A New Improvement of the Naturalistic Indicator of Forest Quality. An Italian Case Study

This paper describes a new improvement of the previous defined Forest Quality Indicator (FSQ) for biodiversity assessment and conservation purposes. The two novelties of the work in progress include the following aspects: the embedding of a shape feature of the forest patches, and the consideration of the plantation for ecological restoration in the computation of the indicator. The results are shown on a case study of a municipality of the West Po Plain (North Italy). The improved indicator seems to be very promising in describing the realistic situation of the forest quality in the territory. This suggests that it can be used efficiently to guide policy makers and planners to choose the best forest types/patches for restoration and connectivity