A New Framework for the Regeneration Process of Mediterranean Historic City Centres

Urban Public Policy and the Formation of Dilapidated Abandoned Buildings in Historic Cities: Causes, Impacts and Recommendations

The contradictory and inefficient nature of urban public policy in Iranian historic cities has been subject to long debates in recent years, and has even led to disorganisation in the formation of dilapidated abandoned buildings (DABs). Under the current policies, three government agencies oversee the urban management in historic cities. The projects and processes that have yet to be implemented by these agencies are crucial for solving the problems associated with DABs. This research aims to investigate the current public policies of the essential key players and stakeholders in order to ameliorate the problem of DABs, which in the literature has been proven to be associated with socio-spatial disadvantage. A qualitative semi-structured enquiry was conducted, and urban public policies were evaluated on the basis of 19 in-depth interviews regarding the three historic cities of Yazd, Kashan and Isfahan. The results were analysed using cutting and sorting techniques, and thematic and critical narrative analysis. Several inadequacies in the current urban public policy were specified. This research could help decision-makers to create efficient management plans with respect to the reduction of DABs, an approach that can be considered efficient for the regeneration of life in historic cities.

An Empirical Analysis of Driving Factors and Policy Enablers of Heritage Adaptive Reuse within the Circular Economy Framework

The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage has been recognized as a driver of the circular economy. It stimulates economic growth, boosts its inherent values, and reduces material usage and energy consumption. It can be regarded unviable due to financial constraints, limitations in regulatory frameworks and lack of engagement in decision-making. To tackle these challenges, this study aims to examine the drivers and related policy instruments that support adaptive reuse practices, and to analyze the usefulness and feasibility of a set of multi-level policy enablers at varying local contexts. In this context, we first conducted a semi-systematic review of academic and gray literature and identified 19 driving factors and associated policy documents. These instruments were concentrated on administrative, regulatory and financial tools. This analysis led to the identification of policy enablers that can be adopted at three levels: European, national and local. An online survey was then conducted to investigate how a variety of local stakeholders in the selected case cities and region evaluate the adaptability of these enablers in their individual cases. The findings show that all the assessed enablers are deemed useful and feasible to a certain extent with higher score of usefulness, confirming the adaptability of these instruments into the circular economy framework. These evidence-based results can inform future policies at multiple-levels that will accelerate and scale up circular actions through heritage adaptive reuse.

Exploring the Determinants of Residential Satisfaction in Historic Urban Quarters: Towards Sustainability of the Walled City Famagusta, North Cyprus

In recent times, despite the importance of historic urban quarters in the sustenance of ancient cultural heritage, planned modernization of urban areas usually neglects these culturally sensitive areas. Resulting in relocations and perceived dissatisfaction of its residents, this reported negligence is partly the result of a dearth of research exploring the multi-dimensional evaluation framework for assessing the long-term environmental, economic, social, and cultural aspects of residential satisfaction in historic urban quarters. Hence, the aspirations, needs, demands, and desires of the residents of historic urban quarters are not readily known to policy makers; neither is these needs, desires and expectations are well established in the residential satisfaction literature. The essence of residential satisfaction research is not merely to report the current living situation in a given residential environment, but also to pinpoint which facets the municipal governments must enhance to improve homeownership and rental rates, amongst others. Most of the studies on residential satisfaction merely focused on the social sustainability dimension, therefore, not acknowledging the salient roles, environmental, and economic concerns play in boosting the satisfaction levels of residents of historic urban quarters. Thus, this study aims to fill this gap between theory and application of the sustainability concept in addressing practical problems of relocations and perceived dissatisfaction amid residents of urban culturally sensitive areas. It fills this gap by assessing the perceptions of residents and non-residents on the importance of the determinants of residential satisfaction in a historic urban quarter. Regarding this, a comprehensive list of 32 potential sustainability performance factors (SPF) was determined through an extensive review of related literature, based on which a questionnaire administered to 245 households residing in the historic urban quarters of the Walled City, Famagusta, North Cyprus. Also, 167 households residing outside of the quarters, to assess their perception of the criticality of the identified factors, as well as examine the agreement levels in the opinions of the two participant groups. Using principal component analysis (PCA), the 32 different factors were narrowed down to eight. The study findings show that “Cost of housing” and “Suitable Management rules” are the most critical factors with relatively high overall scoring. Findings reveal that residents’ perceptions differ significantly based on participants’ ethnicity, while there is no significant difference based on the profile of residents/social class. This study argues that clearly understanding the criticality of the factors impacting satisfaction in housing and the residential environment is crucial for planning sustainable regeneration and revitalization programs in any HUQ. The findings of this study would be useful to housing policy decision-makers, urban planners, and municipalities to understand better the residents’ needs that could aid the sustenance of historic urban quarters. The authors suggest the adoption of the framework developed by this study as an analytical, research, and assessment tool in future housing satisfaction studies in different contexts.