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The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the application of buffer zones as an urban landscape heritage management tool, using Rio de Janeiro as the main case study, in order to inform urban regulation around the sites inscribed as World Heritage Cultural Landscape and disclose its relevance to link urban planning, cultural heritage management and sustainable development.

The methodological approach encompasses: conceptual framework – contextualization of heritage protection theory, focusing on landscape protection and buffer zones; discussion: cross-national comparative overview of buffer zones conceptual framework on the international heritage protection policy; historical background and spatial analysis, through GIS mapping, of local heritage protection policy, tracing its evolution through time; examination of prospects and challenges of this management tool, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, based on previous international, local experiences on natural and cultural heritage protection; and gathering of strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management.

Core heritage sites and their buffer zones are integrated elements and act together to protect landscape significance and dynamic integrity (DI). In Rio de Janeiro, beyond the function of a caution zone, other important functions of landscape heritage buffer zones are to guarantee spatial and social connections of the protected sites, as well as the visual relationship between them and other significant urban landscape features. Strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management should address the articulation of landscape protection governance; the conservation of visual, functional and structural identity quality and legibility and the monitoring of DI.

The methodology approach adopted in this study may also benefit from and foster further investigations, which could include the elaboration of a landscape management plan and an impact assessment inventory, refining the scale of study to the level of local watersheds, and a deeper examination of the popular cultural imprints within the World Heritage property buffer zone.

Strategies to the implementation of the Carioca Landscapes buffer zone include a gradation of protection and control of impacts according to the distance of the core sites (in the form of rings or layers). The buffer zone should help to preserve the character, significance, and DI of the protected sites and guarantee their spatial and social connections, as well as the visual and functional relationship between them and between other significant landscape features of the city. All those management strategies should be founded on the elaboration of a broad urban landscape management plan with the local society involvement.

In Rio de Janeiro’s specific case, bridging the vision of culture and nature as opposite poles and, transcending the social segregation through community involvement should certainly be among the main guiding principles to the application of buffer zones for supporting landscape sustainability. Therefore, the establishment of regulation criteria and parameters within the limits of the buffer zone must acknowledge that the (urban) landscape should carefully articulate the different social agent visions and local urban contexts.

The main contribution of this paper is to gather different visions of the role of buffer zones and disclose possibilities of conciliation between theory and practice concerning landscape protection, arguing for gathering natural and cultural heritage policies into the urban planning processes. Harnessed together, the suggested buffer zone implementation strategies may provide a proactive approach to Rio’s urban landscape protection and contribute to foster landscape sustainability and resilience. Although based on a specific case study, the adopted methodological approach may be transferable, with some adjustments, to other World Heritage properties, especially those located in urban areas under development pressures.

The integrity of heritage and landscape hinges on protection and restoration policies. Such policies are implemented through the determination of buffer zones that most of them are mainly based on the self-absorbed view, which isolates cultural sites from the community, instead of the more inclusive perception-based view. This study used perceptions as a base in identifying buffer zones in Anahita Temple, in comparison with previous study.

Accordingly, two parallel and qualitative methods were implemented. First, the site inventory approach was used to determine physical buffer zone, and then historical and temporal perceptions were used to determine a perception-based one. In addition, integrated buffer zone was defined based on two approaches. Finally, the participatory importance and performance analysis were proposed in order to conservation strategies formulation.

The results indicated that a physical buffer zone isolates the historical site from its landscape, thereby presenting challenges. By contrast, constructing a perception-based one not only maintains the integrity of the landscape but also creates correspondence between the landscape and people's mental map of the site.

Maintaining the site's integrity is expected to encourage participation from the local community and fuel more effective conservation efforts but it also introduces challenges given the need to impose new regulations.

Despite various studies on role of perception in Historical Landscape, less attention has been paid to the role of perception in definition of heritage buffer zone. Therefore, the main goal is to develop a framework to determine the buffer zone of heritage sites by providing a sample.

This paper discusses how the Heritage Place Lab (HPL) Pilot Phase, led by International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (2021–2022), supported La Antigua Guatemala (LAG) World Heritage Site as a case study to identify research gaps to strengthen HPL's management through a collaborative process between research and practice teams.

A qualitative method was adopted that followed the collaborative process proposed for the HPL Pilot Phase. An adapted version of the Enhancing Our Heritage (EoH) Toolkit 2.0 (forthcoming) was applied. The HPL served as an incubator for on-going research projects, with LAG acting as one of eight case studies.

To achieve sustainable development at the site, strengthening the governance model is a priority. This should focus on adopting a more comprehensive management approach that includes the surrounding areas and new values that have been identified since the approach's inscription in 1979 as well as addressing the impacts of climate change.

The study finds that this task is essential to widely disseminate and follow up the findings made between researchers and site managers as well as to propose a new governance model alongside associated changes in conservation and municipal and national legislation. Therefore, long-term political support and commitment from institutions, authorities and stakeholders involved in the management and conservation of LAG will be essential.

All sectors and institutions in the local community should be involved in the conservation and development of LAG and its surrounding areas. Local communities should benefit from a more effective and inclusive model of governance that recognises and enhances the communities' values as part of communities' identity and quality of life. Climate change mitigation and risk-prevention programmes should also be put in place.

