1 Urban Heritage Conservation and Environmental Sustainability Kongjian Yu College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University 1. World Heritage Cities in Asia and the Pacific Today, more than 100 urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific face a fundamental dilemma: How is it possible to sustain the functions of a contemporary World Heritage City (WHC) without negatively affecting the elements that convey its “Outstanding Universal Value”? In response to this pressing question, this article identifies some of the major challenges for heritage conservation and sustainability, including the misconception of authenticity and integrity, climate change and natural erosion, urbanization, and touristification. For these challenges, solutions are proposed, including better understanding about the integrity and authenticity of heritages, scientific planning for the protection and use of heritage sites and appropriate policies for the management of urban heritage. Nowadays, the World Heritage List counts more than 260 cities, a large proportion of which are distributed in Asia and the Pacific Region. In fact, almost 40% of the region’s World Heritage sites, over 80 properties, are located in urban areas. As a whole, in Asia and the Pacific region alone, there are over 20 World Heritage towns and cities and over 40 other municipalities that host some of the region’s most notable World Heritage landmarks 1 . These urban heritage sites can be found across East Asia, Middle Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania (Fig 1). A large majority of World Heritage Cities are concentrated throughout Europe, however within the Asia and the Pacific the number of World Heritage Cities are growing rapidly, and are located within developed and developing countries (Fig 2). The hundreds of urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific can be classified into 4 categories: (1) Heritage City & Town (e.g Hahoe, Rep. Korea); (2) Monumental Sites: Palace, Temple, Shrine, Church, Tomb & Garden (e.g Angkor, Cambodia); (3) Natural Landscapes (e.g Royal Chitwan National Park,Kathmandu,Nepal); (4) Cultural Landscapes (e.g Mountain Wuyi, China) and cultural routes. Most of them are distributed in developing countries, and under the pressure of urbanization and mass tourism. 1 http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/wh/unesco-asia-pacific-mayors-forum-for-world-heritage-cities/h istoric-urban-landscapes/unesco-recommendation-for-the-historic-urban-landscape/
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1
Urban Heritage Conservation and Environmental Sustainability
Kongjian Yu
College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University
1. World Heritage Cities in Asia and the Pacific
Today, more than 100 urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific face a
fundamental dilemma: How is it possible to sustain the functions of a contemporary
World Heritage City (WHC) without negatively affecting the elements that convey its
“Outstanding Universal Value”? In response to this pressing question, this article
identifies some of the major challenges for heritage conservation and sustainability,
including the misconception of authenticity and integrity, climate change and natural
erosion, urbanization, and touristification. For these challenges, solutions are
proposed, including better understanding about the integrity and authenticity of
heritages, scientific planning for the protection and use of heritage sites and
appropriate policies for the management of urban heritage.
Nowadays, the World Heritage List counts more than 260 cities, a large
proportion of which are distributed in Asia and the Pacific Region. In fact, almost 40%
of the region’s World Heritage sites, over 80 properties, are located in urban areas.
As a whole, in Asia and the Pacific region alone, there are over 20 World Heritage
towns and cities and over 40 other municipalities that host some of the region’s most
notable World Heritage landmarks1.
These urban heritage sites can be found across East Asia, Middle Asia, South Asia,
Southeast Asia, and Oceania (Fig 1). A large majority of World Heritage Cities are
concentrated throughout Europe, however within the Asia and the Pacific the
number of World Heritage Cities are growing rapidly, and are located within
developed and developing countries (Fig 2).
The hundreds of urban heritage sites in Asia and the Pacific can be classified into
4 categories: (1) Heritage City & Town (e.g Hahoe, Rep. Korea); (2) Monumental Sites:
7 Bahadur, R., Yuji, T., & Ale, M. S. (2008). Kathmandu. Cities , 25, 45-57.
8 Ruan, Y. ,2011, Saving Pingyao. Map , 118-123
9 Lee, L., Lim, Y., & Nor’Aini, Y. (2008). Strategies for urban conservation: A case example of George
Town, Penang. Habitat International , 32 (3), 293-304.
