Articles

Crafting Heritage Futures Through the Urban Socio-Cultural Nexus


Abstract


This study presents the development and validation of a comprehensive assessment framework for evaluating socio-cultural impacts of urban development interventions in historic precincts. Through mixed-method grounded theory and rigorous psychometric analysis, the Urban Heritage Socio-Cultural Impact Assessment (UHSCIA) scale was developed to quantify the multifaceted relationships between urban development and heritage preservation. The scale encompasses four primary constructs: sense of place, social cohesion, cultural assets, and local economy. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the scale's psychometric properties, yielding strong reliability coefficients and satisfactory model fit indices. The validated framework provides urban planners, policymakers, and heritage professionals with an evidence-based tool for evaluating development proposals' impacts on the socio-cultural fabric of historic urban environments.


Keywords


urban heritage, historic precincts, impact assessment, scale validation, heritage futures, urban development, conservation

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2423/i22394303v15n1p207

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