Assessing the contribution of cultural agglomeration in urban regeneration through developing cultural strategies

The recent discussion regarding contemporary urban regeneration has underlined the increasing role of art and cultural agglomeration as an essential part of a progressive agenda for local development. In fact, there is a good deal of literature which is related to specific and finite cultural strategies. Although scholars, in some cases, may suggest other perspectives, their value narrows to a comprehensive evaluation regarding the possible interpretation of cultural agglomeration in respect of urban regeneration. Accordingly, this study, by using an interdisciplinary systemic approach based on the clustering of cultural carriers, developed the cultural strategies under a six concepts scheme. The study then, through developing a method based on modes and development approach of cultural agglomeration, recategorized the six mentioned strategies into three major categories of cultural strategies, to find out their contribution in the process of urban regeneration. Overall, the study revealed the extent of cultural agglomeration as a method of developing cultural strategies in urban regeneration.     

Revitalizing historic urban quarters: A model for determining the most relevant strategic approach

For a couple of decades now revitalization of historic urban quarters has become popular throughout the world especially in many European cities. In some cases the positive transformation of these valuable places has not been achieved. However, there have been some success stories. The aim of this paper is to question the background of these differences and try to reach a proposal of a model for the determination of the most appropriate strategic approach for their revitalization. The method, which is employed in this paper, rests upon a thorough literature survey, which has conveyed an understanding of the revitalization rationale. The validity of the proposed model has been examined on many different examples of revitalization projects in European cities.     

Assessing the Impact of Tourism on the Physical Environment of a Small Coastal Town: Girne,Northern Cyprus

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of tourism on Girne, with special emphasis on the natural and built environments. With this aim in mind, the study first reviews the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the physical environment of the coastal cities. These impacts are used to develop the methodology for assessing the impacts in the second part. Accordingly, 11 negative impacts/indicators (4 for natural environment and 7 for built environment) and 9 positive impacts/indicators (3 for natural environment and 6 for built environment) have been selected and founded as relevant for assessing tourism impacts of the case study. Then, each selected indicator has been measured by using a series of analyses results. Following these results, some suggestions are made for encouraging the positive impacts and for decreasing the pressure created by tourism on the physical environment of the town. The issues discussed in the paper are relevant to other small historic cities in the Mediterranean Basin. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for proper planning strategies to minimize negative impacts on physical environment and significant difference of impacts between historic district and newly developing areas.