Indicators for Ex-Post Evaluation of Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse Impacts in the Perspective of the Circular Economy

Martina Bosone, Pasquale De Toro, Luigi Fusco Girard, Antonia Gravagnuolo and Silvia Iodice
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Martina Bosone: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, National Research Council (CNR-IRISS), 80134 Naples, Italy
Pasquale De Toro: Department of Architecture, University of Naples Federico II, 80134 Naples, Italy
Luigi Fusco Girard: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, National Research Council (CNR-IRISS), 80134 Naples, Italy
Antonia Gravagnuolo: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, National Research Council (CNR-IRISS), 80134 Naples, Italy
Silvia Iodice: Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, National Research Council (CNR-IRISS), 80134 Naples, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-29

Abstract: Cultural heritage (CH) is considered a key element of cities and regions’ identity anduniqueness, contributing to people's wellbeing and health, as well as jobs creation, environmentalregeneration and place attractiveness. The adaptive reuse of abandoned and underused CH can be asustainable strategy for heritage conservation, stimulating local development processes. However,heritage conservation needs large investments, while the resources available are scarce, and invest-ment projects are subject to high uncertainties. Therefore, a careful assessment of impacts is neededto orient and direct CH adaptive reuse projects towards sustainability. Recent studies approach theadaptive reuse of abandoned buildings and sites as an effective circular economy strategy, potentiallycontributing to climate objectives through environmental regeneration and the reduction of naturalresources consumption. However, evaluation tools to assess the impacts and orient adaptive reuseinterventions in the perspective of circularity are lacking. Through the analysis of 76 literature sourceson CH impacts, this article explores how indicators are currently used in CH research and practice asimpact assessment tools. More than 3500 indicators were retrieved and classified. Finally, this articleproposes a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the impacts of cultural heritage adaptivereuse in the perspective of the circular economy. The results show that, while some indicators areavailable, many circularity aspects are not considered in the current studies on CH impacts.

Keywords: multidimensional indicators; evaluation tools; cultural heritage; adaptive reuse; circular economy; circular city; impact assessment; built environment; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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