Small Towns Recovery and Valorisation. An Innovative Protocol to Evaluate the Efﬁcacy of Project Initiatives

: In many Countries, the depopulation of small towns is a signiﬁcant phenomenon, which is causing the disappearance of a vast material and immaterial heritage, the beating heart of national identities. However, in recent years, with the environmental and metropolitan crisis, a gradual change of trend is taking place in which small towns play a crucial role in rebuilding the city-countryside relationship. The sustainable development of territories is possible, but in order to achieve it, it is essential to reverse the gaze and consider small municipalities as the main driving force for a radical change. Nevertheless, too often administrations are inadequate in dealing with the complexity of small realities, deﬁning strategies and funding projects that are inconsistent with the real and varied local needs. This work deals with the issue of the recovery and valorisation of small towns through multi-criteria analysis schemes able to capture not only the speciﬁc characteristics of the small municipality, but also its relations with the territory and with neighbouring medium/large cities or other surrounding small towns (city-villages network or small municipalities network), also with reference to the multiple infrastructural components. The aim was to identify the critical points of intervention actions and to effectively address future investments. The idea was to propose a technical-economic evaluation protocol structured on social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural components. The study of the criteria, divided into several sub-criteria, led to the proposal of innovative datasets of evaluation indicators. The model was applied to a case study. The results showed the validity of the investigation protocol, which can be an important tool for prioritising the interventions to be implemented, thus optimising the processes of resources allocation—both public and private—according to the principles of sustainable development, with relevant effects in terms of economic policy.


Introduction
Small town depopulation is a widespread phenomenon that involves many countries in the world. However, in the last decade, something has been changing. As the environmental crisis progresses and the city-countryside relationship is gradually torn apart, there is a growing awareness about the importance of rediscovering inland urban realities [1]. Added to this, the current health emergency testifies to the urgent need to change modern lifestyles.
In this scenario, repopulating small towns can represent a concrete chance for the sustainable development of territories. The aim is to rebuild a dialogue between man and nature, recover local and national identities, encourage urban decongestion, and reduce land consumption: "for the first time these territories [are] beginning to be seen not only as a problem, but also as an opportunity" [2] (p. 5).
It is obvious, therefore, that the enhancement of small towns is an increasingly discussed topic and many international initiatives are underway. In this regard, it is important to highlight the role of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), which supports and disseminates rural development programmes, sharing information, best these places by upgrading basic services (mobility, health, education). For the first time, a geography of "shrinkage" on a national scale has been given, which has undoubtedly ignited the debate on the future of inland areas and the role they could play today in rethinking the country's territorial organisation [14]. This has led to the development of numerous studies on the subject. For example, those carried out by the Associazione Riabitare l'Italia, which examines not only the causes of demographic decline, closely linked to historical and economic trends, but also the projects and policies in progress, providing a constantly updated overview [2]. The Associazione Nazionale Borghi del Respiro (National Association of Breathing Villages) aims to promote human health through safe lifestyles that combine respect for nature and the reduction of land consumption. In this context, the recovery of small towns plays a key role, as it offers the possibility of living in unpolluted places, practising outdoor, leisure, and socio-cultural activities.
In addition, there are also research projects carried out by universities and public institutions. Among these, of particular interest is Riabitare i Paesi. Strategie Operative per la Valorizzazione e la Resilienza delle Aree Interne (RI.P.R.O.VA.RE), recently funded by the Ministry of the Environment and Land and Sea Protection. This project, which involves three Italian universities (University of Campania 'Luigi Vanvitelli', University of Salerno, University of Basilicata), proposes a reflection on the classification and perimeter criteria of inland areas, as well as on the tools useful to assess and strengthen their resilience. The purpose is to elaborate possible development strategies aimed at combining the improvement of basic services, the mitigation of risks, and the enhancement of local resources.
Mention should also be given to the actions of organisations such as I Borghi più belli d'Italia (Italy's Most Beautiful Villages) or the Associazione Borghi Autentici (Association of Authentic Villages), which promote local beauty through an information network aimed at involving and sensitising communities on the issues of abandonment and depopulation. There are also those carried out by I Borghi della lettura (The Reading Villages), which assign culture a key role in promoting the knowledge of small towns. In addition, these actions are flanked by other intervention strategies. It is useful to mention the "Alberghi Diffusi", the "Health Villages", the "Artists' Villages", and the "Music Villages" [15][16][17]. In this context, it is necessary to underline that the above-mentioned strategies are addressed to municipalities whose resident population does not exceed 5000 inhabitants or whose establishment was the result of the merger of several municipalities each with a population up to 5000 inhabitants. This threshold, established by Law No 158/2017 (Measures for the support and enhancement of small municipalities, as well as provisions for the redevelopment and recovery of the historic centres of the same municipalities), defines the Italian 'small town'. Such a stringent limit does not reflect the cultural, economic, environmental, and historical complexity of a small town, thus risking the exclusion from funding of a large number of small municipalities which, despite having a higher population, are experiencing a strong and constant demographic decline.
However, intervening in small towns is a complex matter: "it is [...] a question of carrying out assessments [...] which allow problems and resources to be highlighted so that policies can then be drawn up, with a view to integrated planning" [18] (p. 77). In fact, the strategies adopted have not always achieved the desired outcomes. The reasons for this failure are to be found in the mostly punctual approach of the actions, which are the result of 'top-down' wills, unrelated to the real needs of the places. In addition, social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues are usually neglected and administrations are generally unprepared to deal with the multiple factors that characterise small realities.
There is a need to take action not just on building reuse, but also on environmental and landscape protection, as well as on social cohesion and infrastructure rehabilitation. Thus, it is evident that the revitalisation of small municipalities is feasible with a view to the territories' sustainable development, as there is a clear need to take into account social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues. Consequently, any project should necessarily be guided by the sustainability principles. In the light of the above, it is evident that there is the necessity to develop operational tools that combine multiple factors and that guide local administrations and experts in selecting the most effective valorisation interventions to be implemented in a small municipality. This selection must be carried out considering several assessment criteria: social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural. This can be achieved by using multi-criteria analysis models (MCDA).
The multi-criteria analysis helps the decision-maker in solving complex problems that require the formulation of convenience judgments on numerous investment alternatives in the light of multiple and heterogeneous parameters [19,20]. The multi-criteria methods are largely used in different fields, from construction and project management to quality management, and from soft computing to sustainability and energy-environmental [19,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. The widespread use proves their remarkable flexibility, which is translated into the ability to deal with the variability of existing situations, showing "a [...] use versatility especially in reference to questions characterised by the lack of univocity that are expressed in the proposal of a set of solutions usually [marked] by the presence of antagonistic interests" [29] (p. 11).
With these considerations, this paper addressed the issue of valorising small towns in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, i.e., considering together social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural aspects. These questions do not refer exclusively to the small municipality, but are always read on a broader scale in which the infrastructural, social, and cultural fabric of the whole reference territory is examined, as well as the spatial relations between the poles-cities and the small towns.

