Geospatial analysis to assess natural park biomass resources for energy uses in the context of the rome metropolitan area

The Metropolitan city of Roma Capitale (Italy) represents a vast area, which purposes are not only institutional but also specific functions, such as the promotion and coordination of economic and social development. The park areas included in the Metropolitan area are able to provide ecosystem services and resources such as agricultural and forest products. The rational exploitation of biomass resources produced around the Metropolitan area can be an opportunity to replace fossil fuels, make the city more climate friendly and, at the same time, to relaunch the sustainable management of forest that are often abandoned and prone to degradation risk. The goal of this paper is to investigate and update the actual distribution of the main forest types of the Bracciano-Martignano Regional Natural Park, through GIS and Remote Sensing techniques, in order to assess the biomass potential present in the forest areas. Results confirmed the importance of Sentinel-2 satellite data for vegetation applications, allowing to map species and surfaces as well as to carry out other studies at regional scale with a high overall accuracy. The forest types distribution analysis performed inside the park showed that there are about 20,000 t of woody biomass per year available, indicating that rationale forest management can be strategic to deal both with forest degradation and city energy supply.