Valorisation of historical farm buildings for protecting the rural landscape

Rural buildings play a central role on the environmental characteristics of the rural land, because they accompanied in the centuries the development of agricultural activities; the farmer-man built them also considering the specific characteristics of the economic, social, climatic and cultural rural context. They are important elements of the rural landscape which, in addition to having a considerable architectural value, constitute a witness of the economic and productive organization of a specific territory. Mostly in some southern European countries - as in the Basilicata region (Southern Italy) – these rural structures have been built based on the agricultural needs and land characteristics. Considering the land abandonment occurred during the last centuries, also historical farm buildings, in most cases, have been abandoned, since people living there moved to more comfortable residences within urban settlements, causing a loss of the historical-cultural heritage of the rural landscape. In this context, it would be fruitful to improve the knowledge about the specific characteristic of farm buildings considering also their geographic location, in order to include each one of them into a geo-database and, through the use of new advanced tools, to connect the valorisation of these rural buildings within the relevant landscape. The use of advanced technological tools may considerably support the protection of landscapes with high cultural and naturalistic value. In recent years, open data and geographic technologies are allowing the implementation of multidisciplinary information, which may reveal crucial for a sound management of the rural landscape, including also an important focus on rural buildings. In this paper, the potential of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been explored, with the aim to improve the cataloguing system of the Basilicata region's farm buildings, traditionally known as: "masserie". After the realization of a specific geodatabase incorporating different datasets, specific tools have been used to provide some particular analyses that can be used both for the management and valorisation of farm buildings, even for touristic purposes. In addition, by integrating some typical aspects of the landscape studies, an innovative approach has been implemented, so as to preserve not only each individual building, but even the entire rural landscape context in which these important witnesses of the rural history are included.