Historical Area Research Articles

Conservation Policy of Visual Quality in Connecting Area Between Historical Areas

Alun-alun Contong, a historical area in Surabaya, connects popular historical areas via a tram line. Today, it features commercial buildings from the Dutch East Indies era, which is dominated by contemporary style. Therefore, historical appearances have become degraded and disconnected from their surrounding areas. Based on the case study, this research tries to construct specific historical conservation policies on connecting areas that have not been discussed before. The mixed method involves several tactics that involve two phases: assessment of the building facade element and serial vision analysis as an internal and external identification. The results show the visual quality condition and potential of an area between two historical areas as a modality of the Alun-alun Contong conservation policy. The research findings enable conservation policies to use this method at other locations to improve or restore connectivity, strengthen visual quality, and ensure the sustainability of the entire urban heritage area.

ASSESSING CONSERVATION APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINING HERITAGE BUILDINGS: A CASE STUDY OF IPOH OLD TOWN, PERAK, MALAYSIA

The worldwide emphasis on heritage building conservation has become one of the strategies to effectively conserve the values of heritage buildings and preserve their historic significance. Heritage buildings, acknowledged as vital assets for local development, particularly in the realm of tourism and cultural enrichment, require conservation efforts aligned with urban regeneration initiatives. Despite these international efforts, challenges persist in implementing effective conservation strategies, resulting in continuing deterioration. Therefore, a better understanding of the approach needed to conserve heritage building is important for its long-term sustainability. This qualitative study, involving site observation and semi-structured interviews with the Ipoh City Council and caretakers of selected heritage buildings, focuses on Ipoh Old Town as a case study as it is a historical area abundant in heritage and cultural elements. The findings highlight preservation and rehabilitation as prevalent conservation approaches, while restoration poses notable challenges in sustaining heritage buildings in Ipoh Old Town.

Development of a leaf area index-based relative threshold method for identifying agricultural drought areas

Considering the global aggravated agricultural drought condition, the availability of reliable historical agricultural drought information with high spatiotemporal resolution is crucial for accurate drought monitoring, effective water resources management, and sustainable agricultural development. However, the coarse spatiotemporal resolution of available historical agricultural drought datasets imposes great limitations on drought prevention and mitigation. Recognizing the research gap, this study developed a novel approach of leaf area index (LAI) relative thresholds to generate a 500 m-resolution agricultural drought areas dataset in the North China Plain (NCP) spanning the timeframe from 2006 to 2019. A range of key LAI relative thresholds were established to capture various levels of agricultural drought severity. Subsequently, a 500 m-resolution agricultural drought area dataset was generated, encompassing critical parameters of drought-covered area, drought-damaged area, and crop failure area for both summer-harvest and autumn-harvest seasons in each year. The relative thresholds for drought-covered area, drought-damaged area, and crop failure area yielded percentages of 56 %, 51 %, 34 % for summer-harvest crops and 45 %, 41 %, 28 % for autumn-harvest crops, respectively. To validate the credibility of the generated approach, historical agricultural drought areas data from the Bulletin of Flood and Drought Disasters in China were juxtaposed across various harvest seasons and multiple years. The spatial verification in the Hebei Province (one main province of the NCP) revealed a remarkable consistency between the newly generated dataset and the authentic dataset, demonstrating correlation efficiency estimates ranging from 0.70 to 0.83. The developed approach gives insights into the spatial distribution and coherence of agricultural drought impacted areas and sheds light on revealing the inter-annual dynamics of crop growing seasons. It can support for impact-based agricultural drought monitoring and prediction, and subsequently assist in optimizing agricultural water management and ensuring global food security.

Exploring safety determinants in historic urban areas of Iran: an artificial neural network study in Ardakan historic fabric

ABSTRACT This research aims to identify the most important predictors of residents’ satisfaction with urban safety in historical urban areas. Using advanced machine learning algorithms, a case study was conducted on the old city centre of Ardakan in Iran. The study analyzed literature to identify important variables related to urban safety and collected data were processed using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to discover the patterns underlying them. Results revealed that physical and design-oriented issues such as mixed land use and diversity of activities, street permeability and readable pattern, and formal and informal surveillance were the most critical aspects affecting residents’ satisfaction with urban safety. The study proposes some design and operational measures based on expert knowledge and outcomes of the study to improve urban safety in historical urban areas. Overall, the research suggests that urban safety is a multi-faceted concept that requires careful consideration of physical and design-oriented factors alongside social and environmental factors.