5
Fig 5 Historic city of Pingyao, Qing Dynasty (Source: Ruan, 2011)8
Fig 6 Collapsed South Wall of Pingyao, 2004 (source: www. people. com. cn)
4.1 Misconception
The most severe challenge that protection and management of cultural heritage
sites are now confronted with is neither from natural erosion from such as rain or
wind, nor the absence of conservation technology, but a misunderstanding of the
concept of authenticity and integrity, which was also the key challenge for Asia and
Pacific. There has been a contentious dispute about the reconstruction of Leifeng
Tower in Hangzhou, where the tower collapsed in 1924 by itself. In Beijing’s historic
conservation area, widespread controversy over the construction of fake antiques
has arisen from the renewal of Qianmen street.
The utilization of “authenticity” originally in the heritage conservation field in
the historic area conservation is the cause of the conflict between the historic area
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conservation and the everyday lives of its citizens. The key to resolving the problem is
to rationally absorb and transform the quintessence of authenticity and integrity
from the west based definitions and adapts them to Asia’s current conditions.
4.2 Climate Change and other Natural Disasters
WHC and its Cultural Landscapes are under threat due to earthquakes, volcanoes,
typhoons and other natural disasters. For instance, Iran has been hit four times by
huge earthquakes resulting in enormous casualties in the past four decades10. The
latest devastating earthquake of 26 December 2003 in the historic desert city of Bam,
Islamic Republic of Iran, caused the tragic loss of many lives and the destruction of an
overwhelming part of its cultural heritage (Fig 7). Typhoons also threaten heritage
sites. An island of Kumano Hill, Japan, struck by a grade 12 typhoon in 2011(Figure
8).
Fig 7 Bam earthquake destroy heritage sites
Fig 8 An island of Kumano Hill, Japan, 2011/2012
10
Khatam, A. 2006. The destruction of Bam and its reconstruction following the earthquake of December 2003. Cities , 23 (6), 462-464.
7
4.2.2 Erosion of Heritage sites
The natural erosion of heritage sites is one
of the biggest of problems and a cause for
concern worldwide. Almost all of the heritage
sites are exposed to nature that can present
difficulties for protection. For example, the
5000 year-old temple of Taleju Bhawani in
Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was broken
from the roots of several gigantic trees (Figure
9).
4.2.3 Global climate change
The 2008 Watch List of the 100 most
endangered sites, issued every two years,
points to global warming as putting several
sites at risk from changing weather patterns,
desertification (Fig 10) and rising sea levels (Fig 11). Climate change has threatened
Rice terraces widely in this part of the world, including the Banaue Rice Terraces in
Ifugao, and the Hani Rice Terraces in Lijiang. Climate change, combined with
deforestation and gradual abandonment, now push these millennia-old rice terraces
to extinction11.
Fig 10 The Moon Lake drying up
11
Liu, Y., & Zen, M. (2011). The Particularity of the World Heritage Cities and the Problems in Planning and Management Process: a Case Study of Lijiang, China. Transformation and Reconstruction——2011 China Urban planning annual meeting proceedings (pp. 7437-7448). Nanjing: Southeast University Press.
Fig 9 The Tree roots broken Temple
8
Fig 11 The Maldives Islands are under threat from sea-level rise.
4.3 Warfare and Culture Conflict
Wars and conflicts have a severe human impact on cultural heritage. Many world
heritage sites were destroyed during the world wars, the Iran-Iraq war, and other
conflicts.
A well-known example being the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The Buddhas of Bamiyan
were two 6th century monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side
of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated
230 km (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft). Built in
507 AD, the larger in 554 AD, the statues represented the classic blended style of
Gandhara art.
They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders
from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that
they were "idols” (Figu 12). International opinion strongly condemned the
destruction of the Buddhas, which were viewed as an example of the intolerance of
the Taliban.
