E' uscito il libro " Minor Communities and Natural and Cultural Heritage: an Asset or a Liability?"  Il libro pubblica alcuni significativi risultati della ricerca europea COST Action C27 Sustainable Development Policies for Minor Deprived Urban Communities  presentati e discussi ai workshop internazionali di Pafos, La Granja e Lausanne di emblematici casi studio europei relazionati al patrimonio naturale e culturale e le comunità urbane. Edizioni McGraw-Hill.

The sustainable development of deprived urban communities has become a critical issue due to the combined phenomena of population growth and urbanisation in the last 50 years. A marked improvement in the policy options open to small and deprived urban communities constitute a guarantee in the drive towards sustainable development.
For the last four years, the group of international experts involved in the COST Action C27 (Sustainable Development Policies for Minor Deprived Urban Communities) has successfully singled out indicators and specific techniques that analyse threats to sustainability leading to cultural heritage dereliction, specific planning protocols and techniques for guaranteeing the effectiveness of planning tools, and finally ad hoc eco-engineering techniques in order to start or help the revitalisation processes; all of which were developed in order to provide information to local authorities and create a civic society able to challenge unsustainable local development proposals.
This COST Action clearly highlights the purpose of COST as an enabling agent for the development of (operational) approaches that can benefit European Science, Society or Economy, thanks to the constructive exchange of information.
The COST Action C27 constitutes an initiative within the portfolio of the COST Domain (Transport and Urban Development) which deals with transport issues, land use planning and management within or around urban areas, environmental management, urban-rural relationships, safety and security, reconstruction, rehabilitation and renovation, disaster management, logistics, and cultural heritage as well having bearings on the engineering, construction, and architecture of urban structures. The Domain involves scientists, practitioners, decision-makers and industry in basic and applied research activities based on integrated and interdisciplinary approaches. These lead to technical developments, standards and policy recommendations.

Editors: Damianos Damianakos, Paolo Ventura, Neophytos Zavrides

List of Authors: Daniela Fantoni Álvares, Edith Andrésen, Diletta Arcangeletti, Louis, Boulianne, Valentín Cabero Diéguez, Savvas Charalambous, Damianos Damianakos, Cristina Danko, André De Naeyer, Filippo Garlanda, Renata Giedych, Thierry Goger, George Karantounias, Maria Leus, Júlia Maria Lourenço, Heléne Lundberg, Angel Marinero, Rebecka Nolmark, Eleni Papazoglou, Nicoletta Paphitou, Giorgio Pizziolo, Riikka Puhakka, Simon Richoz, Juan Luis de las Rivas Sanz, Tommy Roxenhall, Zoubir Sahli, Karel Schmeidler, Konstantinos Serelis, Michela Tiboni, José Luis Vazquez, Paolo Ventura, Savvas Vergas, Alexandra Wiszniewska, Neophytos Zavrides.