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This paper describes a system of collaboration between cultural institutions, conservation scientists and companies focussed on achieving global sustainability in museum and heritage sites through proactive conservation. The purpose of this paper is to propose the Proactive Collaborative Conservation (ProCoCo) as a viable tool to accomplish this objective.

The lack of degradation studies on contemporary materials, such as composites, was identified as an issue for the future of cultural heritage. Developing new approaches to heritage and conservation becomes vital and it is in this landscape that ProCoCo is inserted. A concise review of the literature is reported and the process that led to the development of ProCoCo is explained. Backcasting and forecasting were used to develop different parts of the approach.

ProCoCo consists in studying parameters of the new materials, manufactured by the commercial partner, then simulating the ageing and, finally, re-studying the same parameters in order to predict lifetime changes. During the case study, it was confirmed that such an approach helps in identifying weaknesses in the material, which can then become useful for conservators and manufacturers.

The approach allows conservation scientists and conservators to measure the conservation state of materials and to detect degradation at an early stage.

ProCoCo offers a different vision of the long-term issue of funding accessibility faced by museums and suggests a way of improving heritage global sustainability. It proposes a pragmatic and lasting solution to the insufficient public economic support in the arts which runs parallel to government aid.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of strategy in the field of heritage conservation, with a focus on a new conservation approach that promotes the empowerment of local communities and sustainable development: a living heritage approach.

The approaches to heritage conservation are outlined: a material-based approach defines the principles of western-based conservation, a values-based approach expands these principles, while a living heritage approach clearly challenges the established principles. These approaches are, then, analysed from the perspective of strategy, and a living heritage approach is seen as an example of strategic innovation. The process by which ICCROM develops a living heritage approach at an international level is also examined.

Choosing the “appropriate” conservation approach depends on the specific conditions of each heritage place. Yet, for the cases of living heritage in particular (with communities with an original connection with heritage) a living heritage approach would be more preferable. Living heritage approach can be seen as an example of a strategic innovation in the field of heritage conservation: it proposes a different concept of heritage and conservation (a new WHAT), points at a different community group as responsible for the definition and protection of heritage (a new WHO), and proposes a different way of heritage protection (a new HOW).

A living heritage approach (presented in the paper) may potentially influence the theory as well as the practice of heritage conservation in a variety of parts and heritage places in the world, especially in terms of the attitude towards local and indigenous communities.

Developing a new approach is, in a sense, developing a new strategy. In this context, the paper aims at bringing the insight of business strategy into the field of heritage conservation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges to urban cultural heritage management conservation in the historical city of Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq. The paper focusses on the roles and interactions of stakeholders and the issues that confront the decision-making processes that underpin the management of historic city towns.

A case study methodology is utilised for this research. It involves documentary analysis and interviews with stakeholders who are part of the management of the historic city centre of Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq. The findings from this case study are analysed in a systematic way before being discussed in the context of the literature on urban cultural heritage management.

The research shows that although there is a shared vision of the need to preserve and conserve urban cultural heritage, the management process is a contentious one. Stakeholders have different ideas as to how to achieve conservation goals which leads to increasing conflicts among stakeholders. This situation is compounded by the limited financial resources available to local government agencies, political interference in the work of implementation agencies and the lack of capacity in local government to enforce rules and carry out conservation projects. There are also significant power differentials among stakeholders in the decision-making process which often means that local residents are excluded from the process of conserving their built urban heritage.

This research can help practitioners who are in charge of urban cultural heritage management in dealing with stakeholder conflicts. The paper offers insight into a number of sources of stakeholder conflicts and on ways to overcome these in the planning process.

The originality of research lies in the novelty of the case study area. This research highlights the issues of built heritage conservation management and planning practices in an area – Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq – that is geographically less represented in the extant literature. The research also identifies some of the key sources of conflict in urban heritage conservation projects and provides an insight into the roles of stakeholders in the management of smaller locally-dependent historic city centres.

