With SILVANUS an eco-sustainable and resilient Foresta Umbra
One month after the conclusion of the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Gargano, the beauty of one of their main stages, the Foresta Umbra, is still vivid in our eyes.
The protection of the territory represents an essential value for every orienteer: it welcomes their sporting passion and represents its natural setting. For this reason, the Organizing Committee of the WMOC worked in synergy with ASSET, the Regional Strategic Agency for the Sustainable Development of the Territory through the general manager Ing. Sannicandro as well as vice president of the Committee, so that the event could guarantee its sustainability by paying great attention to the protection of the environment and forests.
THE GOALS OF THE PROJECT
Just in the week preceding the sporting event, the general assembly of the international project SILVANUS (Integrated Technological and Information Platform for Wildfire Management) was held between Bari and the Gargano, with the involvement of 49 partners from the European Union, Brazil, Indonesia and Australia including ASSET.
The project represents a real Apulian best practice, funded under the European program Horizon 2020 Green Deal (H2020-LC-GD-2020) and coordinated by the Pegaso Telematic University, which intends to prevent and combat the threat of forest fires and improve the resilience of forests to climate change. The goal is to create an eco-sustainable forest management platform, with the aim of satisfying the needs of efficient use of resources and regenerating the landscape.
The development and integration of advanced technologies, big data, climate models, meteorological data, and multispectral video stream analysis will represent the novelty at the base. The platform also aims to monitor forest resources, assess biodiversity, generate more accurate fire risk indicators and promote awareness of safety standards among the local population through awareness campaigns.
THE ROLE OF ASSET
ASSET contributed to the prevention, detection, and restoration activities related to the Apulian forest fires and was responsible for the coordination of the Italian Pilot Project which took place in the Gargano National Park, with the involvement of various subjects including the Park Management Authority, Civil Protection and Arif, regional agency for irrigation and forestry activities. ASSET is also responsible for collecting and analyzing historical records of fires, including details of their causes at the 11 pilot sites and investigative analysis.
IN THE FORESTA UMBRA WITH MAP AND COMPASS
The SILVANUS team also got involved with a fun and formative team-building activity in the name of orienteering in Gargano, organized by the WMOC 2022 Committee; in fact, they commented: “Visiting a city while practicing the sport of orienteering was for us a very formative and challenging experience. On the one hand, it allowed us to see the city with new eyes through a conscious exploration and outdoor, searching for every checkpoint or flag that corresponded to our next stop. On the other hand, it allowed us to do team-building activities and to measure ourselves in a new challenge against time and physical commitment within an international and close-knit group. By interpreting the data, such as the curves or the height of certain areas, the team measured itself with a different language than usual and made decisions on the path to take”.