Soft Mobility in Mountain Areas: Methodological Approach and GIS Analysis for the Fruition of the Forts System in Genoa (Italy)

From 2014, the European Commission established guidelines for drafting the SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan), defined as “a strategic plan to meet the varied mobility demand of people and businesses in urban and peri-urban areas in order AQ1 to improve the quality of life in cities”.More recently,BiciPlanswere introduced as mandatory for municipalities over 100,000 inhabitants to reduce car travel in favor of bicycles, both for daily needs and for tourist and recreational activities. Since there is no legislation regulating bicycle and pedestrian paths outside urban areas, and more specifically in the mountains, a methodology to identify their characteristics is here described. It takes into account accessibility by public transport, interconnection with other routes, services available along or close to the routes, historical and natural value of the itineraries and the classification of mountain trails carried out by the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). The methodology, implemented in the free and open source QGIS, leads to the identification of four classes of paths: tourist level, good, very good and high technical capacity. Its application to the Genoa Forts system, due to their historical and architectural value, highlights its applicability and usefulness in supporting the fruition of the area under study. Finally, a webGIS allows the proposal to be shared with local government technicians and end users.