A Strategy Using Heritage Documentation for Managing Change of the Historic Centre of Bukhara

Bukhara, historic city of the Silk Roads, has been going through changes for more than 2000 years. The historic centre is UNESCO World Heritage since 1993 including hundreds of monuments such as madrassas, mosques and caravanserais, and an urban fabric containing the traditional Bukharian houses. As a dynamic city in Uzbekistan, its transformation is ongoing. A number of previous studies, including a large scale UNESCO field campaign, have been carried out to identify the overall condition of this historic city. Being most of the traditional houses privately owned and built of earthen materials, these studies have highlighted that this type of heritage is under threat of high impact of changes. Therefore, there has been a need of guidelines to protect and manage change of this outstanding heritage. Appropriate decisions in heritage conservation are based on timely, relevant and accurate information about the conditions, materials and evolution of heritage buildings and landscapes. To support these tasks, two main international projects, the University College London (UCL) Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes (CAAL) funded by Arcadia Fund, and the Traditional Bukharian Houses Documentation and Conservation approaches funded by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) are supporting the heritage management of city of Bukhara in partnership with the International Institute of Central Asian Studies (IICAS), the local administration, universities and the Bukharian community. This paper presents the current two large projects to create a digital database of the mahallas -neighbourhoods and its traditional houses by documenting heritage attributes, and ultimately produce the Guidelines on Conservation, Maintenance and Adaptive Reuse recognising heritage regeneration, as a core principle, and the contribution of heritage towards the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Application of Digital Heritage Documentation for Condition Assessments and Monitoring Change in Uzbekistan

Cultural heritage is facing irreversible changes due to anthropogenic and natural impacts. Condition assessment is a holistic approach to analyse the historic buildings, structures or sites to record changes and understand their deterioration and causes. Detailed documentation is an essential first step for mapping the condition, analyse, give a diagnosis and propose conservation measures. However, not all the time the appropriate documentation is available or recorded towards this means, making difficult a proper assessment. This paper presents a review of digital documentation tools supporting a systematic assessment of the condition and changes of historic structures. The application aerial and close-range photogrammetry and panoramic photography is illustrated using two case studies within the World Heritage properties in the Central Asia region, Itchan Kala and the Historic Centre of Bukhara in Uzbekistan

A STRATEGY USING HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION FOR MANAGING CHANGE OF THE HISTORIC CENTRE OF BUKHARA

Bukhara, historic city of the Silk Roads, has been going through changes for more than 2000 years. The historic centre is UNESCO World Heritage since 1993 including hundreds of monuments such as madrassas, mosques and caravanserais, and an urban fabric containing the traditional Bukharian houses. As a dynamic city in Uzbekistan, its transformation is ongoing. A number of previous studies, including a large scale UNESCO field campaign, have been carried out to identify the overall condition of this historic city. Being most of the traditional houses privately owned and built of earthen materials, these studies have highlighted that this type of heritage is under threat of high impact of changes. Therefore, there has been a need of guidelines to protect and manage change of this outstanding heritage. Appropriate decisions in heritage conservation are based on timely, relevant and accurate information about the conditions, materials and evolution of heritage buildings and landscapes. To support these tasks, two main international projects, the University College London (UCL) Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes (CAAL) funded by Arcadia Fund, and the Traditional Bukharian Houses Documentation and Conservation approaches funded by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) are supporting the heritage management of city of Bukhara in partnership with the International Institute of Central Asian Studies (IICAS), the local administration, universities and the Bukharian community. This paper presents the current two large projects to create a digital database of the mahallas -neighbourhoods and its traditional houses by documenting heritage attributes, and ultimately produce the Guidelines on Conservation, Maintenance and Adaptive Reuse recognising heritage regeneration, as a core principle, and the contribution of heritage towards the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Documentation for Preservation: Methodology and a GIS Database of Three World Heritage Cities in Uzbekistan

