Both domestically and internationally, the interest in the conservation and management of the World Heritage sites has been rising, and, accordingly, discussions of how to better conserve, manage, and utilize those sites have been vigorously done. How...
Both domestically and internationally, the interest in the conservation and management of the World Heritage sites has been rising, and, accordingly, discussions of how to better conserve, manage, and utilize those sites have been vigorously done. However, since they were registered on the World Heritage list, the number of tourists visiting them has rapidly increased; the local areas have been indiscriminately commercialized; improvement plans not considering local characteristics have been implemented. These together have contributed to damaging the sites and the quality of local residents’ life. Finally, the sites are being in danger of becoming a mere tourist attraction without identity. To prevent this from happening, we need this: to align tourism planning fully reflecting their local identity with space planning for both residents and tourists and to make a sustainable plan to truly conserve, manage, and utilize heritage sites in an economically, socially, environmentally balanced way. To this end, in this paper, I propose, as a case study, a master plan for the conversation and management of the historic, cultural, environmental heritage of Namhansanseong, an ancient mountain fortress city, which the government is aiming to be registered on the World Heritage list, comprehensively taking into consideration sustainable tourism planning and urban planning indicators. I suggest a long-term vision plan for the site to preserve its sustainable living condition by pointing out its OUV(Outstanding Universal Value), authenticity and integrity.
The basic guidelines for the adequate preservation and management of the sites registered on the UNESCO World Heritage list are specified in “Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention”. However, since they were registered on the list, World Heritage sites in Korea have been damaged, particularly because of much larger number of tourists than their carrying capacity. And there is a tendency that such projects as that of the formation of historic streets have remained as an “imitation” of the original and that other projects politically motivated by an economic consideration rather than a cultural value end up with being a “one-off event.” Also, because of the lack of the close connections between the life of residents and tourism planning, they do not properly make use of the sites for their ordinary way of life.
Against this backdrop, in this paper, I propose a master plan for Namhansanseong, which the government is aiming to be registered on the World Heritage list, on the basis of the broad understanding of various indicators and of the tourism management plan for World Heritage sites aimed at the sustainable conservation management of such sites. It is by proposing a new practical paradigm for fundamental changes beyond a mere theoretical consideration that I try to find a new direction and applicability of a sustainable conservation management plan for a historic, cultural environment. I select various indicators related to sustainability as a means to establish a new management scheme, and examine the types and hierarchy for each sector of the plan. By serving as objective and reliable standards in the entire steps from establishment of public policy, to implementation, to evaluation, etc., indicators play an important role in giving shape to a purpose and devising effective methods.
International organizations such as UNWTO have introduced guidelines for the conservation and management of cultural environment of tourist attractions, developing indicators of tourism development so as to make possible a way of development taking into consideration economic, social, environmental sustainability. Based on the indicators of UNWTO, functioning as standards for sustainable tourism, many countries have developed their own tourism indicators applicable to their environment. For the purpose of developing a sustainable conservation and management system for World Heritage, I elicit items of sustainable tourism management plan from sustainable tourism indicators and tourism management items for World Heritage. Also, after looking into the city planning indicators designed to maintain a sustainable living condition, I establish a sustainable conservation and management system for World Heritage, based on tourism management plans and urban stability indicators.
I will propose the basic plan for the conversation and management of the historic, cultural environment of Namhansanseong, the object of this case study, by applying the drawn planning elements to it, and then evaluate the plausibility of the plan. I propose the following three kinds of indicators in terms both of space planning and of management planning: planning indicators for the management of historic interest areas, planning indicators for the management of living condition, and planning indicators for tourism management. The plan for historic interest areas can be divided into two kinds of planning: space planning as restoration planning in which the original form of the urban tissues is restored and historic, cultural environment is formed; management planning for cultural heritage. The plan for living condition is also divided into the two kinds of planning: space planning as an urban environment improvement project for local residents; community management plan through a landscape agreement project. The tourism management plan is also divided into the two kinds: space planning for the management of tourists including density management taking into consideration carrying capacity and facility management; management plan for local economy and monitoring.
In this research, taking Namhansanseong as the object of this case study, I have proposed a space planning for it by making the conservation and management plan for its historic, cultural environment in conjunction with its sustainable tourism plan. This research was first motivated to prevent the damages to historic, cultural environment caused by the rapid indiscriminate commercialization around the World Heritage sites to take an advantage of the massive number of tourists; to the end, I make a plan integrating the elements of urban design taking into consideration sustainable tourism planning indicators and historic, cultural environment. The direction for conservation and management consists of historic landscape management, living condition management, and tourism management, each of which is divided by space planning and management planning. For a historic landscape management plan, we can create a historic, cultural environment through the restoration of the original form; for living condition management, we can improve the living conditions for social welfare; for tourism management, we should first consider the tourist density management as a top priority, thinking of the carrying capacity. In conserving World Heritage sites, the element of tourism sometimes brings about economic profits, but we should notice that improper tourism management could threaten the integrity of them. From the view point of sustainable economic development, it is no less important than the economic benefits of the sites by running tourism businesses to protect the living conditions of local residents who are part of the historic, cultural environment and contribute to conserving the cultural heritage.
The significance of this research is to have proposed an alternative plan for the conservation and management of historic, cultural environment comprehensively considering tourism planning and space planning focusing on urban design and planning. You can see how a plausible sustainable tourism can be practically executed, which has never been tried; you can think of the possibility of connecting it with the aspect of urban design for space planning. The conservation and management plan of cultural heritages has focused on the conservation of their original forms, but we need a more positive and interdisciplinary approach for the end.