GIS-Based Susa Valley Industrial Heritage Route: Industries of the Late 19th Century Established Around the Dora River for Hydropower

The Susa Valley in Piedmont, Italy, historically served as a transit area between the Po Valley and France. Divided by the Dora Riparia river, it has an Upper Valley with a mountainous landscape and a Lower Valley extending to Susa, featuring an agricultural plain. Until the 1880s, the economy relied on agriculture, leading to emigration due to the insufficiency of agriculture alone to sustain families. In 1864, following the transfer of the capital from Turin to Florence, had a sharp impact on the capital of Piedmont. The city experienced a decline in population and economic activities within a few years. The Municipality of Turin appealed to foreign and national industrialists in 1865, encouraging them to invest in various industrial facilities in the city to counteract the negative consequences of the capital's relocation. After Italian unification, the Susa Valley's industrialization began, spurred by the completion of the Fréjus Tunnel in 1871. Numerous establishments came into operation, including the Nobel Dynamite Factory in Avigliana (1872), the Colano ironworks (1876) in Bussoleno, Buttigliera Alta ironworks (1906), Moncenisio workshops in Condove(1906), the Fratelli Bosio knitwear factory in Sant Ambrogio (1871), followed by the opening of mills in Borgone (1882), Chianocco (1887). Industrial establishment was initially tied to factors like water resources and communication systems until long-distance electric power transmission in the early 1900s. Industrial development transformed lowland villages, importing new building types and causing significant urban expansion. The birth of the first industries radically transformed the appearance of many lowland villages. This transformation involves the importation of new building types from the city characterized by their large dimensions. Simultaneously, it triggers a significant urban expansion to cope with the resulting demographic growth. As a result of researches, it has been noticed that there is a lack of a comprehensive approach looking at all these structures together and emphasizing this critical period for the valley. This thesis proposes designing an industrial route to experience six companies, that completely changed the character of the Susa Valley, contributing to the economic, demographic, and sociological development of the region, under the same umbrella. In connection with the subject, it examines the history and scope of the concept of industrial heritage and cultural route and tries to understand these concepts through examples from around the world. Due to advancements in technology, transportation, and communication, the increasingly complex networks of relationships between different locations can be analyzed using GIS technologies, which is one of the spatial analysis software. That’s why, another subject examined by the thesis is GIS and its current usage areas, and it aims to create the route based on GIS.