Resilient and Sustainable Development of Inland Areas: The RI.P.R.O.VA.RE Project Between Co-Planning and Multidisciplinary Approach

The RI.P.R.O.VA.RE Project, winner of the national competitive call promoted by the former Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection, involved professors and researchers from three Departments, belonging to three different Southern Italian Universities. The shared goal was to deepen the issue of inland areas and their sustainable and resilient development. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art - based on several studies and researches at national and international level - the Project provided support tools for the construction of integrated policies in order to improve and increase the territories’ resilience. This is very important since inland areas - which are distinguished from cities by a greater capacity to react to shocks and sudden events - while experiencing a strong demographic and settlement disadvantage, are also highly significant for their environmental and cultural heritage. With these premises, the paper presents the work carried out during the RI.P.R.O.VA.RE Project, in its main and general aspects, first describing its goals and methodological steps and then, with the application to a focus area, presenting its results. These results, translated into research products, summarise what was achieved at the end of the project, i.e.: the setting up of criteria and methods for the delimitation of inland areas, the assessment of their resilience degree and the definition of integrated area strategies through participative and co-planning approaches. Finally, the strategy drawn up for one of the investigated focus areas, the Ufita Valley in Campania, is concisely outlined.