A Multilayer Approach to Support Policymaking towards Greater Accessibility

This chapter proposes a multilayer approach to rural accessibility, aimed to understand its main challenges and to develop guidelines and recommendations for European non-metropolitan regions. The methodology has been conceived for and applied to the territories under scrutiny in the context of the ESPON URRUC project, and allowed to explore the multi-scalar dimension that characterises accessibility challenges, in so doing taking into account all the issues that come into play and that have to be taken into consideration to enhance rural connectivity. More in detail, the contribution gives an account of the complementary inductive and deductive steps that characterized the project’s activity, from a preliminary literature review and desk research to the analysis of empirical experiences aimed at the identification of successful practices and their assessment against case-specific territorial conditions and challenges. The output of this work is a methodological framework, whose application in real cases is intended to allow for the provision of differential guidance, respectively, concerning operational solutions as well as recommendations for the specific and the general context surrounding rural connectivity.