Development of Evaluation Index Model for Activation and Promotion of Public Space in the Historic District Based on AHP/DEA

Historic districts represent an important characteristic of Beijing and are also a crucial carrier of Chinese historic culture. However, they are significantly affected by the rapid urban constructions. Thus, it is of great significance to maintain and promote the public space in historic districts. This paper uses a multisource data superposition method to select the evaluation index of public space. The AHP was also used to complete the single-level and total-level ranking and calculation of evaluation indexes. Finally, based on the DEA model, a vitality evaluation model of Beijing historic district public spaces was developed and its validity was verified through a case study of the Wanping historic district.

Interplay between auditory and visual environments in historic districts: A big data approach based on social media

Historic districts play a vital role in stimulating urban economic development, conserving regional culture, and enhancing public participation. Both auditory and visual environments, and the interplay between them, are critical to visitors’ perception and evaluation of historic districts. However, most studies have explored either the auditory or visual environments separately. The handful of existing studies on audiovisual interaction were confined to laboratory environments, leading to limited external validity. Here, we performed a data-driven study of the features of auditory and visual environments and the interaction between them in 17 historic towns in China using posts containing soundscape-related keywords and streetscape photos from a popular Chinese social media platform. First, we found that the auditory environments in historic districts mainly consist of man-made sounds from folkloric activities, the sounds of street shop vendors, and natural sounds from running water and birds. Second, street greenery, spatial enclosure, and presence of pedestrian in visual environment are positively associated with emotional feedback of the soundscape. This study and others support the importance of studying the auditory and visual environments of historic districts in conjunction. The innovative methods used in this study can be used in further studies in the field.

Service Facilities in Heritage Tourism: Identification and Planning Based on Space Syntax

Improving the development level of tourism service facilities in historic areas of old cities and realizing the sustainable tourism are important strategies for urban historical protection, economic development, and cultural rejuvenation. Districts at different tourism development stages show different characteristics of tourism service facilities. This study collects location-based service data and uses space syntax to identify the correlation between the distribution of tourism service facilities and street networks, which helps decision-makers to optimize the spatial layout of tourism facilities in the planning of historic areas. Taking the southern historic area of Nanjing, China, as an example, this is an area with a rich collection of cultural heritage and many historic districts, and the study reveals that the areas with strongest street agglomeration and best accessibility, as well as the districts with most mature tourism development, are the core of the tourism facilities. The agglomeration of transportation and accommodation facilities should be set at the traffic nodes as much as possible due to the highest correlation with the street network. Instead, the entertainment, catering, and shopping facilities can be set in the nontraffic node areas under the premise of ensuring good traffic accessibility owing to the insignificantly relationship with the street network. The research results can be used as an important reference for urban decision-makers regarding the planning of historic areas.

Research on Vitality Improvement Strategy for the Historic District of Taiyanggou in Lushun

Located in the Lushunkou District of Dalian, Liaoning Province, the Taiyanggou Historic District is one of the most well-preserved modern historic districts in China, with the most surviving historic heritages. The area is home to a large number of cultural heritages, ranging from national to district level, as well as a large number of modern historic buildings that are not on the conservation list, which have immeasurable historical and cultural value. This District is reputed as an “open-air architectural exposition”. However, as Lushun is a military port city, most of the area is under the jurisdiction of the army, and the government and the army have multiple administrations that do not form a unified combination, making it difficult to implement conservation and development in the Taiyanggou Historic District. Eventually, this leads to problems of stagnant development, environmental degradation, population loss, population aging and a gradual decline in the vitality of the district. Therefore, how to reshape the vitality of the district and promote its long-term development while preserving its original historical appearance to the greatest extent has become an urgent problem to be solved. The paper began with an in-depth interpretation of the connotation of “vitality” and “vitality improvement” in historic districts through previous studies. The five major components of the vitality of historic districts were summarized as physical space vitality, social vitality, cultural vitality, economic vitality and political vitality. Subsequently, from these five aspects, the elements of vitality of the Taiyanggou Historic District were extracted and summarized, and the problems of its current decline in vitality were analyzed. Finally, using the problem-oriented and goal-oriented research ideas, a targeted approach was adopted to explore strategies to improve the vitality and get out of its current development dilemma, with a view to shedding light on the conservation and renewal of Taiyanggou Historic District.

Destructive reconstruction in China: interpreting authenticity in the Shuidong Reconstruction Project, Huizhou, Guangdong Province

In the name of conservation, many local governments in China have demolished and reconstructed their historic districts using pseudo-antique architecture as part of their commercial developments. While the destructive reconstruction practice involves issues such as who plays the decisive role in defining authenticity in the targeted district considering the creativity and imagination entailed in reconstruction, few studies analyse the factors leading to changes in the interpretation of authenticity throughout the destructive reconstruction process. Through a discourse analysis on project portfolios and semi-structured interviews with government officials, project planners and Shuidong residents, this study investigates the interpretation and implementation of the national-level authenticity principles in the Shuidong Reconstruction Project in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. Narratives of authenticity in local heritage practices are constantly changing because of the shifting local politics and regulatory powers involved. The effectiveness of national-level authenticity principles at the local level relies largely on the establishment of sub-national heritage regulations and the authorisation of heritage, which draws inspections from upper-level administrations. This study reveals certain socio-political factors that affect the relationship between reconstruction practices and the interpretation of authenticity. The political and profit-oriented tendency of local heritage conservation practices in China demonstrates the mismatch between conservation ideologies and bureaucratic realities.

Evaluation of tree shade effectiveness and its renewal strategy in typical historic districts: A case study in Harbin, China

China’s rapid and extraordinary urbanisation has resulted in a dichotomy between the urban form of historic districts and that of new urban areas. Unlike the new planning of new urban areas, the optimisation of the thermal environment in historic districts is achieved through an important means of regulating the shading effectiveness of trees in street canyons, without destruction of current buildings in existing districts. In this paper, the sky view factor, an index for evaluating the shading capacity of street canyons, is used to calculate the shading efficiency of trees and reveal their influence mechanism by using a convolutional neural network (SegNet) to segment the Baidu street view images. The results show that: (1) tree shading in Harbin’s historic districts has a significant impact on the thermal environment of street canyons, with an average shade effectiveness of 56.3%; (2) based on geospatial autocorrelation analysis and a typological reconstruction of street canyons, the study reveals that tree shading has significant spatial aggregation characteristics in historic districts and proposes guidelines for the planning and design of different types of street canyon trees. The study provides important data and strategic support for optimising the thermal environment of urban historic districts in Northeast China.

Analysis of Public Space in Historic Districts of Historic Cities Based on Community Governance

Purpose: Based on the perspective of community governance, the paper explores the research path of public space renewal in historic city districts. Taking the historical public space of Lhasa City as an example, this paper analyzes the causes of the characteristics of public space, analyzes the logical relationship between public space and urban renewal and community governance, and finally optimizes the pattern of historical public space of Lhasa City by improving the spatial structure. Create intelligent living blocks and optimize the life mode of historical blocks; Significance: From the human-oriented perspective, the exploration of the public space renewal in the Historic Districts was in essence a process in which people develop continuously and their needs are continuously satisfied. It could meet the multi-level needs of residents at different stages. Secondly, from a social perspective, the innovative pattern of community governance could help achieve self-satisfaction within the district, radiate to the surrounding industries, and relieve the pressure of social employment. Thirdly, from the perspective of urban renewal implementation, the research on the public space renewal the Historic Districts would help promote the balance of social ecological environment, improve the regional governance and promote the high-quality development of the city.