Road map for application of the HUL approach in China

Abstract

PurposeThis article is an editorial toJCHMSD's Volume 3, Issue 1 and aims to provide an overview to its selection of papers.Design/methodology/approachThe article builds upon a previous editorial on the implementation of the new UNESCORecommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape(HUL). It discusses a research and training programme under development by the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research in Asia and the Pacific (WHITRAP) and Tongji University's Advanced Research Institute for Architecture and Urban Planning, in Shanghai, China, to help determining a strategy for the application of the HUL approach in China.FindingsThe HUL approach facilitates a structuring and priority setting of competing needs and demands for the integration of urban development and heritage management processes, which is perhaps most pressing in the current Chinese context of rapid and large‐scale urbanization. However, its precise meaning, and therefore its merit, is still poorly understood in China due to confusing conceptual foundations and interpretations, primarily related to the terminology of “cultural landscape”.Originality/valueThis research paper outlines a series of pertinent issues and questions as part of a critical path –a “road map”– for the application of the HUL approach, as promoted by UNESCO, in China and it outlines key areas for further research, in particular as concerns the development of a toolkit.