World Heritage Review 55: World Heritage Cities

In Focus

• Revising the approach to urban conservation
  The capacity of historic cities to accommodate and benefit from the radical and rapid changes
  that accompany urban growth while maintaining heritage values is becoming a critical issue.
• Towards social inclusion in urban settings
  More than half of the Earth’s population now lives in urban areas and this spectacular growth is significantly transforming the face of cities and their settings.
• Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca: the challenge to retain World Heritage status
  The State Party and local stakeholders are continually collaborating to maintain a balance between development and conservation interests, ensuring that the two historic cities of Melaka and George Town preserve their World Heritage status.
• Vienna: identity, values, threats
  Vienna developed from early Celtic and Roman settlements into a medieval and Baroque city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It today no longer resembles the city it was over fifty years ago when the Allied forces of
  occupation moved out.
• Stone Town of Zanzibar: revival and issues
  Since its inscription on the World Heritage List, various aspects of the Stone Town of Zanzibar have regained their identity. However, tourism, which has been a source of revitalization, now appears increasingly threatening and
  adversely affecting the integrity of the town.
• Historic Cities – back to the future
  H.Peter Oberlander, a founding father of UN-HABITAT, was Professor Emeritus of community and regional planning at the University of British Columbia (Canada). He wrote this article for the inaugural edition of Urban World just weeks before his death on 27 December 2008.