Land Suitability for Short Rotation Coppices Assessed through Fuzzy Membership Functions

In the land planning process, land suitability can be regarded as a bridging phase linking land resources assessment to the decision-making process. The inherent conflicts and the complex network of socio-economical and ecological constraints affecting land use planning call for a flexible decision-making support tool able to incorporate multiple evaluation criteria, including several stakeholders point of views. Land suitability gives transparent indications to decision-makers concerning land uses which can be sustainable fostered in the land under consideration, allowing areas to be ranked according to their degree of suitability for a specific land use. The resulting maps lend efficient support to negotiation when addressing issues of sustainable development as well as economic competitiveness. Within this framework this paper aims to: (i) outline relevant LSA experiences, with a distinctive focus on MCE GIS-based techniques; (ii) present a case study of MCE applying fuzzy modelling to predict the productive response of land when afforested with target forest plantation species. Drawing from the case study experience, the MCE proved to be a valuable tool for decision-making (i.e. to quantify on a broad scale land physical suitability for an expansion of SRF plantations for energy biomass production in Italy).