Genoa will share with the consortium its considerable experience with GIS and digitalisation of cultural heritage and will help with the tests.

The Municipality of Genoa represents the Genoese community at International, State, Regional, and Provincial level, as well as in respect of other public and private subjects. The Municipality takes care of and promotes the interests of all those who live and work within its territory. Particular attention is paid to the vocation of Genoa as a maritime, merchant, tourist and business-oriented town, together with its historical relationships with the other European and Mediterranean populations. The Municipality of Genoa, among its many functions, is very active in both preserving its cultural heritage and promoting its exploitation together with the image of the town.
Recently, Genoa has faced the challenge of having been designated European Capital of Culture for the year 2004. A test faced by the town through the choice of redefining its cultural identity as a city with many vocations, where a port, industry, tourist and cultural activities coexist, and at the same time having its attractiveness recognized at every level.
Genoa’s efforts to be worldwide known as a city of culture have been strengthened by the 2006 inscription to the UNESCO World Heritage List of “Strada Nuova and the Palazzi dei Rolli”, the architectural asset of the 17-century Genoa, where the Republic of ship builders, merchants and bankers, since 1576, chose private residences - appearing in lists known as Rolli - and their explosion of frescoed façades and hidden treasures to host important persons visiting Genoa.
Responsible for Plan A (Knowledge, Protection, and Conservation), one of the three plans that compose the UNESCO site management plan, is the Civis Observatory – the organizational unit, originated in the middle of the ‘90s from the Urban Pilot Project “Civis System”, in charge of the ISAAC project.
The Civis Observatory bases most of its activities on its GIS of Genoa's historic city centre, a system used by the municipal offices not only to achieve and to widespread knowledge about the old town (mostly through the Civis Observatory web site http://civis.comune.genova.it), but also as a decision support system to improve the efficiency of the actions on the area (see also http://civis.comune.genova.it/uc5_web/).

Rosanna Russo
Comune di Genova, Osservatorio Civis,
via Mascherona 19
I - 16123 Genova
E-mail: civis@comune.genova.it