How to support cultural heritage-led development in Italian inner areas: a multi-methodological evaluation approach

The marginal areas, in continuous depopulation, require policies addressed towards sustainable development for territories as well as for local communities. This work, inspired by the urgent need of inner area regeneration, proposes the application of a multidimensional spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) aimed at investigating both the territorial attractiveness and vulnerability of fragile areas. Supported by a spatial analysis, the model exploits the potentials of the Multicriteria Decision Aiding techniques (MCDA) within the G.I.S. domain. The research discusses the results of a first application of the MC-SDSS with a focus on the development of the Attractiveness and Vulnerability value maps. The analysis has been developed for the Italian provinces of Alessandria and Vercelli, both crossed by the VENTO project, one of the longest Italian cycle routes and with a great potential to boost slow tourism. The paper is divided into several sections: an introduction on inner areas; the description of the MC-SDSS; the test of the evaluation model on a case study; the measurement of territorial attractiveness and vulnerability, and finally hints from the results and discussion of future research lines.