Metaverse of Heritage Buildings in Jakarta’s Old Town as a Media for Preservation and Historical Education Tourism

The objectives of this article are: 1) Discussing how to utilize the potential of cultural heritage in the form of buildings, sites and areas through the use of Metaverse in the preservation of heritage buildings in the Old City of Jakarta, 2) Exploring the Metaverse content of the Old Town Heritage Building of Jakarta as an interactive learning tool to understand history in the context of historical preservation and educational tourism. This article is limited to only exploring the existence of buildings and historical areas as well as what content is appropriate as material for presenting a metaverse of Jakarta's Old City heritage buildings, without going any further into creating the metaverse. Through previous literature studies, historical and cultural studies of heritage buildings and the Old Town area of Jakarta and physical storytelling exploration, it is hoped that a metaverse can be built that integrates visual 3d models with interesting narratives to tell the history and stories behind buildings, sites and areas.

Application of Strategic Planning Approach of a Cultural Centre Area: A Study of Atatürk Cultural Centre Area in Ankara

In order to preserve vitality of historic urban centre areas, it is necessary to deploy new and innovative strategies to ensure proper development and management, and avail potential opportunities. This study explores the strategic revitalization of the Atatürk Cultural Centre (ACC) area - a historic urban centre in Ankara, Türkiye. A mixed-method approach has been adopted in this study, which examines the area’s physical, economic, social, and environmental dimensions, conducting questionnaire surveys, stakeholder analysis, and SWOT analysis. Again, the most appropriate alternative was selected by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, concurrently, competitor analysis was performed, a strategic visionary plan was determined, and later on the plan aligned with the corporate strategic plan. According to the study, competitive advantage in real estate markets and the functioning logic of the studied area should be considered for long-term results and potential benefits through a strategic planning approach. The study concludes that strategic planning, stakeholder collaboration, and targeted interventions can transform the ACC area into a vibrant cultural hub, contributing to Ankara’s broader urban development goals. The proposed strategic plan provides a roadmap for realizing this vision, ensuring the preservation of historic cultural heritage while fostering sustainable urban growth.

The Changsha historic urban area: a study on the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the connectivity of construction land

This study aims to understand the connectivity characteristics of construction land during the spatial evolution of historic urban areas. The complex network analysis method is employed to examine the evolution of the spatial structure of construction land in the four periods of the Changsha historic urban area. The results indicate that the spatial network morphology of construction land follows a repeated development pattern resembling a cluster–mother–child relationship. Additionally, the vulnerability in the evolution of land use spatial relationships is very low, while the overall stability of the land use network structure decreases. The spatial equilibrium of land use shows a downwards trend, the accessibility of land where existing cultural relics and historic sites are located is generally moderate to low, and some plots require improvement. In the evolution of connectivity in the construction land of historic urban areas, the main development challenges are the uneven growth caused by imbalanced land value influenced by capital and the need to balance the preservation of land use patterns with improved accessibility to cultural relics and historic sites. Therefore, it is highly important to dynamically detect and optimize the network structure of construction land to protect and develop historic urban areas.

Enhanced lake elevation mapping using a zone-based method

Abstract Inland lakes play a crucial role in monitoring global climate change and managing responses to extreme weather events, with lake elevation being critical for assessing their regulatory capacities. However, due to the limited temporal resolution of current altimetry satellites, obtaining high-frequency, high-precision elevation data for water bodies remains challenging. Consequently, most studies utilize elevation-area (E-A) models constructed from historical elevation and area records, integrated with area observations from high-temporal resolution optical satellites to infer precise water levels. Yet, the construction of the E-A model often assumes a uniform water level across the lake, thus overlooking potential segmentation during dry periods. To address this, our study implemented a zone-based approach, utilizing hydrological connectivity principles to ensure that elevation data within E-A models are confined to appropriate zonal regions. This method effectively minimized uncertainties by preventing errors from zonal discrepancies, significantly improving accuracy compared to traditional methods. It reduced root mean square errors (RMSE) by 0.71–1.73 m during the dry season, achieving RMSEs of 0.35, 0.64, and 0.37 m across three segments. Furthermore, this method ensures water level data are confined to specific zones, preventing the inconsistencies typically caused by averaging data across multiple stations or selecting data from varying elevations. This consistent domain definition reduces extrapolation errors during the model prediction and inversion. Moreover, the method compensates for time information losses often incurred by relying on multi-year percentile charts, thereby enabling more precise aquatic boundary delineation than traditional regional boundaries.

