Search Results (8,261)

The devastation of cultural heritage after the Second World War led to the establishment of international organisations committed to its protection, such as UNESCO. The near-total destruction of Aachen’s historic city centre led to profound changes, including reconstruction and the incorporation of contemporary architecture, which established a new heritage identity. Against the backdrop of the reconstruction and reaffirmation of European identity, Aachen Cathedral was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978. Since then, the concept of heritage has evolved to encompass a broader and more inclusive understanding. In 2013, it incorporated a buffer zone to protect the cathedral’s surroundings. In this scenario, the question arises: how is the coexistance between the historical and the contemporary within a UNESCO heritage context? The main objective is to analyse the coexistance between the heritage of historic and contemporary buildings within the buffer zone of Aachen Cathedral. We base the methodology on a comparative study of the catalogue files of 405 protected buildings, taking into account variables such as the year of protection, date of construction, possible reconstructions and current uses. Preliminary results suggest that only 4% were protected after 2013, or that 55% of the buildings have been rebuilt. The results improve our understanding of the management and evolution of historic urban complexes in the context of UNESCO. It can be concluded that the concept of heritage goes beyond mere historical or universal significance, encompassing aspects such as identity and continuity, as well as the integration of contemporary interventions into the historical fabric. Full article

Lore Lindu National Park (LLNP), a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere Reserve in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, is characterized by its significant biodiversity and ecotourism potential, including endemic forest orchids and rich cultural heritage. Despite its ecological importance, the park continues to face deforestation and illegal land use, partly driven by limited community involvement in conservation governance. In this study, we examine the co-creation of governance in community-based forest orchid cultivation and ecotourism initiatives in Karunia Village, where local communities have developed organic orchid cultivation practices since 2004. Drawing on the co-creation governance framework of Christopher Ansell, Eva Sørensen, and Jacob Torfing, we employ a qualitative case study approach based on a literature review, field observations, and in-depth interviews conducted over four months. Our findings reveal that each phase of co-creation is shaped by distinct institutional and socio-political dynamics. Initiation is strongly influenced by local economic pressures and social solidarity, while design encounters regulatory barriers related to licensing and conservation policy. Implementation remains constrained by fragmented coordination among multi-level stakeholders, and systematic evaluation mechanisms are largely absent. We propose the use of a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) Matrix to clarify institutional roles and strengthen collaborative governance arrangements. This article contributes to the literature by expanding the empirical understanding of co-creation practices in the Global South and highlighting the importance of institutional and socio-political dimensions in community-based environmental governance. Full article

As a complex heritage site embodying maritime defense civilization, the Ming Dynasty Coastal Defense Garrisons face a profound contradiction between protection and development. Current research has failed to effectively explain the spatial mechanism of the transformation of coastal defense garrisons from military fortresses to modern towns. This study selects three coastal defense garrisons in southern Zhejiang—Jinxiang Garrison, Puzhuang Fort, and Hai’an Fort—and, based on long-term spatial data from 1969 to 2025, uses GIS, spatial syntax, and fractal index methods to construct a morphological analysis framework from four dimensions: architecture, land parcels, streets and alleys, and boundaries, revealing their evolutionary patterns and functional transformation mechanisms. The results show that (1) morphological evolution follows an asynchronous and coordinated rhythm of “buildings filling in first, road network updating lagging behind, and boundaries continuously constraining.” (2) Differences in urbanization pressure, industrial implantation intensity, and cultural heritage management drive the three garrisons to differentiate into three transformation paths: gradual preservation, radical reconstruction, and balanced regularization. The intensity of street and alley renovation is the core indicator for judging whether the historical fabric is preserved. (3) The boundaries of the garrison exhibit a “macroscopically regular but microscopically fragmented” characteristic, with a simple outer boundary and a complex inner boundary. Even after the city walls disintegrated, the moat still served as a morphological inertial line, maintaining the stability of the macroscopic outline. This research can provide quantitative evidence and empirical reference for the differentiated protection of coastal defensive heritage. Full article

