A perspective on direct protective forests in Italy: From hazard-based mapping to site-specific risk and spatial planning

The Italian Consolidated Law on Forests and Forest Supply Chains (TUFF) formally defines direct protective forests as wooded areas that safeguard people, infrastructures, and properties from natural hazards. However, despite this legal recognition, no shared national methodology exists for their identification and mapping, resulting in heterogeneous regional interpretations and limited operational use. This paper proposes a first national-level framework for addressing this gap by intersecting the 2024 mosaic of Hydrogeological Planning and Management Plans (PAI, 2024) hazard maps with the Forest Map of Italy (CFI2020). The resulting open-data GeoPackage provides a harmonized spatial screening of forests potentially involved in hazard processes, establishing a common baseline for further analysis rather than a definitive classification of direct protective forests. Building on this mapping exercise, we argue that hazard–forest overlap alone is insufficient to identify direct protective functions. Such identification requires a shift towards risk-based, site-specific assessment that explicitly captures the spatial interaction between hazard processes, forest stands, and exposed elements. This implies a multiscale framework in which national and regional screening is complemented by local analyses integrating ecological processes (e.g., succession, growth, regeneration, and competition), forest structure, and process-based modeling. The main implication is operational: the mapping of direct protective forests cannot remain confined to forest planning but must be integrated with the identification of areas at risk within urban and territorial planning tools. Only through a multiscale approach—linking national screening, regional planning, and site-specific assessment—can direct protective forests effectively inform land-use decisions, constrain development in hazard-prone areas, and support coordinated risk mitigation strategies.