THE TOWN OF CRACO (MT) SEEN AS A THERMODYNAMIC SYSTEM AND PROPOSED AS A LANDSCAPE UNIT

This study aims to verify the applicability of the principles of thermodynamics to a town seen as a thermodynamic system in order to understand what type of intervention can be compatible to enhance its geological landscape heritage. The case study concerns the town of Craco (MT), the Ghost Town, now abandoned due to some incautious human actions that caused catastrophic geological events. Thompson gives us one of the first considerations based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics <<it is certain that the solar system can not operate for a long time without irreversible dissipation [...] of a considerable amount of energy initially present as heat>>. For the scientific interpretation of the example in question, we shall be grateful to J.Willard Gibbs who has elegantly discussed the conditions of the heterogeneous equilibrium .