Physiography of the Sicilian region (1:250,000 scale)

Physiographic maps summarize and group the landforms of a territory into homogeneous areas in terms of kind and intensity of the main geomorphological process. These maps are often produced at semi-detailed scales, while examples at the regional scale are much less common. However, because the region is the main administrative level in Europe, physiographic maps can be very useful for land planning in many fields, such as ecological studies, risk maps, and soil mapping. This work presents a methodological example of a regional physiographic map, compiled at a 1:250,000 scale, representing the whole Sicilian region, the largest of the Mediterranean islands. The physiographic units were classified according to the geomorphological processes that were identified by stereo-interpretation of aerial photographs. In addition, information from other published maps, representing geomorphological landforms, eolian deposits, anthropic terraced slopes, and landslide were used to improve the accuracy and reliability of the map.