To date, research in LAG has been disparate and has not responded to LAG's management needs that result from LAG's complexity as a living historical city. This paper demonstrates the contribution that collaborative work can make between researchers and site managers to identifying, prioritising and proposing solutions to the challenges facing World Heritage Sites.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

With the rapid development of modern economy and the process of urbanization is faster, a large number of historical relics have been mercilessly destroyed in the urban reconstruction. In order to balance the contradiction between urban development and historical heritage and promote the harmonious development of new and old urban areas, it is necessary to research on the old urban areas from the perspective of historical landscape. Old urban area of Jingdezhen is taken as an example in this paper, the present situation of the reconstruction of the old city in Jingdezhen is analyzed. Then, by using the methodology of urban historical landscape, some specific methods for updating and designing the old urban area reconstruction of Jingdezhen is put forward, such as the elements of spatial form, urban texture, historical and cultural landscape elements, streets and alleys, the Changjiang River, public facilities and landscape sketches, and so on. A new design method of landscape transformation of old urban area is established. As the renewal method of respecting the urban history and cultural heritage is a very intelligent urban renewal model, it is found that the application of urban historical landscape in the old urban city is reasonable and effective, which is based on the development of the old urban area and pursues the coexistence of protection and development.

Many historical urban cultural landscapes are suffering the effect of rapid urban economic development. This paper integrally relates historical sites in dispersed and point-shape distributions in cities and proposes strategies and methods for constructing urban linear cultural landscapes. As such, our work aims to form urban cultural landscape communities with an organic and linear distribution. The urban linear cultural landscape is not only an important means for integrally protecting and utilizing historical sites in historical cities but is also a special type of urban cultural landscape. The urban linear cultural landscape’s extensive application can enrich the theory of cultural landscape and protection methods of urban cultural heritage.

The UNESCO recommendation under the historic urban landscapes (HUL) title and Operational Guidelines (OPG) were used to create dynamic protective boundaries to maintain the integrity and authenticity of Isfahan's heritage waterways. Accordingly, by using GIS and Isfahan urban layers, three protective zones were proposed and evaluated; the central zone, the functional zone and the visual zone.

Heritage waterways in historic cities are not adequately protected against the negative impacts of urban development, and there is a lack of a dynamic protective system to protect their integrity and authenticity. The problem can be observed in Isfahan, a historic Iranian city, where the boundaries of urban heritage waterways (Madi canals) are usually rigid and arbitrary. This study aims to develop a practicable paradigm for determining protection boundaries for Isfahan's Jolfa Madi, an urban heritage waterway.

Compared to the current protective boundaries, the authors found that proposed protective boundaries create a greater amount of protection space, which makes a strong connection among the ecological, historical and socio-economic characteristics of the urban context. Furthermore, the protective zones based on the HUL approach give Isfahan's urban planning policy the opportunity to consider participatory tools, financial tools and regulatory systems.

Many studies have emphasized a fixed-width buffer or an arbitrary distance from the urban waterway's axis (urban heritage) or its banks. Although these protections include technical conservation or setting restrictions on the adjacent buildings and blocks, studying crucial concepts such as urban dynamic, urban heritage context and producing a particular technique for protected boundaries has not been investigated. In this article three dynamic boundaries are delineated with various functions in order to provide urban heritage with dynamic preservation and sustainable development for the historic urban landscapes.

The research is based on the analysis of recent experiences of participative processes in the reuse and maintenance of contexts considered as “urban waste,” focusing on their role in smart sustainable development processes. The recognition of discarded urban spaces/buildings as regeneration opportunities opens up new perspectives on the communities’ commitments and responsibilities, in new governance models. These experiences, better known as “commons,” highlight the active role of communities in establishing new unconventional forms of value creation and production based on circular processes and interdependences between city and communities. Circularization and synergies are the fundamental precondition for smart sustainable development. Assuming the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach as general framework, the phenomenon of commons represents an opportunity to make it operational through an integrated methodology based on the recovery of the environment built according to an inclusive and hybrid approach, configured by culture and shared with local communities. In this perspective, this contribution proposes an evaluation framework not only to monitor the results and impacts produced by these experiences, but also to stimulate and improve awareness, self-learning and self-evaluation processes of the actors involved in regeneration processes toward a smart sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore possible contributions of natural resources for the historic urban landscape (HUL) approach. It points to several possible avenues for collaborative research, which can expand the discourse on the topic of urban sustainability with different disciplines of heritage studies, natural resource management, urban planning and disaster risk reduction.

There are already several UNESCO initiatives such as the Man and Biosphere Programme, World Heritage Forests Programme and the World Heritage Programme for Small Island Developing States, which the HUL approach can learn from to understand approaches that integrate natural resource management in urban planning methods. Different cases from the USA, Japan and Singapore applying landscape approaches have also been documented in this research.

Several examples have been found in which natural resources are integrated to bigger strategies of urban planning. Japan has enacted the “Landscape Law” in 2004 to highlight the importance of preserving landscapes in improving the quality and viability of community life. The “Mauritius Strategy” created by small island developing states is another example. It holistically looks at policies to deal with environmental challenges while advocating economic growth and protecting cultural and natural heritage, among other concerns. The long tradition of creating greenways in the USA have also contributed in presenting heritage assets and providing environmental benefits. The High Line in New York City is a good example of this.

In line with the HUL approach, the research points out possibilities of non-traditional collaborations in solving current urban challenges. Finding ways of linking natural resources to a bigger urban framework can inspire new solutions for the interlinked problems of urban growth, heritage management and nature conservation amidst climate change.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.