Heritage and mobile radio: a data-driven approach to address cultural heritage valorization

The analysis of data coming from mobile radio technologies may support the definition of strategies aimed at promoting cultural heritage valorization. In the light of a lack of complete data related to the amount of cultural heritage users, analyzing the number of mobile users may well provide important insights thanks to the extension and pervasiveness of mobile radio access. We thus examined them in order to understand the attendance and density in the small towns of the Italian Province of Sondrio, and subsequently linked them with the number of cultural heritage sites in each municipality by way of an index. This way, we managed to measure the likelihood of certain instances of cultural heritage and landscape being visited as opposed to others. Besides, and considering inland area issues, changes begotten by the pandemic, and Europe-wide investments for their enhancement, we compared pre- and post-COVID-19 Internet traffic data in order to sense any degree of re-population of small-sized historic hamlets. The information regarding user mobility patterns within small towns as well as the density of their activity throughout various areas are of paramount importance to highlighting the effect of the pandemic within inner areas and delving into user attendance and density at and around cultural heritage sites.