Integrated multi-criteria assessments in support of the verifying the feasibility of recovering archaeological sites: The case of portus-ostia antica

Abstract

The transformation of “complex” sites subject to landscape and/or archaeological and/or environmental protection is itself a complex operation that, right from the preliminary meta-design phases, requires the support of “assessment science” to comprehend its effects – economic and otherwise. Consequently, for the decision-making process to be effective and efficient, assessment tools and methodologies suited to the specific situations being assessed should be identified. The activation of assessment processes becomes particularly substantial in the phase of studying the prefeasibility and feasibility of a complex initiative, since it provides elaborate but concise information that is a prerequisite for making informed decisions as to whether the initiative can be carried out. Among the various assessment types, multi-criteria analyses are those most suitable for casting light on the salient aspects upon which the feasibility of complex territorial transformation processes depends. This paper shows the first results of an ongoing research and aims to identify the objectives, criteria, and indicators for outlining a methodological path prerequisite for assessing the feasibility of the complex meta-project of recovering the “Portus-Ostia Antica” archaeological site. First, the objectives of a general nature connected with an intervention of this kind will be identified; then, for the identified objectives, criteria, sub-criteria, and specific indicators will be defined, making it possible to assess, in specific terms, the initiative’s feasibility characteristics. This phase is prerequisite to implementing a multi-criteria assessment from which to obtain concise results based on which to develop a feasibility judgment on the Portus-Ostia initiative, taking account of the financial, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts, and in general of all the co-benefits the initiative produces.