Exploring Tangible or Intangible Similarities and Differences between the Theories of Urban Conservation

Abstract

The term, Urban Conservation, referred to three goals of utilising the space, adapting for efficient traffic, and concerning social issues [1], which stimulated new conservation theories of cultural tourism and sustainable management of heritage [2]. In light of the urbanisation process and globalisation development, the emergence of new value-based conservation theories gives importance to landscape contexts and community engagement [3]. These new conservation thematic values solidified the specificity of the new UNESCO Recommendation [4] on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL). The six-step toolkit of the HUL can evaluate cultural heritage based on the implementation of an integrated value-based and sustainable landscape approach [5], shifting conservation areas of protecting tangible ancient physical structures to intangible value-centric heritage protection [6]. This study identified similarities of preserving implementations or visible measures, and differentiated inequalities of three intangibly theoretical challenges by analysing HUL-implemented cases in chronological order. The comparison revealed the lessons of emphasising cultural values and latent profits from the perspective of environments and human rights. However, the lessons inspired the study to understand conservation challenges have been beyond the discussion of existing environmental issues and social.