**3. Historic centers, possible poles of economic networks, and ecosystem services**

Historic centers are often bastions which are remnants of age, habits, and traditions now lost in other parts of the territory. But in an era in which communication becomes more and more immaterial, in which virtual accessibility becomes more important, centers with original cultural heritages can become the cornerstone of innovative forms of production based on a new synergy between anthropic activities, nature, and landscape.

The cultural heritage placed at the center of the development policies of a territory can contribute to attract not only tourists but also investors capable of promoting the local economy by introducing new activities, also possibly controlled and exercised at a distance from the polarities of the world economy through the use of information and communication technologies [10].

In line with the operational guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention [11], cultural landscapes are cultural goods which represent the "combined works of nature and man" as identified in Article I of the Convention.

Landscapes represent the evolution over time of society and its relationship with the territory, with its strengths and weaknesses.

There are a great variety of landscapes which are representative of the different regions of the world, of the combined work of nature and humanity, and express a long and intimate sharing relationship between peoples and their natural environment. Some sites reflect specific land use techniques that guarantee and support biological diversity. Others, through traditions and religious rites, embody an exceptional spiritual relationship between people and nature.

To preserve the memory of the relationships between men and the environment, safeguarding traditional cultures, a true deposit of the memory of those who preceded us (sacred places, botanical gardens, crops, ways of using the territory, etc.), these sites, recognized as landscapes cultural, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List. They constitute our common identity as member of the human race.

In 2010, the culture of integrated conservation recognized internationally the need to maintain with the historical city also the historical cultural landscape in which it finds its origin. The recognition of the historic city in the contemporary urban landscape was sanctioned by the UNESCO [12].

Today the historic urban landscape (HUL) is of fundamental importance in all urban planning and integrated conservation projects.

Historic cities and the rural villages each within its own territorial and landscape context are an integral part of the world heritage, with the communities and their intangible assets, in a continuous process of evolution and change.

In an urban context, the safeguarding and enhancement of heritage concern the set of built and open spaces that can be included in metropolitan areas or the set of small urban settlements and their rural spaces, including the intangible values that characterize them (**Figure 1**).

In this context, the operation consists in referring the cities with their morphological, functional, and structural characteristics to a larger whole, consisting of its territory, the surrounding environment, and the landscape.

#### **Figure 1.**

*Isolated rural house in the hamlet of San Casciano in the municipality of Sarnano in the province of Macerata in the Marche region in central Italy, within the Monti Sibillini National Park (average altitude 540 m, inhabitants 3142. Photo by the author).*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Agricultural soil in a rural context in the Sibillini Mountains in the province of Macerata in the Marche region in central Italy. The articulated composition of hilly and flat rural landscapes, marked by dry walls and insulated garments pastures of sheep, represents an increasingly less widespread landscape of high biodiversity (photo by the author).*

**45**

offer [14].

**Figure 3.**

*Promoting Territorial Cultural Systems through Urban Planning*

Each community, through the recognition of its collective memory and the knowledge of its past, has the task of identifying the way to preserve its heritage. Each element of this heritage is the bearer of specific values, with the relative pos-

*Example of networks of historic centers in lower Salento, in the Apulia Region in the South of Italy, subject of the development policies of the strategy for internal areas coordinated by the Italian Agency for Territorial Cohesion (http://www.agenziacoesione.gov.it/it/arint/). It can be seen how the urban centers of the municipal territories highlighted in the figure (the different shades of green describe from the darkest to the lightest the greatest degree of belonging to the whole of the internal areas according to the parameters defined by the ministry and reviewed in a specific research by the author) constitute a settlement network capable of supporting and innervating the internal areas of which they are part of ecosystem services if society will be able to support a new self-development, based on the use of information technologies, virtual accessibility, enhancement cultural, and natural resources. Graphic elaboration by the author in developing the following research's work: "The role of the cultural territorial systems of the minor historical centers and the landscapes in which they are inserted for the valorization, protection, and management of cultural heritage and intangible* 

With respect to all the considerations made so far, further reflection on the importance of the soil resource must be spent, also in terms of cultural as well as environmental resources. Awareness of the value of the soil resource seems to grow, in literature, together with the recognition of the ecosystem services it is able to

it is complicated and in practice difficult to achieve, to express and quantify the impact of soil losses and degradation at local scale also in terms of erosion of rural landscapes, loss of ecosystem services, and vulnerability to climate change, and finally, to provide decision-makers at local level with specific information for the definition and implementation of measures with the aim of limiting, mitigating or

