The territory is mainly an agricultural area, which still contributes to the high environmental and landscape value of the Amalfi Coast. The distribution and use of the agricultural surface, along with the various settlements and the different urban topographies, highlight the complex and composite nature of the area investigated; they also highlight the natural integration of mountain woodland areas, terraced hills of the Mediterranean arboricolture and small coastal areas, more densely populated. It is a territory characterised by the various traces left by history and tradition, mutually combined in a complementary manner. These are crucial assets which still remain, despite the threat represented by the latest huge transformations. In the past century the area underwent a substantial building growth, which - above all in the '60s - was the result of different factors: speculation, second house market seasonal house rent. Expansion, due to a proliferation of vacant houses, was generated by a stage of tourism growth, which involved the coastal area mainly but the hinterland as well, thus homologating, simplifying and hiding the very nature of the area. Tourism enhancement can play a creative role for the territory and the physical environment. Surely enough, a number of constraints have to be allowed for: hydro-geological problems; fires threatening woods; not excellent quality of the coastal waters which, along with the morphology of the area, leads to the need to re-consider the prevailing bathing function of the area; deficiency of the transport system.