Protection from natural hazards is the most important function of mountain forests from an ecological, economic and social point of view. This assertion has been widely debated in recent years by a number of authors. In this paper we focus on the economic aspects of the protective function of...

Social capital is defined as the sum of interactions between both individuals and groups, which permit the development of rules, shared values, as well as cooperative and reciprocal links. This concept, developed by social science, can be applied as a support structure in decision making for...

Environmental assessment needs of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) able to consider several aspects in a unique analysis framework. The complexity of interaction among ecological, economic and political variables and a widespread lack of data availability lead to difficulty in bringing together...