A Sustainable Historic Waterfront Revitalization Decision Support Tool for Attracting Tourists (original) (raw)

THE EVOLUTION OF HISTORIC WATERFRONT: A CASE STUDY OF GEORGE TOWN, PENANG

PLANNING MALAYSIA: Journal of the Malaysian Institute of Planners, 2018

Waterfront development emerged as one of the important issues of urban design and planning since it provides an opportunity to improve social well-being, economic development and physical setting of a city. In recent decades, many waterfronts have experienced reorientation from brownfield to commercial, residential and recreational areas. Many early cities are located close to water bodies due to water being a form of transportation. However, the advancement of modern infrastructures such as roadways and increased modes of transportation has moved the central business district into inner lands. This has left many old city centres suffering economic depression, losing their local identity as people moved to other places, and eventually facing abandonment. In this case, tourism is seen as a panacea to help revitalizing those areas. This paper seeks to address the evolution of historic waterfront at World Heritage Sites in Malaysia, from the perspective of tourism development. By using evolutionary analysis based on previous resources and maps, it demonstrates that government development agencies and tourism development have been the key agents of change in influencing waterfront redevelopment.