The application of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in terms of the limits of acceptable change

Abstract

twenty-first century from a legal point of view. Despite the adoption of the recommendation and a few official reports on the implementation of it, there are still only a few countries that fully understand the crucial idea of the concept. The main purpose of this study is to illuminate the problematic points of the legal implementation of the Recommendation at the current stage, especially in terms of limits of changes that are equally acceptable at local and international levels. Standards remain unclear within the framework of existing international regulations concerning the protection of historic urban landscapes, and differences remain in particular terms that play significant roles in defining the scope of the influence of the Recommendation. Examining the text of the Recommendation and previous international tools related to the topic, reviewing the experiences of several countries that have already successfully started to implement the rules of the Recommendation based on official reports from UNESCO, and the study of current obstacles will help us to see clearly how the international community might start to move to achieve the universal goal of protecting historic urban landscapes.