Multifactor evaluation of architectural value in historical and cultural heritage area——the case of Dingzi Street, Hanzhong, Shaanxi, China

Historical and cultural heritage areas gradually disappear due to rapid urbanization, urban renewal, and transformation. With China's urban development shifting from incremental planning to stock optimization, protecting historical and cultural landscape areas has gained considerable attention. The development and preservation of these areas have become pivotal research issues. A multi-value-oriented evaluation index system has been established to recognize the haphazard and scientifically unfounded updating and reforming of buildings within historical and cultural landscape areas. This system draws upon and organizes evaluation indices for historical buildings from domestic and international contexts. An empirical test assessed the protection efforts in the Dingzi Street Historical and Cultural Landscape Area in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province. The results emphasize that the protection of buildings in historical landscape areas should consider the potential for development and construction, the enhancement of residents' living environments, and the economic impact on neighboring areas. In the renewal construction of historical landscape areas, the evaluation of most buildings focuses on economic value, utility, and the feasibility of renovation implementation. The study's conclusions are essential for enhancing the scientific and practical aspects of renewal and renovation methods for buildings in historical and cultural landscape areas. This research provides valuable insights into balancing development and preservation in the evolving urban landscape of China

Research on the Rapid Method for Delineating the Boundaries of Urban Historic Areas based on Graph Theory and Graph Neural Networks

Research on the Rapid Method for Delineating the Boundaries of Urban Historic Areas based on Graph Theory and Graph Neural Networks

Using public perceptions to inform urban protected area buffer zone planning.

The buffer zones between urban protected areas (UPAs) and their cities play a significant role in managing and protecting UPAs. However, they are also the frontier of conflicts due to complex functionality and a large number of stakeholders. Besides ensuring the buffer zone's function of protecting the UPA, it is also vital to understand how it can fulfill the diverse needs of multiple interest groups residing in or utilizing this area. To address the significant social science research gap in UPA buffer zone management, we establish a conceptual framework and explore how the public's overall satisfaction with the buffer depends on five essential buffer zone qualities, namely environmental quality, connectivity, infrastructure, cultural, and visual quality. We focus on China's Urban Scenic and Historic Areas (USHA), a major type of UPA with high cultural, social, and esthetic values. Using the buffer of Shugang-Slender West Lake Scenic and Historic Area in Yangzhou City as the case study, we conducted intercept and online surveys (n = 499), investigating the perceptions of three user groups-residents, businesses, and tourists. The results indicate high overall satisfaction for all three groups. Environmental, visual, and cultural qualities were rated higher than connectivity and infrastructure quality. Residents generally showed the highest satisfaction and tourists the lowest. For all three groups, environmental quality, connectivity, and infrastructure quality significantly influenced overall satisfaction, while cultural and visual quality did not. This suggests that the public expects the buffer zone to serve as high-quality multi-functional open spaces that enhance the quality of life while providing recreation, service, and transportation functions. Besides direct planning and management advice to China's UPAs and other countries with similar contexts, our study offers a transferable framework for incorporating social perceptions and highlights their significance in informing the functional planning of UPA buffer zones for public welfare.

The Guidance of Public Value in China’s Historic Environment: Research on Regeneration Strategies Using Taiyuan’s Bell Tower Street as an Example

When profit-driven renewal is difficult to implement, many historic districts in China become “frozen” under protection. In the recent social context of “building cities for the people”, public value-oriented renewal of urban historic areas has become crucial in city transformation. This study investigates strategies for historic district regeneration in China by integrating spatial form, urban governance, and public value. We propose a novel framework to analyze the regeneration of historic districts, using Taiyuan’s Bell Tower Street as a case study. The framework distinguishes between two dimensions: spatial and economic–social. In the spatial dimension, we focus on the transformation of spatial form to regenerate public value, emphasizing the attribute of “publicness” as central to urban regeneration efforts. This involves a tiered approach to excavating and upgrading historic districts at macro, meso, and micro levels. The economic–social dimension explores urban governance to enhance public value through collaboration between government, market, and societal actors. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, including document reviews, interviews, field observations, and statistical data analysis. The analysis highlights that a public value-oriented approach to heritage regeneration can balance historical preservation with contemporary urban needs, offering a sustainable model for other cities.

