BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR LANDSCAPE PROTECTION

The four main goals of Soil Bioengineering operations are related to:

• technical and functional aspects, such as erosion control and the consolidation of slopes;
• ecological aspects, not only for a plain green cover, but also for the reconstruction or introduction of para-natural ecosystems;
• landscapist, “re-embedding” of devasted areas into the surrounding natural landscape;
• economic aspects, such as alternative competitive structures to traditional operations (e.g. the replacing of concrete retaining walls with vegetated reinforced earth walls).

The successes recently obtained in Italy in the use of this science are connected with the adoption of E.I.A. (Environment Impact Assessment) procedures at all administrative levels. Soil Bioengineering operations are part of the minimization operations, which are designed after environmental impact assessment has been carried out. Environmental Impact Studies, in fact, have two main consequences:

1. the preventive protection of the environment involved in the project through the selection of an alternative project with a lower environmental impact;
2. the mitigation of and compensation for the residual impact inevitably associated with any operation that occurs in an area.

This second activity is primarily connected with the design of “re-embedding operations” in the area affected, above all in infrastructural and productive sectors (roads, railways, mines, solid waste deposits, etc.) for which Soil Bioengineering methods offer good possibilities of combining the technical function (reinforcement of slopes, anti-noise operations) with the biological function of reconstructing the green cover.

Rather than talking about vegetation, however, it would be better to talk about the reconstruction of para-natural ecosystems, relating to the stages of the natural dynamic (potential) series of the vegetation in an area. Soil Bioengineering methods differ in this respect from the normal practices of ornamental or architectural gardening, which are usually connected with urban areas.

In order to achieve this goal, concise reference data is needed in the following sectors:

• topoclimate and microclimate;
• geomorphology, geolithology of the substrate, geomechanics;
• pedology (particularly the physical-hydrologic and organic parameters of the soil);
• phytosociology (stages of vegetation dynamic series);
• applied floristics with reference to the biotechnical characteristics of the species and an almost exclusive use of native species;
• possible zoological parameters;

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