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Urban Heritage Conservation and Environmental Sustainability

Kongjian Yu

College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University

1. World Heritage Cities in Asia and the Pacific

Today, more than 100 urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific face a

fundamental dilemma: How is it possible to sustain the functions of a contemporary

World Heritage City (WHC) without negatively affecting the elements that convey its

“Outstanding Universal Value”? In response to this pressing question, this article

identifies some of the major challenges for heritage conservation and sustainability,

including the misconception of authenticity and integrity, climate change and natural

erosion, urbanization, and touristification. For these challenges, solutions are

proposed, including better understanding about the integrity and authenticity of

heritages, scientific planning for the protection and use of heritage sites and

appropriate policies for the management of urban heritage.

Nowadays, the World Heritage List counts more than 260 cities, a large

proportion of which are distributed in Asia and the Pacific Region. In fact, almost 40%

of the region’s World Heritage sites, over 80 properties, are located in urban areas.

As a whole, in Asia and the Pacific region alone, there are over 20 World Heritage

towns and cities and over 40 other municipalities that host some of the region’s most

notable World Heritage landmarks1.

These urban heritage sites can be found across East Asia, Middle Asia, South Asia,

Southeast Asia, and Oceania (Fig 1). A large majority of World Heritage Cities are

concentrated throughout Europe, however within the Asia and the Pacific the

number of World Heritage Cities are growing rapidly, and are located within

developed and developing countries (Fig 2).

The hundreds of urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific can be classified into

4 categories: (1) Heritage City & Town (e.g Hahoe, Rep. Korea); (2) Monumental Sites:

Palace, Temple, Shrine, Church, Tomb & Garden (e.g Angkor, Cambodia); (3) Natural

Landscapes (e.g Royal Chitwan National Park，Kathmandu，Nepal); (4) Cultural

Landscapes (e.g Mountain Wuyi, China) and cultural routes. Most of them are

distributed in developing countries, and under the pressure of urbanization and mass

tourism.

1http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/wh/unesco-asia-pacific-mayors-forum-for-world-heritage-cities/h

istoric-urban-landscapes/unesco-recommendation-for-the-historic-urban-landscape/

2

Fig 1 The Asia and Pacific Region

Fig 2 Distribution of WHC

2. The Value of World Heritage Cities

WHCs and urban heritages, including their tangible and intangible components,

are critically valuable resources for sustainability, environmentally, culturally and

economically:

(1) Environmental, WHCs and urban heritages are important for urban

sustainability and city life, as it increases recreational opportunities for citizens2. In

addition, these cultural heritages contain some of the most valuable wisdoms that

our ancestors had accumulated for hundreds of years through experience of trials

and errors in adapting to natural processes and landscape. Wisdoms represented in

these cultural heritages, such as ways of storm water management, flood control,

irrigation, food production, use of materials and skills in buildings shelters are arts of

2http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48857&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html –

introduction, point 3

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survival that provide valuable references for solutions to meet the challenges of the

changing globe and our uncertain common future.

The dynamic nature of living cities demands our attention and resources. The

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) report 2005 defines Ecosystem services as

benefits people obtain from ecosystems and distinguishes four categories of

ecosystem services. The following lists represent those in accordance with WHC: (1)

Provision Services: Food (including seafood), Water, minerals, energy; (2) Regulating

Services: Carbon sequestration and climate regulation, waste decomposition and

detoxification, purification of water and air, pest and disease control; (3) Supporting

Services: Nutrient dispersal and cycling, seed dispersal, primary production; (4)

Cultural Services: cultural, intellectual and spiritual inspiration, recreational

experiences (including ecotourism), scientific discovery3.

(2) Culturally, they have aesthetic, historic, scientific, educational or spiritual

values for past, present or future generations, and highlights a unique status of

cultural identity. the nomination of a WHC by UNESCO highlights a unique status of

cultural identity and its related benefits. A good example is China's Lijiang City, its

recognition as a world heritage site has significantly raised people's awareness of the

long and rich history of the Naxi minority that had lived in remote areas in China.

Its unique language and culture have been known to millions of people following

their visits as tourists to the city. The recognition of the urban heritages also

increases the local citizens' self-consciousness that benefits the local community

through strengthening the feeling of belonging.

