Ideational Landscape: an Epistemological Approach for a Shared Governance of Stratified Urban Landscapes

Any perceptible trace of the past in a historical urban landscape, both emotionally and symbolic as well as materially identifiable in its reference to history, testifies the crucial importance that the community has indirectly attributed to the historical and cultural value of the areas they belong to. Taking into account that any variation in the level of urban landscape quality determines a different power of attraction from users and, consequently, the virtuous behaviour of economic and political representatives, it is necessary to foresee strategies of scheduled interventions in favour of growth respecting at the same time safeguard and conservation issues. Within this framework, knowledge, well structured and evenly spread, has to trigger off a symbiotic relationship between cultural and economic development where the population has an active role in the management of the landscape, according to the Landscape European Convention. For that purpose a model of analysis of urban stratified landscapes has been defined. It gives order, sense and measure to the visible and hidden quality in the memory archives which fix in space and time the socio-cultural identity of the community. The methodology is achieved through a survey realized with the latest technology and with the traditional methodological approaches. It is integrated with documentary, iconographic, cartographic and photographic sources and with toponymy, too. The aim is to realize an investigative approach able to connect matter and memory and convey knowledge in support of all the operators in the territory