Georeferenced Cartography and Landscape: the Protection of the Monumental Olive Heritage

Abstract. This research studies the protection of the rural landscape and agri-food heritage, offering a perspective on the role and contribution of research to support land management processes and the development of local resources.

This opportunity for reflection was created by a project developed at the request of Regione Campania, in Southern Italy, aimed at preserving the inestimable source of biodiversity represented by olive varieties from the risk of genetic erosion, and at guaranteeing the production of oils with typical and diversified organoleptic qualities and properties.

Within the scope of the project, the geo-cartographic section has analyzed, surveyed, georeferenced and represented, for a selected territory, the presence of centuries-old olive trees and allowed the creation of other research sections, more specifically agronomic and legal.

The georeferencing map of the millenary olive trees typical of the territory, together with the genetic identity card of each plant, have been inserted in a publicly accessible database, through which it is possible to trace the origins and, consequently, the quality of the oil produced.