The historic cities of Uzbekistan are an irreplaceable legacy of the Silk Roads. Currently, Uzbekistan counts with four UNESCO World Heritage Properties, with hundreds of historic monuments and traditional historic houses. However, lack of documentation, systematic monitoring and a digital database, of the historic buildings and dwellings within the historic centers, are threatening the World Heritage properties and delaying the development of a proper management mechanism for the preservation of the heritage and an interwoven city urban development. Unlike the monuments, the traditional historic houses are being demolished without any enforced legal protection, leaving no documentation to understand the city history and its urban fabric as well of way of life, traditions and customs over the past centuries. To fill out this gap, from 2008 to 2015, the Principal Department for Preservation and Utilization of Cultural Objects of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan with support from the UNESCO Office in Tashkent, and in collaboration with several international and local universities and institutions, carried out a survey of the Historic Centre of Bukhara, Itchan Kala and Samarkand Crossroad of Cultures. The collaborative work along these years have helped to consolidate a methodology and to integrate a GIS database that is currently contributing to the understanding of the outstanding heritage values of these cities as well as to develop preservation and management strategies with a solid base of heritage documentation

Dive into heritage: a digital documentation platform of world heritage properties in the Arab states region

The world celebrated the 50 years of the World Heritage Convention. With more than 1000 cultural and natural sites, the 1972 World Heritage Convention is the most widely recognized. It has provided a framework for identifying, documenting, protecting, and managing the world's cultural and natural heritage with Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The theme to mark this anniversary is: “The Next 50: World Heritage as a Source of Resilience, Humanity and Innovation”. These are the topics that have inspired the World Heritage Centre to develop, together with the Member States in the Arab Region, an online platform that leverages digital technologies to safeguard and promote the UNESCO World Heritage sites and its related intangible heritage, and transmit them to future generations. This paper discusses the current state of digital documentation of cultural heritage and the related projects/initiatives in the Arab States region. It presents the UNESCO Dive into Heritage initiative and its first outcomes. It concludes with lessons learned and future steps for the next phases of the project. First outcomes have revealed the big challenge of 3D data integration and the need to accompany the implementation stages of the project with capacity building

DIVE INTO HERITAGE: A DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION PLATFORM OF WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTIES IN THE ARAB STATES REGION

The world celebrated the 50 years of the World Heritage Convention. With more than 1000 cultural and natural sites, the 1972 World Heritage Convention is the most widely recognized. It has provided a framework for identifying, documenting, protecting, and managing the world's cultural and natural heritage with Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The theme to mark this anniversary is: “The Next 50: World Heritage as a Source of Resilience, Humanity and Innovation”. These are the topics that have inspired the World Heritage Centre to develop, together with the Member States in the Arab Region, an online platform that leverages digital technologies to safeguard and promote the UNESCO World Heritage sites and its related intangible heritage, and transmit them to future generations. This paper discusses the current state of digital documentation of cultural heritage and the related projects/initiatives in the Arab States region. It presents the UNESCO Dive into Heritage initiative and its first outcomes. It concludes with lessons learned and future steps for the next phases of the project. First outcomes have revealed the big challenge of 3D data integration and the need to accompany the implementation stages of the project with capacity building

DOCUMENTATION FOR PRESERVATION: METHODOLOGY AND A GIS DATABASE OF THREE WORLD HERITAGE CITIES IN UZBEKISTAN

The historic cities of Uzbekistan are an irreplaceable legacy of the Silk Roads. Currently, Uzbekistan counts with four UNESCO World Heritage Properties, with hundreds of historic monuments and traditional historic houses. However, lack of documentation, systematic monitoring and a digital database, of the historic buildings and dwellings within the historic centers, are threatening the World Heritage properties and delaying the development of a proper management mechanism for the preservation of the heritage and an interwoven city urban development. Unlike the monuments, the traditional historic houses are being demolished without any enforced legal protection, leaving no documentation to understand the city history and its urban fabric as well of way of life, traditions and customs over the past centuries. To fill out this gap, from 2008 to 2015, the Principal Department for Preservation and Utilization of Cultural Objects of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan with support from the UNESCO Office in Tashkent, and in collaboration with several international and local universities and institutions, carried out a survey of the Historic Centre of Bukhara, Itchan Kala and Samarkand Crossroad of Cultures. The collaborative work along these years have helped to consolidate a methodology and to integrate a GIS database that is currently contributing to the understanding of the outstanding heritage values of these cities as well as to develop preservation and management strategies with a solid base of heritage documentation

