Digitally Enabled Well-Being: A Multidimensional Analysis

This paper investigates the joint spatial distribution of digital accessibility and territorial quality across the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy), focusing on territorial conditions associated with well-being opportunities. We explore how digital accessibility combines with broader territorial conditions across municipalities. To this end, two complementary indices are developed at the municipal level: a Territorial Value Index (TVI), capturing environmental quality, accessibility to services, housing conditions, and territorial vulnerability; and a Digital Accessibility Index (DAI), measuring broadband infrastructure and digital readiness. Using publicly available statistical and geospatial data, the two indices are combined to identify and map differentiated territorial profiles across the region. The results reveal strong spatial disparities. While some municipalities combine high territorial quality and advanced digital accessibility, others show a sort of “double disadvantage,” characterized by both infrastructural fragility and limited quality-of-life conditions. In contrast, several peripheral municipalities emerge as territories with latent potential constrained primarily by insufficient digital accessibility.