Cultural Sustainability

With the advancement of knowledge about the utility and impact of sustainability, its feasibility has been explored into different walks of life. Scientists, however; have established their knowledge in four areas viz environmental, economic, social and cultural, popularly termed as four pillars of sustainability. Aspects of environmental and economic sustainability have been rigorously researched and practiced and huge volume of strong evidence of effectiveness has been founded for these two sub-areas. For the social and cultural aspects of sustainability, dependable evidence of effectiveness is still to be instituted as the researchers and practitioners are developing and experimenting methods across the globe. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify globally used practices of social and cultural sustainability and through evidence synthesis assess their outcomes to determine the effectiveness of those practices. A PICO format steered the methodology which included all populations, popular sustainability practices including walkability/cycle tracks, social/recreational spaces, privacy, health & human services and barrier free built environment, comparators included ‘Before’ and ‘After’, ‘With’ and ‘Without’, ‘More’ and ‘Less’ and outcomes included Social well-being, cultural co-existence, quality of life, ethics and morality, social capital, sense of place, education, health, recreation and leisure, and holistic development. Search of literature included major electronic databases, search websites, organizational resources, directory of open access journals and subscribed journals. Grey literature, however, was not included. Inclusion criteria filtered studies on the basis of research designs such as total randomization, quasi-randomization, cluster randomization, observational or single studies and certain types of analysis. Studies with combined outcomes were considered but studies focusing only on environmental and/or economic outcomes were rejected. Data extraction, critical appraisal and evidence synthesis was carried out using customized tabulation, reference manager and CASP tool. Partial meta-analysis was carried out and calculation of pooled effects and forest plotting were done. As many as 13 studies finally included for final synthesis explained the impact of targeted practices on health, behavioural and social dimensions. Objectivity in the measurement of health outcomes facilitated quantitative synthesis of studies which highlighted the impact of sustainability methods on physical activity, Body Mass Index, perinatal outcomes and child health. Studies synthesized qualitatively (and also quantitatively) showed outcomes such as routines, family relations, citizenship, trust in relationships, social inclusion, neighbourhood social capital, wellbeing, habitability and family’s social processes. The synthesized evidence indicates slight effectiveness and efficacy of social and cultural sustainability on the targeted outcomes. Further synthesis revealed that such results of this study are due weak research designs and disintegrated implementations. If architects and other practitioners deliver their interventions in collaboration with research bodies and policy makers, a stronger evidence-base in this area could be generated.

Andalucía es un territorio fuertemente antropizado y su paisaje se ha ido definiendo a través de siglos de historia. Cientos de generaciones de seres humanos agrupados en bandas, tribus, ciudades o estados, con diferentes niveles tecnológicos y capacidad de transformación del medio y con relaciones culturales de corto y largo alcance con otros grupos humanos, han habitado y/o transitado este territorio y explotado sus recursos dejando fortísimas improntas en el paisaje que percibieron y percibimos. Desde el ámbito de la cultura, en este proyecto se atiende a los valores culturales del paisaje como objetivo prioritario, reivindicado una adecuada atención a la memoria del lugar y del tiempo en los procesos de intervención territorial, su toma en consideración como elemento activo en la política y gestión del patrimonio, como legado histórico e identidad colectiva, y como responsabilidad contemporánea en la configuración de entornos de calidad y de valores sociales para las generaciones futuras.

INTRODUCTION Few can have fully foreseen the success of the idea of ‘Sustainable Development’ when it was introduced to a broad global audience in 1987 by the Brundtland report ‘Our Common Future’. Almost 30 years later, the idea is still increasingly being presented as a pathway to all that is good and desirable in society, widely adopted and frequently called-in-aid. Sustainability is essentially about the future(s) we want. This brings questions about the possible trajectories for a different future(s) and development of humanity. What can be achieved? How to surmount conflicts among competing values? What kind of political subject could emerge capable of making the decisions needed to ensure a better future? How to initiate and manage the sustainability transformation, both locally and globally? In order to meet many urgent challenges of the present, new modes of thinking and acting are required. It is increasingly agreed that sustainable development as incremental change is not sufficient, but a fundamental transformation to sustainability that concern the human systems as whole, is needed. This would mean a turning point for the contemporary humanity as a whole - a quest for a paradigm based on the choice of life lived humanly within the planetary boundaries not merely in physical sense, but even more in social, political and spiritual sense. This calls, in turn, for a better understanding of the role of culture in striving towards and achieving sustainability.

