Integrated landscape management methodology: an application of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to the UNESCO landscape of the Diamantina (Ferrara, Italy)

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.The article deals with an integrated landscape management methodology that was investigated in a case study in the Diamantina territory near Ferrara (Italy), declared ‘protected landscape’ by UNESCO in 1995. Integrated policies are widely accepted as the best way to achieve sustainable environmental development. The challenge is to develop a practical and effective methodology that enables managers to make multi-objective decisions, while at the same time ensuring that stakeholders become actively involved in the decision-making process: in other words, to implement integrated management. The Diamantina study attempts to provide such a methodology through the development of a generic integrated management tool based on the concept of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs). The authors adapt the methodology to the problem of integrated urban management, as support to the renovation of the Provincial Plan of Ferrara. The specific objectives of the Diamantina case study is to investigate the extent to which BBNs can be used as a decision support tool for urban management and landscape protection, according to the European Landscape Convention (2000). The network was constructed focusing on innovative actions for precautionary landscape protection against risks on the holistic habitats protected by UNESCO.