Understanding Trends on Urban Heritage Research in Asia

Abstract

Asian cities are experiencing rapid growth. In 2011, 13 of the 23 megacities in the world have been identified to be in Asia. Understanding how heritage plays a role in the rapid changes of city development require critical observation because its degradation is expected to impact on the quality of life of millions of individuals. This paper focuses on documenting the state of the art on research focused on heritage and development in Asia, as well as, to discuss the main findings and gaps. It also strives to identify Asian countries, cities and heritage properties where a great body of knowledge is already available. Notably, heritage properties are being set strategically as an anchor for sustainable urban development. However, they also seem to be suffering from the unsustainable growth of Asian cities. This paper abridges the criticisms on current practices, guidelines for best practices and sustaining theories developed by scholars in the field of urban heritage in Asia. This paper also looks into how the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape can be integrated to the urban development framework of Asian cities, amidst these changes.

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