La importancia que están adquiriendo los estudios y prácticas sobre el paisaje hacen de este recurso espacial uno de los grandes protagonistas de todas las políticas públicas que tienen incidencia territorial. Por otro lado, los compromisos adquiridos al reconocer el Convenio Europeo del Paisaje obligan a las instancias públicas a dar respuestas a situaciones y problemas que precisan reflexión previa y métodologías de análisis rigurosas al tiempo que flexibles en relación con este objeto de estudio. Además, en los estudios sobre paisaje, la categoría de paisajes culturales o patrimoniales, asimilables a los paisajes protegidos del Convenio, ofrece una nueva escala en la que entender los valores de los bienes culturales. Superados como paradigma de la tutela patrimonial, los conjuntos históricos y los entornos se revelan insuficientes para una responsabilidad de protección que se fija ahora en la escala general del territorio. Esto motiva no sólo un cambio de escala, sino también un cambio en la concepción de la propia protección. Este artículo pretende, a través de la presentación de los paisajes de interes cultural, proporcionar nuevas claves, métodos y temas de debate sobre cómo entender y gestionar el patrimonio cultural y hacer de éste un verdadero factor de calidad de poblaciones y territorios.

This study aims to define mass forced migration resulting from human induced disasters such as war and armed conflict in the past 25 years of the turn of the 21st century; along with the arising problems pertaining to the conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage that is associated with its users. Furthermore, the study aims to propose solutions via an established methodology.
The working bodies of the United Nations demonstrate that the number of people who have had to migrate due to human-induced or natural disasters in recent times is constantly fluctuating, and every 20 minutes 1 person is displaced according to the data from 2017.
According to the 2016 Global Trend Study of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of people who migrated across the world due to security concerns reached 65.5 million by the end of 2016. According to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR-Global Assessment Report) prepared by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), between 2008 and 2012: 120 million people were displaced due to disasters related to the weather (climate related, hydrological, meteorological) and 24 million people were displaced due to geophysical happenings (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos).
International organizations working on the elimination of the effects of war and armed-conflict, assess the intensity of the conflict based on its physical and human impact. While the physical effects of war or conflict are defined in terms of human resources, infrastructure, housing, the economy and cultural values; the human impact is defined in terms of the number of affected, injured, lost, harmed and displaced people along with refugees . The forced mass migration that these disasters indirectly lead to, accelerates the loss of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
The significant increases in the frequency and magnitude of disasters occurring at the turn of the 21st century, are severely damaging cultural heritage. The significance of protecting the heritage sites physically along with their users, comes to the forefront once again with the migrations resulting from disasters.
Research indicates that migration is as old as human history and it progressed in proportion to technological developments and escalated with the industrial revolution. Especially in the 1990s, the globalization movement rapidly increased the speed and capacities of information and communication technologies and thus impacted events all over the world. Moreover, this situation changed the way disaster management was perceived and approached.
The process evaluated within the scope of this study encompasses the national and international forced mass migrations resulting from human induced disasters in the 21st century, within the context of current protection issues.
The mitigation of all negative situations caused by human induced disasters can only be possible with the protection of cultural heritage, disaster risk mitigation studies with a holistic approach, and proper risk management. In situations of war and armed-conflict, cultural heritage is damaged both by selective / targeted destruction and by general destruction (historical environment). Thirdly, the fact that legal procedures do not function due to the conflict, leads to the escalation of illegal excavations and the smuggling of antiquities. Moreover, it is one of the most salient risks that damages tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the event of forced mass migration due to major disasters such as war, armed-conflict and internal turmoil. In the case of forced mass migration due to disasters in historical settlements, it is not merely a case of people migrating but due to this migration the rites, rituals, traditional productions associated with the space and the cultural values related to the space are also abandoned. Some of the losses in disasters occur immediately and some occur after a certain amount of time. When the physical spaces that constitute the tangible cultural heritage are protected together with the original user, then the intangible cultural heritage is also indirectly preserved.
The proper management of the crisis situation that emerged with disasters, the planning of return, the trainings to be provided to migrants and other implementations are discussed in the thesis in line with the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in its place of origin and flourishing.
Intangible cultural heritage has a cultural and social value for society. Trying to protect these values in the aftermath of the disaster will make it easier for the disaster victims to overcome the trauma they have experienced. The protection of monumental structures of the area, elements of civil architecture, and local productions in the workshops during and after the disaster, facilitate the return process of societies to daily life after the disaster and also help restore social ties. Therefore, the continuity of culture can be sustained through the coexistence of the space and its users.
