSCAPE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY: A GIS BASED APPROACH FOR ASSESSING AREAS CHARACTERISED BY ECOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS.

The concept of multifunctional agriculture refers to the idea that agriculture has many functions in addition to producing food and fiber, like environmental protection, landscape preservation, rural employment, The UE Common agricultural policy substain multifunctionality in agriculture by rural development plans that provide relevant frameworks to integrate environmental aims into agriculture. Integration of environmental instances with socio economical development is an important element also in the natural resources conservation strategies. Recently, a new view of ecological network concept has been developed to produce a more multiobjective vision that define the ecological network as a system of natural and/or semi-natural landscape elements, that is configured and managed with the objective of maintaining or restoring ecological functions, while also providing opportunities for the sustainable use of natural resources. The study refer to a method, based on Geographical Information System (GIS), for assessing the ecological network model in a rural landscape, where human activities are involved. Two models were developed: the landscape model and the connectivity model. The application in the study area showed the capacity of models to identify strategic places for ecological functions. The results pointed out the natural values of the area (matching the protected areas) and the most favourable expected ways of connection, or interruptions, between suitable areas. Agricultural and woodland areas were the main land uses involved in ecological network structure. The maps which have been obtained can be useful instruments in order to involve policy makers, and other stakeholders, in the decision process on land use planning. In this way, the ecological network model can be a useful instrument in order to give valuable knowledge about environmental functions of rural landscape and to show constrains and possibilities to change the landscape in the boundaries of sustainability.