Cultural sustainability at World Heritage Sites depends on whether heritage meanings remain publicly intelligible and experientially meaningful, not only on conservation outcomes or visitor management. Yet empirical evidence remains limited on how authorized heritage meanings are received, negotiated, and spatially anchored by visitors. This study examines the transformation of expert-informed authorized heritage meanings into visitor heritage identity at the Yungang Grottoes, China. Through thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured expert interviews, an expert-informed analytical framework was developed and consolidated into four case-specific identity dimensions: National, Ethnic, Cultural, and Place Identity. Based on 325 valid on-site questionnaires, the study combines Likert-scale measurement, open-ended response coding, and period-level cultural mapping. Results show that Cultural and National Identity were most strongly recognized, while Ethnic and Place Identity were more closely linked to interpretive mediation, prior knowledge, and embodied spatial experience. In cultural mapping responses, respondents most frequently anchored National Identity in Early Period caves, Ethnic and Cultural Identity in Middle Period caves, and Place Identity across more distributed landscape and atmospheric settings. Four Authorized Heritage Discourse–Visitor heritage identity relational patterns were identified: correspondence, partial alignment, negotiation, and divergence/extension. The findings offer a visitor-centered and spatially differentiated approach to evaluating sustainable heritage interpretation by extending conventional conservation-, management-, and satisfaction-oriented indicators toward visitor meaning-making, identity negotiation, and spatially situated interpretation. Full article

This study examines 4811 immovable cultural heritage sites in Mianyang City to address how these sites are spatially clustered, how their distribution varies across historical periods and heritage types, and how the observed spatial patterns are associated with selected natural-environmental conditions. The main objective is to identify the spatial distribution, spatiotemporal evolution, and site-selection characteristics of immovable cultural heritage sites in Mianyang and to provide an environmental and spatial basis for heritage conservation and territorial management. Using ArcGIS-based spatial analysis, this study applies average nearest neighbor analysis, kernel density estimation, standard deviational ellipse analysis, mean center analysis, spatial overlay statistics, and GeoDetector. The explanatory analysis focuses on three natural-environmental variables: elevation, slope, and distance to rivers. The results show that: (1) The sites are widely distributed and exhibit multi-core clustering, with dense concentrations in the south and central-east and sparse distribution in the northwest; (2) their spatiotemporal evolution follows an alternating “agglomeration–diffusion–re-agglomeration” pattern, with the centroid shifting along the middle and lower Fujiang River valley; and (3) the sites are mainly concentrated in low-elevation, gently sloping, water-adjacent river-valley plains and shallow hilly terraces. These findings provide a partial environmental interpretation of the spatial distribution of immovable cultural heritage sites in Mianyang and offer exploratory evidence for identifying priority conservation areas, supporting conceptual heritage-corridor planning, and promoting sustainable heritage management. The study also suggests that future research should further integrate historical transportation networks, administrative centers, population migration, economic activities, religious landscapes, and military-political contexts to explain the broader cultural landscape processes behind heritage distribution. Full article

Sustainable tourism in oasis landscapes requires governance approaches that go beyond generic destination-growth models and standardized sustainability checklists. In living cultural landscapes such as Al-Ahsa Oasis, tourism development is inseparable from water systems, palm-grove agriculture, rural livelihoods, heritage values, climate stress, visitor behavior, and institutional accountability. This paper develops a governance framework for sustainable tourism in Al-Ahsa Oasis, Saudi Arabia, a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape. Methodologically, it is a conceptual framework-development study based on structured critical review and contextual synthesis. It critically interprets international sustainable tourism, heritage management, visitor management, and sustainable investment frameworks in relation to recent Al-Ahsa-specific evidence on rural tourism, resident satisfaction, farm-tourist behavior, rural lodges, land-cover change, and World Heritage governance. The study proposes a six-dimensional framework structured around cultural landscape stewardship, water-sensitive ecological governance, agricultural landscape continuity and rural accommodation regulation, community benefit and local enterprise, climate-responsive visitor management and interpretation, and monitoring and institutional accountability. These dimensions are treated as interdependent governance fields rather than separate checklist categories. The framework is further operationalized through an indicator and governance matrix linking suggested indicators, data sources, governance mechanisms, and responsible actors. The paper contributes by reframing sustainable oasis tourism as an adaptive governance problem rather than a technical exercise in applying predefined criteria. It provides an evidence-informed basis for planning, monitoring, stakeholder deliberation, policy refinement, and future empirical testing in Al-Ahsa and comparable arid cultural landscapes. Full article