Aim of the Paper
The work aimed to characterise a multi-criteria analysis model for the technicaleconomic assessment of strategies for the recovery and valorisation of small towns. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) logic, the model proposes to detect the criticalities of the intervention actions and to compare different project ideas in a rational way in order to optimise the allocation processes of both public and private resources.
In particular, the model's structure is made up of evaluation criteria, sub-criteria, and indicators, organised in new datasets available to the operators: the social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural components of the small town outline the analysis criteria, further broken down into 15 sub-criteria; each sub-criteria is associated with one or more evaluation indicators, collated from the literature and also integrated with specifically defined indices.
The criteria and sub-criteria panel and the datasets of evaluation indicators are the innovative elements of the research.
The paper is structured in the following sections: reference materials and methods; general structure of the investigation protocol; application to a case study; exposition of results and discussion; conclusions.

Materials and Methods
In view of the different tangible and intangible elements that distinguish the small towns, and considering the need to carry out organic programmed interventions, it is useful to prepare technical-economic tools aimed at selecting effective recovery and valorisation strategies. The reference criteria must be social, economic, environmental, and cultural, in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. These principles lead towards economic growth without forgetting the objectives of reducing poverty, promoting social solidarity, supporting policies aimed at strengthening the sense of community, and protecting the environment from harmful human activities: the environmental goal is to maintain the reproducibility of natural resources, guaranteeing their quality and protection; the social one intends to invest in human well-being, starting from the concepts of equity and equality; and the economic one prefigures the increase of employment opportunities [31].
In line with the principles of sustainable development, investing in the enhancement of small towns favours the efficient use of resources, limited land consumption, and the preservation of a vast tangible and intangible heritage: "The villages recovery [should not be understood] only and necessarily as a maintenance and restoring operation [of the pre-existences] [...], but it means going back to inhabiting the territory to re-establish a link with nature [...]. From this perspective, the memory of people and buildings is fundamental in order not to lose a cultural and knowledge heritage indissolubly bound to the artificial and natural environment [...]. Keeping the villages alive with their houses and their people means not losing [the] traditions" [14] (pp. 13,14) from which the countries can restart. Moreover, the regeneration of these places guarantees social, economic, environmental, and cultural dynamics in line with the goals of the 2030 Agenda: good health and well-being (goal 3), quality education (goal 4), employment (goals 8,9), reduced inequalities (goal 10), and sustainable cities and communities (goal 11) [32].
The study topics must carefully consider the peculiarities of small towns.
Although it is appropriate to remember that "each village represents a history of its own, linked to its traditions, its conformation, its relationship with the territory but also to its current conditions and its potential for transformation" [14] (p. 15), it seems reasonable to group together some generally recurring characteristics. As reported in the literature [2,13,14,17,18,33], small municipalities are usually located in disadvantaged areas, far from the bigger cities, and are marked by inadequate infrastructure and an ineffective basic service system. These conditions lead to their social, economic, and cultural isolation. However, while the gradual depopulation of these areas has caused their abandonment, it has also favoured the preservation of the original urban layout, as well as the typologicalconstructive features of the architectural artefacts. The strength of the genius loci is still visible in the strong relationship with the landscape and in the productive vocations of the neighbouring territorial contexts [34]. All these prerogatives can be synthetically translated into specific evaluation criteria and sub-criteria organised according to the hierarchical structure of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Compared with other multi-criteria methods, the AHP allows:

•
Breaking down decision problems according to a multi-level organisation (goal, criteria, sub-criteria, possible alternatives); • Comparing quantitative and qualitative data; • Managing and evaluating criteria, sub-criteria, and indicators; • Consciously planning the actions to be implemented [29,35,36].
In the evaluation process, each element at the same level is compared in pairs with each element at the higher level. Judgments are expressed according to Saaty's fundamental scale, in which: 1 expresses same importance between two elements perceived to be equally relevant; 3 indicates moderate importance, i.e., the evaluation is moderately in favour of one element compared to another; 5 indicates strong importance, the assessment is highly in favour of one item compared with another; 7 very strong importance, the assessment is even more strongly in favour of one element over another; 9 extreme importance, the assessment is extremely in favour of one element over another; and 2, 4, 6, and 8 give intermediate values between two evaluations [36].
The literature on the tangible and intangible components that distinguish small towns, the principles of sustainable development and the corresponding approaches for the multi-criteria analysis of villages' recovery and valorisation projects, as well as the Analytic Hierarchy Process' logical structure provide reference materials and methods for the research.

Interventions for the Recovery and Valorisation of Small Towns. An Innovative Evaluation Protocol
In the light of the above, the need to implement actions for the recovery and valorisation of small towns clashes with the difficulty of resolving complex and closely related issues: the territory's economic growth, which is essential to give future generations prospects of stability; the protection of the natural and built environment, which is more and more important in a sustainable development perspective; and the respect of local cultural and social traditions, a heritage that must certainly be safeguarded.
It immediately follows that any project must be assessed from a technical and economic point of view in the light of several criteria, which must consider the peculiarities (the "invariants") of the small towns that are to be recovered and enhanced. Each criteria then needs to be broken down into its many constituent elements, the sub-criteria. At this point, it is required to: (a) identify appropriate evaluation indicators, each able to express the capacity of the initiative to pursue the objective according to the corresponding criteria; and (b) assign the right weight to individual judgements, depending on the economic policy aims of the decision-maker.
Based on the above-mentioned logical sequence of phases, evaluation model shown in Table 1 was formulated, which is a useful reference for a comprehensive analysis of the criticalities and potentials of the strategies aimed at recovering and valorising small municipalities.

MODEL CHARACTERISATION
Step 1 Definition of evaluation CRITERIA Step 2 Analysis of the small town' INVARIANTS Step 3 Definition of SUB-CRITERIA Step 4 Construction of the evaluation INDICATORS datasets Step 5 WEIGHT assignment It is a sequence of five steps which outline a real operational tool for examining intervention projects for villages. Each step is illustrated in detail in the following subparagraphs: criteria, invariants, sub-criteria, evaluation indicators, and weight assignment.

The Evaluation Criteria
The definition of criteria is carried out in the light of the sustainable development different components (social, economic, and environmental) and according to the relevance of the cultural dimension in the recovery and valorisation strategies for small towns.
In fact, the technical and economic evaluation of the interventions poses issues: socioanthropological, related to local traditions, to the strong sense of belonging to the places, to the human and cultural background of the communities; economic, on the strengthening of infrastructure systems and the productive fabric of the territory; environmental, with reference to the quality of air, water, and soil, and the protection of fauna and flora; and cultural, because of the need to properly consider the great material heritage of small municipalities, including churches, historical palaces, and other buildings of particular value and interest that significantly contribute to delineate the charm, identity, and memory of 'marginal areas' [37].
From these considerations, it is clear that any regeneration action must necessarily consider this great potential, safeguarding and preserving it. Thus, any evaluation cannot disregard to consider: Historic-architectural criteria.

The Small Town's Invariants
The second step of the study protocol consists of analysing the small town's 'invariants', i.e., the recurring features [38].
The small municipalities have a wide variety of oral, gastronomic, and religious traditions that enrich the identity profile of places, including issues related to local history and culture. In addition to this, there is the presence of a huge valuable material heritage, which can be found in the quality of the existing buildings, using traditional techniques and specific typological-constructive features. Spontaneous architectures answer to the climatic and morphological conditions of the territory in which they are located, offering a concrete solution to the most urgent housing needs. Moreover, the original urban layout is generally still readable, being marked by a limited and compact built fabric, efficiently organised and easily accessible in all its parts.
The small towns are characterised by a rationalised, productive organisation, which promotes air and water quality as well as functional land use.
On the other hand, in inland areas there is a widespread shortage of infrastructure (parking areas, roads, railways, etc.), accompanied by a deficiency of basic services, including health care, schools, and groceries. These factors strongly influence the trend of demographic decline in small municipalities, which experience a constant state of uncertainty and abandonment.

