Abstract
Small islands in the Mediterranean Sea, although endowed with exquisite land and maritime natural and cultural resources, are in most cases lagging behind areas, mainly due to insularity. Through their long history, many of them are strongly interwoven to events of European or even global significance, e.g., World War (WW) I and II. Such events have left in their “bodies” important remains, largely conditioning their socio-economic trajectory. Preservation and sustainable management of this Cultural Heritage (CH) is, in this work, perceived as a two-sided coin, serving endurance of European identity, memory, and CH for future generations on the one side; and leveraging future cultural tourism trails of these disadvantaged areas on the other. The goal of this article is to ‘unbury’ land and maritime, tangible and intangible, cultural remains and use them to unveil heritage-led development paths of small Mediterranean islands. This is demonstrated through a specific case study, a distinguishable insular territory and WW II battlefield scenery, Leros Island, Greece; and is accomplished by a participatory spatial planning framework, embedding scenario planning, spatial data management, and e-participation technologies (Web-GIS, social networks) for community engagement. The latter is valued for assessing options available for an integrated, sustainable, and resilient exploitation of land and maritime CH; and raising awareness of local population as to the role of CH as enabler for the transition from past failures to more promising, culturally-driven, and locally-adjusted future development trails.
Highlights
Small islands in the Mediterranean Sea, endowed with exquisite land and maritime natural and cultural resources, are in most cases lagging behind areas, mainly due to insularity
Apart from the interest in pure documentation and preservation of UCH, its sustainable exploitation gains ground [6] and its integration with land Cultural Heritage (CH) in order to establish coherent and challenging narratives that are capable of keeping alive the past for future generations [4], and serving long standing local development objectives
((U)CH), in order for local socio-economic and cultural peculiarities to be ascertained; this step is followed by a scenario planning exercise, delineating two distinct, spatially delineated, potential cultural development trails; while outcomes of participatory assessment of these trails are presented, outlining the power of Web-GIS and social networks for community engagement in assessing the planning outcome and supporting decision-making; some conclusions are drawn as to the experience gained from this research endeavor
Summary
The above statement, articulated by Snyder [1], attempts to illuminate the, partly overlooked or underestimated in terms of its richness, diversity, distinctiveness, and precious value, Underwater. While this UCH remains largely unexplored, there are many key issues associated with its protection, preservation, and sustainable management and, in several cases, its integration into coastal cultural settings [19], closely related to such historical events The latter is the main issue explored in this paper, seen from a planner’s perspective that seeks to open up new development potential for lagging behind, of small- and medium-scale insular regions on the ground of this CH; and embed in this planning endeavor local community expectations [20] through community engagement by use of mature tools and technologies, i.e., Web-GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and social networks. The structure of the article is as follows: first, the steps of the methodological approach are shortly presented; this is followed by the exploration of the external decision environment, aiming at identifying trends and opportunities and sketching current policy frameworks, relevant to the studied issues; comes a short presentation of the study area and a GIS mapping of its land and underwater cultural heritage ((U)CH), in order for local socio-economic and cultural peculiarities to be ascertained; this step is followed by a scenario planning exercise, delineating two distinct, spatially delineated, potential cultural development trails; while outcomes of participatory assessment of these trails are presented, outlining the power of Web-GIS and social networks for community engagement in assessing the planning outcome and supporting decision-making; some conclusions are drawn as to the experience gained from this research endeavor
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