Documentation systems for a urban renewal proposal in developing territories: the digitalization project of Bethlehem Historical Center

Middle Eastern territory manifests complex phenomena of stratification and development of urban architectural realities, as historical result and contemporary scenario of uncontrolled interventions on architecture and landscape. Critical issues of historical centers lead to multiple levels of structuring and coexistence of architectural, technological, cultural and economic systems that contribute to order and coordinate the definition of the actual configuration of the city. Among urban centers that have experienced a greater development in recent decades, the city of Bethlehem is highlighted, since the `30s, by transformations of both saturation of the historical center and its monuments and expansion of the built area in the surrounding landscape into the political border, interested also by several seismic events above centuries. Nowadays, the city of Bethlehem highlights a necessity of territorial management and planning programs for the preservation and rehabilitation of urban heritage, promoting a project of international cooperation oriented on the application of digital documentation protocols and 3D survey for the definition of morphological, constructive and census analysis tools of several informative layers of which the city is constituted; the research project, started in 2018 in synergy with administrations and local authorities, aims at urban renewal objectives through the definition of tools and protocols for the management and planning of architecture, territory and services.