The Sub-Criteria
The invariants were translated into one or more evaluation sub-criteria, following the correspondence shown in Table A1.
Once the sub-criteria were defined, all elements of the decision problem were hierarchically organised (Table A2).
As can be seen from Table A2, both environmental and historic-architectural subcriteria were broken down into the three layers, territory, urban core, building, in order to deepen the relationships between the three systems and to facilitate the examination of the strategies on several scales of intervention.
At the territorial level, the environmental issues include the components of the local flora and fauna, the water, the air, and the soil. At the urban core scale, the green spaces' composition, texture, and quality are analysed. As for the building, its bioclimatic characteristics are investigated.
With regard to the historic-architectural sub-criteria: the territory scale includes the relationship between landscape and village; for the urban core, the spatial and visual link between the historic centre and the administrative context is considered (the public green and equipped areas are evaluated along with circulation spaces, i.e., alleys, streets, stairs, covered passages, etc., and together with aggregation spaces, such as squares, open spaces, etc.); finally, the building is analysed both in its formal relationship with the whole small town and in its typological-constructive characteristics.

New Datasets of Evaluation Indicators
Once all elements were set up according to the hierarchical structure of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, appropriate evaluation indicators were associated with each sub-criteria.
This followed the study of datasets addressing the issues of 'urban sustainability', 'sustainable urban mobility', 'valorisation of the historical-cultural heritage', 'territorial cohesion', 'rural development', and 'landscape'.
From the 470 selected evaluation indexes, a further selection of indicators specifically linked to social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural issues of small municipalities was made.
This second moment of selection was conducted in the light of the five principles [57,58]: • Focus, in order to identify those indices that exclusively measure what you need to measure; • Relevance, in relation to the ongoing research; • Accessibility, with regard to the facility to access the requested data; • Clarity, as it is necessary to adopt clear indices, the measurement of which does not allow ambiguities of interpretation; • Frequency, so as to favour those indicators that recur most frequently within the examined panels.
According to these requirements, four datasets of evaluation indicators were proposed: for the social criteria (24 indexes); for the economic one (42 indexes); for the environmental one (34 indexes); for the historic-architectural criteria (38 indexes).
It should be noted that all four datasets also include new indicators, defined to consider specific impacts that the investment project may have on the territory.
The proposed four panels are useful tools for all operators involved in the technicaleconomic evaluation of interventions for the recovery and valorisation of small towns in inland areas [59].
Tables A4-A7 show the datasets in detail. For each sub-criteria, several indicators are provided, among which the decision-maker can choose the indexes considered most appropriate to solve the specific evaluation problem.

The Assignment of Weights
Once the four panels of evaluation indicators were set up, the problem was to assign weights to the decision elements. According to the common practice, there is a general trend to assign the same weight to the criteria. At this level, in fact, the judgement is strongly conditioned by political decisions, rather than by technical evaluation rules. Therefore, by giving the same weight to the social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural criteria, the idea is to defer to the political goals a decision that does not seem to find a different value assignment now. This is different for the sub-criteria. Here, weights can be coherently attributed on the basis of the results of questionnaires administered to experts, who compare the sub-criteria with each other in order to assess their level of mutual importance.

The Case Study
The analysis model proposed in the previous section was applied to the Well-being Village project for the Riccia Municipality, a small town of 5068 inhabitants in the Province of Campobasso (Italy).
Riccia is a typical Italian small town affected by depopulation, recording a percentage change in the resident population of −11.5% between 2001 and 2019 (ISTAT data, 2019) and a population loss of about 40% from the last century to date (years 1936-2020). Although the municipality is not far from the city of Campobasso (about 35 min by car), it does not have adequate infrastructure systems and lacks a railway station. On the other hand, the historic centre is characterised by narrow alleyways, stone stairways, load-bearing masonry buildings, and wooden and clay tile roofs. The architectural heritage includes many monuments (a castle, churches, and museums) and valuable buildings. These, in some cases, are marked by ancient family coats of arms or historical shop signs. Local traditions are still tangible in craft activities, food and wine festivals, and religious celebrations. However, as in many Italian municipalities, urban sprawl, although very limited, records the presence of new reinforced concrete buildings and prefabricated warehouses. This is the context in which the Riccia's Well-being Village project was set, whose tourist and residential purposes pay particular attention to protecting the health care of senior citizens. Financed by €1,142,644 from national Funds for Development and Cohesion (29%) and European Funds for Regional Development (71%), the investment includes the actions listed in Table 2 (documents of Riccia Municipality, Italy). Figure 1 shows the location of the interventions aimed at recovering and valorising the Riccia village. Table 2. Historic-architectural criteria: dataset of indicators. The interventions and actions foreseen in the Well-being Village project (documents of Riccia Municipality, Italy).

