The use of GIS in landscape protection plan in Sicily

Landscape protection is a challenging task for planners, considering the number of conceptual and operational problems involved. These include not only the management of a considerable amount of data, indispensable for describing the features of a landscape but also the assessment of its value, risk and vulnerability. In addition, landscape protection has to take into account norms and regulations that are country specific. In Italy, several aspects have to be addressed due to the complexity of the existing legislation. This paper describes a landscape planning experience that has been conducted by using GIS. The proposed case is located in Sicily where landscape protection is a widely debated issue, considering the relevance of cultural and natural heritage. The use of GIS has revealed particularly useful in order to cope with two issues: the understanding of the main threats to landscape, mainly sprawl, and the assessment of landscape value and vulnerability.