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The purpose of this paper is to identify the tourism potential of natural and cultural heritage in historical irrigation canals by promoting social learning and providing digital tools to local and visitors.

This research is based on the EUWATHER project (JPI – Cultural Heritage, HERITAGE PLUS Joint Call 2015), through which new opportunities for eco-tourism and outdoor recreation as a driver for sustainable development of historical irrigation canals are provided. A case study from North-Eastern Spain, the Lower Ter area (in the Costa Brava), is analyzed. Heritage inventories and digital itineraries including the tangible and intangible cultural history of waterscape heritage have been co-designed with local communities and key stakeholders. Online data sets and Spatial Data Infrastructure (webpage and mobile app) are provided.

The project provides a manual for developing digital waterways heritage tours. For the case study, up to 118 heritage objects have been selected from 8 natural and cultural heritage categories according to their tourism potential. Three itineraries have been proposed to promote the tourism potential existing in the hinterland of the Costa Brava region.

The methods section and the main results obtained for the case study will be useful for professionals working in heritage institutions, rural development and sustainable tourism agencies.

The project provides two geo-based technologies: a digital platform (www.waterwaysexplorer.com) and a mobile app (Izi.travel) in which external users are able to collect relevant data and construct tourism itineraries from minor waterways with consolidated natural and cultural heritage. A Tool Box is provided for practitioners in order to help local communities and tourist organizations to create their own itineraries along minor waterways.

The purpose of this paper is to explore possible contributions of natural resources for the historic urban landscape (HUL) approach. It points to several possible avenues for collaborative research, which can expand the discourse on the topic of urban sustainability with different disciplines of heritage studies, natural resource management, urban planning and disaster risk reduction.

There are already several UNESCO initiatives such as the Man and Biosphere Programme, World Heritage Forests Programme and the World Heritage Programme for Small Island Developing States, which the HUL approach can learn from to understand approaches that integrate natural resource management in urban planning methods. Different cases from the USA, Japan and Singapore applying landscape approaches have also been documented in this research.

Several examples have been found in which natural resources are integrated to bigger strategies of urban planning. Japan has enacted the “Landscape Law” in 2004 to highlight the importance of preserving landscapes in improving the quality and viability of community life. The “Mauritius Strategy” created by small island developing states is another example. It holistically looks at policies to deal with environmental challenges while advocating economic growth and protecting cultural and natural heritage, among other concerns. The long tradition of creating greenways in the USA have also contributed in presenting heritage assets and providing environmental benefits. The High Line in New York City is a good example of this.

In line with the HUL approach, the research points out possibilities of non-traditional collaborations in solving current urban challenges. Finding ways of linking natural resources to a bigger urban framework can inspire new solutions for the interlinked problems of urban growth, heritage management and nature conservation amidst climate change.

The region of Guelma, located in the northeast of Algeria, is characterised by its important natural and cultural heritage. This heritage is ignored and abandoned, which leads to its degradation and even its disappearance. Thus, it is imperative to seek to know and understand the reasons for this situation. This study aims to reveal the constraints of heritage promotion and its staging through its insertion in the development process.

A hypothetical–deductive approach based on a qualitative method using surveys was carried out on the knowledge of the heritage of Guelma by the actors concerned. The laws and classification procedures were interpreted to identify the heritage's stakes to ensure sustainable local development through tourism.

The results show the lack of recognition of the natural and cultural heritage by the region's population, the cumbersome, long and complex classification procedure. The weakness of the offer in terms of tourist infrastructures constitutes a handicap to the valorisation of the heritage and prevents the enhancement and development of tourism. Systematically, heritage does not contribute to the local and territorial development of the Guelma region.

The article underlines the importance of raising awareness among the various heritage stakeholders and actors, and first, the population, of the value of their natural and cultural heritage to make it profitable and a driving force for local and territorial development.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how safeguarding intangible cultural heritage contributes to environmental conservation and favours sustainable development of natural landscapes. To do so, the authors will focus on a study of dry stone constructions, which have been recognised by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The research has been carried out through three methodologies: the search and review of archives (historical and administrative documents), ethnographic methodology (field work and interviews) and case studies.

The abandonment of dry stone constructions is placing rural zones at risk, as they assume a strategic role in environmental conservation efforts. This article seeks to highlight the importance of safeguarding this cultural heritage.

The art of dry stone walling has its origins in ancient times and can be found in numerous regions around the world. The main ideas of this paper may be applied to many of the places where this vernacular architecture can be found.

Some stakeholders may apply the results of this study to identify new uses for heritage resources that allow maintenance of ecosystems while at the same time safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

This paper stresses the importance of raising public awareness of cultural heritage and vernacular architecture, its link with traditional activities such as farming and livestock raising, the rural landscape and reinforcement of cultural identity and historical memory.

This study illustrates the actions taken by UNESCO to safeguard intangible cultural heritage and the effects of those actions. It also considers dry stone constructions from the perspective of environmental sustainability, an area that has been subject to limited study.

Heritage landmarks and historical values often coexist with places and regions of remarkable environmental and landscape wealth. This article studies their capacity to generate global understanding of their territory through the creation of cultural routes. The proposed methodology is verified through the study of the defensive features of the ancient Nasrid Kingdom, the last Islamic territory in the Iberian Peninsula from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, which shaped the Spanish region known as the Kingdom of Granada until the nineteenth century.

To assist in the proposal of new routes, a precise collection of physical data (topography, landmarks, resources, population centres …), existing public paths and protected natural sites was carried out. Those cultural routes relevant to the area of study were also selected and mapped through GIS. A set of indicators prioritised through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) have evaluated the proposed itineraries.