Main Intervention Single Actions
Recovery of buildings (for a total of 1043 m 2 of net surface area) to be converted into social assistance and tourist-residential facilities for the elderly  The model implementation requires the selection of indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions planned in the Well-being Village project.
Given the social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural criteria, the related sub-criteria were first investigated, and appropriately weighted through the use of questionnaires administered to experts. From the answers provided, pairwise comparison matrixes were built which, once normalised, returned the weights of each sub-criteria (Tables A8-A10). It was obtained that:

•
With reference to the social criteria, in Riccia, traditions and secondary urbanisation works (schools, health centers, theatres, libraries, sports facilities, etc.) are more important (0.40) than assistance services for foreigners (0.20); • According to the economic criteria, infrastructures (roads, public lighting, water, gas, electricity, sewage, broadband, etc.) and the productive vocations of the place (tourism, agriculture, livestock farming, crafts, etc.) are equally important; • Under the environmental criteria, there is a higher incidence of both the bioclimatic quality of buildings (0.39) and the quality of water, air, and soil (0.32). The characteristics of flora and fauna as well as the state of preservation of green areas are of the same relevance (0.145).
The only exception was for the six historic-architectural sub-criteria, which were assigned the same weight (0.16) in view of their equal importance in the recovery and valorisation of the Riccia village.
At this point, depending on the available data and the specificities of the case study, the assessment index of the interventions was selected from Tables A4-A7 for each sub-criteria.  Tables A11-A14 show the correspondence between sub-criteria and the selected indicators. Each indicator measures the project's ability to achieve the goal represented by the corresponding sub-criteria. This is carried out according to a scale of scores from 1 to 5, where: 1 = very bad; 2 = insufficient; 3 = sufficient; 4 = good; 5 = excellent.
These judgments were made taking into account not only the effects of the strategy in the specific sectors at which the project is directed, but also other complementary actions aimed at improving the area's reception capacity, redeveloping public spaces and making them more accessible to tourists by providing street furniture, parking and rest areas, and visitor and thematic routes (documents of Riccia Municipality, Italy).
Additional information useful to assign values to the indicators are based on: application of the formulas already shown in Tables A4-A7; questionnaires administered to the  population; and references from legislation.  The values assigned to the indicators are in Tables A15-A18. The score S of each indicator was multiplied with the weight W of the related sub-criteria in order to obtain the weighted score S w .
S w was compared with the maximum weighted score S max relating to the reference indicator with the highest value, i.e., 5. The comparison between S w and S max allowed the verification of the acceptability of the project in relation to the sub-criteria under examination. In particular: • If S w ≥ 0.6 S max , the project is effective in achieving the goals of the sub-criteria (accepted); • If S w < 0.6 S max , the project does not achieve the goals (not accepted).
Thus, 60% of S max is assumed as the acceptability threshold on a 0-100 scale.
It should be noted that in some cases a 'composite' indicator was introduced. This means that the sub-criteria were evaluated by using a combination of two or more indicators, able to capture different components of the problem that the sub-criteria represent. In this case, S w is the product of the average of the scores assigned to the indicators and the weight given to the sub-criteria.
For example, with regard to the economic criteria, a composite indicator was considered for the sub-criteria Productive vocations, evaluated through: (1) Agricultural land use; (2) Skills recovery. Scores were given to these two indicators: S Agricultural land use = 4; S Skills recovery = 1.
Therefore, the weighted score S w = 1.25 for Productive vocations is the product of the weight 0.50 of the sub-criteria and the arithmetic average 2.5 of scores 4 and 1.
This approach makes it possible to highlight the project's ability to affect the individual components Agricultural land use and Skills recovery, which are essential for an effective interpretation of the Productive vocations sub-criteria. Obviously, for Productive vocations the value S max = 2.5 is the product between the average value S = 5 of the two indicators Agricultural land use and Skills recovery with maximum score and the weight W = 0.50 of the sub-criteria. From the comparison between S w = 1.25 and Smax = 2.5, it follows that S w = 50%·S max . Thus, the 60% threshold is not satisfied; with regard to the subcriteria Productive vocations, the Well-being Village project is not acceptable and must be integrated and/or modified.
A composite indicator is also associated with the sub-criteria Primary urbanisation works, described through: Quality of the street and sidewalks cover; Percentage of houses with communications (including electricity, water, sewage, gas, heating, internet, phone lines); The number of public Wi-Fi places.

Results Analysis
The achieved results are as follows.
• Social criteria. The Riccia's Well-being Village project was accepted with regard to all the three assessment social sub-criteria. The project succeeded in valorising Local traditions and identities, effectively acting on Secondary urbanisation works and Social assistance service. Table A15 gives percentage values of S w compared to S max above the 60% threshold for all the evaluation indexes. Specifically: S w = 80%·S max for Local traditions and identities; S w = 80%·S max for Secondary urbanization works; S w = 100%·S max for Social assistance service. • Economic criteria. The project was accepted with respect to the sub-criteria Primary urbanization works, while for the Productive vocations component it did not reach the required sufficiency.  (Table A17).

