Virtual Geographic Environment and cultural heritage: a suggestion and a practical application for the Ferriera di Servola steel plant. The Ferriera di Trieste was a steel plant located in the neightborhood of Servola with a century-old history behind it. Starting with the operating conditions and a brief stereographic introduction of the plant, the environmental impacts and negative externalities generated by the iron and steel industrial site were analyzed. Today, the Ferriera di Servola is a brownfield site in the process of demolition: the stories of life, work, aggregation, and belonging are being lost, to allow for the expansion of the port’s maritime infrastructure. This work therefore arose from the objective to preserve the cultural heritage of what was this steel plant, by going to map the industrial environment by creating a “Virtual Geographic Environment” by using aerial footage, satellite images, digital reconstructions, 360° images and a historical cartography, with the aim to elaborate a useful tool for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage that for decades was a point of reference for the local socio-economic fabric.
