Pompeii sustainability between preservation and modern use

In the 1990s I was the coordinator of a master plan of the archaeological area of Pompeii called Un Piano per Pompei. It began to plan the archaeological site management following sustainability standards, putting forward a possible analogy between natural and “cultural” ecosystems. The plan was launched following the scathing comparison between the state of preservation of the town in the 1990s and the forty years before one, and it triggered a process of restoration of the archaeological heritage and renovation of the tourist facilities. This process has been, however, stopped, over the last few years, by a considerable change of perspective which has diverted attention from the “daily” care of the resources, stressing the “exceptionality” and “emergency” of everything occurring at Pompeii and preventing the development of any public cultural and management policy. The paper aims at taking stock of the master plan’s ten-year management.