ASPETTI METODOLOGICI E OPERATIVI DELLA VALUTAZIONE DEL SERVIZIO DI PROTEZIONE OFFERTO DALLA FORESTA CONTRO LA CADUTA MASSI

The protection of populations, settlements and economic activities in the Alpine region is of primary importance and mountain forests, if properly managed, offer an effective protection service that integrates with engineering solutions. Many studies have been conducted to quantify the importance and dynamics of the protective function performed by forests, but few have also considered the economic aspects, obtaining different results depending on the methodological approach used. The objective of the thesis is to describe salient aspects of the main evaluation methods used for ecosystem services, also identifying qualitative guidelines with the intention of facilitating the choice of a method or another in various operational situations. In the following, ASFORESEE, an Expert System for the evaluation of the protection service offered by forests against rockfall, is described, applying it to two case studies represented by protection forests in the Alps. The analysis of results of the two case studies leads to the conclusion that direct evaluation methods such as the Replacement Cost method or the Avoided Damages method have proved to be the most suitable for the evaluation of the protection service, since they are more expeditious in terms of required input, as well as being reliable and repeatable, compared to stated preference methods such as the Contingent Valuation and the Choice Modelling. As far as ASFORESEE, in particular, values obtained differ slightly from those present in the literature, because they are heterogeneous from a methodological point of view. Hence the need to carry out a more in-depth analysis in the future, to understand the importance and contribution that each factor included in the system brings to the result of estimates.