•
Historic-architectural criteria. The project was accepted with reference to the subcriteria Integration with the natural environment, Visual image, Dialogue between the historic urban fabric and its context, Empty/Full relationship and equipped green space system and Formal relationship between building and urban core. In fact, as shown in Table A18, the percentage values of S w were respectively: S w = 100%·S max ; S w = 80.72%·S max ; S w = 100%·S max ; S w = 90.36%·S max ; S w = 100%·S max . On the contrary, the Typological-distributive and formal characteristics of the building recorded the percentage S w = 50.60%·S max . It follows that the 60% threshold was not satisfied for this sub-criteria. This underlines the inadequacy of the project actions with regard to the fruition of the recovered architectural heritage.
The model therefore identified two main criticalities in the Well-being Village strategy of the Riccia Municipality: one of economic order; the other one with respect to the historicarchitectural heritage.
On the economic issue, with particular reference to production vocations, it emerged that the inclusion of local craftsmen during the planning and execution phases of the works was limited, with certainly negative effects. The involvement of local craft workers is crucial to rebuild an 'original atmosphere', including old manual traditions passed down from generation to generation. The workforce could be employed not only in the production of furniture and objects, but also in the manufacture of floors and finishing elements. As shown by other valorisation strategies (the Albergo Diffuso of Santo Stefano di Sessanio in Abruzzo, the Ecovillage of Torri Superiore in Liguria, the Artists' Village of Calcata in Lazio, etc.), the use of ancient manufacturing knowledge is decisive in 'enlivening' a small municipality and rebuilding its identity and historical culture. Aiming at the productive vocations of a place means creating employment opportunities, but also investing in potentially profitable sectors, especially if reinterpreted in an original and modern key.
With regard to the reuse of the buildings, the developed model highlighted the project's lack of attention in defining the correct uses for the historic-architectural building heritage. Thus, the building interventions, although they delayed the degradation of the existing heritage, did not produce advantages in the works management phase.
In this sense, the weakness of Riccia's Well-being Village project can be traced back to the lack of a larger-scale approach able to relate the municipality to the neighbouring context. This means adopting an integrated strategy that strengthens the relations with surrounding cities in order to redefine the identity of the municipality in accordance with a territorial network of interdependence. Recent European projects (see Section 1) underline the need to re-include small towns in their reference territories through effective reciprocity and interconnection policies. In this respect, in the 2014-2020 territorial cohesion policy programme, the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3), is a valuable tool for identifying investment priorities in the research and innovation sectors. Through a multi-level and multi-stakeholder analysis of a territory's production potential, the Smart Specialisation Strategy sets out medium-and long-term sustainable development paths.
In view of these considerations and of what has emerged from the tool's application to the Riccia case study, it is clear that intervening on the single small municipality is not enough, but it is essential to rethink the role of these places in relation to the territorial dynamics in which they are inserted. Therefore, in the light of the findings, it comes out that there is the capacity of the technical-economic assessment tool to investigate the criticalities of the Riccia's Well-being Village strategy, so as to guide the public decision-maker towards a more correct allocation of the available resources.

Conclusions
The valorisation of small towns has many advantages: reduction of urban decongestion, re-proposal of identity and social values, rehabilitation of the existing built heritage, less land consumption, reintroduction of typical productive activities, and promotion of local traditions.
Nevertheless, the multiple factors that characterise small municipalities make the effectiveness of the actions complex, requiring them to face significant social, economic, environmental, and cultural challenges. The risk is to invest resources in mostly punctual projects, which are not in line with the soul of the places and the real needs of the territory. Therefore, there is no doubt that the effectiveness of interventions lies in the ability to address, understand, and resolve issues of different natures within organic recovery projects. It is essential to extend the action field to the social (local traditions, 'genius loci', secondary urbanisation works, assistance services), economic (productive activities, primary urbanisation works), and environmental components (flora, fauna, air, water, soil, building bioclimatics) of the small towns, as well as to the historic-architectural aspects (visual-infrastructural-landscape connection between the village and the administrative context, formal correlation between the building and the urban cores, and typologicalconstructive characteristics of the architectural artefact). This is in view of the need to strengthen the relationship between small municipalities and the facilities of the territory to which they belong in order to guarantee an "information transfer" that can enhance the characteristics of each small town within a large-scale territorial network.
In view of the above, the paper outlined an innovative multi-criteria analysis tool in order to detect the criticalities and qualities of valorisation strategies. The proposed datasets of evaluation criteria, sub-criteria, and indicators may be used by stakeholders to assess investments, optimise project contents, and effectively guide future actions.
As it is set up, the model can be used not only to express a judgement on the 'post operam' recovery and valorisation interventions, but also on the 'ante operam' ones, foreseeing their repercussions in the social, economic, environmental, and historic-architectural fields both on small municipalities and on neighbouring territories.
Research prospects concern: the implementation of the model in hierarchical analysis schemes for the comparison between project alternatives; and the application to other case studies to test its full effectiveness and propose specific integrations to the datasets.

