Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Impact Assessment of Two Adaptive Reuse Projects in Siracusa, Sicily

In this period of increasing urbanization, cultural heritage can play a key role to achieve sustainable development, as widely recognized by international institutions (i.e., United Nations (UN), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)). In this perspective, it is necessary to operationalize the principles stated at international level and thus new approaches and tools are required. The paper aims to understand the relationships between the implementation of adaptive reuse projects and their success (or not) in terms of impacts on the buildings themselves and on the urban context. The assessment framework for evaluating the impacts of heritage conservation and rehabilitation projects is described through the analysis and comparison of two Italian case studies: the Ancient Market and the Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle, in Siracusa (Italy). Although realized both in the same place (Ortigia, the historic centre of Siracusa), during the same period and by the same architect, these two interventions have produced different results in terms of urban development. A set of indicators, deduced from recent scientific studies, has been used to analyse the different impacts on physical, cultural, social, environmental and economic systems. To understand in depth the causes of these two different results, a survey has been carried out involving experts. The proposed indicators used for the ex-post evaluation can be also adopted in other contexts and for ex ante evaluation, in order to orient the strategic design choices in cultural heritage adaptive reuse projects.

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A Cultural Heritage Low Entropy Enhancement Approach: An Ex Post Evaluation of Creative Practices

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052765 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2765

Author(s):

Maria Cerreta ◽

Gaia Daldanise ◽

Eleonora Giovene di Girasole ◽

Carmelo Maria Torre

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Urban Transformation ◽

Italian Case ◽

Post Evaluation ◽

Ex Post ◽

Innovative Management ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Landscape Heritage ◽

Low Entropy ◽

New Strategies

According to the current European and Italian scenario related to urban regeneration, cultural and landscape heritage valorization is being enhanced by the activation of innovative processes and new emerging approaches. These involve the development of methodologies and tools that can address decision-making processes based on creative practices consistent with a concept named “low-entropy economy” in this paper. The low-entropy economy represents an economic approach based on the minimization of physical urban transformation and the enhancement of the existing heritage. In this perspective, the research aims to develop the Cultural Heritage Low Entropy Enhancement (CHLEE) approach by exploring how some frugal experiences have promoted cultural heritage enhancement and related complex values through a program of temporary uses and activities able to produce new values, where the human experience is essential. A crucial role is represented by the heterogeneity of creative practices that contribute to identifying and implementing innovative management and governance models. The analysis of creative practices, based upon the ex post evaluation of some Italian case studies across the PROMETHEE-GAIA multicriteria method, is able to show how these experiences build innovation ecosystems and improve the ex ante evaluation for new strategies and policies, underlining strengths, weaknesses, and milestones that shape creative experiences as drivers of urban competitiveness.

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RESEARCH ON THE POSITIONING OF PROTECTION AND UTILIZATION OF HISTORIC DISTRICTS UNDER BIG DATA ANALYSIS

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-2-w5-731-2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol XLII-2/W5 ◽

pp. 731-735 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J. Zhang ◽

X. Huo ◽

W. Zheng ◽

X. Zheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Big Data ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Space Environment ◽

Historic District ◽

Urban Context ◽

Historic Districts ◽

Comprehensive Management ◽

Protection And Utilization

Historic districts are a special type of cultural heritage, as living cultural heritage, the utilization and development of historical districts is an inevitable issue. How to accurately position the protection and utilization of districts and achieve its healthy and sustainable development is the key work in the protection of districts. In this paper, the Internet data including Tencent’s location big data are employed to study some Chinese historic and cultural streets, establish protection and development index system for historic and cultural streets, carry out in-depth study of ten core indicators, and sum up the positioning and development direction for the protection and use of districts. Historic district, as a special type of cultural heritage, is the birthplace and supporting zone of urban context, and also the place for the daily life of the general public. It boasts profound historic and humanistic background and the characteristics of a living form. As the living cultural heritage, its use and development are necessary, and attention shall also be paid to static protection and dynamic comprehensive management. But judging from the current practice, protection and use of historic districts face a host of challenges. Some districts are devoid of popularity and vitality and become cold galleries. Some districts suffer excessive development for tourism and commercialism, and lose its “original” cultural characteristics. In addition, throngs of tourists exert a negative impact on the life of the local people and the protection of immovable cultural relics. Disorderly business format and increasingly similar landscape go against the presentation of local characteristics. We should regard historic district as a dynamic urban heritage, and achieve dynamic development and protection in accordance with its inherent development laws and the principle of “step by step” through the “organic update” mode, with emphasis on the continuous comprehensive management of material space environment and cultural society. Therefore, how to make accurate positioning of the protection and utilization of districts and achieve its healthy and sustainable development is the key work in the protection of districts.

