Il patrimonio difensivo delle piccole isole del Mediterraneo occidentale. Riconoscimento e buone pratiche di riuso e valorizzazione

Military infrastructures and defence sites have already been recognised as important 'landscaping agent', due to the in-depth relationships existing between these settlements and their related territories. In this link is particularly important in the case of coastal sites, where military assets mark places of great strategic importance, often characterized by exceptional landscape values and high environmental vulnerability, because of massive tourist flows and climate changes. In this context, the paper focuses on the military landscapes in some small island of the Mediterranean and illustrates the methodology and the first results of an ongoing research carried out under the European project "ISOle Sostenibili: Réseau d'es pour le développement durable et la préservation des patrimoines" (ISOS). The ISOS project aims at creating a network of French and Italian islands engaged on the sustainable exploitation of their resources according to an aware and responsible protection of their natural and cultural heritage. In detail, the study - carried out by the University of Cagliari - covers nine geographical areas: Hyeres Islands (Parc national de Port-Cros), Lerins Islands (Ville de Cannes), Palmaria (Provincia di La Spezia), Islands in the Tuscan Archipelago (Parco dell'Arcipelago Toscano), Island of Tavolara and Molara (Protected area of Tavolara), Archipelago of La Maddalena, Lavezzi e Cavallo Islands (O.E.C.), San Pietro and Sant'Antioco Islands, Island of Asinara, 'Isola dei Cavoli' (Regione Sardegna); each of them collects several small islands of the western Mediterranean. The research has produced an in-depth inventory of the stratified defence heritage, covering a very wide chronological range - from 12th century up to 20th century - and a huge variety of types of artefacts: castles, coastal towers, forts, arsenals, bunkers, barracks, etc. However, the investigation did not stop at the analysis of the history and of the material consistency of the buildings, but critically examined the previous experiences of restoration and re-use, the state of punctual and territorial protection and the effectiveness of planning tools active in each area. Collected data have been stored into a geographic information system, interoperable and integrated with other public national end locale database. The introduction of new kind of parameters - such as landscape values, degree of the state of ruin, impact of restoration works, degree of authenticity, accessibility, level of protection, state of use, etc - allows this updatable database to become a management tool, creating, as possible outputs, thematic maps for the design of new informed strategies for the sustainable reuse of this specific and sometimes 'difficult' heritage.