A model to support the public administration decisions for the investments selection on historic buildings

The historical buildings can become an instrument for the growth of a territory in connection with the historic and artistic value, the ability to characterize environments and urban, rural and natural landscapes and on the basis of historical and documentary interest. This is confirmed in the numerous legislative measures that deal with urban planning at the international level. Most of the time, however, the interventions on the historical–architectural building heritage do not respond to logic capable of simultaneously ensuring the conservation and valorization. This problem is accentuated when the decision-making process is not supported by operating logical models capable of bringing into account the many effects of an investment, which are not only financial, but also social, cultural and environmental nature. The operational research, in particular discrete linear programming crossed with multicriteria analysis, can support the definition of useful models to the selection of investments on historical buildings. Intended for public authorities called to choose the projects to be financed, the model defined and tested in the present work can be easily adapted also to the case of resources allocation by private investor. The application of the model to a concrete case, concerning the definition of the projects portfolio for the valorization of buildings of historical–architectural value in a Municipality of South Italy, confirms the potential of the instrument in analysis.