Urban heritage conservation and rapid urbanization : insights from Surat, India

Currently, heritage is challenged in the Indian city of Surat due to diverse pressures,  including rapid urbanization, increasing housing demand, and socio‐cultural and climate changes.  Where rapid demographic growth of urban areas is happening, heritage is disappearing at an  alarming rate. Despite some efforts from the local government, urban cultural heritage is being  neglected and historic buildings keep being replaced by ordinary concrete buildings at a worryingly  rapid pace. Discussions of challenges and issues of Surat’s urban area is supported by a qualitative  dataset, including in‐depth semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with local policy makers,  planners, and heritage experts, triangulated by observation and a photo‐survey of two historic  areas. Findings from this study reveal a myriad of challenges such as: inadequacy of urban  conservation management policies and processes focused on heritage, absence of skills, training,  and resources amongst decision makers and persistent conflict and competition between heritage  conservation needs and developers’ interests. Furthermore, the values and significance of Surat’s  tangible and intangible heritage is not fully recognized by its citizens and heritage stakeholders. A  crucial opportunity exists for Surat to maximize the potential of heritage and reinforce urban  identity for its present and future generations. Surat’s context is representative of general trends  and conservation challenges and therefore recommendations developed in this study hold the  potential to offer interesting insights to the wider planners and conservationists’ international  community.  This  paper  recommends  thoughtful  integration  of  sustainable  heritage  urban  conservation into local urban development frameworks and the establishment of approaches that  recognize the plurality of heritage values

Embedding civil engagement in museums

Initiatives over the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond have sought to reposition museums at the heart of their communities as agents for civil engagement. This paper explores the principles involved in making the role possible, using the example of urban history museums. It argues that this will take time, commitment and careful planning, and will impact on every aspect of the museum's activities. It is an essential task however, reflecting the direction museums should be taking in society in the 21st century, but will only be achieved if there is a change of culture across the profession

PROJECT ÉVORA 3D: RESEARCH, METHODOLOGY, RECONSTRUCTION AND VISUALIZATION

The Évora 3D project was born from the collaboration between the Municipality and the University of Évora, through the two research centres of CIDEHUS1 and CHAIA2, with the objective of completing a virtual reconstruction of the city in a longtime frame. In the national and international context, the use of new technologies has led to the diversification of this type of proposal, both at the urban level and in the reconstruction of concrete spaces. The application of this same model to Évora, contemplating several chronological layers, seems to impose itself in a city that, in the medieval and modern periods, was one of the most important of the kingdom, as Court city, and that today is classified as World Heritage Site

Application of Digitizing Methods to Urban Area with an Example-- Zong-Ye Historic District, Tainan City

This article attempts to apply digitizing methods to historic assets in old downtown by map overlaying analysis after map rectifying, and then taking textual method through surveying images. After proving and conform through research, townscape could be connected with real historic traces by reality digitizing approach, and it will make a reality aura of formerly district for visitors. In this way the abundant, definite and impressive content of district can be the valuable materials in region development, and the time and space of this district could continue the history and culture of the city. Consequently, this article aims to set up a feasibility proposal applied to it concretely. This article puts forward 1.the district analysis through historic map rectifying 2.the reality digital reconstruction of streets digital archives elements 3.the application on AR(Augmented Reality) in historic district, and brings forward an technological approach which could respond to the challenge of losing regional characteristics in redevelopment process with an example of Zong-Ye historic district in traditional Tainan City. Therefore, this proposal which places great emphasis on local history and culture is equipped with applying value for European cities based on plentiful culture in cultural industries and regional development issues.

Cities of culture and the regeneration game

Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme exactly a year on from its inauguration. This event also saw the transition from Liverpool's "Year of Culture 08‟ to "Year of Environment 09" and a simultaneous event in the Austrian city of Linz to which the Capital of Culture mantle passed, along with Vilnius, Lithuania. An estimated 60,000 people congregated at the Pier Head as well as at the Albert Dock and Wirral bank, for a celebration that included sing-a-longs, firework displays, street artists on illuminated bikes and light projections onto a famous refurbished new museum building making up this World Heritage city. This "Light Night" celebration also kick-started similar events held in cities in England and Scotland, with extended opening of venues. The Light Night theme chosen for Liverpool 08's swansong emulates the Nuit Blanche festival celebrated in dozens of cities such as Paris, Rome, Montreal and Toronto - the largest of which attract 1 to 3 million participants over "late night" weekend extravaganzas (Jiwa et al., 2009). These "eventful cities" (Richards and Palmer 2010) reflect a global trend and network that spreads virtually and geographically (Evans, 2011)

Whose place? Sustaining cultural conversations

Abstract: The notion of place is integral to any understanding of cultural sustainability. Present and future places are the product of the political negotiations of past places. How we recreate and represent the history and the stories of a place impacts the individual and collective cultural identities associated with it. Moreover, these representations help to determine who does, or does not, belong. When planning for the sustainment of cultures, we need to draw on our ethical responsibility to ensure that everybody and every culture enjoys the right to a sense of belonging. To do this, we must turn to questions such as, whose story is primarily being represented through the identity of a particular place? Or, whose place is being replaced and reimagined without acknowledgement or permission? And how will these communities and individuals, whose stories are not amplified, become sustainable? To respond to some of these questions, this article presents an analysis of placemaking on the Gold Coast. It sketches insights from cultural practitioners, industry leaders, cultural workers and the community- at-large, to expose heterogeneous Gold Coasts wrestling with the one identity. Most notably, it documents the emergence of a cultural voice that is developing via artist-run spaces involving joint collaborations between the academy and the community. By adopting transdisciplinarity alongside an historical approach to conversation, this article also suggests some alternative ways to develop policies that fosters and sustains multiple cultures, rather than just reproducing more of the same. This paper was presented at People and the Planet 2013 at RMIT in July 201

Towards Smarter Management of Overtourism in Historic Centres Through Visitor-Flow Monitoring

Historic centres are highly regarded destinations for watching and even participating in diverse and unique forms of cultural expression. Cultural tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is an important and consolidated tourism sector and its strong growth is expected to continue over the coming years. Tourism, the much dreamt of redeemer for historic centres, also represents one of the main threats to heritage conservation: visitors can dynamize an economy, yet the rapid growth of tourism often has negative effects on both built heritage and the lives of local inhabitants. Knowledge of occupancy levels and flows of visiting tourists is key to the efficient management of tourism; the new technologies—the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and geographic information systems (GIS)—when combined in interconnected networks represent a qualitative leap forward, compared to traditional methods of estimating locations and flows. A methodology is described in this paper for the management of tourism flows that is designed to promote sustainable tourism in historic centres through intelligent support mechanisms. As part of the Smart Heritage City (SHCITY) project, a collection system for visitors is developed. Following data collection via monitoring equipment, the analysis of a set of quantitative indicators yields information that can then be used to analyse visitor flows; enabling city managers to make management decisions when the tourism-carrying capacity is exceeded and gives way to overtourism.Funded by the Interreg Sudoe Programme of the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF

Industrial heritage management : Polish perspective

The aim of the article is to briefly present the current Polish perspective on industrial heritage. It stands for specific aspects of the past, which do not necessarily conform the usual criteria of aesthetics or emotional commitment. In the first part the basic information and the theoretical background are presented. The second is devoted to alleged oppositional processes: neglection and deterioration versus activity and re-usage. These two characterize the approach towards industrial heritage, simultaneously hype and ignorance. This assumption derives from research results conducted in previous works