The Historic Urban Landscape Approach and the Governance of World Heritage in Urban Contexts: Reflections from Three European Cities

The Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach, adopted by UNESCO in 2011, has been shown to effectively address governance challenges in managing World Heritage (WH) properties within urban contexts. A comparative study of Florence, Edinburgh, and Porto revealed that the HUL approach promotes more inclusive and integrated management systems, which have successfully mitigated key governance issues affecting heritage management in these cities. The research analyzed management plans using a policy analysis framework and compared findings across six critical governance challenges identified in recent literature. This suggests that the HUL approach can serve as a model for other urban WH sites seeking to enhance their management strategies.

Cunha Ferreira, T., Rey-Pérez, J., Pereira Roders, A., Tarrafa Silva, A., Coimbra, I., & Breda Vazquez, I. (2023). The Historic Urban Landscape Approach and the Governance of World Heritage in Urban Contexts: Reflections from Three European Cities. Land, 12(5), 1020. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12051020