Conflicts of Interest:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Indicated by literature
Sense of place/identification with place/attachement to place The way people perceive the resources and historical environment of their community. There is an identity linked to the place that evokes a special sense of place. This indicator requires a direct survey among the inhabitants of the historical sites.
The number of cultural events n. of cultural events. Did the implemented strategy safeguard and/or support cultural events? YES/NO. The number of visitors in cultural events n. visitors in cultural events.
Taste's places It is evaluated by the level at which the "taste's places" enter into landscape valorization policies I = G c G t × 100 G c expresses the number of "taste's places" subject to interventions and measures included in the territorial plans, aimed at enhancing their value in relation to the landscape. G t expresses the total number of "taste's places" existing in the considered territory.

Event places
It is assessed by the degree to which "event places" are included in the perception of the landscape and are enhanced through ad hoc measures I = E c E t × 100 E c expresses the number of "event places" subject to interventions and measures included in the territorial plans, aimed at enhancing their value in relation to the landscape.E t expresses the total number of "event places" existing in the considered territory. Local traditions and identities Proposed

SOCIAL CRITERIA Sub-Criteria Indicator Description
Indicated by literature The number of assistance centers n. of assistance centers.
Net migration It's the ratio of net migration during the year to the average population in that year. It is also possible to use: n./1000. Average number of assistance hours per year Average number of assistance hours per year.
Percentage difference between the offered services level and the standard services level Percentage difference between the offered services level and the standard services level.
Quantitative level of benefits To be estimated on the most appropriate evaluation scale, depending on the available information framework.

Proposed
Percentage of those who benefit from social assistance services on the resident population % of population benefiting from social assistance services/total resident population.

ECONOMIC CRITERIA Sub-criteria Indicator Description
Indicated by literature

Forest areas extensively exploited
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the surface in m2 of extensively exploited forest areas.
Agricultural areas Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the surface in km2 of agricultural areas.

Economic specialization
Shows the level (high or low) through which a city focuses its economic activities on certain goods and services is the employment share in the city's industry. This share is expressed with a number and not a percentage. N is the total number of industries. H varies from 1/N to 1. A value of H greater than 0,25 indicates a high concentration. Structure of the economy % GVA by branch (primary/secondary/tertiary sector.

Land use efficiency
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed to make use of expert judgements, from which a quantitative evaluation algorithm can be deduced.

Distribution of businesses and employed by industries
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the number of employees in the industrial sector.

The number of tourists
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the number of tourists per year. Foreign Direct Investments Capital/Earnings.

Accomodation load
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the accommodation capacity of the structures (hotels, hostels, b&b, etc.) as number of beds.

Dynamics of foundation and dissolution of local businesses
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. An economic indicator is proposed, depending on the level of information available. The number of guest nights Number of guest nights. Economic enhancement of historical-cultural heritage networking It is proposed to evaluate this parameter according to the specificities of the case study.
Agricultural land use % of Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) in arable land/permanent pasture/permanent crops. Economic development of non-agricultural sector GVA (million EUR) in secondary and tertiary sectors.
Tourism infrastructure in rural areas Total number of bed places in tourist accommodations (%).

ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA Sub-Criteria
Indicator Description Territory Land cover % area in agricultural/forest/natural classes.
Protected forest Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed an evaluation based on the extension in m 2 . The number of protected animal and plant species n. of protected animal and plant species.
Percentage of preserved area/reservoirs/waterways/parks in relation to total land area % areas, reserves, rivers, protected parks in relation to the total territorial area.

Species and habitats of European interest
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the use of a numerical or percentage data. Urban land take % of land that is converted from natural and semi-natural areas (including wooded and agricultural areas) to artificial land used for urban and economic purposes.

Proportion of protected areas
Not specified in the bibliographical reference. It is proposed the % of protected natural areas on the total number of existing natural areas.
Biodiversity: Tree species composition Area of forest classified by number of tree species occurring and by forest type (%). Ecologically protected areas % of surface area subject to ecological protection measures in relation to the total surface area I = S p S t × 100 S p is the area in hectares (ha) subject to protection measures. S t is the total area, expressed in hectares (ha), of the considered territory.    L i expresses the overall length of the lines drawn by human works (roads, railways, and so on) engraved on the skyline, measured on the outline of the territory that appears from the photographic vision and/or cartographic representation. L b expresses the baseline length delimited by that portion of the skyline. S i expresses the total surface area of the area engravings produced by human communities on the outline delimited by the skyline. S c expresses the surface area limited by the skyline.

Injured landscape
Representative indices of human impact on the landscape A f represents the sum of the surface area, measured in hectares (ha), of areas occupied by landfills and quarries, as well as areas degraded due to hydrogeological instability. A t represents the total suburban area of the considered territory.