Although the Mediterranean diet (MD) is widely recognized as a healthy dietary pattern, its potential role as a framework for sustainable urban gastronomy has received limited attention. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from nutrition, environmental studies, gastronomy, tourism, and urban food systems. The review explores MD’s sustainability dimensions, food waste and urban food systems, cultural heritage, and trends in urban gastronomy. The findings suggest that the MD is a strong model for sustainable urban food futures, combining nutritional adequacy, relatively low environmental impact, and socio-cultural legitimacy. Evidence indicates that Mediterranean-style dietary patterns are associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions, land use, energy use, and water consumption than Western diets, while also remaining comparatively affordable when based on staple plant foods. However, important challenges remain, including affordability, especially across vulnerable social groups; dependence on local supply systems; authenticity under tourism pressure; and the need for effective governance. Overall, the evidence suggests that the MD provides a useful framework for integrating health, sustainability, and cultural heritage objectives within urban food systems. Future research should focus on city-level implementation strategies, food service and restaurant sector practices, and hotel meal planning within urban MD frameworks. Full article

The Lombardy Region is characterised by relatively moderate seismic activity, particularly in the Alpine area and its western sector. Significant damage has instead been caused by historical earthquakes with magnitudes greater than M_W 5.0 in the eastern and south-western parts of the region. To enhance preparedness and prevention strategies, the Civil Protection Organisational Unit of Regione Lombardia, together with the Eucentre Foundation and the Civil Protection School of Lombardy (PoliS-Lombardia), organised a regional seismic emergency exercise, the so-called EXE.LOMB.EST 2023, which is an initiative aimed to test and train emergency response capabilities in parts of the region most at risk from seismic events. EXE.LOMB.EST 2023 was a civil protection technical–thematic exercise that involved various groups of participants through tailored training paths. With both educational and practical objectives, the exercise was developed over the course of 2023. In the six months leading up to the final event, approximately 12 training sessions were held to prepare participants according to the identified themes. The final field exercise took place from 9–14 October 2023, during the Italian Civil Protection Week, and included the participation of 15 municipalities. The programme was designed to simulate all key phases of regional emergency management, from activating support functions to assessing damage to cultural heritage. Participants included the Italian Civil Protection Department—as an advisor—the Italian Fire Department; UAS networks, the prefectures and provinces of Brescia, Cremona, and Mantua; municipal officials and certified structural damage assessment experts, with the latter sometimes simply identified as technical personnel and/or technical experts in what follows. The exercise was also a valuable opportunity to test and refine the most advanced emergency management technologies and systems in Italy. The paper discusses notable outcomes, in addition to key steps, and also highlights gaps and issues still open for further/future developments of similar exercises in Italy and abroad. Full article

Three-dimensional scanning, additive manufacturing, and extended reality are now widely used in digital heritage, but they are often discussed as separate technical tools rather than as parts of a user-facing workflow. This review approaches them from the standpoint of user experience, asking how digital capture, model preparation, physical replication, immersive interpretation, and hybrid access affect the way heritage content is understood, used, and trusted. The paper develops a critical narrative discussion of recent work and design practices, without adopting a systematic review protocol. Particular attention is given to educational use, museum interpretation, accessibility, tactile interaction, XR navigation, perceived authenticity, and the evaluation of user experience. The discussion indicates that UX is shaped before the final interface appears: incomplete capture, opaque model editing, poorly readable replicas, or confusing XR layers can all weaken the cultural value of an otherwise advanced system. Recurring barriers include technical complexity, interoperability problems, limited staff training, institutional constraints, accessibility gaps, and uncertainty around automated reconstruction. The review argues that automated digital heritage workflows should be planned as human-centered systems, where efficiency is balanced with usability, inclusion, transparent interpretation, and user-based evaluation. Full article

