Underground4Value promotes the cultural heritage built underground as a valuable resource to be preserved and, where sustainable, to be reused and valorised realising its full potential to support the development of local communities.
It is a project funded by the European Union under the COST Actions (an acronym for Co-Operation in Science and Technology), a programme that allows researchers and innovators to develop pan-European interdisciplinary research networks to investigate and deepen scientific or technological topics.
Launched in 2019 and ending in autumn 2023 involving more than 200 members from 30 different countries, Underground4Value represents a milestone in the integration of cultural heritage studies, underground heritage reuse and community-based planning (an approach to spatial planning and development that actively involves community members in decision-making regarding the use and enhancement of local resources).
Through a network of experts, the organisation of working groups, the construction of local living labs and collective publications, the project led to the development of a digital toolbox, i.e. an online database that, just like a toolbox, gathers knowledge on the conservation and monitoring of Underground Built Heritage (UBH), reuse and valorisation strategies and planning approaches (urban and cultural); It also analyses a series of case studies across Europe on the participatory management of architectural and natural assets stored underground and proposes innovative social and environmental solutions, supporting processes of co-evolution and co-creation of local communities.
The project’s main outputs also include a multilingual mapping of UBH-related sites and tourist itineraries, rich in publicly accessible information, with the aim of raising awareness and interest in these priceless hidden riches, and a training school divided into online training modules and in-presence seminars, dedicated to planners, decision-makers, promoters and facilitators in the field of artistic and cultural heritage management and local development.
Underground4value (CA18110 – Underground Built Heritage as Catalyst for Community Valorisation) was coordinated by CNR-ISMed, the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the National Research Council.
All the above-mentioned resources are accessible via the underground4value.eu platform.
