Mapping melliferous potential in productive honey areas through spatial tools: Towards a rationalization of beekeeping

Climatic conditions, drought and frost severely affect honey sector. Nevertheless, beehives have increased significantly, leading to overcrowding and competition between beekeepers. The recognition of unfavourable spatial patterns of beehives and the identification of new potential honey production areas are therefore desirable to better rationalize beekeeping. With these premises, in this work a GIS-based mapping approach is proposed aiming at: (i) giving a local estimate of melliferous potential; (ii) providing an estimation of the maximum amount of honey that bees can locally collect in their home range; (iii) mitigating overcrowding of beehives; (iv) quantifying honey potential production at municipal and hive level. With reference to the 2021 year, a study area located within the Torino province (NW Italy) was selected as pilot site. With reference to the local main crops and forest types the melliferous potential was mapped using reference unitary values from literature. Unfavourable and restricted zones for beekeeping were masked out and an estimation of suitable honey productive areas given. Assuming a bees' home range of 3 km, a squared moving window (sizing 3 x 3 km) was used to quantify local potential areas providing food for bees. These were used to investigate the optimal beehives density and the potential of honey production at municipal level. Resulting maps are useful to support beekeepers' associations for addressing management and monitoring beekeeping sites towards a more sustainable direction. Specifically, new sites for hive hosting could be planned in unexplored areas having high melliferous potential minimizing unfavourable effects related to beehive overcrowding and beekeepers competition.