Relations between morphological settings and vegetation covers in a medium relief landscape of Central Italy

Mount area, a medium relief structure within the Italian Latium region. The study aims at defining the relationships
between vegetation and landform types and highlighting the main morphological characteristics within examined
land cover classes. These were the result of the application of a supervised classification method to the first 28 (VISNIR)
bands of the airborne MIVIS data collected within an extensive survey campaign over Rome Province. The
analysis was supported by photo-interpretation of peculiar MIVIS band combinations and by data acquired during
field surveys and from a pre-existing vegetation map. The morphometric data were obtained by processing a raster
DEM created from topographic maps. These data were processed by means of a new morphometric classification
method based on the statistical multivariate investigation of local topographic gradients, calculated along the 8 azimuth
directions of each pixel neighbourhood. Such approach quickly estimates the spatial distribution of different
types of homogeneous terrain units, emphasizing the impact of erosional and tectonic processes on the overall relief.
Mutual relations between morphometric units and vegetation types were assessed by performing a correspondence
analysis between the results of the two classifications.

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