The aid funds to be used for the protection of cultural heritage in the historical regions that have been damaged due to disasters, have the potential to constitute an indirect driving force for displaced people to return. Thus, the revival of the region, the continuity of culture, keeping the space together with the original user, will ensure “cultural continuity”.
The examining of the cases related to human induced disasters, especially ones that occurred in historical regions, and the ensuing forced mass migrations, provides salient data that constitutes examples for further practices. In the study, three of the four regions selected as case studies are places where peace has been attained and the other place is an area where war is continuing. Cases from important conflict areas with which we share common values and where there is an Ottoman legacy were selected. Cases pertaining to war and migration from the selected areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Lebanon-Beirut and Syria were examined. The war, immigration, return, cultural heritage relations, displacement and the severance of cultural continuity were examined for the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the years of 1992 and 1995, of Lebanon between the years of 1975-1990 and of Kosovo between the years of 1998 and 1999. Then the continuing civil war and migration in Syria since 2011 was examined in terms of where it began and what the situation is now. The scrutiny of all four cases and the obtained results shall ensure the completion of the suggestions on how to protect cultural heritage in instances of migration.
The survey studies being conducted with people who have emigrated to Turkey; have been categorised under the following themes: the historical / social texture before the war, the relationship between architectural design and the environment, the relationship between space and function/action, the state of conservation before the war, the changes in the physical space, the post-war homeland. With the help of the questions that have been asked under these themes, the survey study aims to define the state of the preservation of cultural heritage affected by migration, by considering the effects of migration on the protection of historical sites, the perception of cultural heritage and the relationship between the sense of belonging and the homeland.
At the end of this dissertation "the planning of disaster risk management for cultural heritage in cases of forced migration due to human-induced disasters" constitutes a systematic model that responds to the risks / problems identified during the thesis study, with the help of the data obtained from the case studies, surveys and research conducted for this thesis. The model is comprised of 3 phases: "risk reduction and preparation phase" before the war/armed conflict; "monitoring and capacity conservation phase" when the war/armed conflict begins, spreads and during the armed conflict / war; "the planning of the return process and the rehabilitation of historical areas" in the rehabilitation phase after the war/ armed conflict. Through the case studies a solution proposal that focuses on the post-disaster phase of disaster management while including all the pre-disaster, disaster and post disaster implementations, has been developed. This proposal also encompasses the topics of “community participation, capacity building, sustainable development, vision, security, equality, restructuring and reconciliation”. The study has shown that, in light of the changing parameters of war and armed conflicts after 1990, there needs to be changes and additions made to the solution path of the subject that was researched. The fact that the user constitutes the key actor in this issue, relocation within mass migration, the importance of return, the role of cultural heritage as a driving force in the process of reconstruction should all be considered as part of the management system. The fact that long-term sustainable development can only be attained through the disaster-stricken country's own resources, local building production knowledge and original user participation, is proof that the country needs to be prepared for sustainable return to ensure the return of the original users and to obtain successful sustainability. Turning the existing risk situation into an opportunity and using the protection of cultural heritage as a driving force constitutes the basis of a sustainable study. In the protection of cultural heritage, the model of “planning the return / return home and the planning of the rehabilitation of the historical environment in cases of forced mass migration due to human induced disasters” defines the theoretical and practical necessity of reconstruction.

The cultural heritage of medieval Sicily faces enormous challenges. Rich and diverse as it is, it is beset by numerous problems that have rendered it fragile and often inaccessible. The situation is such that many sites are unsigned. Others are very difficult to get to. And even others – ones that are more easily located – have erratic hours, essentially locking out the average visitor to Sicily unless they are willing to invest the time and have the language skills necessary to persuade residents in the surrounding area to get the access keys.

Given these challenges, we are developing The Norman Sicily Project to document the cultural heritage of medieval Sicily during its Norman period (in other words, c. 1061-1194) so that a wide audience can learn about what was once there and what still remains. The site attempts to reconstruct what we know about the society by bringing together images, documents, basic identifying information, geolocation data and, in some cases, videos, using modern web development techniques. It also offers genealogical information and visualization tools that can help visitors understand the data in new ways. The intention is that the project will offer scholars, students and the general public who are interested in Norman Sicily the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with each other while suggesting a web-based model for other medieval communities.