How to use this site

PROJECT GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT

The website SardegnaSentieri.it was launched in 2013, financed with EU funds under the Co.R.E.M. project and represents a vast, comprehensive online CATALOGUE of SARDINIA'S TRAILS.

This ambitious work is the result of decades of experience in forestry and pathways gained by the island's forestry authority, Ente Foreste della Sardegna. 

In the absence of regional sector legislation for Sardinia, the only public entity operating in the Island with over 130 locations in the forest areas of the Island is the Forestry Authority, which safeguards natural areas and has always played a role as a driving force and manager of the hiking network at regional level.

The challenge and difficult task is to oversee the entire Trail Life Cycle from  creation (project on G.I.S. systems and field surveys and by orthophoto) and development (construction of routes and infrastructure, including fencing and signage) to maintenance (annual or more frequent in the case of damage caused by weather conditions or vandalism) and evolution (interconnection of several trails to form a network) through to publication (use of printed and/or web technologies to share the geographic data, multimedia, descriptive information on itineraries and places of interest).

A recent evolution of this multidisciplinary know-how is represented by the cooperation between partners of the European project Co.R.E.M. (Corsica-Sardinia) specifically aimed at extending the operational knowledge and development of procedures, methodologies and knowledge for the large-scale management of Networks: 
in this context, the Forestry Authority has developed its own Data Model of reference, using the knowledge of Geomatics to obtain, through the adoption of purposely developed GeoDataBase and Geoserver, the computerisation of the entire chain of creation and promotion / use of online trails.

All the itineraries created and proposed in our Region by the Public sector (municipalities, provinces, other local authorities can join the system and contribute their own data for sharing through this portal) will be incrementally remapped, together with the trails that will be further created and included in one large regional network: 
the ultimate goal is to provide the hiking community (an audience of visitors from all over the world) with 
an open catalogue of up-to-date, usable data (GPX tracks included) also available to everyone via web: a sort of Digital Hiking Map, a Multimedia Catalogue that is continuously updated as it evolves, dedicated to Trails in Sardinia. This, ultimately, sums up the project SardegnaSentieri.

HOW TO USE THE SITE, HOW TO SEARCH FOR CONTENT

The SardegnaSentieri user experience will progressively improve: this site is currently published " in beta version" following a second improvement of the web platform in June 2014:  it is therefore a non definitive  version, although already tested by the experts of the Forestry Authority, which is made available to a greater number of users, trusting in their interactions and the inevitable problems that can only emerge with large-scale use and site-user interaction that can bring to light previously undetected problems and requirements. The structure and architecture of the information is designed to highlight the Trails, points of interest (POI, Point of Interest) in proximity to the routes, as well as itineraries throughout Sardinia.

• the most important sections of the site are the sheets of the individual paths-trails: for each route, a detailed sheet describes the characteristics (photos and data on the territory, roadbooks, videos and PDF attachments, etc...) and the technical aspects (in particular: the altimetry, the classification by degree of difficulty, length, elevation gain, duration of the route are reported on the right hand side of the page, together with the GPX track downloadable by the user). 
• there are four main sections to the site - which should be read and viewed as four points of view on the trail network:

1. INTERACTIVE MAP - one or more cartographic backgrounds (which one to use is up to the user, who can use the level selector icon - at the top right of the map - to choose) displays Sardinia and highlights the trail network (position, range, layout of trails). Here the existing Trails can be displayed with their interconnections (also by zooming in on the map or changing the cartographic background); the start of each trail (path) is also highlighted (blue placeholder icon) as are points of interest (red icons).
2. OUR MAPS: Sardinia is subdivided into territorial areas, based on homogeneous salient characteristics (e.g. mountain groups, forest perimeters, historical-cultural homogeneity deriving from the subdivision into historical regions of Sardinia...): for each territory there are dedicated hiking maps, as well as a list of
   Points of Interest (POI) and, of course, the Trails present.
3. TRAILS AND ITINERARIES: Here the trails are grouped into sub-networks, proposing composite routes (multiple paths) to visit the various attractions of the given territory

TO SEE: The list of Points of Interest (POI) are displayed here in an overview - obtained through the interactive map with base maps that can be set by the user. Along with the points of interest (classified according to a specific taxonomy) the starting points of all the trails are also represented: it can therefore be said that this section favours an approach to trails based on the choice of "things to see along the trail".

CERTIFICATION OF DATA AND QUALITY MARK OF THE TRAILS

The characteristic of each trail featured on the SardegnaSentieri.it portal is that it is created and exists in the "catalogue" (the Network of trails) with a label based on two parameters: "Validation” and "Certification”, with the following broad definitions.

- Walkability: a trail that "exists" (or that has been validated for a number of years, possibly requiring maintenance) is represented in the Network to represent the variety of routes possible in our Island of trails;

- Validation: a path is validated if and only if its route has been designed, detected (GPS track) and verified in the field at least once. In addition, it must be included within a system of routes (municipal, provincial, nature park) and equipped with infrastructure - at least with horizontal route signage (cairns, markers on rocks on paths free of vegetation) if not also with vertical signage
(arrow markers, location tables, information panels at the entrance to the route, etc...)

- Certification: a trail is also certified if it is validated and if, with a reasonable degree of certainty (which can never be absolute due to unforeseeable natural events, vandalism, other external factors) it is fully equipped with infrastructure consisting of horizontal and vertical signage, regular amenities (viewing points, rest areas, manned or potentially manned service areas) and linear structures (railings, protections, forestry hydraulics control works).

PLEASE NOTE

A trail published on SardegnaSentieri can also be "Not Certified - Not Validated" but included in the Trails Network Graph - as it is considered of interest and importance for a given territory, and awaiting intervention to raise (or reinstate) its rank at least to "Validated". While you should always heed the warning to walk any trail with the utmost attention, with clothing and a level of physical fitness appropriate to the distance and elevation gain, and to the trail’s associated degree of technical difficulty, this applies all the more to a "Not Validated" trail: in these cases, it's imperative that you tackle the trail accompanied by expert local hiking guides, or walk the route with company and with all due caution.