9
Fig 12 Destruction of Buddhas on 21th Mar,2001
4.4 Uncontrolled Urbanization
4.4.1 Urbanness
There are numerous issues of inadequate
urban management with the expansion of
WHCs, especially in the developing countries
of the Asia Pacific. The images acquired by
earth observation satellites in different time
periods in the past four decades (Fig 13)
clearly illustrates the typical pattern of land
use change in peripheral Kathmandu in recent
decades. It shows the radical transformation
of the landscape pattern in the Boudhanath
area, northeast of the city. In 1967, the area
was almost all agriculture land, while this
predominantly rural agriculture landscape
gradually changed to peri-urban landscape
with increasing human settlement in 1970s
and 1980s. Moving on to the present day, no
more space for agriculture can be observed.
The ‘urbanness’ of historic world heritage cities
have cause practical problems on heritage
conservation and environmental
sustainability12.
12
Bahadur, R., Yuji, T., & Ale, M. S. ,2008, Kathmandu. Cities , 25, 45-57.
Fig 13 Landscape change in
Boudhanath area since 1967 using
satellite-imaging technologies. The
scenes cover 1100* 700m ground
space approximately (Sources: [A]
Corona image 1967, [B] Spin image
1991 and [C] Google Earth 2007)
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4.4.2 Transportation
There is a growing level of traffic in and around heritage cities. Not only can the
vibrations they generate weaken the old structures built before the introduction of
motor transport, the load of traffic can also destroy these sites thoroughly, with even
the city infrastructure being put at risk. A relic from the Mughal Empire, Lahore's fort
is famous for its 410 different fountains, the water supply of which was destroyed
when a nearby road was widened. Mostly, these historic centers are not designed to
carry such high and ever increasing volumes of motorcars, but are meant for
pedestrians and pedestrian oriented uses.
4.4.3 Pollution
The rapid growth of urban areas coupled with the inability of the government to
keep pace with the demand for infrastructure and services has caused the
emergence of a number of urban environmental problems, including air, water and
other forms of pollution (Fig 14). For example, energy consumption—gasoline, diesel,
kerosene, furnace oil and cooking gas—of Kathmandu city is about 1/3 of the total
import to Nepal. This has resulted in heavy pollution of air in the city leading to
bronchitis, and throat and chest diseases13. The marine environment of Hong Kong
and Lagoons of New Caledonia are suffering from deterioration14,15.
Figure 14 Satellite-Derived PM2.5[ug/m3]
13
Sharma, C. K. (1997). Urban air quality of kathmandu valley "Kingdom of Nepal ". Atmospheric Environment , 31 (17), 2877-2883. 14
Andréfouët, S. W. (2010). Characterizing the diversity of coral reef habitats and fish communities found in a UNESCO World Heritage Site: The strategy developed for Lagoons of New Caledonia. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 61 (7-12), 612-620. 15
Kueh, C. S. (2008). Monitoring of toxic substances in the Hong Kong marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 57 (6-12), 744-757.
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4.5 Touristification
4.5.1 Tourism Development
Touristification16, referring to the market exploitation of heritage, is a major
hazard, especially for world heritage cities. Within a few years after George Town was
declared a World Heritage Site, 85% of its population became tenants, rents
skyrocketed, people started being evicted, and old shop-houses and even temples
started being snapped up by investors and converted into art galleries and boutique
hotels17. The real George Town was in serious peril of being very quickly replaced by
a fake Disneyland version of George Town. What’s worse, however, is that George
Town is at risk of losing its UNESCO World Heritage Status due to the approval of four
high rise projects (all hotels), three were approved before this time and one was by
the state administration18. The controversial hotel projects located within George
Town’s heritage zone represents a similar phenomenon which can be found in other
World Heritage Cities, such as Lijiang, China19 (Fig 15).