Many historical handwritten records in low-resource languages remain difficult to access through modern digital systems. This limits efforts to preserve and study cultural heritage at scale. Chagatai manuscripts exemplify these challenges within the Eastern Turki tradition. For centuries, it served as a major written language across Central Asia and supported a rich literary tradition. Large collections of Chagatai manuscripts still survive today, yet only a small amount of this material exists in digital form. As the technical literature specifically focused on Chagatai-HTR remains in its nascent stage, this review synthesizes indirect evidence from taxonomically related Perso-Arabic scripts to establish a foundational research framework. This article presents a systematic literature review following the PRISMA guidelines to examine artificial intelligence methods for handwritten text recognition (HTR) and text restoration in low-resource languages. Analyzing 50 studies published between 2020 and 2026, the review categorizes research trends into handwritten text recognition (HTR), optical character recognition (OCR), script classification, dataset development, and multimodal vision–language systems. The findings reveal a significant architectural shift from traditional segmentation-based CNN and RNN models toward transformer architectures and multimodal approaches. However, for Chagatai specifically, the primary obstacle is not the lack of advanced models but a critical scarcity of basic research infrastructure, including expert-verified transcriptions, annotation standards, and open benchmark datasets. Consequently, this article proposes a concrete development roadmap focusing on systematic digitization, expert annotation, transfer learning, and the creation of baseline models to enable reproducible evaluations. Full article

Traditional “hórreos”, vernacular granaries widely distributed across northern Spain, constitute a highly valuable form of cultural heritage due to their historical, architectural, and ethnographic significance. However, their progressive deterioration, dispersion in rural contexts, and limited maintenance resources pose significant challenges for their long-term conservation. This research article explores the potential of the Historic/Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM) methodology as an innovative and effective tool for the documentation, analysis, conservation, and management of “hórreos” as cultural heritage assets. The study proposes an HBIM-based workflow adapted to the specific characteristics of “hórreos”, integrating data acquisition techniques such as laser scanning, photogrammetry, and historical archival research with parametric modelling of traditional construction elements. The resulting HBIM models are conceived not only as geometric representations, but as comprehensive digital repositories that store historical data, construction techniques, materials, conservation states, and recorded pathologies. The research analyses how HBIM supports decision-making in restoration planning and enables preventive maintenance strategies over time. Furthermore, the article discusses the role of HBIM in improving heritage management at a territorial scale, enabling standardised inventories and supporting institutional protection policies. The potential of HBIM for heritage dissemination, education, and digital preservation is also examined. The results highlight HBIM as a powerful and adaptable methodology that contributes to a more sustainable, informed, and holistic approach to the conservation of “hórreos”, enhancing both their physical preservation and their transmission as living cultural heritage. Full article

Community-based heritage tourism plays an important role in promoting sustainable development while preserving cultural heritage in indigenous and traditional communities. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding its contribution to sustainable development within Mongolia’s nomadic communities. Grounded in Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study examines the relationships among Community Participation, Heritage Interpretation, Tourism Management, Cultural Identity Preservation, and Sustainable Development. Data were collected from 250 international tourists who participated in community-based heritage tourism experiences in Mongolia and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that Heritage Interpretation and Tourism Management positively influence Cultural Identity Preservation, while Community Participation, Tourism Management, and Cultural Identity Preservation significantly enhance Sustainable Development. Community Participation, however, does not significantly influence Cultural Identity Preservation. Furthermore, Cultural Identity Preservation partially mediates the relationship between Tourism Management and Sustainable Development. These findings highlight the importance of effective tourism management and meaningful heritage interpretation in strengthening cultural preservation and promoting sustainable development. The study extends the application of Social Exchange Theory in the context of community-based heritage tourism and provides practical implications for policymakers and destination managers seeking to balance cultural heritage conservation with sustainable tourism development. Full article