The Paradox of Kowloon Walled City: Architectural Anomaly and Social Microcosm

Kowloon Walled City (KWC), formerly the world’s most densely populated place, is an example of urban density and self-organization in opposition to current urban developments, such as NEOM’s The Line, which illustrates the future of envisioned sustainable living. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can principles of self-organization and resilience from densely populated historical urban areas be applied to enhance the sustainability and livability of future planned urban developments? This study investigates the critical components of urban livability and governance amid severe densities by examining the underlying factors that lead to KWC’s unique sort of urban equilibrium and comparing them to the ideas that motivated the creation of The Line. This multidisciplinary research employs qualitative analysis to focus on architectural styles, community interactions, and governance systems. This approach allows for an in-depth examination of the parallels and dissimilarities between natural city evolution and future city planning. Key findings reveal that KWC’s functioning stems from its complex social fabric and adaptable informal governance, providing valuable lessons in resilience and community-driven urban development. The results suggest that the flexibility and community-driven efforts of KWC are essential for ensuring long-term viability, and these aspects may be integrated into contemporary projects such as The Line. The outcomes highlight the potential of combining KWC’s social cohesiveness with The Line’s technology developments to create urban environments that are both robust and sustainable. The results are supported by evidence obtained from historical analysis, which showcases the practical uses of integrating organic and planned urban development concepts.

Assessment of Environmental Pollution and Risks Associated with Tailing Dams in a Historical Gold Mining Area of Ecuador

Assessment of Environmental Pollution and Risks Associated with Tailing Dams in a Historical Gold Mining Area of Ecuador

The street space planning and design of artificial intelligence-assisted deep learning neural network in the Internet of Things

This study begins by discussing Internet of Things (IoT) technology and analyzing the classification of street space into four types, along with the Green Looking Ratio (GLR). Following this, the Fully Convolutional Network (FCN)-8s framework is employed to construct a street view image semantic segmentation model based on FCN principles. Subsequently, IoT technology is utilized to analyze the proportion of GLR and satisfaction in the street space within the historical urban area of T City. The findings reveal a significant positive correlation (significance level p < 0.05, R2 = 0.919) between the GLR satisfaction score of street view images and the average GLR of the area. Among the four types of street space—life leisure, historical streets, traffic areas, and landscape-style streets—the dissatisfaction rates with GLR are 35 %, 33 %, 20 %, and 18 %, respectively, correlating with varying GLR satisfaction levels. To enhance street space greening, planting ponds and boxes are proposed for "blind spots” and "dead corners,” thereby completing greenery in these areas. These initiatives aim to improve street greening policies, integrate street function zones, and advance the scientific greening of urban streets. The analysis of GLR and satisfaction in street spaces provides valuable insights for refining urban street space greening efforts.

Exploring community resilience based on co-produced micro-regeneration projects in China: Two case studies

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to answer the question: How can community micro-regeneration projects in Chinese cities be situated and contextualized as particular kinds of practices to build resilient communities? Amidst rapid urbanization and social transformation over the past four decades, historical areas in Chinese cities have faced neglect, exacerbating inequalities and marginalization. The emerging strategy of micro-regeneration, emphasizing public participation and co-production, addresses this issue by revitalizing small community spaces using local resources and empowering grassroots efforts. This research contextualizes micro-regeneration within the global discourse on community resilience, highlighting communities’ agency and collaborative strength in adapting to change. Through the analysis of co-productive micro-regeneration cases in Beijing and Shanghai, this study offers insights into resourcefulness and the transformative potential of resilience, shedding light on China’s urban regeneration shift toward co-production and heightened social focus.

From Tragedy to Achievement: The Case of the Refugees of the Asia Minor Disaster in the Modern History of Greece. Refugees’ Access to Education

The Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 changed world history. The mass displacement of Greek Orthodox and Muslim populations troubled the world community. The fate of these populations was tested, forcing the Great Powers of the time, who bore significant responsibility for this disaster, to hasten the process of concluding an agreement between Greece and Turkey: the well-known Treaty of Lausanne. Hastily signed on January 30, 1923, it included an agreement on the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations as an integral part of the Treaty of Lausanne, signed six months later. This massive uprooting dramatically changed the geographical, population, and social map of Greece and marked the violent exclusion of Greek cultural elements and spirit from historical areas of the ancient Greek world. The refugees faced enormous problems in Greece, such as survival, housing, finding work, and educating their children. Political leadership was divided, and education was shaken.