(3) Economically, they are valuable resources for tourism that dramatically

improves the economic situation and living standards of the local residents. The

nomination of WHC brought the rapid escalation in the growth of related cities. The

economic benefits are especially remarkable in terms of tourist development. Lijiang,

for example, the economic benefits are especially remarkable in terms of tourist

development in the past decade since its inscription as world heritages site (Fig.4) .

Fig 3 Location of Lijiang Fig 4 Increasing of Tourism GDP and GDP, Ljiang

3

Daily，G..C.，1997. Introduction: what are ecosystem services? In:Nature’s Services.Island Press.

Washington，D.C。

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3. Authenticity and Integrity at the Urban Scale

For the conservation of urban heritages, the understanding of two concepts are

critical, namely authenticity and integrity. Authenticity requires that urban heritages

must be considered and judged primarily within the cultural contexts to which it

belongs4. The cultural values of world heritage cities are truthfully and credibly

expressed through a variety of attributes including their landscape setting, physical

form, materials and traditional techniques, their functionality, and their intangible

connections to the local communities5.

Integrity of urban heritage is a measure of their wholeness and intactness,

meaning that it must include all elements necessary to express its outstanding

universal value; and large enough to represent the features and historic processes

which convey the heritage’s significance6.

For heritage cities and cultural heritage sites, the physical fabric of the property

and/or its significant features should be in good condition, and the impact of

deterioration processes controlled. Relationships and dynamic functions present in

cultural landscapes, historic towns or other living properties essential to their

distinctive character should also be maintained.

4. Challenges ( and Opportunities) for Sustainability

“UNESCO World Heritage” status can be both a blessing and a curse. The

Historical City Pingyao (Fig 4), a World Heritage City (WHC) in China, had its south

wall collapsed by 15m in length on 17th Oct, 2004 (Fig 5). Despite the long history of

the wall itself, hydrocephalus and climate change, as well as rapid urbanization, mass

tourism and the Market exploitation of heritage, are listed as elements that

development pressures that the world heritage city is vulnerable to. Such tensions

have been recorded for a wide variety of WHC including the Kathmandu Valley in

Nepal7, the historical city of Pingyao in China8 and George Town in Penang9. Special

challenges (in some situations, also opportunities) could be identified as below:

4

Unesco (2008), Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage. pp79-86 Convention 5

http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide08-en.pdf 6 http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide08-en.pdf

7 Bahadur, R., Yuji, T., & Ale, M. S. (2008). Kathmandu. Cities , 25, 45-57.

8 Ruan, Y. ,2011, Saving Pingyao. Map , 118-123

9 Lee, L., Lim, Y., & Nor’Aini, Y. (2008). Strategies for urban conservation: A case example of George

Town, Penang. Habitat International , 32 (3), 293-304.

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Fig 5 Historic city of Pingyao, Qing Dynasty (Source: Ruan, 2011)8

Fig 6 Collapsed South Wall of Pingyao, 2004 (source: www. people. com. cn)

4.1 Misconception

The most severe challenge that protection and management of cultural heritage

sites are now confronted with is neither from natural erosion from such as rain or

wind, nor the absence of conservation technology, but a misunderstanding of the

concept of authenticity and integrity, which was also the key challenge for Asia and

Pacific. There has been a contentious dispute about the reconstruction of Leifeng

Tower in Hangzhou, where the tower collapsed in 1924 by itself. In Beijing’s historic

conservation area, widespread controversy over the construction of fake antiques

has arisen from the renewal of Qianmen street.

The utilization of “authenticity” originally in the heritage conservation field in

the historic area conservation is the cause of the conflict between the historic area

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conservation and the everyday lives of its citizens. The key to resolving the problem is

to rationally absorb and transform the quintessence of authenticity and integrity

from the west based definitions and adapts them to Asia’s current conditions.

4.2 Climate Change and other Natural Disasters

WHC and its Cultural Landscapes are under threat due to earthquakes, volcanoes,

typhoons and other natural disasters. For instance, Iran has been hit four times by

huge earthquakes resulting in enormous casualties in the past four decades10. The

latest devastating earthquake of 26 December 2003 in the historic desert city of Bam,

Islamic Republic of Iran, caused the tragic loss of many lives and the destruction of an

overwhelming part of its cultural heritage (Fig 7). Typhoons also threaten heritage

sites. An island of Kumano Hill, Japan, struck by a grade 12 typhoon in 2011(Figure

8).