Fig 15 George Town, Malaysia
4.5.2 Increasing Tourists
International arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations grew by a collective 7%
year-on-year, which increased to 10% in 2010 with South Asia leading by 13% (Fig 10),
according to preliminary data released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
(Fig 16).
16
Pendlebury, J., Short, M., & While, A. (2009). Urban World Heritage Sites and the problem of authenticity. Cities , 26 (6), 349-358. 17
Lee, L., Lim, Y., & Nor’Aini, Y. (2008). Strategies for urban conservation: A case example of George Town, Penang. Habitat International , 32 (3), 293-304. 18
Shen, H., & Wang Shihong. (2007). Analysis on environmental features, environmental capacity and general protection principle of cultural heritage. World Heritage Collection of Internatiional Forum Theses (pp. 48-57). Beijing: Beijing Institute of Technology Press.
12
Fig 16 International visitor arrivals (IVAs) 2010: YOY% change( Source:www.PATA.rog)
The pitfalls of excess tourists can surpass those of hundreds of years or more of
ordinary life and create enormous stresses on old structures and also their
communities. For instance, before being nominated as a World Heritage City (1997),
Pingyao had only 100,000 visitors in 1996. That increased to 630,000 in 2000, and
1,153,200 in 2010 (Fig 17). The same problem also troubles Lijiang (Fig 18) and many
other World Heritage Cities20, 11. How to relieve the capacity pressures of heritage
becomes a looming question problem for heritage conservation.
Fig 17 Tourism in Pingyao, China
Fig 18 Tourism in Lijiang, China
20
Zhou, J., Zhang, S., & Wang, J. (2003). The Protection and Development Concept Planning of Lijiang. Urban Planning Forum , 32-39.
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4.5.3 Commercialization
What’s more, the lack of in-depth tourism
development has been a non-technical
problem in historic conservation, especially
regarding informal vendors21. At Banjar Sari
Monument and Parks in Indonesia and many
other historical sites, there are many illegal
structures and informal vendors packed in or
near the historic areas (Fig 19). Revitalization
programs should be undertaken to solve the
problem.
While natural and man-made disasters certainly cause unrecoverable damages
to the urban heritages, sometimes the rebuilding of the WHC could also be
considered as an opportunity. A good example is Lijiang, China, which was affected
by the devastating earthquake in 1996, destroying 20% of its buildings. The
rebuilding of the city guided by urban heritage protection guidelines and with the
careful design utilising the vernacular skills, has proven to be quite successful.
Urbanization and tourism can also considered to be great opportunities for the
conservation of urban heritages, that make possible the evaluation, survey and
research, and physical improvement of the urban heritages due to the improved
financial resources.
5 Solutions and experiences
5.1 Understanding authenticity and integrity
What and where urban heritage values are questions that have long been
discussed 22 . A Historic Urban Landscape reflects the harmonious relationship
between man and nature, for which man develops unique techniques and living
styles according to the distinctive natural environment. In any culture, there exist
various kinds of interactive relationships between man and nature, which can be
shared across nations and cultures.
A topic worthy a deep discussion is the concept of authenticity and integrity for
the Asian Pacific urban heritages, with their built environment, materials and skill are
different from the European situations, where these two concepts originate. For
example, how can heritages of wood buildings structure be kept their authenticity?
The protection of the intangible heritages such as building skills and related cultural
spirit rituals may be as important as the physical objects. 21
Timothy, D. J., & Wall, G. (1997). selling to tourists: indonesian street vendors. Anuals of Tourism Research , 24 (2), 322-340. 22
Reser, Joseph P., & Bentrupperbäumer, Joan M. (2005). What and where are environmental values? Assessing the impacts of current diversity of use of ‘environmental’ and ‘World Heritage’ values. Journal of Environmental Psychology , 25 (2), 125-146.
