Author(s)

A. Nayer, D. Abdel Fattah

Abstract

Historical area conservation has become a cultural necessity not only for its urban qualities and valuable heritage but also due to the lack of maintenance and misuse of urban means. The need to protect the historical environment affected by deterioration of ecological resources and economic growth, in addition to high rates of consumption, is currently highly questionable. A framework for structuring information on sustainable urban indicators is discussed in order to develop a unique integrated representation that links together historical urban areas, socio-economic aspects, environmental, and spatial dimensions in addition to other factors such as time, space, activities, interests, and quality of life. In order to reduce the complexity of multi-attribute criteria of sustainability, this research proposes a model to assess urban sustainability indicators in heritage nodes. The research investigates indicators of urban qualities based on the integration of a BEQUEST network and efficient qualitative scales (quantifiable cities) to develop an integrative, multi-scalar assessment method. Delivered scheme, sustainable historical area index (SHAI), results should provide assessment methods to be used in developing historical areas and provides sustainable evaluations for enhancing urban aspects. A methodology towards maintaining the quality of urban approaches is considered as a means to evaluating the sustainable development of historical areas. This paper investigates the optimum corresponding values to be applied in assessing sustainability of urban development within historical areas.

Keywords

sustainability indicators, assessment methodology, historical urban areas, quality of urban spaces, multi-scalar attributes