Therefore, it is equally complex to provide an in-depth picture of the loss of

In fact, as illustrated in many scientific articles (e.g., [15]), a soil of good quality is able to correctly perform its ecological, economic, and social functions, guaranteeing the supply of peculiar ecosystem services or the benefits that man obtains, directly or indirectly, from the ecosystems [16] and necessary for their sustenance [17, 18], which are divided according to the most recent classification of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES):

ecosystem services related to land use due to anthropogenic factors.

With the soil status monitoring methods usually available from local authorities,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91985*

sibilities for change [13] (**Figure 2**).

*heritage." Research funded by a NUVAL-Formez research grant, 2014.*

compensating for soil sealing.

#### **Figure 3.**

*Heritage*

**Figure 1.**

*inhabitants 3142. Photo by the author).*

**44**

**Figure 2.**

*(photo by the author).*

*Agricultural soil in a rural context in the Sibillini Mountains in the province of Macerata in the Marche region in central Italy. The articulated composition of hilly and flat rural landscapes, marked by dry walls and insulated garments pastures of sheep, represents an increasingly less widespread landscape of high biodiversity* 

*Isolated rural house in the hamlet of San Casciano in the municipality of Sarnano in the province of Macerata in the Marche region in central Italy, within the Monti Sibillini National Park (average altitude 540 m,* 

*Example of networks of historic centers in lower Salento, in the Apulia Region in the South of Italy, subject of the development policies of the strategy for internal areas coordinated by the Italian Agency for Territorial Cohesion (http://www.agenziacoesione.gov.it/it/arint/). It can be seen how the urban centers of the municipal territories highlighted in the figure (the different shades of green describe from the darkest to the lightest the greatest degree of belonging to the whole of the internal areas according to the parameters defined by the ministry and reviewed in a specific research by the author) constitute a settlement network capable of supporting and innervating the internal areas of which they are part of ecosystem services if society will be able to support a new self-development, based on the use of information technologies, virtual accessibility, enhancement cultural, and natural resources. Graphic elaboration by the author in developing the following research's work: "The role of the cultural territorial systems of the minor historical centers and the landscapes in which they are inserted for the valorization, protection, and management of cultural heritage and intangible heritage." Research funded by a NUVAL-Formez research grant, 2014.*

Each community, through the recognition of its collective memory and the knowledge of its past, has the task of identifying the way to preserve its heritage. Each element of this heritage is the bearer of specific values, with the relative possibilities for change [13] (**Figure 2**).

With respect to all the considerations made so far, further reflection on the importance of the soil resource must be spent, also in terms of cultural as well as environmental resources. Awareness of the value of the soil resource seems to grow, in literature, together with the recognition of the ecosystem services it is able to offer [14].

With the soil status monitoring methods usually available from local authorities, it is complicated and in practice difficult to achieve, to express and quantify the impact of soil losses and degradation at local scale also in terms of erosion of rural landscapes, loss of ecosystem services, and vulnerability to climate change, and finally, to provide decision-makers at local level with specific information for the definition and implementation of measures with the aim of limiting, mitigating or compensating for soil sealing.

Therefore, it is equally complex to provide an in-depth picture of the loss of ecosystem services related to land use due to anthropogenic factors.

In fact, as illustrated in many scientific articles (e.g., [15]), a soil of good quality is able to correctly perform its ecological, economic, and social functions, guaranteeing the supply of peculiar ecosystem services or the benefits that man obtains, directly or indirectly, from the ecosystems [16] and necessary for their sustenance [17, 18], which are divided according to the most recent classification of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES):


In general, a soil can be considered in good health if it has an adequate content of organic substance, a good structure, and a high diversification of the micro- and macroorganisms that populate it [19]. It is evident that a waterproofed soil can provide cultural services at most but not the other two [18].

With these premises, it is easier to understand why historic centers are potential epicenters of new economic networks and ecosystem services. In fact they are certainly able to offer multiple cultural services, but at the same time, their reuse saves soil and therefore guarantees at least the services of regulation and maintenance of ecosystems (**Figure 3**).