The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University's students and their household members about cultural heritage conservation in selected cities of Saudi Arabia. Cultural heritage conservation is increasingly important for sustainable tourism management, especially in Saudi Arabia that sets out to promote international tourism. However, a lack of awareness of heritage values among the local community could hinder the conservation efforts.

A structured questionnaire (n = 168) was employed for data collection and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The finding of the t-test analysis indicates significant statistical relationship between occupation and community involvement (P (T ≤ t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05), and between educational level and community involvement (P (T ≤ t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05). The findings reveal that although almost more than half (54.2%) of the participants were students, 56.0% and 54.9% did not believe in participating and considering heritage conservation a national duty, respectively, while 57.1% of the public employees, 57.6% of the private employees, and 66.7% of the housewives indicate that they can personally participate in cultural heritage conservation and believed it to be a national duty.

The study concludes that cultural heritage courses should be offered as a core courses for college students in order to instill the importance of cultural heritage conservation in their minds.

The purpose of this paper is to present tools to support the preventive conservation of heritage buildings as part of the results of the vlirCPM research project. The tools presented are inventory systems, damage registration system, monitoring and control system, which include preventive conservation manuals and maintenance booklets.

The methodology proposes the design of tools that support the preventive conservation of heritage buildings, which have been designed, tested and applied in the south of Ecuador through the use of maintenance campaigns in rural and urban areas.

The project developed and tested some important analysis methodologies that are now part of the research and documentation activities of the monuments of Cuenca, which have been addressed in this paper, such as the damage registration system of heritage buildings (SISREDA), the monitoring and control system, the preventive conservation manuals, the maintenance booklets and its application in the maintenance campaigns.

The city of Cuenca, recognized as Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO, 1999), has a wealth of heritage buildings which are susceptible to several threats that cause its deterioration. The vlirCPM (World Heritage City) research project of the faculty of architecture of the University of Cuenca has contributed to the development of tools to improve the management of world heritage sites in southern Ecuador. These tools are the result of ten years of research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of local residents’ participation in decision making regarding the conservation of the built heritage on conservation attitudes.

This study borrows ideas from Arnstein’s Model of Citizen Participation and from past research to develop a model, and then testing it using a questionnaire survey with a sample of 209 local residents in Kilwa Kisiwani World Heritage Site in Tanzania.

The mean statistics showed that participation in decision making in Kilwa Kisiwani is relatively limited to the level of tokenism. Nevertheless, on the side of attitudes, the study indicates residents’ tendency to favour conservation. Regression results indicate that there is a significantly positive relationship between participation in decision making and attitude towards conservation.

Although the study did not cover the dynamics inherent in each bloc of resident community that may act as roadblocks in the participation process, it regards “participation in decision making” as a useful tool for heritage managers and conservation authorities for promoting local support for the conservation of heritage resources. Theoretically, the study implies that Arnstein’s Model can be a useful framework for ascertaining residents’ participation in the heritage management context, and for explaining its effect on conservation attitudes.

This study is the first rigorous confirmation of the relationship between participation in decision making and individual’s attitude towards conservation. The study provides a useful conceptual tool for heritage managers in promoting local support for conservation.

Heritage or historic building information modelling (BIM), often referred to as HBIM, is becoming an established feature in both research and practice. The advancement of data capture technologies such as laser scanning and improved photogrammetry, along with the continued power of BIM authoring tools, has provided the ability to generate more accurate digital representations of heritage buildings which can then be used during renovation and refurbishment projects. Very often these representations of HBIM are developed to support the design process. What appears to be often overlooked is the issue of conservation and how this can be linked to the BIM process to support the conservation management plan for the building once it is given a new lease of life following the refurbishment process. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper presents a review of the context of conservation and HBIM, and then subsequently presents two case studies of how HBIM was applied to high-profile renovation and conservation projects in the UK. In presenting the case studies, a range of issues is identified which support findings from the literature noting that HBIM is predominantly a tool for the geometric modelling of historic fabric with less regard for the actual process of renovation and conservation in historic buildings.

