Geographic Information Systems (G.I.S.) for the analysis of historical small towns

The Information systems offer the advantage of managing, representing and synoptically visualizing a large number and variety of data. For this reason they are very helpful to define and analyze the vulnerability of landscapes of historical small towns, most of which established during the medieval age. Due to the peculiar typology and to the constructive uniformity of their urban context, these centers can be considered as environmental monuments to be preserved and protected. As far as they represent the result of a slow economic and cultural process, the coexistence of a various physical and social factors makes these realities particularly vulnerable and prone to degradation. The safeguard of these systems passes through the identification and the monitoring of indexes capable of quantifying the environmental quality in order to provide the local governmental agencies with maintenance plans where priorities are clearly defined.