Internal Areas Strategies: From Statistical Methods to Planning Policies

The “National Strategy for Internal Areas”, made by the Italian Government for the European Union Partnership Agreement 2014-2020, defines the territory of the Italian internal areas as a set of project-areas, local inter-municipal systems each with its own territorial identity defined by social, economic, geographic, demographic and environmental characteristics. In this sense, we can define “internal” those areas significantly distant from the centers of supply of essential services (education, health, and mobility), rich in environmental and cultural resources with highly diversified natural aspects. The objective of the work is to re-elaborate the existing mapping for the identification of the internal areas, made by the Italian Government, especially taking into account the demographic, economic, morphological profiles and essential services supply, through the use of fuzzy logic. Then, trying to deep explain possible planning strategies and policies for these relevant, sometimes abandoned and extremely diffuse territories.