Accessibility Indicators for the Assessment of Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Development in Rural Areas of Huelva

Abstract

The recent reconceptualization of cultural heritage as an instrument and means for sustainable development entails the need for implementing tools capable of measuring, in qualitative and quantitative terms, various aspects of the management of heritage assets and elements in the territory. The main objective of this work is to develop a tool that allows, through Geographic Information Systems applications, to contribute to the identification of cultural heritage as a development resource in a context of territorial balance. Thus, it is argued that the greater the accessibility, understood in all the forms contemplated in the methodological design presented, the greater the contribution of cultural assets to the sustainable development of rural areas. To this end, specific indicators have been designed and developed on geographical accessibility (travel cost), territorial access (land ownership and use), networked heritage, and digital access). For each one of these, four levels have been distinguished. Subsequently, they have been applied to a set of elements of the immovable and intangible heritage of two rural areas in Andalusia, Spain: western Andévalo and Sierra de Huelva. The results obtained offer useful conclusions as support for decision-making processes on territorial heritage in this type of area, which can be extrapolated to other studies with similar characteristics.