The current study aims to analyse the conservation state of the Sassi of Matera site (Southern Italy), a place inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993 (the Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera) and recently awarded 2019 European Capital of Culture. Furthermore, the article considers the influence of some of the causative factors controlling the Matera building conservation state, paying particular attention to the site microclimatic conditions such as the insolation and winds. We studied this subject through a new methodology that makes a combined use both of stone decay data gained from the extensive field assessments of the visible weathering forms catalogued in an ad hoc questionnaire and GIS advanced spatial analysis techniques such as Map Algebra and Kernel Density Estimation. The research puts into evidence that the Sassi of Matera shows a fair state of conservation that is conditioned by the wind/rain actions and sun exposure. Besides, just the already well known facts that the surfaces facing north seem to be most influenced by the wind/rain actions; and that, on the contrary, the decay of the walls facing south seems to be guided mainly from the sun exposure, put into evidence the importance of locating the intensities of the decays in any urban tissue or any site in order to plan conservation interventions and prioritize actions and the usefulness of the spatial analysis techniques and data processing.Project “PRO_CULT” (Advanced methodological approaches and technologies for Protection and Security of Cultural Heritage) financed by Regional Operational Programme ERDF 2007/2013.Peer reviewe

Until a few decades ago it was very easy to distinguish between city and country: in most cases the edge was defined by defensive barriers. In recent times, the relationships between urban and rural areas completely changed, placing the country in a subordinate position. Consequently, many terms have been coined in order to describe the new phenomena taking place between city and country. The term adopted, “periurban area”, despite its large use, does not have a clear and unambiguous definition. Such various approaches are due to the complexity of the phenomenon to be analyzed and to the huge variety of territorial contexts in which it may reveal. The phenomenon is characterized by urban growth with soil consumption generating loss of competitiveness for agricultural activities. This paper defines more precise rules in order to describe the periurban phenomenon, using techniques of spatial statistic and point pattern analysis. This approach has been tested in the case of study of Potenza municipality. Interest in this area comes after the earthquake of 1980, when a large migration of inhabitants began towards the countryside around Potenza.

The use of GIS and Spatial Analysis for predictive models is an important topic in preventive archaeology. Both of these tools play an important role in the Support Decision System (SDS) for archaeological research and for providing information useful to reduce archaeological risk. Over the years, a number of predictive models in the GIS environment have been developed and proposed. The existing models substantially differ from each other in methodological approaches and parameters used for performing the analysis. Until now, only few works consider spatial autocorrelation, which can provide more effective results. This paper provides a brief review of the existing predictive models, and then proposes a new methodological approach, applied to the neolithic sites in the Apulian Tavoliere (Southern Italy), that combines traditional techniques with methods that allow us to include spatial autocorrelation analysis to take into account the spatial relationships among the diverse sites.