The IoT as a Key in the Sensitive Balance between Development Needs and Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Resources in Italian Heritage Cities

In recent years the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to the built heritage has been increasingly finalized to heritage promotion in order to maximize visitor flows. New urgent challenges facing built heritage loom now over its very existence and our possibilities to preserve it for future generations. Italian heritage cities represent a delicate context, where concerns related to tourist flows and resource consumption are amplified due to the concentration of sites and points of interests in urban areas, also in very small ones, while tourism remains vital for economic growth. In such contexts, balancing economic development and sustainable heritage conservation demands well-calibrated tools and approaches. The article presents an overview of the ways the Internet of Things (IoT) is currently used to solve urban issues and support heritage projects. On this basis, and considering the characters and problems typical of heritage cities, as well as the features of the Italian scenario, the most appropriate application lines of IoT for the Italian heritage cities are identified. Then, their potentialities, the mutual impacts between them and the heritage field and the key role of the IoT in supporting the delicate balance between economic development and cultural resource conservation are finally discussed.