Characterization of Mountain Huts and proposed method of assessment of environmental impact

This paper refers to the characterization of particular building structures, i.e. Mountain huts, a topic addressed by the Italy-Switzerland Transfrontier cooperation project 2007-2013 V.E.T.T.A. – Valorization of Experiences and Transfrontier Tourism products at medium and high altitude, commissioned by the Regione Piemonte as project leader and carried out by the Department of Commodity Science of the University of Turin. The general objectives of V.E.T.T.A. project partners include improvement, promotion and valorization of the tourist offer of mountain valleys within the pilot area (for Italy, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola) where a field survey was initiated in the 2010 Summer season involving 25 Mountain huts to which a further 26 structures in the 2011 season in order to cover 100% of the huts in the territory. Referring to a 4 area check-list (100 main fields) the huts were analyzed from different points of view, such as information regarding accessibility of the structures, plant engineering/technological facilities, management of environmental variables and method of delivery of the tourist offer. In this paper, the attention is focused on an aim of the research that permits integrated consideration of “the built environment” and proposes a method for assessment of its impact on the surrounding landscape