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Enhancing the Cultural Heritage through Adaptive Reuse. A Multicriteria Approach to Evaluate the Castello Visconteo in Cusago (Italy)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084440 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4440

Author(s):

Marta Dell’Ovo ◽

Federico Dell’Anna ◽

Raffaella Simonelli ◽

Leopoldo Sdino

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Built Environment ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Adaptive Reuse ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Lombardy Region ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Alternative Scenarios

Cultural heritage can play a strategic role in developing a sustainable built environment, contributing to the improvement of the economic, social, and environmental productivity of a city. Human activities are constantly affecting the quality of the environment and altering the ecosystems, which produce negative consequences also on human wellbeing. Within this context, it has been much discussed how cities and the built environment can counteract this process by supporting more sustainable development. Adaptive reuse is defined as “a process that changes a disused or ineffective item into a new item that can be used for a different purpose”, which strongly triggers the sustainable development of cities. It can be recognized as a promoter of economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental preservation, given its capability of both preserving past values and creating new ones. The adaptive reuse matches the main points of the circular economy, seen as the sustainable economy, which is aimed at the reduction of natural resource extraction and environmental impact by extending the useful life of materials and promoting recovery, reuse, and regeneration processes. Given these premises, the current contribution aimed to evaluate alternative scenarios for reuse in Castello Visconteo in Cusago, located in the Lombardy region (Italy), and understanding how adaptive reuse could contribute to generating new values within a circular economy perspective. In detail, four alternative scenarios were proposed to face the new needs born during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Since both intangible and tangible values must be considered, a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been applied by combining economic and qualitative indicators to define the most suitable function for its adaptive reuse. In detail, the Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments (NAIADE) was used to identify the best alternative solution based on the opinions of conflicting stakeholders. The innovativeness of the contribution is given by the combination of different methodologies, the preservation of the memory and the generation of new values, and the consideration of adaptive reuse as a strategy for the achievement of sustainable development within a circular economy perspective.

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Traditional Cultural Heritage vs. Film Sceneries: Evaluating the Degree of Sustainability of Cultural Landscapes

International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics ◽

10.18280/ijdne.150502 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 621-630

Author(s):

Esther San Sebastián Poch ◽

Urtzi Llano Castresana ◽

Ander de la Fuente Arana

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Landscape ◽

Cultural Landscapes ◽

Cultural Tourism ◽

Host Society ◽

Tourist Destinations ◽

Historic Centre ◽

Study Case

Cultural tourism is a good way to promote and, consequently, safeguard the cultural heritage of sites. Film tourism is an increasingly demanded form of cultural tourism more focused on the fictional rather than on the authenticity of sites, depriving them from their true identity. This article is proposing a system of indicators of sustainable development in order to evaluate and guarantee long-term sustainability in those sites identified with traditional cultural heritage and where films have been shot. The Historic Centre of Peñíscola, which was declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1972 and has become film scenery in numerous occasions, has been chosen to be evaluated. The union of a series of film sceneries obtained from the cinema productions that best match the local heritage, through the latter has resulted in a final cultural landscape where the degree of conciliation between them is high. Therefore, the welfare of the host society is in balance with the tourist demands, which makes the Historic Centre of Peñíscola an accurate study case that can contribute to improve a methodology we aim to extrapolate to other tourist destinations threatened by a new uncontrolled mass of tourist.

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CRITERIA SELECTION FOR ADAPTIVE REUSE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE BUILDINGS

Mokslas - Lietuvos ateitis ◽

10.3846/mla.2019.11347 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (0) ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Žydrūnė Morkūnaitė

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Memory ◽

Adaptive Reuse ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Heritage Buildings ◽

Legal Criterion ◽

Selection For ◽

Social Environmental ◽

Growth Economic

Cultural heritage buildings are an important origin of a country‘s cultural memory, originality, and attractiveness, which motivated cultural growth, economic development, and social employment. However, cultural heritage buildings threaten to decay regarding the contributing poor funding for cultural heritage buildings preservation and maintenance, increasing urbanization changes. The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings is one of the reasons, helping to preserve heritage buildings. This paper submits qualitative and quantitative criteria and subcriteria for the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings. The set of criteria consists of economic, social, environmental, cultural heritage and legal criterion.

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Indicators for Ex-Post Evaluation of Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse Impacts in the Perspective of the Circular Economy

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13094759 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 4759

Author(s):

Martina Bosone ◽

Pasquale De Toro ◽

Luigi Fusco Girard ◽

Antonia Gravagnuolo ◽

Silvia Iodice

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Comprehensive Evaluation ◽

Local Development ◽

Adaptive Reuse ◽

Evaluation Framework ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Heritage Conservation ◽

