Understanding Geographies of Architectural Heritage Abandonment in Inner Areas: A Multi-dimensional Investigation

The international concern about narrowing territorial disparities has resulted in a new territorial policy season focusing on marginal areas. In Italy, such a concern has found a policy translation in the National Strategy for Inner Areas (NSIA), which identifies "the enhancement of natural and cultural resources" as a key sector to promote the development of inner areas. Within the wide scientific debate triggered by this planning direction about cultural capital's role in developing inner areas, a challenging discussion space has been devoted to architectural heritage conservation. Indeed, when focusing on architectural heritage's possible contribution, the planning challenge for the future of inner areas becomes even more complex due to the interaction between the fragility of these territorial systems and the one of heritage assets. Thus, the design of effective development strategies leveraging heritage's potential requires properly identifying and reading the main emerging fragility themes stemming from this interaction, such as the ongoing abandonment processes of architectural heritage. Based on this premise, the paper proposes a multi-dimensional investigation of the architectural heritage abandonment phenomenon in inner areas, aimed at understanding and evaluating its geographies, extent, and peculiar features. After providing a theoretical reflection on the causes and effects of abandonment processes of architectural heritage, the paper delves into a multi-dimensional and quantitative analysis of the phenomenon's extent and features in terms of the relationship between depopulation, built heritage use state, and decay conditions. Finally, the paper reflects on the results from such a preliminary investigation and its opportunities, limitations, and future perspectives in supporting conservation processes from a local development perspective.