Persone PhD CandidatesXL ciclo Francesco Piras
XL ciclo Francesco Piras
1st year
Curriculum: Forest economics, planning and wood science
Supervisor: Claudia Cocozza, Mauro Agnoletti
Email: francesco.piras@unifi.it
Office address: Via di San Bonaventura, 13, 50145, Firenze (FI)
Mobile phone:
Profile
I am Francesco Piras, born on 11/05/1988 in Florence and I obtained a master degree in Forest Systems Sciences and Technologies at the university of Florence. After obtaining my master's degree, I completed an international first-level master program on "Agricultural Heritage Systems". Over the past five years, I have worked at the University of Florence as a research fellow and grant holder, focusing on the identification and enhancement of historic and traditional rural landscapes. Currently, I am a Research Assistant at the UNESCO Chair "Agricultural Heritage Landscapes".
In particular, my interests and skills involve the use of GIS and remote sensing software and their application for landscape-level analysis. During these years, I have contributed to the preparation of numerous scientific publications, as well as disseminating our research findings through participation in national and international congresses and conferences.
Research interests and PhD project
Landscape history, Traditional agro-silvo-pastoral landscapes and cultural landscapes
My PhD project aims to quantify and measure the ecosystem services provided by agroforestry systems, guided by the FAO GIAHS Programme approach. The objective is to support the development of effective territorial governance policies while safeguarding the environment and promoting the conservation of local traditions and the well-being of communities.
The research involves identifying and cataloguing agroforestry systems of high cultural value, developing a methodology for assessing these ecosystem services, and conducting comparative analyses across different sites. GIS tools will be employed for spatial analysis, and data will be gathered through fieldwork, community surveys, and existing literature. The final phase of the project focuses on proposing a continuous monitoring system to evaluate ecosystem services, and creating policy guidelines for sustainable management practices.
Expected outcomes include a new methodology for ecosystem service assessment, integration of GIS for spatial analysis, development of management tools and policy guidelines, and the publication of scientific articles to disseminate the findings. These results aim to influence global conservation policies and set a standard for future research in this field .
Papers
- Santoro, A.; Venturi, M.; Ben Maachia, S.; Benyahia, F.; Corrieri, F.; Piras, F.; Agnoletti, M. Agroforestry Heritage Systems as Agrobiodiversity Hotspots. The Case of the Mountain Oases of Tunisia. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4054. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104054
- Santoro, A.; Martinez Aguilar, E.A.; Venturi, M.; Piras, F.; Corrieri, F.; Quintanilla, J.R.; Agnoletti, M. The Agroforestry Heritage System of Sabana De Morro in El Salvador. Forests 2020, 11, 747. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11070747
- Agnoletti M., Manganelli S., Piras F.; COVID-19 and rural landscape: The case of Italy. Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 204, 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103955
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Piras, F.; Venturi, M.; Corrieri, F.; Santoro, A.; Agnoletti, M. Forest Surface Changes and Cultural Values: The Forests of Tuscany (Italy) in the Last Century. Forests 2021, 12, 531. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12050531
- Corrieri, F., Piras, F., Abou Assi, M. et al. Terraced landscapes of the Shouf Biosphere Reserve (Lebanon): analysis of geomorphological variables. Biodivers Conserv 31, 2421–2433 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02205-8
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Piras F., Zanzana A., Pinto L., Fiore B., Venturi M., (2021). The role of the jessour system for agrobiodiversity preservation in Southern Tunisia. Biodiversity and Conservation 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02286-5
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Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Santoro, A. Small Cultural Forests: Landscape Role and Ecosystem Services in a Japanese Cultural Landscape. Land 2022, 11, 1494. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091494
- Santoro, A.; Piras, F. Natural Forests or Cultural Forests? Forest Changes within Italian Protected Areas in the Last 85 Years. Forests 2023, 14, 921. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14050921
- Santoro, A., Ongoma, V., Ait el Kadi, M., Piras, F., et al. Innovation of argan (Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels) products and byproducts for sustainable development of rural communities in Morocco. A systematic literature review. Biodiversity and Conservation 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02691-y
- Agnoletti, M.; Santoro, A.; Fiore, B.; Piras, F.; Romano, F.; Bazzurro, A. Agricultural Heritage Systems in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America - Environmental History. Springer 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44881-2
