Small towns recovery and valorisation. An innovative protocol to evaluate the efficacy of project initiatives

In many Countries, the depopulation of small towns is a significant phenomenon, which is causing the disappearance of a vast material and immaterial heritage, the beating heart of national identities. However, in recent years, with the environmental and metropolitan crisis, a gradual change of trend is taking place in which small towns play a crucial role in rebuilding the city-countryside relationship. The sustainable development of territories is possible, but in order to achieve it, it is essential to reverse the gaze and consider small municipalities as the main driving force for a radical change. Nevertheless, too often administrations are inadequate in dealing with the complexity of small realities, defining strategies and funding projects that are inconsistent with the real and varied local needs. This work deals with the issue of the recovery and valorisation of small towns through multi-criteria analysis schemes able to capture not only the specific characteristics of the small municipality, but also its relations with the territory and with neighbouring medium/large cities or other surrounding small towns (city-villages network or small municipalities network), also with reference to the multiple infrastructural components. The aim was to identify the critical points of intervention actions and to effectively address future investments. The idea was to propose a technical-economic evaluation protocol structured on social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural components. The study of the criteria, divided into several sub-criteria, led to the proposal of innovative datasets of evaluation indicators. The model was applied to a case study. The results showed the validity of the investigation protocol, which can be an important tool for prioritising the interventions to be implemented, thus optimising the processes of resources allocation - both public and private - according to the principles of sustainable development, with relevant effects in terms of economic policy.