Surveying to gauge stakeholders' participation in urban heritage conservation

Abstract

Attention to the conservation of urban areas has been already raised in international legal instruments since 1962 and recently gained momentum with the adoption of the Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscapes (HUL) in 2011 (henceforth referred as the 2011 Recommendation). Considering heritage areas as drivers of economic growth but also targets of development pressures, many cities have adopted the tools provided in the 2011 Recommendation depending on their specific geographic and socio-economic contexts testing various systems to innovate in matters of urban heritage conservation and sustainable development. The present research targets the reporting of the process of implementation of the 2011 Recommendation through the creation of a survey to gauge the participation of stakeholders in worldwide case studies to establish a comparative framework. The methodology used for the survey originates from a specific case, Cuenca in Ecuador, and the secondary data collection from 101 additional case studies. The hypothesis is that the questionnaire can compile data as a tool to compare the processes for the implementation of the 2011 Recommendation and to find trends in the cases where stakeholders have become skilled at conserving urban heritage. The design of the survey demonstrates the feasibility to carry out an exploratory validation method (COSMIN) to use significant evidence coming from active stakeholders. The survey as developed becomes a powerful tool to be adapted in different contexts and as a scientific method to reach a proper statistic confidential level, margin error and to control bias in the sample composition.