The methodology enables the integral evaluation of parameters such as natural heritage, existing paths networks, defensive architectural heritage (watchtowers), existing cultural routes or proximity to basic services. The methodology's application allows an index to be obtained that quantifies the global implications of these parameters in the design of new itineraries. This leads to the development of a network with its own narrative that provides a historical, environmental and cultural meaning.

Watchtowers in this region have previously been studied as isolated and locally relevant architectural features. This work studies them from an overall perspective, considering each tower as a piece of a complex defensive and territorial system. Cultural routes arise from this joint interpretation as tools to restore and highlight the interrelationship between architectural heritage and territory and people.

This chapter offers a new sustainability-oriented paradigm for cultural and heritage tourism studies: an integrated approach to heritage tourism and heritage conservation based on resilience. Its extensive literature review examines resilience in a range of disciplinary areas, including heritage conservation and tourism studies. An important aim is to “make visible” often neglected parameters in the interactions among social, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions of heritage conservation and tourism. Within the broader concept of resilience, “cultural resilience” was identified as a crucial bridge between conservation and tourism. The study argues that resilience in general and its cultural forms in particular offer a potentially valuable framework vital for an integrated approach between the two in the common pursuit to manage change and uncertainty in cultural and heritage destinations. The chapter concludes with directions for further development of sustainability-oriented paradigm studies.

Although heritage sites are numerous, facility management (FM) is maybe the most important process in heritage site management systems. The similarities and differences of the sites should be considered before implementing common FM information systems that support more heritage sites with various area types. The presented classifications are collected and made primarily to support this process. Specialties of heritage sites were also observed from FM point of view. The paper attempts to identify a few groups that can be used well for FM system installations.

The paper observes the sites from several points of view. The sites are classified by heritage types, by facility planning point of view, by fragmentation and the rate of built‐in area, by human influence, by application. It offers three methods for area classification, later the computerized supporting systems are observed.

On most heritage sites FM is probably the most important management process. These cultural and natural sites are handled usually by governmental authorities and/or such organizations that can serve more sites permanently.

Since, the heritage sites are various, there might be several exceptional cases that are not collected in this paper.

The paper offers guidelines and ideas to enhance the FM system implementation on different types of heritage sites. Using these groupings, several problems can be identified early in the planning phase of such information systems.

This paper attempts to present the diversity of the objects on the heritage sites, trying to categorize them for FM purposes from more viewpoints. Most of these sites are currently not applied with efficient FM support.

Aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of UNESCO Periodic Reports for the assessment of hazards affecting the UNESCO world heritage sites (WHSs) and to rank the most critical WHSs in Europe through multicriteria analysis.

The Periodic Reports represent the available continental-scale knowledge on hazards that threaten the WHSs in Europe and include 13 different natural threats. The information included in these reports has been first validated with high-quality data available in Italy for volcanoes, landslides, and earthquakes. Starting from the Periodic Reports, a multicriteria hazard analysis has been developed by using the analytical hierarchy procedure (AHP) approach. This analysis allows to identify and to rank the most critical WHSs at the European scale.

The data provided by Periodic Reports are demonstrated to be a good starting point for a continental-scale analysis of the actual distribution of natural threats affecting WHSs in Europe. The Periodic Reports appear to be reliable enough for a first-order assessment of hazards. The general overview of the hazard at the European scale shows high value of hazard index in the Eastern Mediterranean area and Balkans, due to a combination of earthquakes and landslides. The most at danger cultural site is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the most at danger natural site is Norway.

The paper gives a contribution to improve the continental-scale knowledge on hazards affecting the UNESCO heritage sites. The assessment of hazard inside the WHSs is an important task for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, and it is important for UNESCO to achieve some of its goals. Through this research, European WHSs have been ranked according to their degree of hazard.

Cultural heritage (CH) sites are not only important components of a country’s identity but can also be important drivers of tourism. However, an increasing number of extreme events associated with the impacts of climate change, natural hazards and human-induced threats are posing significant problems in conserving and managing CH worldwide. Consequently, improved climate change adaptation and enhanced hazard/threat mitigation strategies have become critical (but to-date under-researched) considerations. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key hazards and threats to CH sites, the most common types of risks to CH and the strategies being adopted to mitigate or even eradicate those risks.

This paper reviews 80 CH case studies from around the world, which have been presented at a UNESCO International Training Course between 2006 and 2016. The case studies cover 45 different countries and provide practical insights into the key challenges being encountered in a variety of “at risk” locations.

The analysis assesses the key natural hazards and human-induced threats to the sites, an overview of the typical impacts to the tangible components of heritage and identifies the types of strategies being adopted to mitigate the risks, some of which could be transferred across cultural and geographical contexts.

The paper provides a wealth of useful information related to how challenges faced by CH sites might be addressed in the future.

This paper evaluates the content of Iranian primary school textbooks – as the fundamental educational tool in transmitting of key components – to highlight to what extent the content pursues the philosophy of heritage education. Heritage preservation, known to be fostering of the sustainable development, is successfully achieved through the education of young people. The philosophy of heritage education is to cultivate the sense of responsibility toward heritage preservation through the approaches of education through heritage, about heritage and for heritage in which students obtain knowledge, understand the value and develop their attitudes.

This study applies the content analysis approach to evaluate the subject textbooks of the Iranian primary school curriculum. The content analysis was conducted for 51 textbooks across nine subjects and the teacher guidebooks for the art and physical education subjects. Historic country of Iran with a rich local and world cultural and natural heritage is significant context for this study.

The findings show that, however, heritage elements are applied for conveying the content of some subjects, there is the lack of clarifying of the concept and importance of heritage and cultivating the sense of responsibility toward its preservation.

The results contribute significantly in the heritage education literature as well as improving heritage education in Iran by highlighting the key points which should be considered to design heritage education programs.