Environmental research for the Identification and assessment of geomorphological assets - Methods and examples

A method for thè elaboration of geomorphological asset maps is presented. The geomorphological assets are characterized by scientific, cultural, socio-economic and landscape attributes. Scientific attributes may vary (peculiar geomorphologic evolution; educational value; palaeogeomorphological environmental importance; naturalistic rarity; and ecological assessment) and each value may have a different rank (global, national, regional, locai, or none). Manual and computer techniques to elaborate thematic maps are reported as applied to different test sites in thè Alps, Apennines and Po Plain