The identification of lichens is important in several applied fields,
such as the biological monitoring of air pollution and the restoration of openair
stone monuments. This often creates relevant problems for non-specialists
and technicians which are in charge of routinely applying lichen monitoring
techniques. The coupling of a complex information system (ITALIC), together
with a new software which can automatically produce identification keys
for any subset of species included in a database (FRIDA), is an innovative
approach in the field of identifying biodiversity. ITALIC is able to produce a list
of species which potentially occur under a set of ecological and distributional
conditions specified by the user. The list is automatically transferred to FRIDA,
which generates a user-oriented interactive identification key limited to the
species present in the “virtual habitat” created by the user. The new system
has relevant applications, since it effectively supports the technical personnel
of Environmental Agencies, Nature Parks, Cultural Heritage Conservation
Agencies involved in lichen monitoring throughout the Country.