Fig 7 Bam earthquake destroy heritage sites

Fig 8 An island of Kumano Hill, Japan, 2011/2012

10

Khatam, A. 2006. The destruction of Bam and its reconstruction following the earthquake of December 2003. Cities , 23 (6), 462-464.

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4.2.2 Erosion of Heritage sites

The natural erosion of heritage sites is one

of the biggest of problems and a cause for

concern worldwide. Almost all of the heritage

sites are exposed to nature that can present

difficulties for protection. For example, the

5000 year-old temple of Taleju Bhawani in

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was broken

from the roots of several gigantic trees (Figure

9).

4.2.3 Global climate change

The 2008 Watch List of the 100 most

endangered sites, issued every two years,

points to global warming as putting several

sites at risk from changing weather patterns,

desertification (Fig 10) and rising sea levels (Fig 11). Climate change has threatened

Rice terraces widely in this part of the world, including the Banaue Rice Terraces in

Ifugao, and the Hani Rice Terraces in Lijiang. Climate change, combined with

deforestation and gradual abandonment, now push these millennia-old rice terraces

to extinction11.

Fig 10 The Moon Lake drying up

11

Liu, Y., & Zen, M. (2011). The Particularity of the World Heritage Cities and the Problems in Planning and Management Process: a Case Study of Lijiang, China. Transformation and Reconstruction——2011 China Urban planning annual meeting proceedings (pp. 7437-7448). Nanjing: Southeast University Press.

Fig 9 The Tree roots broken Temple

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Fig 11 The Maldives Islands are under threat from sea-level rise.

4.3 Warfare and Culture Conflict

Wars and conflicts have a severe human impact on cultural heritage. Many world

heritage sites were destroyed during the world wars, the Iran-Iraq war, and other

conflicts.

A well-known example being the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The Buddhas of Bamiyan

were two 6th century monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side

of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated

230 km (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft). Built in

507 AD, the larger in 554 AD, the statues represented the classic blended style of

Gandhara art.

They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders

from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that

they were "idols” (Figu 12). International opinion strongly condemned the

destruction of the Buddhas, which were viewed as an example of the intolerance of

the Taliban.

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Fig 12 Destruction of Buddhas on 21th Mar,2001

4.4 Uncontrolled Urbanization

4.4.1 Urbanness

There are numerous issues of inadequate

urban management with the expansion of

WHCs, especially in the developing countries

of the Asia Pacific. The images acquired by

earth observation satellites in different time

periods in the past four decades (Fig 13)

clearly illustrates the typical pattern of land

use change in peripheral Kathmandu in recent

decades. It shows the radical transformation

of the landscape pattern in the Boudhanath

area, northeast of the city. In 1967, the area

was almost all agriculture land, while this

predominantly rural agriculture landscape

gradually changed to peri-urban landscape

with increasing human settlement in 1970s

and 1980s. Moving on to the present day, no

more space for agriculture can be observed.

The ‘urbanness’ of historic world heritage cities

have cause practical problems on heritage

conservation and environmental

sustainability12.

12

Bahadur, R., Yuji, T., & Ale, M. S. ,2008, Kathmandu. Cities , 25, 45-57.

Fig 13 Landscape change in

Boudhanath area since 1967 using

satellite-imaging technologies. The

scenes cover 1100* 700m ground

space approximately (Sources: [A]

Corona image 1967, [B] Spin image

1991 and [C] Google Earth 2007)

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4.4.2 Transportation

There is a growing level of traffic in and around heritage cities. Not only can the

vibrations they generate weaken the old structures built before the introduction of

motor transport, the load of traffic can also destroy these sites thoroughly, with even

the city infrastructure being put at risk. A relic from the Mughal Empire, Lahore's fort

is famous for its 410 different fountains, the water supply of which was destroyed

when a nearby road was widened. Mostly, these historic centers are not designed to

carry such high and ever increasing volumes of motorcars, but are meant for

pedestrians and pedestrian oriented uses.

