Vascular plant diversity as a valuable tool for the ecological and cultural projection of the National Parks in Greece

National Parks are natural areas that usually possess high ecological and cultural value. Their intact landscapes, the representativeness of their natural ecosystems and the high diversity of their biota give them outstanding ecological, aesthetic, cultural, educational and scientific values. They have high conservation value and attract numerous visitors aiming to experience nature. A recent project co-funded by the European Union and the Greek National Funds is AdVENt: Augmented Visitor Experience in National Parks, started in 2018 and has a 3-year duration. The AdVENt project aims to develop innovative applications to enhance visitors touring experience in protected areas of particular environmental interest and natural beauty, as well as the production of rich and technologically advanced multimedia content for their promotion, to highlight their natural wealth as a remarkable and attractive touristic product. More specifically, the project focuses on the mountain complex of the Region of Central Greece, which includes the National Parks of Oiti and Parnassos. Both areas host a remarkably diverse flora and fauna, while Mt Parnassos is considered as a hotspot of plant species diversity and endemism. Important archaeological sites like Delphi, major ski centers and popular hiking trails are combined with remarkable natural fir forests and other mountain habitat types and a rich endemic flora. It is noteworthy, that AdVENt project will create: a) a vascular plant database of the National Parks of Oiti and Parnassos, available to the scientific community and the general public, which is expected to promote research in the relevant fields of botany, ecology etc., b) an integrated Augmented Reality (AR) mobile application for enhancing the visitors touring experience and c) the development of cutting-edge technology for the visual identification of vascular plant species.