Inner areas and environmental sustainability in Italy: A case study in Campania Region

In Italy, within the 'National Strategy on Inland Areas', 'belt areas', 'peripheral areas' and 'ultra-peripheral areas' have emerged and been recognised for the first time since 2013, as well as 'intermediate areas'. The area presented in the paper is however atypical, even though it presents some recurring characteristics in other intermediate areas close to Italian metropolitan areas. It is an area close to the metropolitan area of Naples, in the region of Campania, which gravitates around the Royal Bourbon Site of Carditello with a past of considerable historical interest and an unfortunate recent past, which has led it to be in a particularly disadvantaged condition. The paper deals with a topic that has little reference literature, at least as far as the Italian reality is concerned; mixed areas, partly 'intermediate' and partly 'Belt'. After a careful Swot analysis, adapted to the particular territorial context of the area under consideration, focusing on its considerable potential, pointing out some problematic nodes and indicating ways to overcome them, seizing and creating some opportunities for possible sustainable development, the paper proposes a perspective scenario that aims at the sustainable enhancement of the area.