Reviving the past: urban strategies for renovating historic commercial streets in city centers

Historical city centers are one of the reasons that give cities their identity, memory, and sense of belonging. The commercial areas within these centers are particularly important, as they contribute significantly to the vitality of the urban environment. However, due to rapid developments in recent times, many of these historic commercial streets have lost their significance and fallen victim to informal usage, resulting in the erosion of their historic identity. Consequently, it becomes imperative to renovate these historic commercial streets to preserve the community’s identity. The proposed methodology aims to foster local culture by revitalizing these streets and emphasizing the principles and criteria of heritage preservation that not only preserve the community’s identity but also serve as vibrant and inclusive spaces for residents and visitors alike to fulfill the concept of vitality and livability. In this context, the focus is on protecting historical areas and ensuring their ongoing relevance and benefits, extending not only to street users but also to the entire community. To achieve this, a series of steps are suggested for the renovation of historic commercial streets within city centers, accompanied by a reliable set of criteria that preserve their visual identity rooted in history. To demonstrate the application of these criteria, a case study was conducted for the proposed renovation of Mahmud Al-Banna Street, a historic commercial street in downtown Tanta, Egypt. The objective of the study was to develop strategies that would effectively address various aspects, including urban, visual, environmental, and economic issues. As a result, the research concluded that the proposed regeneration strategies, if implemented, could enhance the vitality and livability of the historic commercial districts for other urban environments.

Urban forest species selection for improvement of ecological benefits in Polish cities - The actual and forecast potential

Trees in cities perform important environmental functions: they produce oxygen, filter pollutants, provide habitat for wildlife, mitigate stormwater runoff, and reduce the effects of climate change, especially in terms of lowering temperatures and converting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into stored carbon. Generally, to increase the environmental benefits of urban forests, the number of trees is increased, directly influencing the canopy coverage. However, little is known about potential of modifying the species composition of urban tree communities in order to increase ecological benefits. Planting and managing trees to increase canopy is particularly challenging in city centres, where the dense, often historic infrastructure of buildings and roads do not allow for a significant increase in greenspace. Estimations of canopy cover obtained through i-Tree Canopy analysis unveiled significant potential to increase canopy cover in historical urban areas in Polish cities from 15-34% to 31–51%. This study models the ecological benefits of urban forests in Polish cities, focusing on how different species compositions can enhance environmental functions such as carbon sequestration and pollution filtration. Two main scenarios were analyzed: one involving the addition of trees based on the most common species currently planted (“standard option” SO), and another incorporating changes to the species composition to enhance ecological benefits (“city specific option” SCO). Acer platanoides (14.5%) and Tilia cordata (11.45%) were the most frequently species of Polish cities. Betula pendula, Quercus robur, Robinia pseudoacacia, Fraxinus excelsior, Acer pseudoplatanus, Aesculus hippocastanum and Acer campestre were also common species in urban forest communities (up to 5%). The diverse range of tree species in Polish cities contributes significantly to the overall carbon sequestration potential. The results suggest that modifying species composition could significantly increase carbon sequestration rates by 47.8%–114% annually, with the city specific option (SCO) being the most effective in enhancing carbon sequestration potential. This highlights the importance of strategic species selection in urban forestry practices to maximize environmental benefits and mitigate climate change effects.

Sustainable Regeneration Principles in Historic Cities Exploring Landscape Approach

In studies of revitalizing historical cities, various factors and indicators have received significant attention. There are different theories and perspectives, each addressing specific aspects of the subject. Among these, there exists a holistic perspective. A holistic approach can have an influential impact on sustainable solutions in the revitalization of historic cities. Urban planning, with its tools, can contribute to providing a roadmap in this regard. Theoretical resources and research conducted in this regard have focused on identifying criteria and practical indicators for revitalizing historical areas. An urban planning approach with features such as storytelling and mediation can enhance the sense of place, belonging, and social participation. In urban planning, objective and subjective perspectives can comprehensively examine all factors influencing the rejuvenation of areas, which is effective in planning and managing revitalization projects. On the other hand, examining guidelines and recommendations provided by organizations and authorities such as UNESCO reflects the results and experiences of various global researches. These recommendations are based on principles instrumental in developing a comprehensive understanding of the sustainable revitalization of historic cities. Therefore, this research aims to provide a general and comprehensive overview of historic areas and their sustainable management principles. When dealing with historical cities, the following question arises: What are the general principles of revitalizing them, and what subcategories do they encompass? Studies on this topic show that the general classification of factors and principles of sustainable revitalization in historical cities can be summarized into five categories: history and heritage, economy and society, innovation and creativity, ecosystem and environment, and governance and governments. These principles and their subcategories should be examined and given attention from a functional perspective in four main formats. Some focus on why attention should be given to historical areas (Why?) and how to deal with them (How?). In contrast, others concentrate on the practical operational factors in cities (Who?) and their elements (What?). A descriptive-analytical research method was employed. Data collection was conducted through library research based on a review of relevant literature, documents, and extensive studies related to prominent research in the landscape, landscape perspectives, place identity, sense of place, and their various dimensions. Ultimately, using a qualitative content analysis approach, solutions for regenerating historical contexts from a landscape perspective are presented.