Eleven years after the Valletta Principles (original) (raw)
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From June to November 2022, UNESCO Member States were invited to report on implementing the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape for 2019-2022. One hundred and eighty-seven national and city-level reports from 69 Member States across all regions were received. The Consolidated Results of the Third Member States Consultation on the Implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, including the national and city-level reports, confirm the importance of the HUL Recommendation and the urgency of mainstreaming this normative instrument as a tool for managing urban heritage in and around cities and settlements. This is all the more relevant at a time when cities and settlements are under pressure from uncontrolled urbanization and ill-conceived urban development projects, climate change and other global challenges at the local level. Implementation of the HUL Recommendation would enhance the resilience and sustainability of heritage and local communities in historic urban areas, address current global challenges, and foster inclusive and sustainable local development. The Consultation as well as the national and local reports cover six thematic areas of implementation, which capture the key principles of the HUL Recommendation in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development framework. These areas include mapping and inventorying of heritage values and attributes, governance mechanisms, laws, regulations, and planning tools to protect these different attributes, inclusive and participatory decision-making, equitable economic development, the impacts of climate change, and the use of digital technologies for managing urban heritage, including capacity building. The outcomes of the Third Member States Consultation were reviewed by a group of international experts who provided recommendations. Key recommendations include exchanging innovative practices and experiences at the international level and developing guidance, tools, capacity-building materials and initiatives on planning, civic engagement, regulatory frameworks and financial mechanisms and management to support the operationalization of the HUL Recommendation’s provisions by Member States.
Towards operationalizing UNESCO Recommendations on " Historic Urban Landscape " : a position paper 1
This position paper critically analyses the process to implement the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (2011), exploring evaluation tools, innovative business / management models and financing tools for the conservation and regeneration of Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), to make it operational in the perspective of a circular economy model of sustainable development for city / territory system regeneration. Through evaluation tools, it is possible to pass from general principles to operational practices; to produce empirical evidence of the economic, social and environmental benefits of HUL integrated conservation and regeneration. The challenge of generating a symbiosis between conservation and transformation issues requires adequate evaluation methods, business, management and financing tools, engaging civil society and local stakeholders, capturing both HUL tangible and intangible values to turn the historic urban landscape into a driver of sustainable growth. The analysis carried out in this paper shows that through the suggested tools it is possible to make operational the UNESCO Recommendations, transforming conflicts into opportunities, producing economic attractiveness and strengthen social awareness and cohesion.
Towards operationalizing UNESCO Recommendations on “Historic Urban Landscape”: a position paper
Aestimum, 2016
This position paper critically analyses the process to implement the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (2011), exploring evaluation tools, innovative business / management models and financing tools for the conservation and regeneration of Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), to make it operational in the perspective of a circular economy model of sustainable development for city / territory system regeneration. Through evaluation tools, it is possible to pass from general principles to operational practices; to produce empirical evidence of the economic, social and environmental benefits of HUL integrated conservation and regeneration. The challenge of generating a symbiosis between conservation and transformation issues requires adequate evaluation methods, business, management and financing tools, engaging civil society and local stakeholders, capturing both HUL tangible and intangible values to turn the historic urban landscape into a driver of sustainable growth. The analysis carried out in this paper shows that through the suggested tools it is possible to make operational the UNESCO Recommendations, transforming conflicts into opportunities, producing economic attractiveness and strengthen social awareness and cohesion.
This article makes a critical reflection, questioning the notion of historical urban landscapes as a conceptual paradigm used for the basis of urban conservation in the twenty-first century. The study begins with a brief summary of the origins and subsequent evolution of this concept, highlighting the two key reference milestones: the Vienna Memorandum (UNESCO, 2005) and the Paris Recommendation (UNESCO, 2011). Subsequently, the focus of attention will be on highlighting the problems and difficulties posed by the management and protection of historic urban landscapes today. In this sense, the focus of attention will be placed on the assumption that change is an inherent part of the urban condition, since there is no consensus on what the limits of acceptable change in historic urban landscapes should be. It also emphasizes three factors that make this more difficult: (1) the reminiscences of the doctrines of the Weberian administration in the current models of government; (2) the subjective nature of the systems of indicators applied to the scope of historic cities; and (3) the opportunism of tactical urbanism, which, despite its shortcomings, is becoming an outstanding alternative for the methodological development of the historic urban landscapes.
Urban areas in historic cities resemble a living organism that evolves in parallel to social transformation processes, shaping the material substrate that expresses identity and collective memory. In the twenty-first century, exponential population growth, globalization and the information society have resulted in many of these socioeconomic processes accelerating, with consequences that we are not yet able to discern in their entirety. In this context, cities need to adapt to the general dynamics of urban development by incorporating the environmental, economic and social aspects of the "sustainability paradigm". With good planning, urban heritage is a key sustainable resource that needs promoting as part of the existing territorial competitiveness in a scenario marked by an increase in rivalry between cities. This requires the development of a conceptual framework that, based on a global, holistic and integrative approach, covers equity and social justice, respect for human rights, the gender perspective, public health and environmental quality, among other aspects. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to study the concept of landscape applied to urban planning in greater depth, paying special attention to the analysis of the notion of Historic Urban Landscapes from a critical point of view, since the economic pressures arising from the reality of today's globalized world pose a serious threat that hinders their custody and protection, complicating this new comprehensive approach: how to bring this new systemic and transversal concept to the current regulatory framework in order to achieve real legal protection and effective governance models in urban areas? What should be the acceptable limits to ensure that "managing this change" does not result in public spaces being at the service of the interests of financial capitalism? These, along with many other questions, make the work of the professionals in charge of urban conservation more challenging in their aim to establish a sustainable dialogue to clear the complex equation between historical city and development. With a view to try to answer these and other questions, this paper sets out need to design comprehensive urban policy and legislative frameworks coordinated, and sets out proposals regarding the development of acceptable change limitation methods and indicators, and the application of the concept of buffer zones to the conservation of urban heritage that can become the basis for urban management policies and models.