La qualità sociale della risorsa parco. Il tema dell'accessibilità ambientale. The social quality of parks. The environmental accessibility.

The material in this volume was developed as part of a PRIN interdisciplinary research project in the Architectural Technologies area of the University of Florence’s Department of Architecture. The PRIN research bore the title, “Restructuring and Sustainable Improvements of Urban and Rural Spaces: A Comparison of Tourism and Historical, Cultural, Architectural, and Environmental Perspectives“ and was subtitled “Sustainable Development Models in Protected Areas.” The University of Florence Research Unit’s contribution focused on sustainability analysis as a tool for monitoring, re-interpreting, developing, and enhancing an area, especially its natural heritage. Cap:6 The social quality of parks. The environmental accessibility. The inclusion of social aspects in LC evaluations at first involved company responsibility and social responsibilities of the product, but today the extension of the LC approach to all the aspects of sustainability opened a major research field on the topic, which has already been transformed in certain fields into norms and guidelines. This chapter starts from UNEP SETAC (2009) “Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products” to identify a methodological framework for territory application. The field for an S-LCA is those of positive and negative impacts, consequence of social relations in the processes and activities analyzed for sustainability. Areas of Protection/Promotion (AoPP) are: people’s health and wellbeing, humane asset, cultural heritage. References are needs and expectations of single person of the community, the human race. As a consequence, there are many categories of impact and its indicators, and there is a need for qualitative indicators together with quantitative, and they must be differentiated according to the context. S-LCA studies suggest differentiating categories for analysis and assessment according to stakeholders in the lifecycle of products and services. In the suggestion presented here for an S-LCA applied to a territory, analysis and impact categories are identified with reference to stakeholders within the boundaries of territorial functions (LUF) considered. This chapter develops the methods for the “environmental accessibility” category with reference to users of a protected natural territory, identified in the terminology of LUF as “Availability of natural biotic resources – Quality and safety – Settlement processes of use and management”. Once the objectives for an S-LCA for the “environmental accessibility category– users of a Natural Park” have been defined, research suggests the definition of analysis models and methods founded on the approach of environmental user requirements design and on the approach of the analysis of space configuration. From the integration of these approaches an interpretation model of the area which is being studied, the analysis of users’ needs and expectations, methods for processign of social pressures and of impact or promotion indicators in relation to AoPP are defined. Impact or promotion indicators are: people’s independency and safety, promotion of dignity, same chances and rights, safeguard of natural-cultural heritage.