Conservation and development: implementation of the historic urban landscape approach in Khiva, Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT

Balancing conservation and development is one of the biggest challenges in the management of heritage cities. In 2011, UNESCO adopted the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in order to guide conservationists, urban planners and city administrations in this difficult process. Based on an interpretative policy analysis, this paper explores the implementation of the Historic Urban Landscape approach in the Uzbek World Heritage city Khiva. It describes recent development trends in the city’s historic centre related to urban form, tourism and heritage management. These observations are then checked against the recommended ‘critical steps’ and tools from the Historic Urban Landscape Recommendation. The paper explores if recent urban developments in the city reflect a new understanding of the historic urban landscape, and to what extent the implementation of the Historic Urban Landscape approach supports the reconciliation of conservation and development in the urban regeneration of the city. The analysis shows that while some of the Recommendation’s principles have been implemented, others are barely respected. Conflicts between the interest of tourism development, heritage conservation and the needs of local residents are ubiquitous and represent a case of heritage dissonance.

KEYWORDS:

• Khiva
• Historic urban landscape
• UNESCO
• Heritage cities
• Heritage tourism
• Conservation and development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

This paper is based on the research conducted for the author’s master thesis in the years 2020 and 2021. The paper presents parts of the thesis’ results and has been complemented with up-to-date information. The full master thesis is available online (doi: 10.34726/hss.2021.80981).

Geolocation information

Khiva, Uzbekistan

Latitude: 41° 22’ 41.99” N

Longitude: 60° 21’ 50.00” E

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katharina Höftberger

Katharina Höftberger is an urban planner and researcher with a background in International Development Studies. She studied in Vienna (TU Wien) and Thessaloniki (Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki) and obtained her Masters Degree in Spatial Planning with a focus on heritage management in cities. Katharina has several years of international work experience in the field of public space research, strategic urban development and participatory urban design.