Computational methods and rural cultural & natural heritage: A review

Cultural and Natural Heritage (CNH) are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration, according to the UNESCO definition. Rural areas represent outstanding examples of cultural, either tangible or intan- gible, and natural heritage. While rural areas are facing a socio-economic and demographic crisis all over the world, CNH need not only to be safeguarded, but also promoted as a driver for competitiveness, growth and sustainable and inclusive development. This paper goes deeper into the study of computa- tional methods (CMs) applied to modelling CNH in rural areas by looking at how computational methods can support CNH promotion and valorisation to transform rural areas into laboratories for the demon- stration of sustainable development through improving the unique potential of their heritage. To this end, different com putational methods have been studied and classified according to their scope and ap- plication area parameters, showing some correlation among the said parameters and the class of compu- tational method. Apart from how CMs have been applied, wehether it is possible to scale up these CMs elsewhere has also been considered.