Image-based recognition of intricate decorative motifs in complex visual environments remains a challenging task in computer vision due to geometric deformation, scale variation, illumination changes, and background interference. These challenges are particularly evident in images of animal motifs on Ming Dynasty Blue and White Porcelain, where curved vessel surfaces and decorative complexity significantly increase recognition difficulty. To facilitate robust model training and evaluation, this study establishes a dedicated annotated image dataset of animal motifs and expands it through targeted data augmentation strategies. Furthermore, an improved YOLOv8n-based object detection framework is proposed, featuring three key optimizations: (1) the CBS modules in the backbone and neck networks are replaced with Deformable Convolution Networks v2 (DCNv2) to strengthen the model’s feature extraction capability for deformed motifs; (2) an Efficient Multi-Scale Attention (EMA) mechanism is introduced into the neck network to integrate multi-scale features and suppress interference from complex decorative backgrounds; and (3) the original CIoU loss function is replaced with the MPDIoU loss function to improve localization accuracy and convergence speed. Experimental results demonstrate that the improved model achieves mAP@0.5 and mAP@0.5:0.95 values of 96.4% and 80.8%, respectively, representing improvements of 1.7% and 3.2% over the baseline model, while maintaining a detection speed of 89.3 FPS. These results indicate that the proposed framework provides an accurate, non-destructive, and efficient image-based method for cultural heritage object recognition. It can support museum collection management, archaeological analysis, and image-based visual sensing applications, while also showing potential for further optimization and deployment on compact edge-computing platforms. Full article

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of architectural details and artefacts as cultural markers within the interior spaces of adaptively reused heritage buildings in Sofia’s historic urban centre. A comparative study was performed on three significant early twentieth-century residential buildings: the house linked to the former ‘Excelsior’/‘Asen Zlatarov’ cinema complex at Blvd ‘Christo Botev’ N85, the former residence at Blvd ‘Christo Botev’ N75, and the building at Blvd ‘Stamboliyski’ N36—the latter two have both been transformed into hotels. The research employs an interdisciplinary methodology combining archival research, field surveys, photographic documentation, 3D laser scanning, and comparative stylistic analysis. The study’s principal contribution is the development of a transferable analytical framework for classifying interior details by function (constructive or decorative), location (enclosing surfaces, fixed furnishings, vertical circulation), and material—a framework not previously applied to this building stock in the Bulgarian context. The findings confirm that authentic interior details—including stair railings, flooring patterns, gypsum cornices, ornamental plasterwork, heating appliances, and joinery—function as reliable cultural artefacts and markers of historical period and stylistic identity. These details serve as evidence for dating, authenticating, and analysing the evolution of architectural style elements. Preserving and integrating these elements into adapted interiors strengthens architectural identity and supports the sustainable reuse of cultural heritage for contemporary purposes. Full article

Commercial spaces are essential urban environments where consumer movement is inherently sequential, involving multiple destinations and complex spatial interactions. However, existing studies mainly rely on aggregated flow data and provide a limited understanding of how consumers organize their movements into complete spatial sequences. To address this limitation, this study proposes a framework based on typical routes to investigate sequential movement patterns in commercial spaces. Typical routes are conceptualized in two complementary ways: as representative routes extracted from observed traces and as highly probable routes generated from sequential destination choices. Accordingly, two approaches are integrated. First, route clustering is conducted using Levenshtein-ratio-based similarity measurement and affinity propagation (AP) clustering to identify representative route exemplars with distinct sequential structures. Second, route prediction is performed by combining discrete choice models (DCM), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and beam search to generate high-probability movement sequences. The framework is applied to 323 observed consumer routes collected from a large commercial complex in Shanghai, China. The results reveal several recurring movement patterns, such as task-oriented, fashion-oriented, dining-oriented, and family-oriented routes. Among them, the most dominant pattern is characterized by repeated movement between anchor stores through sequences of intermediate, smaller shops, highlighting the organizing role of anchor destinations in structuring consumer circulation. Both clustering and prediction demonstrate that consumer movement in commercial spaces is not random, but follows relatively stable sequential logics. In the prediction task, CNN achieves substantially higher accuracy than DCM, thereby providing stronger support for route simulation. Overall, the study demonstrates that integrating route clustering and route prediction provides a useful framework for understanding, interpreting, and simulating sequential consumer movement in commercial environments, with practical implications for circulation organization, anchor-store layout, and commercial space design. Full article