Integration
with the natural environment

Proposed
Landscape infrastructures (religious itineraries, transhumance routes, protoindustrial architecture paths) km of paths and trails recovered and/or valorized. It is important to note if the local government has or does not have a historic preservation plan as part of its overall plan (the community masterplan). Fragility of the historical-cultural characteristics of the landscape Score scale.
Significance/Typicality of the historical-cultural characteristics of the landscape Score scale.

Landscape perceived beauty
Average score given through questionnaires on the beauty of the landscape in a specific municipality (1 = not corresponding at all; 5 = corresponding in full).

Landscape value of skyline
Visual and aesthetic impact produced by human presence and activities on the skyline (linear/areal impact coefficient) L i expresses the overall length of the lines drawn by human works (roads, railways, etc.) engraved on the skyline, measured on the outline of the territory that appears from the photographic vision and/or cartographic representation. L b expresses the baseline length delimited by that portion of the skyline. S i expresses the total surface area of the area engravings produced by human communities on the outline delimited by the skyline. S c expresses the surface area limited by the skyline.

Panoramic sites
Relevance of panoramic sites in the perception of the landscape and in the preservation of its quality I = P d P b +P d × 100 P b indicates the number of panoramic sites that can offer views of the surrounding landscape. P d indicates the number of panoramic sites that have deteriorated as a result of improper interventions on the territory.
Parking pressure Visual impact dimension of car parks on the landscape I = L p L c × 100 I = S p S c × 100 L p expresses the length, calculated in km, of linear developments which, at times of maximum frequency, are assumed by vehicles aligned along lines relevant from the landscape point of view. L c expresses the length, calculated in km, of the relevant country lines developing in the territory concerned. S p expresses the surface area, calculated in hectares (ha) of the spaces that, at times of maximum frequency, are car parks within the territory considered. S c expresses the surface area, calculated in hectares (ha), of the territory characterized by the landscape to be safeguarded.

Proposed
Visual interference (or the presence of illegal building and/or architectural artefacts out of scale with respect to the pre-existing built fabric) m 3 of illegal building and/or architectural artefacts out of scale with respect to the pre-existing built fabric.
Visual image (evocative force) Hydrographic ponds N. of existing or designed hydrographic elements (natural or artificial).

Indicated by literature
Perceived quality of the landscape around the own home Share of interviewees who were "not at all satisfied" (0) to "very satisfied" (5) with the quality of the landscape around their home.

Panoramic sites
Relevance of panoramic sites in the perception of the landscape and in the preservation of its quality I = P d P b +P d × 100 P b indicates the number of panoramic sites that can offer views of the surrounding landscape. P d indicates the number of panoramic sites that have deteriorated as a result of improper interventions on the territory.

Proposed
Urban morphology (intended as the aggregation mode of settlements that define their form. The elements that structure an urban core are considered: streets, buildings, open spaces, green areas) How much the project proposal alters the way the settlement is aggregated (score scale). Green space accessibility % of total population within 500 metres of public managed green areas (active and passive). The number of green space reconstruction projects No. of green space reconstruction projects. YES= score 5; NO= score 0.

Urban pedestrian areas
Urban surface area pedestrianized in relation to the quality of the landscape I = P e S × 100 P e indicates the extension, measured in hectares (ha), of existing pedestrian spaces. S indicates the extension, measured in hectares (ha), of the total urban area.
Full/empty relationship and equipped green space system

Valuing of urban public parks and gardens
It provides an evaluation of the green spaces' function within the urban landscape I = S a +S n S a × 100 S a indicates the area, measured in hectares (ha), of existing green spaces in the urban environment at the present time. S n indicates the area, measured in hectares (ha), of the green spaces that should be realised.

Revitalization of historical urban spaces
Relationship between the urban spaces that have benefited, or are benefiting, from architectural recovery and cultural valorization in a single city, or in a complex of cities, and the complex of historical urban spaces existing in the urban context considered I = S R +S r S t × 100 S R expresses the surface area, measured in hectares (ha), of the city's historical spaces that have benefited from architectural restoration and cultural heritage valorization. S r expresses the surface area, measured in hectares (ha), of historical spaces which, at the time the indicator is calculated, are subject to architectural restoration and cultural valorization. S t expresses the total area, measured in hectares (ha), of the city's historical spaces taken into account. Building Formal relationship between building and urban core State of preservation of built heritage with reference to characterizing elements Score scale.

Historic preservation element/plan and integration with community planning
It is important to note if the local government has or does not have a historic preservation plan as part of its overall plan (the community masterplan).

Historic fabric
Measures the amount (%) of historical fabric in a specific community. This is done by dating the structures from the foundation of the settlement to the present day.

Preservation of the assets
It is proposed to evaluate this parameter according to the specificities of the case study (score scale). Use of historical-cultural heritage Percentage of buildings in use.

Preservation of cultural heritage
Likert's scale.
Typologicaldistributive and formal characteristics of the building Ground floor usage % of m 2