- Fiore, B.; Piras, F.; Santoro, A. Decline and restoration of a typical silvo-pastoral mountain landscape in the Italian Apennines. The case of Moscheta in Tuscany. Trees, Forests and People 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2024.100529
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Piras, F.; Pan, Y.; Santoro, A.; Fiore B.; Min Q.; Guo, X.; Agnoletti, M. Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Heritage Conservation and Valorization - A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and of the Italian Register of Historical Rural Landscapes. Land 202
- Santoro, A.; Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Bazzurro, A.; Agnoletti, M. Forest-Cover Changes in European Natura 2000 Sites in the Period 2012–2018. Forests 2024, 15, 232. https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020232
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Piras, F., Bazzurro, A., Fiore, B. et al. Assessment of ecotone changes over the last six decades in two cultural landscapes: The case of the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene UNESCO site and of the Olive Groves of the Slopes between Assisi and Spoleto GIAHS site. Biodiversity and Conservation 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02725-5
- Santoro, A., Piras, F. & Yu, Q. Spatial analysis of deforestation in Indonesia in the period 1950–2017 and the role of protected areas. Biodivers Conserv (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02679-8
- Santoro, A.; Yu, Q.; Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Bazzurro, A.; Agnoletti, M. From Flood Control System to Agroforestry Heritage System: Past, Present and Future of the Mulberry-Dykes and Fishponds System of Huzhou City, China. Land 2022, 11, 1920. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11111920
- Santoro, A.; Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Frassinelli, N.; Bazzurro, A.; Agnoletti, M., (2022). The Role of Trees Outside Forests in the Cultural Landscape of the Colline del Prosecco UNESCO Site. Forests 2022, 13, 514. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13040514
- Venturi, M., Piras, F., Corrieri, F. et al. The multifunctional role of linear features in traditional silvopastoral systems: the sabana de morro in Dolores (El Salvador) and the pastures with carob trees in Ragusa (Italy). Biodivers Conserv 31, 2315–2327 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02220-9
- Venturi, M.; Piras, F.; Corrieri, F.; Fiore, B.; Santoro, A.; Agnoletti, M. Assessment of Tuscany Landscape Structure According to the Regional Landscape Plan Partition. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5424. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105424
- Santoro, A.; Venturi, M.; Piras, F.; Fiore, B.; Corrieri, F.; Agnoletti, M. Forest Area Changes in Cinque Terre National Park in the Last 80 Years. Consequences on Landslides and Forest Fire Risks. Land 2021, 10, 293. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030293
Conference talks and seminars
- 01/10/2021 – 03/10/2021 Konavle (online), Croatia. 17th international congress on dry stone walling. Speaker. Dry stone terraces in the Shouf Biosphere Reserve (Lebanon).
- 05/11/2021 – 07/11/2021 Florence, Italy. Primo Congresso Nazionale dei Paesaggi Rurali Storici. Organization and management of the conference.
- 11/07/2022 – 15/07/2022 Varsavia (online), Polonia. IALE 2022 - European Landscape Ecology Congress. Poster: Identification of touristic routes and creation of heritage maps for the enhancement of the historical landscape. The historical landscape of Leonardo da Vinci's Gioconda.
- 10/07/2023 – 14/07/2023 Nairobi (online), Kenya. IALE 2023 - European Landscape Ecology Congress. Speaker: Peri-urban Agroforestry Heritage System. Past, Present and Future of the Mulberry-Dykes and Fishponds GIAHS site of Huzhou City, China.
- 23/08/2023 – 27/08/2023 Gattatico, Italy. 15th edition of the "Emilio Sereni" School of Landscape. Workshop I conducted at the summer school "Emilio Sereni", focused on "Landscape and Environmental Crisis". The workshop offered students the use of GIS systems to elaborate maps of the impact of wind turbines on the landscape.
- 08/11/2023 Florence, Italy. Tradizione per la transizione: l’agricoltura della resilienza. Organization and management of the final conference of the "GIAHS Building Capacity" project related to the FAO Important Agricultural Systems of World Heritage Program, an initiative co-funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).
- 04/12/2023 – 06/12/2023 International Water Research Institute (IWRI) in Benguerir, Morocco. Seminar on Spatial Analysis I was invited to conduct this seminar by UM6P. The seminar, which I led, included 18 hours of lectures on using QGIS software to conduct multi-temporal landscape analysis using the VASA methodology. The class consisted of 22 PhD students and 2 postdoctoral researchers. The seminar began with a brief introduction to the use of GIS software and data, followed by an in-depth look at the digitization of land use by photointerpretation in two different periods, and concluded with the elaboration of an informative layer on landscape evolution dynamics.