Information sources and tourism heritage: a sustainable economy perspective

Purpose Conserving appropriately the culture and heritage of a city through sustainable tourism is a key element for its economic development. Heritage cities generate economic, social and environmental benefits through tourism management. This study aims to intend, in the context of economic sustainability of the territory and promotion, to improve the understanding of the relationship between the sources of information of tourists and their motivations, with satisfaction and future behaviour intentions. For this, a study has been carried out in the Old Town of Cáceres (Spain), a city recognised as a world heritage property by UNESCO. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a descriptive analysis, based on frequencies. For data collection, a structured questionnaire has been used to identify the opinion of tourists during their visit to the heritage city of Cáceres. Findings This study demonstrates the existence of a positive relationship between the sources of information and the tourist experience with their future behavioural intentions and satisfaction of their visit. All this in the global context of the destination for sustainable economy and the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that the motivations of tourists are the most important factor in explaining the overall experience and loyalty of tourists to a city. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this study is the data set used. The results must be contextualised at the time and place when the questionnaire was conducted. Practical implications The proposed model makes it possible to advance future heritage tourism strategies, in terms of planning and communication of the heritage resources of a destination. Tourism heritage institutions should increasingly invest in communication improvements based on new technologies and social media. At the same time, integrated planning with special policies for the sustainable protection of heritage can make important progress in the tourist and cultural development of the destination. Originality/value This article tests for the first time within the context of heritage cities in Spain and in the context of a sustainable economy and cultural heritage for destination, the relationship between different sources of site promotion information and future tourist behaviour intentions. It provides original evidence of the value of applying the underlying theory of the proposed model in a world heritage tourist destination

CONNECTING WORLD HERITAGE NOMINATIONS AND MONITORING WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE SILK ROADS CULTURAL HERITAGE RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Serial transnational World Heritage nominations are challenging the way cultural heritage has been managed and evaluated in the past. Serial transnational World Heritage nominations are unique in that they consist of multiple sites listed as one property, distributed in different countries, involving a large diversity of stakeholders in the process. As a result, there is a need for precise baseline information for monitoring, reporting and decision making. This type of nomination requires different methodologies and tools to improve the monitoring cycle from the beginning of the nomination towards the periodic reporting. The case study of the Silk Roads Cultural Heritage Resource Information System (CHRIS) illustrates the use of a Geographical Content Management System (Geo-CMS) supporting the serial transnational World Heritage nomination and the monitoring of the Silk Roads in the five Central Asian countries. The Silk Roads CHRIS is an initiative supported by UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO), and developed by a consortium headed by the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC) at the KULeuven. The Silk Roads CHRIS has been successfully assisting in the preparation of the nomination dossiers of the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and will be used as a tool for monitoring tool in the Central Asian countries

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING AND DOCUMENTING WORLD HERITAGE - THE SILK ROADS CHRIS

This paper discusses the application of Information Management Systems (IMS) for documenting and monitoring World Heritage (WH) properties. The application of IMS in WH can support all stakeholders involved in conservation, and management of cultural heritage by more easily inventorying, mining and exchanging information from multiple sources based on international standards. Moreover, IMS could assist in detecting damages and preparing management strategies to mitigate risks, and slowing down the deterioration of the integrity of WH properties. The case study of the Silk Roads Cultural Heritage Resource Information System (CHRIS), a Belgian Federal Science Policy Office funded project, illustrates the capabilities of IMS in the context of the nomination of the Central Asian Silk Roads on the WH List. This multi-lingual, web-based IMS will act as a collaborative platform allowing for the completion of improved transnational nomination dossiers and subsequent monitoring activities with all necessary baseline information to easily verify consistency and quality of the proposal. The Silk Roads CHRIS Geospatial Content Management System uses open source technologies and allows to georeference data from different scales and sources including data from field recording methods and combine it with historical and heritage features documented through various means such as textual descriptions, documents, photographs, 3D models or videos. Moreover, tailored maps can also be generated by overlaying a selection of available layers and then be exported to support the nomination dossier. Finally, by using this innovative information and decision support system, the State Parties and other interested stakeholders will have access to a complete nomination dossier and could therefore respond more effectively to hazards and disaster phenomena