 Introduction
Rural and mountain areas
have fundamental role in a correct management of
territorial resources. A correct approach is then
necessary to
- preserve territorial
and environmental resources
- exploit the economic
potentiality of rural areas and recover
the present situation of disadvantage
- grant social equity
and dignity to inhabitants through proper
services
- save a peculiar
cultural heritage
In the general frame of
the GISIG networking policy to favour exchange of
experience and address of common interests among
different professional operators in the various
GIS applications fields, we are going to promote
the RURAL-GIS network in order to demonstrate and
exploit the potentiality of GIS tools to support
the initiatives launched to face the problems of
rural areas.
The first call for
interest about RURAL-GIS was submitted to the
people taking part into the Conference
"Education and Training in Integrated
Coastal Area Management - The Mediterranean
Prospect", held in May 1998. That because in
an integrated approach to the problem of coastal
management a place must be found for the problems
of coastal mountains, that have a peculiar
importance in communication between coast and
inland areas and suffer outstanding problems,
environmental, economic and social, that ask for
proper tools for representing information and
situations and for analysis, scenarios set-up,
forecasting of trends and needs.
RURAL-GIS is grounded on
the wide GIS experience present within the GISIG
partnership and starts from previous activities
related to the issues of mountain areas,
especially for the Mediterranean context.
The RURAL-GIS themes will
be developed in a multidisciplinary network,
grounding on the paradigm of sustainable regional
development, that is going to deeply modify the
policy to plan and implement the interventions in
the rural areas
Linked to RURAL-GIS and to
promote a factual approach to problem
understanding and solution GISIG has organised
and is organising, on behalf of Ligurian Local
Bodies and Companies, annual conferences on the
problems of the Ligurian Mountain areas and in
general of the Mediterranean Mountain (il Mare in
basso).
The first themes proposed
for discussion within the network are:
- Agricultural
applications
- Forestry
- Tourism, hiking and
resorts
- Transports
- Protected areas
- Hazard control
- Climate change
- Regional applications
- Landscape modelling
- Sustainable
development
- Mediterranean and dry
mountains
- GIS and related
sciences: RS, GPS
- Elevation modelling
- Cadastral
applications
Network Reference
Emanuele Roccatagliata
GISIG - Geographical Information Systems
International Group
Via Piacenza, 54
16138 Genova
Tel: +39 010 8355588
Fax: +39 010 8357190
E-mail: gisig@gisig.it
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