Understanding the urban tissue history through GIS assisted integration of geologic, geomorphic, historical and acrchitectural data: the case history of Ferrara (northern Italy)

The article illustrate a case history of interdisciplinary integration of a large amount of different data sources within a Geographic Information System, developed to understand the historical development and support the management of an important historic town of Italy. The genetic comprehension of the urban structures and its present-day management need an integrated multidisciplinary approach. A GIS computerizing environment is therefore needed, to make the spatial integration possible of a wide spectrum of punctual, linear, 2 and 3D data, highly different in nature and origin. The historic interpretation of these data has to be grounded on the chronological synthesis of written, archaeological, architectural, and scientific (e.g. 14C) dating sources. Data by themselves deprived of any historic value, such as geological mapping, geotechnical investigations, or geoidal elevation measures can rise up to playing a key role in the urban history understanding, only through their spatial and chronological integration into a complex data set. The synthesis made possible by these novel tools progressively enable the long, intricate urban history of Ferrara to be unravelled and the relevance of the historical heritage understood. Proposals for the historic tissue preservation, the urban management, the mitigation of the seismic hazard, and the energy efficiency improvement were derived from the integrated analysis of the urban tissue