Collaborating with Local Communities to Identify Improvement Priorities for Historic Urban Landscape Based on Residents’ Satisfaction: An Application of Asymmetric Impact-Performance Analysis in Dandong, China

Abstract

In the process of urbanization and globalization, urban conservation reinforces the links among past, present, and future, which enhances local identity and is indispensable for urban sustainability. The concept of Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), as both a notion and an approach, has been playing an increasingly important role in urban conservation discourse. Prioritizing actions is one of the pivotal procedures to perform the HUL approach. Instead of simply focusing on values selected and graded by experts, more attention should be paid to local residents’ satisfaction. A collaborative approach involving communities to prioritize actions in urban conservation and regeneration is proposed. Using the data from residents in the old town of Dandong, China, this study pioneers the application of the Asymmetric Impact-Performance Analysis (AIPA) technique in the urban conservation field. HUL attributes are categorized into basic factors, excitement factors, and performance factors based on their potential asymmetric impact on residents’ satisfaction. By taking performance levels of the attributes into consideration, this study further identifies improvement priorities for HUL, which helps planners and city managers to make rational choices in managing historic cities.