Designing cultural ecosystem services in territorial planning. The case study of ancient Burgentia (Basilicata, Italy)

The paper, as the result of an interdisciplinary research study, analyzes how the reconstruction and the practical feasibility of a historical-environmental Cultural Ecosystem Service (CES) can facilitate and implement the functional development of territorial and landscape planning tools. CESs depend on the stability of landscapes, for both the “direct” protection and enhancement of the identity heritage and the “indirect” preservation of the historical memory. Yet, plans barely focus their attention on this subject, from both conceptual and methodological points of views. In order to highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary cognitive-methodological path, which sheds the light on the complexity of the historical-cultural and ecological-environmental conditions of a site, we carried out an analysis of the ancient Burgentia (Basilicata region, Southern Italy), a historical-cultural and environmental site, whose area is adjacent to the territory of the Appennino Lucano Val d’Agri Lagonegrese National Park. The ecosystem functions, which allowed to recreate the identity of the place, underlining the features that characterize it as a CES, belong to the following three components: physical-settlement-geographical-geomorphological, botanical, and historical-archaeological. The main aim of the study is to propose a method for identifying and enhancing CESs to be included in the set of planning tools. Plans should allow an in-depth knowledge of the ecosystem-territorial components, and above all they should improve their use and management in a sustainable way, fostering the transition from a recognized cultural heritage to a fully accessible CES. At the same time, the focus on these Ecosystem Services can hold the position of plan engine for every sector of intervention, producing a virtuous two-way relationship. The studies carried out let us integrate the elaboration of specific in-depth thematic analysis of the fact-finding survey and support the governance model established by the Park Plan. The goal is to boost both the Park Plan function of collecting data and its active role for the development of cultural heritage, infrastructural networks and context services, which are necessary for the development of the peculiarities of the places.