Lessons learnt from the case studies and from existing literature are distilled to develop a framework for the implementation of HBIM on heritage renovation projects to support the ongoing conservation of the building as an integral part of a BIM-based asset management strategy. Five key areas are identified in the framework including value, significance, recording, data management and asset management. Building on this framework, a conceptual overlay is proposed to the current Level 2 BIM process to support conservation heritage projects.

This paper addresses the issue of HBIM application to conservation heritage projects. Whilst previous work in the field has identified conservation as a key area, there is very little work focusing on the process of conservation in the HBIM context. This work provides a framework and overlay which could be used by practitioners and researchers to ensure that HBIM is fully exploited and a more standardised method is employed which could be used on conservation heritage renovation projects.

Introduction Summary: Archaeological heritages are very important attractions and are highly promoted as a tourism product. Due to the negative consequences of high visitor flows and lack of management, the conservation and development of archaeological heritages raises concerns for destinations aiming at sustainable archaeological heritage management.

Purpose: This study provides an extensive literature review for archaeological heritage management to emphasise the importance of bringing heritage sites to tourism in a sustainable way, Also aims to provide a guideline for destinations suffering the archeological heritage management issues or for developing tourism destination to prevent themselves suffering from the same issues. Accordingly, the literature review is divided into three sections: the role and impacts of tourism on archaeological heritage; sustainable tourism development; and planning are mentioned in the first section. Then, planning for preservation and conservation activities for archaeological heritage and international heritage protection and conservation programmes are mentioned in the second section. Finally, the literature provides the content of tourism planning and policy for sustainable archaeological heritages.

Findings: Tourism uses archaeological assets to attract tourists and tourism damages archaeological sites when there is high demand, lack of information and control. But, in general, the relationship between tourism and archaeological heritage is strongly interlinked and need each other. And without the community and stakeholder’s involvement, archeological heritage management will not be successfully achieved.

Originality/Value: Tourism authorities and archaeologists should work together and develop practical ideas for archaeological heritage. Highly promoted and demanded archaeological heritage resources cannot be part of sustainable tourism development without serious conservation and conservation efforts or minimal/inappropriate recoveries due to government lack of care and supervision, so these valuable treasures are doomed to irreversible damage.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, dissect and unravel real-life contextual human capital issues related to George Town’s built heritage from the perspectives of key stakeholders in the heritage arena.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using qualitative techniques like in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to gather insights and to listen to the voices from key stakeholders pertaining to issues related to human capital in built heritage. The data were supplemented and complemented by secondary resources such as technical reports, conservation guidelines, by-laws and case studies from other countries.

The paper provides empirical insights about real-life issues, barriers and challenges pertaining to human capital in George Town’s built heritage. The key findings from this study revealed that the quantity of professionals and builders is still insufficient and their quality of work has room for improvement.

Due to the selected research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Thus, researchers are encouraged to further test the proposed propositions by enlarging the number of respondents or administering this similar study in another locality/historic city (i.e. Malacca ‒ George Town’s twin historic city).

The paper provides practical implications for the development of the right quantity and quality of human capital for George Town’s built heritage. The findings from this study are also useful for urban managers, policymakers and conservation practitioners.

This paper fulfils an identified need to examine the real-life issues of human capital in built heritage for George Town.

This study aims to investigate built heritage revitalisation projects in Hong Kong through a case study.

For this study, a representative built heritage revitalisation project in Hong Kong is selected study revitalisation in practice in Hong Kong. The case study adopts content analysis as the main method of analysis. It involves counting keywords, comparing content, categorising content patterns and interpreting the content of documents.

The findings reveal that in the revitalisation process, there is significant fragmentation in collaboration among government sectors and in conservation documentation and that an effective knowledge sharing mechanism and valid public engagement is needed. A conceptual framework of social network-enabled building information modelling (BIM) platform is proposed to enhance knowledge sharing and cross-sector collaboration.

The conceptual framework developed based on the case study is expected to bring practical implications to urban regeneration policies in Hong Kong.

This study views built heritage revitalisation practice as different individual projects and provides a social and technical perspective to investigate built heritage revitalisation.