Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4.3 Conclusions
A current relevant frontier from environmental and economic standpoints is
the national accounting to frame policy action toward a greener growth. The
purpose of environmental-economic accounting is to assess the sustainability of
the economy-ecosystem interaction, not only in terms of conventional indicators
like gross domestic product (GDP), but also taking into account the material or
energy resource input (and waste generation) to produce one unit of GDP and
associated impacts on depletion of natural capital and of related ecosystem ser-
vices, like carbon sequestration (Corona et al.
2012
). Indeed, the improvement
of environmental surveys through simultaneous monitoring of multiple attrib-
utes is a topic of increasing interest, and it is regarded more favourably by the
stakeholders than the establishment and maintenance of separate monitoring and
assessment programs. According to these considerations, the approach adopted
by the Italian National Registry of carbon sinks is based upon the integration of a
robust land use inventory, driven by ortho corrected airborne images (IUTI), and
the field data from the permanent plots of the national forest inventory (ISCI).
The use of statistical sampling, where sample units are objectively selected by
rigorous probabilistic rules as a means of guaranteeing the credibility of esti-
mates, coupled with periodic re-measurements of permanent sample units pro-
vides the basis for accurate measuring changes in forest extent and conditions
and constructing reliable models to estimate trends; such an approach proves to
be an effective tool when estimating changes in forest carbon stocks under the
objectives of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change and
its Kyoto Protocol.
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