The eligible territories of the programme are very rich of UNESCO sites (and also of sites aspiring to this recognition). This is an important indicator of the strong effort made by the local communities to preserve historical, artistic or natural heritage of great value, but, at the same time, this trend must stimulate them to consider the UNESCO acknowledgment as a starting point, because this acknowledgment doesn’t mean to “embalm” a place, but to promote in it a complex and pro-active strategy of preservation & economic valorization, which should involve a plurality of public & private actors. On the other hand, whether for an entity the inclusion into the UNESCO list may be considered a good investment (also for the image of a place), it must be underlined that it implies a strong work on longer term, not only of political and ethic nature, but also from an economic & territorial planning point of view. In fact, the preservation of the heritage as well as of the cultural & natural heritage, inherited by the past generations, is not easily compatible and “harmonizeable” with the needs of development of the present generations (new residential, commercial and productive zoning; new infrastructures of transportation and energy, etc.). At the same time, preservation, conservation & exploitation have a cost, which the public institutions, alone, are not able to cover, without the involvement of private bodies or international donors. Finally: a UNESCO site is potentially very attractive for tourists. But, beyond a certain threshold of tourism frequentation, the carrying capacity of a site may be undermined, jeopardizing its preservation. The management and valorization of the UNESCO sites is, therefore, a very complex challenge. EX.PO AUS intends, therefore, to conceive and experiment an innovative and very articulated long term strategy aimed at managing and valorizing the UNESCO sites of the Adriatic sea, trying to address new ideas, tools and actions to manage in a good manner these sites and achieve a sustainable economic valorization of them, moreover from the ecological and energy efficiency point of view. To achieve this strategic objective, the following specific objectives will be pursued: - CROSS-BORDER DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS AND TOOLS FOR A SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF THE UNESCO SITES, by addressing the key topic of the management plan of a UNESCO site as framework of a pro-active strategy of valorization and economic development of a territory, and hence not as a secondary or external element of the ordinary urban and territorial planning, but as key component of it; - CROSS-BORDER IMPROVEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORTS, by means of the exchange of information on the best practices and techniques for digital cataloguing of the related witnesses, the study and cataloguing of the architectural decoration, the implementation of the data-base of the CIDM-International Centre of Documentation of the Mosaic of the Municipality of Ravenna - MAR, the exchange of know-how on the innovative techniques of restoration of the sites and the exchange of experience on the techniques based on the “dry stone”. - REALISATION OF INNOVATIVE PILOT EXPERIENCES IN THE PARTNER AREAS, tuned to the characteristics and priority needs of each one (conservation, valorization, managerial and technological innovation, especially in the energy field etc.), and capable to generate critical mass and reproducible effects into wider areas; - JOINT VALORISATION OF THE UNESCO SITES OF THE ADRIATIC SEA, both as “generalist” net as a whole, and as specific thematic nets related to specific issues like mosaic, the “dry stone”, with the aim to attract the worldwide growing segment of tourist interested in culture and nature. EX.PO AUS will last 36 months.