Cultural Landscape Preservation: An Evolving Field

Abstract

As an area of professional focus, cultural landscape practice, which addresses the combined works of humanity and nature, has evolved over three decades. The author, an innovator in that evolution, enumerates benchmarks and identifies current challenges as wide-ranging as the scale and diversity of the cultural landscapes under consideration. Using examples of works and of international engagement, this article describes the importance of community involvement, governance, expertise, planning, regulatory systems, and finance within projects of diverse scale, scope, and context. Global trends such as climate change, urbanization, and human migration, as well as a clarion call for sustainable development, influence our aspirations, opportunities, and projects. With the urban public landscape as valued heritage, works addressing the shared space of human settlements must include multiple perspectives and sustainable imperatives by integrating culture and nature, incorporating tangible and intangible heritage, confronting threats to valued heritage, and managing the stresses of rapid change. This paper applies the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to guide our professional toolkit of best practices as we seek to balance heritage tourism and community growth in an ongoing effort to steward enduring values and enhance the role of heritage in sustainable development.