The analysis of values as a strategy for the conservation of cultural heritage

The relationship between cultural heritage and the topics of sustainability and resilience requires a reflection on the cognitive analyses underlying the conservation and valorization project. The theme is particularly complex because it relates systems of "measurement" and objective analysis with subjective assessments such as the attribution of value. The value analysis stands as a distinction with respect to the planning actions that can be of safeguarding, conservation or valorization. Although cultural heritage is often experienced and remembered as immutable, careful analysis shows how this apparent stability is the expression of a constantly changing process. Identity elements are formed and reformed through the interaction of numerous human and non-human factors. The scientific debate on the way in which heritage values can be defined and evaluated has recently assumed a role of primary importance in the light of the reflections conducted in relation to the UNESCO sites registered in the WHL. Among the first studies, the Nara Grid represents in this sense a tool of proven interest, but which perhaps needs further developments to adapt it to a situation in which there is an increasing need for a weighing criterion. This paper proposes a reading of this methodology in relation to the application of quantitative analysis matrices linked to hazard and risk phenomena and how these can be read depending on a qualitative factor as well.