A Multi-Dimensional Inclusive Evaluation Procedure to Classify the Level of Criticality of Distressed Urban Areas

One tenth of the European population lives in distressed areas where physical and economic plight is aggravated by social problems. In urban renewal, two emerging problems require attention: a) the inclusion of the local communities in making choices for land administration; b) the complex nature of the interventions due to the multiplicity, diversity and conflict of the elements involved. With the aim of providing an evaluation procedure able to aid public choice, to involve the community and to reach a shared choice, the paper proposes a multi-criteria, social and inclusive evaluation procedure that reinterprets the multi-dimensional process from the top-down to a bottom-up approach. The procedure was tested in an experimental case regarding a group of Roman urban distressed areas, applied in order to generate unidimensional and multidimensional ranking of criticality level of the areas based on the direct participation of stakeholders and community. After explaining the evaluation procedure, the paper shows the results of the experimental application.