4.4.3 Pollution

The rapid growth of urban areas coupled with the inability of the government to

keep pace with the demand for infrastructure and services has caused the

emergence of a number of urban environmental problems, including air, water and

other forms of pollution (Fig 14). For example, energy consumption—gasoline, diesel,

kerosene, furnace oil and cooking gas—of Kathmandu city is about 1/3 of the total

import to Nepal. This has resulted in heavy pollution of air in the city leading to

bronchitis, and throat and chest diseases13. The marine environment of Hong Kong

and Lagoons of New Caledonia are suffering from deterioration14,15.

Figure 14 Satellite-Derived PM2.5[ug/m3]

13

Sharma, C. K. (1997). Urban air quality of kathmandu valley "Kingdom of Nepal ". Atmospheric Environment , 31 (17), 2877-2883. 14

Andréfouët, S. W. (2010). Characterizing the diversity of coral reef habitats and fish communities found in a UNESCO World Heritage Site: The strategy developed for Lagoons of New Caledonia. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 61 (7-12), 612-620. 15

Kueh, C. S. (2008). Monitoring of toxic substances in the Hong Kong marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 57 (6-12), 744-757.

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4.5 Touristification

4.5.1 Tourism Development

Touristification16, referring to the market exploitation of heritage, is a major

hazard, especially for world heritage cities. Within a few years after George Town was

declared a World Heritage Site, 85% of its population became tenants, rents

skyrocketed, people started being evicted, and old shop-houses and even temples

started being snapped up by investors and converted into art galleries and boutique

hotels17. The real George Town was in serious peril of being very quickly replaced by

a fake Disneyland version of George Town. What’s worse, however, is that George

Town is at risk of losing its UNESCO World Heritage Status due to the approval of four

high rise projects (all hotels), three were approved before this time and one was by

the state administration18. The controversial hotel projects located within George

Town’s heritage zone represents a similar phenomenon which can be found in other

World Heritage Cities, such as Lijiang, China19 (Fig 15).

Fig 15 George Town, Malaysia

4.5.2 Increasing Tourists

International arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations grew by a collective 7%

year-on-year, which increased to 10% in 2010 with South Asia leading by 13% (Fig 10),

according to preliminary data released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)

(Fig 16).

16

Pendlebury, J., Short, M., & While, A. (2009). Urban World Heritage Sites and the problem of authenticity. Cities , 26 (6), 349-358. 17

Lee, L., Lim, Y., & Nor’Aini, Y. (2008). Strategies for urban conservation: A case example of George Town, Penang. Habitat International , 32 (3), 293-304. 18

http://penangviews.foongsite.com/index.php/2008/11/of-george-towns-unesco-world-heritage-status/ 19

Shen, H., & Wang Shihong. (2007). Analysis on environmental features, environmental capacity and general protection principle of cultural heritage. World Heritage Collection of Internatiional Forum Theses (pp. 48-57). Beijing: Beijing Institute of Technology Press.

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Fig 16 International visitor arrivals (IVAs) 2010: YOY% change( Source:www.PATA.rog)

The pitfalls of excess tourists can surpass those of hundreds of years or more of

ordinary life and create enormous stresses on old structures and also their

communities. For instance, before being nominated as a World Heritage City (1997),

Pingyao had only 100,000 visitors in 1996. That increased to 630,000 in 2000, and

1,153,200 in 2010 (Fig 17). The same problem also troubles Lijiang (Fig 18) and many

other World Heritage Cities20, 11. How to relieve the capacity pressures of heritage

becomes a looming question problem for heritage conservation.

Fig 17 Tourism in Pingyao, China

Fig 18 Tourism in Lijiang, China

20

Zhou, J., Zhang, S., & Wang, J. (2003). The Protection and Development Concept Planning of Lijiang. Urban Planning Forum , 32-39.

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4.5.3 Commercialization

What’s more, the lack of in-depth tourism

development has been a non-technical

problem in historic conservation, especially

regarding informal vendors21. At Banjar Sari

Monument and Parks in Indonesia and many

other historical sites, there are many illegal

structures and informal vendors packed in or

near the historic areas (Fig 19). Revitalization

programs should be undertaken to solve the

problem.

While natural and man-made disasters certainly cause unrecoverable damages

to the urban heritages, sometimes the rebuilding of the WHC could also be

considered as an opportunity. A good example is Lijiang, China, which was affected

by the devastating earthquake in 1996, destroying 20% of its buildings. The

rebuilding of the city guided by urban heritage protection guidelines and with the

careful design utilising the vernacular skills, has proven to be quite successful.

