This contribution proposes an inter-scalar and multi-polar analysis evaluation model of the territory of the Enna district, aimed at providing a robust axiological representation of the salient aspects of the general issue of internal areas, and therefore of the set of criticalities affecting them from the perspective of the human and urban capital they express. In the prospect of investigating the relations between urban and life quality—corresponding to the “city effect”—in the territorial context of each of the 20 municipalities of the Enna district, a hierarchical descriptive-valuation model was created, which coordinates a relevant amount of information units (data) and the corresponding attributes, indicators and indices that have been turned in aggregate value judgments attributed to each administrative land unit, from the perspectives of the criteria referred to as the main forms of the territorial capital. This is a multi-dimensional valuation model based on the Multi-Attribute Value Theory. Each survey and processing is mapped with different levels of detail at the scale of municipalities, census sections and cadastral land units. The outcome of this complex process of analysis and assessment provides multiple comparisons, revealing unexpected and sometimes counter-intuitive aspects in several municipalities, some of which are characterised by innovative prospects and opportunities for redevelopment of their historic centers. Correlations between information units at the different levels of the dendrogram have also indicated interesting trends and attitudes, whose comparisons can address territorial policies on both a local and provincial scale. Furthermore, the focus on the “cities network” is here assumed and proposed as the privileged point of observation of territory and the related aspects of the quality of life.

The marginalization of areas due to a progressive increase in social, material, economic, and infrastructural vulnerability is a phenomenon that afflicts many countries today, and it is growing rapidly. Agenda 2030, in highlighting the need to identify measures to counter this phenomenon, has promoted the development of a growing awareness of addressing this issue that cannot be postponed. With this in mind, in Italy, a map of inland areas was produced by the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (ICEPSD), a publication aimed at measuring the extent of the phenomenon and support the development of specific strategies that collectively define the National Strategy for Inland Areas (NSIA). In this study, starting from a critical analysis of the classification of areas in the National Strategy for Inner Areas, we propose a new cognitive tool of the phenomenon of abandonment developed from the perspective of an axiological approach of marginal areas. This tool is based on the mapping of an abandonment index $I_a$ on QGIS with reference to the clusters of municipalities identified based on the quartiles of its values. This index was estimated as an aggregate weighted sum of the components identified because of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) used to analyze the indicators of different forms of territorial capital of weak areas.

As in many parts of Italy and Europe, the Sicilian Trazzera regional property has been for a long time the main land infrastructure supporting the agro-pastoral economy. Throughout its slow evolution, this land heritage has been affected by transport transformations and illegal appropriations by neighboring landowners, which have reduced its potential public function in the current renewed prospects of sustainability and a new balance between territories concerning the issue of the inland areas. A further issue concerns the management of the relationship between private interest and prospects for public reuse in progressively urbanized territorial contexts where this infrastructure takes on considerable economic and real estate interest. The current regional legislation suggests some measures for inter-municipal planning that also include the legitimization of illegal appropriations. From this twofold prospect, according to the wide-spread information and communication technologies (ICTs), and also including the geographic information systems (GIS), this work provides the application of two assessment tools based on a GeoDatabase of the current heard roads in the two areas of quantitative–monetary and aesthetic–qualitative assessment. The first shows the extent to which the fair compensation to be charged for legitimizing land parcels is underestimated today, to the detriment of urban social fixed capital development. The second demonstrates the way that common awareness of landscape value can be nurtured for the benefit of land and ecological–environmental rebalancing.

The research deals with the issue of the seismic and energy retrofit of historic building fabrics having as reference a historic district of Syracuse (Italy). The prospect of the ecological transition on the one hand and the public support funding on the other claim for a valuation programming approach implying the creation of multiple scenarios, each of which is inspired by a different and complementary degree of “saliency and urgency”. These two dimensions of “being worth” by a building aggregation having an its own shape and belonging to a larger and more complex urban system need to be addressed according to some axiological reference, in this case, the concerns of the efficiency and fairness of public spending. This experience concerns the creation of a value-based programming pattern of the seismic–energy retrofit process framed in a Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment aimed at identifying the best intervention strategy among the several ones that can be generated in the logic of the parametric design. Both seismic and energy retrofit expected performances, in fact, can be scaled, complementing the extension and intensity of the interventions. This experiment takes advantage of the BIM multidimensional logic in line with the multiple scales and purposes implied by the relationships between individual/communal axiological profiles and present/future prospects. The experiment consists of the creation of an additive cost-oriented design platform based on which the different and progressive combinations of intensity and extension of the interventions can be compared and selected.

The marginalisation of the inner areas due to increased social, material, economic and infrastructural vulnerability is a growing phenomenon affecting many countries today. Although, specific policies, measures, and funding have recently been proposed to address this issue, they have been slow to produce the expected results. Those responsible for decision-makers regarding the prospect of territorial rebalancing need support in identifying the residual value of these marginal areas. This will help them recognise where and how this value can be emphasised in an integrated, long-term redevelopment process. Based on an axiological perspective of territorial capital forms, the research project has developed a “Geo-referenced Value-based Knowledge Model” using Multi-attribute Value Theory (MAVT). It plays a key role in estimating the Reaction Capability Index (I_RCI) of Sicily’s “inner areas”. The results demonstrate the reaction capability of the municipalities in these areas. As a measure of the overall endowment of territorial capital, the I_RCI index can help decision-makers National Strategy Inner Areas (NSIA), promote the efficient use of resources, and encourage the effective implementation of policies aimed at rebalancing the territory.