Silviculture for soil conservation, water resources and to combat desertification.

Integrated management of water resources, mitigation of catastrophic phenomena and fight against desertification are topics of renewed interest on a local and international scale. Nowadays, the forest role in soil conservation must be considered in the wider extent of forest management sustainability, that is aimed at exalting the efficacy of forest systems on water resources, and at contrasting soil erosion processes as the most important symptoms of desertification. The present work will illustrate the main aspects resulting from the reports on the three topics characterizing the third session of the congress. During that session, the analysis was focused on: the mechanisms involved in hidrogeologycal processes in forest systems, the effects of silvicultural actions on water availability, the role of forests and of silvicultural techniques in the regulation of water cycle, the efficacy of wood in the mitigation of alluvial events, the influence of riparian vegetation on maximum stream flow and the role of silviculture in its management. Further topics were: soil management for degradation prevention, desertification risk, methods for quantification of vulnerability levels of forest areas and identification of their causes, along with the role of forest management for prevention and mitigation of desertification risk, as well as silviculture intended to grant soil conservation in the Apennines and Alps’ forests.