Infrastrutture dei servizi a rete per la sostenibilità e la tutela culturale del suolo e sottosuolo - Network Service Infrastructures for Sustainability and Cultural Protection of Soil and Subsoil.

With a view to achieving the goals promoted by the United Nations, particular attention needs to be paid to the articulated aspects that involve the by now non-postponable interventions on the territory in the path towards decarbonisation and digitalisation; aiming towards resilient, inclusive, safe, eco-friendly cities and communities in which, especially in the delicate Italian urban reality, the protection of cultural heritage continues to have a central position. With these purposes, policies, tools, funding and research (in the public and private sectors) have been developed and promoted over the last few decades to support governance in the planning, designing and implementing interventions able to combine economic, environmental and social aspects by respecting the historical and cultural identities and values of places. As a part of these interventions, a decisive role – that characterizes the proposal here presented – is entrusted to the new infrastructures for underground network services or to the adaptation of pre-existing ones to new needs; “paths” in soil and subsoil: places in Italy of maximum fragility due to the stratification of countless cultural traces. The proposed study, characterized by high interdisciplinarity, presents the results of a research project (for third parties), carried out in collaboration between the CITERA Interdepartmental Research Center of Sapienza University of Rome, the Piemonte Region and an SME, on technical-economic aspects and environmental impacts in the No-dig technique compared to open cut excavation. The research is articulated in laboratory and field tests with an experimental case study that takes the opportunity to deepen the historical and artistic knowledge in parallel with infrastructure works, without destructive interventions. In a collaborative perspective, between public and private, the results are a piece of the articulated and complex mosaic towards a new model in which the academic structure, contributing to social, cultural and economic development, is a bridge with industry, civil society and territory.