Fig 19 Banjar Sari Monument and
Parks, crowded with informal Vendors
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Due to the misunderstanding of unconsciousness of the criteria of authenticity
and integrity for heritages values, "fake" heritages were created for the sake of
tourism and /or under the name of "conservation," while the "real, " heritages were
destroyed, by using materials and techniques that are not authentic to the heritage
during the process of rebuilding and repairing. Another important aspect is to
understand that urban heritage comprises of three main categories 23 : (1)
Monumental heritage of exceptional cultural value; (2) Non-exceptional heritage
elements but present in a coherent way with a relative abundance; (3) New urban
elements to be considered (for instance), including the urban built form; The open
space: streets, public open spaces; and urban infrastructures: material networks and
equipments. One common mistake is that under the name of the heritage protection,
the setting is removed and only the monumental heritages of exceptional cultural
values were kept.
5.2 Planning and Management Strategy: The Landscape Approach
There are three aspects involved in the stage of Protection and Management:
Comprehensive surveying and mapping of the city’s natural, cultural and
human resources
Assess vulnerability of socio-economic stresses, as well as impact of climate
change
A city development strategy (CDS) or a city conservation strategy (CCS) to
integrate urban heritage values and their vulnerability status into a
framework of city development.
To realize these critical steps, many technologies have been developed for
environmental conservation. For environmental sustainability, a city scale assessment
model has been developed for air pollution impacts on European Cultural Heritage
sites, which can inform management strategies for sustainable development24. For
tangible heritage protection, adaptive reuse of heritage buildings has been discussed
recently, with examples in Hong Kong25. On the other hand, the protection and
enhancement of traditional skills and craftsmanship needs to take place. Planning
practices have also been made in UK 16and Saida, Lebanon26.
Some latest trends in urban planning and design, and landscape architecture
are closely related to heritage protection and environmental sustainability, such as
landscape urbanism27, agricultural urbanism, green urbanism, ecological urbanism,
23
European Union research report Nº 16. 24
de la Fuente, D., Vega, J. M, Viejo, F, Díaz, I., & Morcillo, M. (2011). City scale assessment model for air pollution effects on the cultural heritage. Atmospheric Environment , 45 (6), 1242-1250. 25
Yung, E. H., & Chan, Edwin H. W. (2012). Implementation challenges to the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings: Towards the goals of sustainable, low carbon cities. Habitat International , 36 (9), 352-361. 26
Al-hagla, K. S. (2010). Sustainable urban development in historical areas using the tourist trail approach: A case study of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) project in Saida, Lebanon. Cities , 27 (4), 234-248. 27
Wadheim, C. (Ed.), 2006,The Landscape Urbanism Reader. Princeton Architectural Press.
15
and the "Negative approach"28. Landscape was also understood in a more integrative
and connective way, such as green ways, ecological corridors, heritage corridors and
security patterns. For all these new concepts and trends in urbanism and landscape
architecture, the key is the planning and management ecological infrastructure---the
structural landscape network that is composed of the critical landscape elements and
spatial patterns that are of strategic significance in preserving the integrity and
identity of the natural and cultural landscapes and securing sustainable ecosystem
services, protecting cultural heritages and recreational experience28. Ecological
infrastructure integrates natural and cultural processes in an effective way, and
provides an alternative urban solution.
These new trends in urbanism is consistent and parallel to the new
development in the fields of heritage conservation, so called landscape approach ---
a framework for making landscape-level conservation decisions. The landscape
approach helps to reach decisions about the advisability of particular interventions
(such as a new road or plantation), and to facilitate the planning, negotiation and
implementation of activities across a whole landscape29. In the historic urban context,
the landscape approach enables policy-makers and managers to deal more
effectively with new challenges and opportunities. The landscape approach to urban
heritage conservation supports communities in their quest for development and
adaptation, while retaining the characteristics and values linked to their history and
collective memory, and to the setting30.
The landscape approaches can be applied across scales, from the individual
historic urban area, to a holistic city and the regional metropolitan areas31,28 (Fig 23,
24, 25,26).
28
Yu, K., S. Wang & D. Li, 2011,The negative approach to urban growth planning of Beijing, China, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 54:9,1209-1236 29