Webgis for the Enhancement of Post-Industrial Heritage: an Italian Case Study

During the second half of the XX century the industrial fervour which generated new urban centres or developed pre-existing urban structures in the previous century has slowed down. This economic transformation produced visible effects in the landscape of the cities. Abandoned industrial architectures are now one of the main problems of modern cities and at the same time are significant evidence of the past, manifesting the expression of the industrialized society. In Italy there is a little sensitivity towards post-industrial heritage because it is not considered part of national architectural heritage yet, indeed it is both a material and intangible legacy that represents the genius loci of working-class communities. Sustainable development accompanied by maintenance of industrial heritage can be considered in terms of a search for new spaces for innovative functions, to ensure economic and spatial development; also in order to seek a balance between tradition and modernity, giving local communities a sense of identity and cultural continuity. In this process, the recent techniques of digital surveys using laser scanners, digital photogrammetry and so on constitute important tools for the enhancement of industrial heritage. The use of HBIM and augmented or immersive reality represents the vanguard of the digitization of cultural heritage. When it comes to the enhancement of large-scale cultural heritage sites the GIS, Geographical Information System, plays a key role in the management of the territorial data. This research presents the interesting case of the historical centre of Isola del Liri, in Lazio, where many paper mills and felt factories arose transforming the 92 natural and cultural landscape. For the preservation and promotion of this site, a platform Web GIS constitutes an important tool for enhancing the heritage and building greater wareness among the community. This has numerous advantages since it can be used by technicians and non-technicians and can be seen as a digital archive of historical and cultural memory.