Smart decision making for global heritage cities: innovative community engagement and management tools for historic urban landscapes

This paper focuses on the management of historic urban landscapes (HUL) located within global cities,referred as global heritage cities hereafter, and explores the means of employing innovative technologies toengage local communities and enhance their active participation in the decision making. For their effectivemanagement, decision-makers need to concentrate on the emerging management challenges induced byglobal development processes, along with the increasingly complex nature of existing legislative,administrative and operative systems. The UNESCO HUL Recommendation presents a wide range ofinterdisciplinary tools, including civic engagement tools, to be adapted to cope with these challenges. Well-maintained paths for collaboration and public participation enhance better site management practices. By offering faster, easier and accessible means of communication, new technological developments facilitatespublic participation. The extent to which these management systems are equipped to address theaforementioned complexities depend on the existence of certain community engagement tools and policies,and how innovative technologies are adapted for their effective operation.

By examining how different means of community engagement are practiced in certain global heritage citiesand the role innovative technologies play in them, this paper aims to explore how participatory means ofcommunication and participation are enhanced with innovative technologies and smart city policies indecision-making for historic urban landscapes of global significance. For this purpose, it will examine casessuch as the citywide participatory budget and project development strategies endorsed with digitaltechnologies in Paris and the use of online platforms to involve citizen engagement for production of thenew constitution in Mexico City. In this way, it will make an original contribution to the heritage managementdiscourse by examining how new technologies are used to build smart community engagement for effectivemanagement of historic urban landscapes.