Side event organized by Carola Hein, Professor and Chair History of Architecture and Urban Planning at Delft University of Technology and 2024-2025 research-fellow at the Paris IAS (Sorbonne Université Chair), during the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committe.

Event open to the public with registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeic80j4Y9xE3MJwVSClYVCjQHqmF5FUWWJpNiQkQdU_d-8Kg/viewform?usp=preview.

Presentation

At a time of climate change, it is urgent to rethink the relationship of residents and built heritage with rivers, seas, and other water bodies. Ecosystem thinking and value-based approaches can help (re)create livable, sustainable, and just spaces in line with historical practices while protecting, adapting, and learning from history and heritage. Recent initiatives by UNESCO, notably the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach, can be a resource for climate resilience in World Heritage Cities and a model for cities worldwide. How we live with the environment, and notably water, has always been a result of technology, lifestyles, and historical and cultural values at a specific point in time. The current biodiversity crisis calls for deeper awareness of the relationship between culture and nature to contribute effectively to conservation. The World Heritage property of Paris, Banks of the Seine, is a valuable case study for exploring both challenges and opportunities for living with water.

This side event presents the recent mapping of Paris for the UNESCO Urban Heritage Atlas and the Wamunet World Inventory by the UNESCO Chair Water, Ports and Historic Cities and discusses the opportunities of these methodologies and their combination with other methodologies as a foundation for new narratives. It specifically demonstrates opportunities for new collaboration among musea and other institutions along the Seine to create a new, shared narrative on World Heritage and nature-based solutions. This event will help raise attention to the need for capacity building, outreach tools and visualization in line with the mission of the Chair WPHC. Th event will be followed by a guided walk along the Seine to explore opportunities and challenges.

Organizer

UNESCO Chair "Water, Ports and Historic Cities"