La Banca Dati della Vegetazione Italiana VegItaly

The creation of an Italian Vegetation databank has been one of the main objectives of the S.I.S.V. (Italian Society of Vegetation Science) for nearly a decade. The idea of an integrated databank of floristic and vegetation data has been already discussed and presented in several occasions (national and international meetings and workshops). During the history of the project several universities (Basilicata, Camerino, Firenze, Genova, L'Aquila, Molise, Palermo, Perugia, Pisa, Politecnica delle Marche, Roma "La Sapienza", Roma 3, Salento, Siena, Venezia) have contributed to the development of the database structure and data implementations. An important contribute has been also given by the S.B.I. (Italian Botany Society) and the S.I.S.V. (Italian Society of Vegetation Science). The main advantages of having a single vegetation databank as VegItaly are the possibility for the users to benefit of certificated data, to integrate botanical data from different sources and to have a standard reference model able to simplify large scale (national and international) works. During the last period a working group composed by researchers from several universities already involved in the construction of private, restrict or thematic databases, was created in order to join forces for the realization of a single project able to satisfy the common needs and to become an important tool for the research. VegItaly do not want be a strict and close project, but it is actually opened to all those, who want actively collaborate to improve the database structure and entering data. An important and common aspect emerged from the working group is the need of a formal regulation, which will be accurately treated.