Investment Projects ◽

Ex Post

Cultural heritage (CH) is considered a key element of cities and regions’ identity and uniqueness, contributing to peoples’ wellbeing and health, as well as jobs creation, environmental regeneration and place attractiveness. The adaptive reuse of abandoned and underused CH can be a sustainable strategy for heritage conservation, stimulating local development processes. However, heritage conservation needs large investments, while the resources available are scarce, and investment projects are subject to high uncertainties. Therefore, a careful assessment of impacts is needed to orient and direct CH adaptive reuse projects towards sustainability. Recent studies approach the adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings and sites as an effective circular economy strategy, potentially contributing to climate objectives through environmental regeneration and the reduction of natural resources consumption. However, evaluation tools to assess the impacts and orient adaptive reused interventions in the perspective of circularity are lacking. Through the analysis of 76 literature sources on CH impacts, this article explores how indicators are currently used in CH research and practice as impact assessment tools. More than 3500 indicators were retrieved and classified. Finally, this article proposes a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the impacts of cultural heritage adaptive reuse in the perspective of the circular economy. The results showed that, while some indicators are available, many circularity aspects are not considered in the current studies on CH impacts.

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Considering Urban Development Paths and Processes on Account of Adaptive Reuse Projects

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings10040073 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 73

Author(s):

Ioannis Vardopoulos ◽

Christos Stamopoulos ◽

Georgios Chatzithanasis ◽

Christos Michalakelis ◽

Panagiota Giannouli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Contemporary Art ◽

Smart City ◽

Adaptive Reuse ◽

Value Added ◽

National Museum ◽

Museum Of Contemporary Art ◽

The Impact

This article, as part of the ‘SUMcity’ research program, aims to give a comprehensive account of the regeneration that occurred in Athens by the adaptive reuse of the old FIX Brewery to house the new Hellenic National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST). Adaptive reuse is an urban sustainability development evolving process, used to manage assets and resources efficiently, resulting in economic development, increased local attraction, and revitalized community engagement. Other than that, modern societies experience the dynamic stream of social media and smart city initiatives, amid a long-discussed and complex cultural heritage preservation backdrop. Notwithstanding the value added to the city, the interaction of sustainable development with adaptive reuse projects, culture, tourism, social media use, and smart city initiatives, along with the impact of this intangible relationship, has yet to be set in a more tangible form. Methodologically, a newly developed conceptual framework is used in order to re-define the (cor)relations among the existent concepts of sustainable development, smart city and cultural heritage. Subsequently, a primary questionnaire-based research is conducted on Instagram users’ geotagging the Hellenic National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), analyzing their views in an attempt to demonstrate the arising local potential and sustainability.

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Protection and Revealing of Traditional Settlements and Cultural Assets, as a Tool for Sustainable Development: The Case of Kythera Island in Greece

Land ◽

10.3390/land10121324 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1324

Author(s):

Anastasia Vythoulka ◽

Ekaterini T. Delegou ◽

Costas Caradimas ◽

Antonia Moropoulou

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Local Community ◽

Housing Stock ◽

Adaptive Reuse ◽

Remote Areas ◽

Local Stakeholders ◽

Heritage Buildings ◽

Core Issue ◽

Greek Island

Preserving and highlighting cultural heritage is directly related to sustainable development. The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings and traditional settlements can be a core issue in the implementation of a circular economy strategy, especially in remote areas. In this framework, the current study focuses on Kythera, an isolated Greek island. For the analysis of the study area, research in local archives and communication with the municipality and local stakeholders was conducted, while questionnaires addressed to Kythera’s residents and visitors were developed and processed. Thus, both the special features of the island and the needs of the local community were identified, leading to the proposal of three adaptive reuse schemes at a different scale and within a different management model. The first scheme is focused on the institution of “Eghorios Periousia” and proposes the adaptive reuse of the island’s English Schools as focal points for the promotion of Kythera’s identity. The second scheme focuses on the smaller declared traditional settlements and proposes the adaptive reuse of their housing stock as an affordable permanent residence solution. The third scheme focuses on the abandoned neighborhood of Mavrogiorgiannika in the traditional settlement of Karavas and proposes its adaptive reuse as agritourism accommodation facilities.

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Tools for Corporate Assessment of Sustainable Development

Organizational Communication and Sustainable Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-822-2.ch006 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 100-114

Author(s):

Cecilia Mark-Herbert ◽

Jonas Rorarius

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Management Tools ◽

Sustainability Management ◽

Post Evaluation ◽

Responsible Conduct ◽

Ex Post ◽

Ex Ante ◽

Spatial Terms ◽

Marketing Tool

Corporate needs to assess, evaluate and communicate sustainability efforts are evident in the increasing use of management tools. A selected set of commonly used sustainability management tools are compared in this study with a key question in mind: how well does each of them provide grounds for assessing and communicating corporate sustainability ambitions? Each of the tools reflects different aspects of responsible conduct; expressed in economic, environmental, social and temporal & spatial terms. They represent a partial foundation for ex ante assessment and ex post evaluation and, as such, grounds for providing information and communicating. Selecting suitable tools for making sustainability management assessments presupposes an awareness of a need to integrate the perspectives on sustainability as well as finding a suitable marketing tool mix.

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