Urbanization and tourism can also considered to be great opportunities for the

conservation of urban heritages, that make possible the evaluation, survey and

research, and physical improvement of the urban heritages due to the improved

financial resources.

5 Solutions and experiences

5.1 Understanding authenticity and integrity

What and where urban heritage values are questions that have long been

discussed 22 . A Historic Urban Landscape reflects the harmonious relationship

between man and nature, for which man develops unique techniques and living

styles according to the distinctive natural environment. In any culture, there exist

various kinds of interactive relationships between man and nature, which can be

shared across nations and cultures.

A topic worthy a deep discussion is the concept of authenticity and integrity for

the Asian Pacific urban heritages, with their built environment, materials and skill are

different from the European situations, where these two concepts originate. For

example, how can heritages of wood buildings structure be kept their authenticity?

The protection of the intangible heritages such as building skills and related cultural

spirit rituals may be as important as the physical objects. 21

Timothy, D. J., & Wall, G. (1997). selling to tourists: indonesian street vendors. Anuals of Tourism Research , 24 (2), 322-340. 22

Reser, Joseph P., & Bentrupperbäumer, Joan M. (2005). What and where are environmental values? Assessing the impacts of current diversity of use of ‘environmental’ and ‘World Heritage’ values. Journal of Environmental Psychology , 25 (2), 125-146.

Fig 19 Banjar Sari Monument and

Parks, crowded with informal Vendors

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Due to the misunderstanding of unconsciousness of the criteria of authenticity

and integrity for heritages values, "fake" heritages were created for the sake of

tourism and /or under the name of "conservation," while the "real, " heritages were

destroyed, by using materials and techniques that are not authentic to the heritage

during the process of rebuilding and repairing. Another important aspect is to

understand that urban heritage comprises of three main categories 23 : (1)

Monumental heritage of exceptional cultural value; (2) Non-exceptional heritage

elements but present in a coherent way with a relative abundance; (3) New urban

elements to be considered (for instance), including the urban built form; The open

space: streets, public open spaces; and urban infrastructures: material networks and

equipments. One common mistake is that under the name of the heritage protection,

the setting is removed and only the monumental heritages of exceptional cultural

values were kept.

5.2 Planning and Management Strategy: The Landscape Approach

There are three aspects involved in the stage of Protection and Management:

Comprehensive surveying and mapping of the city’s natural, cultural and

human resources

Assess vulnerability of socio-economic stresses, as well as impact of climate

change

A city development strategy (CDS) or a city conservation strategy (CCS) to

integrate urban heritage values and their vulnerability status into a

framework of city development.

To realize these critical steps, many technologies have been developed for

environmental conservation. For environmental sustainability, a city scale assessment

model has been developed for air pollution impacts on European Cultural Heritage

sites, which can inform management strategies for sustainable development24. For

tangible heritage protection, adaptive reuse of heritage buildings has been discussed

recently, with examples in Hong Kong25. On the other hand, the protection and

enhancement of traditional skills and craftsmanship needs to take place. Planning

practices have also been made in UK 16and Saida, Lebanon26.

Some latest trends in urban planning and design, and landscape architecture

are closely related to heritage protection and environmental sustainability, such as

landscape urbanism27, agricultural urbanism, green urbanism, ecological urbanism,

23

European Union research report Nº 16. 24

de la Fuente, D., Vega, J. M, Viejo, F, Díaz, I., & Morcillo, M. (2011). City scale assessment model for air pollution effects on the cultural heritage. Atmospheric Environment , 45 (6), 1242-1250. 25

Yung, E. H., & Chan, Edwin H. W. (2012). Implementation challenges to the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings: Towards the goals of sustainable, low carbon cities. Habitat International , 36 (9), 352-361. 26

Al-hagla, K. S. (2010). Sustainable urban development in historical areas using the tourist trail approach: A case study of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) project in Saida, Lebanon. Cities , 27 (4), 234-248. 27

Wadheim, C. (Ed.), 2006，The Landscape Urbanism Reader. Princeton Architectural Press.

