Interpreting historic and cultural landscapes. Potential and risks in Geographical information Systems building for knowledge and management

The paper discusses potentials and limits of Geographical Information Systems in supporting the territorialization of multidisciplinary landscape analysis for the management of a World Heritage Site on the basis of several studies carried out about cultural landscapes in a spatial-planning perspective (Landscape Atlases, Regional Landscape Plans,…) On behalf of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, a multidisciplinary team of experts in historic features, built heritage and landscape studies has developed the analysis on the UNESCO serial Site “Residences of the Royal House of Savoy” to identify a strategic vision for the management of this complex system (12 properties, 7,000 hectares). Applying a landscape approach has implied: • developing a set of sectoral analysis sound from a disciplinary point of view but suitable to a direct comparison with existing lists of assets, which derive from several regulative and planning instruments; • extending expert analysis beyond the administrative boundaries of the WHL (property and buffer zone) to highlight fundamental relationships between the protected area and its territorial surroundings. The GIS must offer a response by: • returning experts’ multidisciplinary analysis without losing the additional interpretative level arising from a holistic view. • highlighting landscape historic, scenic and environmental relations trespassing traditional WHL properties facilitating connections with broader land management. The discussion concerns the methodological approach proposed for a GIS responding to landscape-oriented research calling for the legibility/consultation of the single mapped features within the complex system in which each one finds its proper meaning. Examples concerning multiple landscape relations between WHL Site and its landscape are given as well as issues concerning their geographical representation. Final considerations will stress both the benefits and the risks of the coexistence of different data collections (strictly descriptive or management-oriented) within the same web-GIS, potentially leading to ambiguity. The proposed method is addressed to all cases of protected sites management plans encompassing cultural landscapes.