Regional Mountain Conference

Mountain and rural territories across Europe are experiencing the negative impacts of demographic decline, urbanisation, and climate-exacerbated natural hazards, leading to increasing vulnerability and territorial imbalance. Small villages and minor historical centres (MHCs) in alpine and inner areas are particularly exposed to hydrogeological hazards and climate-related pressures, while simultaneously facing service reduction and infrastructural fragility. Although numerous policy initiatives promote the revitalisation and re-inhabitation of these territories, depopulation trends persist. Addressing this gap requires a robust understanding of how environmental risk conditions interact with socio-economic and cultural dynamics, and how this knowledge can be operationalised through spatial data and decision-support tools.

This contribution represents a first step in the development of an interdisciplinary methodology aimed  at establishing a spatial, data-driven framework to support evidence-based territorial strategies that integrate mountain risk management with re-inhabitation potential. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following the PRISMA protocol, synthesising research on MHCs, rural and alpine settlements, hazard and climate-risk analysis, and GIS-based documentation and planning approaches, with a specific focus on multi-criteria evaluation methods. The review highlights persistent fragmentation in spatial, statistical, and environmental data, as well as the lack of standardised and interoperable indicators capable of bridging hazard exposure, accessibility, demographic dynamics, and territorial capital within spatial decision-support systems. In particular, the review identifies valuation-oriented socio-economic metrics as essential for assessing the feasibility and desirability of re-inhabitation in risk-prone contexts.

Based on these results, a preliminary set of indicators is proposed to support spatialisation and integration within a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis. A multiscale framework combines environmental and hazard indicators with socio-economic, infrastructural, and socio-cultural variables, harmonising geospatial data from geoportals and remote-sensing datasets. These data are organised into an interoperable geodatabase and implemented through GIS and WebGIS platforms, supporting spatial analysis and map-based storytelling. The relationships among these variables are intended to guide the analysis and planning of policies and strategies that support the rehabilitation of MHCs from a sustainable and resilient perspective.