The Issue of Urban Regeneration in Asian Cities - Essay Example

The case study exemplifies that the ten-year-old development cooperation was a success owing to active funding, lively and positive political will, international and domestic partnering, involvement and empowering of the local population, creation of a regulatory framework, creation of an accountable and audited nationwide system of organizations entrusted with the task of urban regeneration integrated with harmonious protection of cultural heritage and proper system of regeneration and conservation skills transfer and training.

Further discussions reveal that many Asian cities can benefit by replicating the Chinon and Luang Prabang models. The paper suggests that future research can continuously probe the need to apply this model to various regions in Asia which will not only result in harmonious urbanization of these areas without damaging their culture but also work to broaden the horizons of international partners who would also gain from the Asian context. Asia-Pacific region is privileged to possess a vast and ancient cultural heritage.

For such a long time, this heritage has shaped much of the lives and value systems of the regions’ peoples. However, heritage is more than a mere historical record of the past; on the contrary, it is an integral part of the identity and a symbol of the cultural identity of the citizens and the communities of the region. Notwithstanding this, Asia is under pressure from various influences. For one, there is globalisation and the need to modernize, two, from an unabated increase in the population of the region, and, three, from the burgeoning demands of tourism.

As a consequence, many cities have come to recognise that their time-preserved cultural heritages are facing the danger of being destroyed in the name of economic development and modernisation. Rapid and large-scale industrialisation and urbanisation have orchestrated the destruction of cultural diversity and identity of the citizens and the communities in such cities. Consequently, quite a few of the cities, endowed with a unique cultural heritage, have identified the need to preserve their indigenous socio-economic structures, cultural assets and environment as part of the process of urban conservation. Protection of the cultural heritage of communities, particularly the heritage that is represented as inbuilt within the environment is an essential element needed to ensure urban regeneration. Indeed, according to Harris Srinivas (1999), the criticality of cultural heritage for cities stems from three sets of factors.