Monitoraggio integrato del bilancio della CO2 a scala regionale: esperienze in Toscana.

The awareness of global changes and the relevance of local actions encourage local agencies to play an active role in building strategies for Climate Change adaptation and mitigation. The implementation of effective policies for a specific region requires a detailed knowledge of the territory, of its potentiality and problems. In this context Tuscany Region financed in 2004 the Kyoto Observatory project for monitoring carbon balance at regional and local scale. The balance provides periodical information about CO2 emissions of main sectors and carbon sequestration by forest ecosystems. Measures of forest sink are based on a multi-scale approach, from towers and airborne flux measurements to the application of regional biogeochemical models. The methodology of sink measurement, developed integrating state-of-the-art science and technologies, has been transferred to the Tuscany Regional Administration, enabling a timely operational monitoring of carbon balance at municipal scale thanks to a WebGIS application.