Policy Recommendations for Integrating Resilience into the Management of Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

The perspectives of resilience and cultural landscape share common interests in planning, managing, and protecting socio-ecological systems. Although the principles of the Yokohama, Hyogo, and Sendai frameworks may be used in a variety of geographical contexts due to their general design, the implementation of these frameworks in cultural landscapes is seldom discussed. Our theoretical research is the first step in an ongoing effort to explore how urban governance and policy may provide room for enhancing cultural heritage resilience against natural hazards. A meta-synthesis of international guidelines on cultural landscapes, resilience, and disaster risk reduction serves as the foundation for the research methodology used in this study. The research findings highlight that cultural landscapes must be managed with political, social, and economic support to stay resilient, and therefore, the first step towards this goal is to integrate cultural heritage into the disaster risk reduction plan at a national level. Furthermore, cultural landscapes need a bottom-up participatory framework and more internship opportunities to bring together the government, first responders, site managers, and the local community.