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and the "Negative approach"28. Landscape was also understood in a more integrative

and connective way, such as green ways, ecological corridors, heritage corridors and

security patterns. For all these new concepts and trends in urbanism and landscape

architecture, the key is the planning and management ecological infrastructure---the

structural landscape network that is composed of the critical landscape elements and

spatial patterns that are of strategic significance in preserving the integrity and

identity of the natural and cultural landscapes and securing sustainable ecosystem

services, protecting cultural heritages and recreational experience28. Ecological

infrastructure integrates natural and cultural processes in an effective way, and

provides an alternative urban solution.

These new trends in urbanism is consistent and parallel to the new

development in the fields of heritage conservation, so called landscape approach ---

a framework for making landscape-level conservation decisions. The landscape

approach helps to reach decisions about the advisability of particular interventions

(such as a new road or plantation), and to facilitate the planning, negotiation and

implementation of activities across a whole landscape29. In the historic urban context,

the landscape approach enables policy-makers and managers to deal more

effectively with new challenges and opportunities. The landscape approach to urban

heritage conservation supports communities in their quest for development and

adaptation, while retaining the characteristics and values linked to their history and

collective memory, and to the setting30.

The landscape approaches can be applied across scales, from the individual

historic urban area, to a holistic city and the regional metropolitan areas31,28 (Fig 23,

24, 25,26).

28

Yu, K., S. Wang & D. Li, 2011,The negative approach to urban growth planning of Beijing, China, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 54:9,1209-1236 29

IUCN, and the World Wildlife Fund – WWF 30

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48857&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 31

Yu, K. and X. Xi, (2010) The definition of the Grand Canal Heritage Corridor based on the genisis

perspectives. Progress in Geography, 29(8):975-986.

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Fig 23,24 The Protection and management planning of the Grand Canal in China:

The numerous cultural heritage sites are linked into an cultural heritage corridors and

are further integrated into an ecological infrastructure across scales in China, which

provide multiple ecosystems services.

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Fig 25,26 The protection planning for cultural heritages sites and urbanism

alternatives in Beijing. The security patterns for cultural heritage preservation are

composed of both existing and potential heritage sites and linear features. Both

designated heritage sites and vernacular landscapes that give identity to Beijing are

identified as the sources for protection. Historical paths are identified based on

written and graphic data. Suitability for heritage corridors is calculated based on land

cover and distances from the heritage sites and linear features. A network of heritage

corridors is then planned for preservation, education and recreation purposes, and

integrated into the overall ecological infrastructure that will guide urban

development. In this case, landscape leads and define urban growth pattern so that

the cultural identity of the city and the region can be integrated with urban

development and can be protected in a positive way 28.

5 Discussion

The most attractive and valuable nature of cultural heritage is their diversity.

Each WHC has its own historical, natural and cultural context. And it is this nature

that makes it challenging to have universally acceptable guidelines and practices for

the preservation and management. The only effective solution is sharing the

experiences as to what kind of challenges individual city mayors faces, and what

solutions and tools they use to meet these challenges, and how they take the

leadership in making effective actions.

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For the open discussion, I would like to pose the following questions that I consider

critical in fostering a productive sharing among the mayors;

(1) How do you value the urban cultural heritage in your cities?

What if these values, e.g. short-term economic values and long term cultural

and social values, conflict with each other?

(2) How do you define and understand urban heritages' authenticity and integrity?

What kind of tools and skills will you use in order to preserve and restore

degrading heritage sites, buildings and structures?

(3) How to balance urban development with heritage protection?

What kind of management policies and facilities have you developed in your

city to handle this issue?

As an integrative approach to protect the urban heritage, and, at the same

time, make it adaptive to contemporary development, how much do you

understand the landscape approach and the historic urban landscape

approach? Did you use this approach in your city?

(4) What kind of international network and communication platform should be

built among the WHCs to enhance knowledge sharing and capacity building

for urban heritage conservation and environmental sustainability?

We must have a comprehensive understanding of the values of cultural heritage, and

have a clear understanding of the authenticity and integrity of urban heritage.

Adopt an integrative landscape approach to adapt contemporary development to

historical heritage, and have effective tools and be able to take the leadership in

implementation and enforcement of these tools. Only then can the goal of urban

heritage conservation and environmental sustainability be successfully achievable.