The increasing exposure of dispersed rural settlements to natural and infrastructural risks highlights the need for structured and reproducible territorial information layers capable of supporting future decision-making processes. To this end, a rigorous characterization of settlement nodes and their structural attributes is essential. This article represents a first exploratory application of the proposed methodology and constitutes an initial phase of its implementation. The objective is not to provide a definitive or exhaustive model, but rather to test the underlying theoretical framework through a preliminary experimentation aimed at verifying its internal coherence, replicability, and operational potential. In this initial stage, the methodology is applied to demonstrate concretely what types of information can be systematically collected and how an urban center can be characterized in terms of accessibility and its role within the broader territorial system. The methodology is applied to the municipality of Amatrice as a case study representative of highly fragmented inner-area settlements. This first implementation highlights the potential of the approach, allows for the identification of possible methodological criticalities, and lays the groundwork for more advanced and structured future developments. The contribution therefore constitutes a foundational analytical layer aimed at organizing territorial information in a structured form and providing a coherent basis for future analyses and territorial and emergency management strategies.
Montaldi et al. (2026) studied this question.