The Sensitive Relief method to identify the new identity of the places and the role of the cultural heritage in the regeneration of post-industrial areas process

The re-use of post-industrial areas has placed new questions and it has contributed in determining way to introduce innovations in the field of the planning and management urban planning: as a matter of fact, new urban functions or productive use are today possible in disrepaired areas. The cities and the territories have begun a redefinition process of the own image in order to attract new investor and the urban planning has gone beyond the logic of the rigid plan in order to try more flexible tools of transformation. It is necessary that the new generation of plans avails itself of the support of appropriated analysis methodologies of post-industrial places to understand, in the contemporary city, their new identity and possibile transformation and, moreover, the role of built heritage in revitalisation process. The change of interpersonal relationships and intergenerational gaps, the new demands connected to this change, the technological development, the globalization process have caused a transformation of the places of the city. New typologies of spaces arised and the way of utilisation of those already existing has been modified. The interrelations between these elements and the spin-off for a sustainable regeneration of post-industrial towns are various, not easily identifiable neither represented through a traditional planimetric relief, and cannot be easily read in a singular and unique way, but in their conversion into the identity of the places and the identification of the city. Starting from this premise, aim of this work is that of illustrating the question related to the traditional post-industrial city and two significant examples. Furthermore aim of this work is that of individualizing the contemporary urban places and proposing the methodology of analysis of the Sensitive Relief in order to identify new elements of the urban landscape which have value for the identification of the place, are able to provocate transformations also cultural and to influence the sustainable urban construction. In this way the method allows to identify the contemporary urban identity, whose rereading and reconfiguration can contribute to define the role of the cultural heritage and to construct a cultural and durable approach to the sustainable regeneration of post-industrial areas. The final result of the method is a complex map that represents a tool of knowledge for the citizens and a support to the preliminary feasibility studies for planners and administrators.