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The current pressure on the built historical heritage requires a global evaluation to develop strategies for its preservation. A combined vision of the state of conservation of architectural heritage is essential to highlight the vulnerabilities of the structure from which harmonized measures can be proposed for its mitigation. This study proposes a multi-criteria analysis methodology that considers a qualitative and quantitative approach to organize the global conservation state of heritage buildings hierarchically. A global index can be determined on the basis of the generation of an interoperable data matrix by defining a set of indicators to assess different components of a building. This index describes the risk with respect to the stability, safety, and habitability of the building. This methodology aims to achieve the state of the building in an integral way by obtaining a simple and objective index that enables efficient comparison among different buildings. The application of this methodology to a historic area allows creating a hierarchical map of risk to stablish priorities for intervention and enable a sustainable and critical management and planning over the actions of maintenance, conservation, and restoration. In this way, a holistic vision of the complex reality of built heritage and the urban landscape is obtained to identify critical areas of priority intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renovation of traditional events to suit contemporary demands carries important benefits for the hosting cities, such as the increase in the number of visitors, and the differentiation of destinations and urban spaces that are apparently similar for potential tourists. However, street events attract a considerable number of visitors that are concentrated in a very limited space for a short stay. Especially in historic cities with large number visitors, the so-called tourist-historic cities, events contribute to the commodification of public space, overcrowding, and overuse of certain public spaces and heritage assets during a very short period. Thus, the walkability of this urban area plays a key role in visitors' satisfaction and experience. This article explores the perceptions of tourists in relation to walkability in the streets of the city center of Oaxaca, Mexico, during the celebration of the Guelaguetza Festival. The city center of Oaxaca was included in UNESCO's World Heritage List and is one of the most visited urban destinations in Mexico, while the Guelaguetza is the most popular annual event in the city for national and international visitors. A mixed methodology was developed based on direct observation of tourists walking along the streets of central Oaxaca and the application of a questionnaire. The questionnaire focused on personal aspects and external aspects that affect the desire to walk, such as safety, cleanliness, traffic congestion, and pollution. The results showed relevant differences according to the visitor's background and allowed to suggest some urban improvements to increase visitors' satisfaction. Urban design to achieve a more walkable city is closely related to the success of street festivals and should be included in the early stages of an event's design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luoyang is a representative historic city in China with 13 ancient dynasties ever locating their capitals here, featuring a possession of abundant historical resources like historical sites, tombs, and buried relics. With the rapid spread of urbanization, Luoyang is facing the dilemma of urban redevelopment and the conservation of historical resources, and this dilemma is particularly pressing when it comes to the utilization of underground space, which has been manifested to be an effective way to address the problems of urban development. In this context, the master planning for underground space in Luoyang was conducted. This paper will first analysis the relationship between urban development and the conservation of historical resources in Luoyang, and then give a brief introduction of the master planning for underground space, which will focus principally on the overall layout of underground space development and the general approaches to deal with the conflict between the rehabilitation and conservation of historic districts. The case will provide insights with regard to the utilization and development of urban underground space for other historic cities that is abundant with historical resources, especially the buried ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computational tools are evolving rapidly and continuously challenging the professionals involved with these technologies, which bring us to gain unmatched productivity and response, capable of reaching all strata of society. Today the challenge is to incorporate the human factor in this technological environment to achieve quickly results and low cost of deployment. This work presents an ongoing study on the potential of these technologies to integrate the systems of the documentation of historical and traditional build, with low implementation cost, a system for dissemination and preservation of the historic town of Laranjeiras (Sergipe - Brazil), forming specialized staff in use of digital technologies applicable to the historical documentation. In this dynamic medium for exchange of information specifically we propose to evaluate the infrastructure involved, and all participants in the process. For this we selected a representative set of architectural history of the Laranjeiras city (Sergipe - Brazil), called the Trapiche's Quadroon, which was set up as a case study from which we intend to formulate guidelines to systematize information concerning the heritage of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"King Street, like people, after years of use and abuse, has developed wrinkles in its face. It's time for a facelift" (The Post and Courier, November 17, p. Bi). Such was the sentiment, several years ago, of Charleston, South Carolina merchants as they considered their historic main street. This paper, second in a series, follows the progress of the King Street revitalization project undertaken by the City of Charleston as it strives to maintain its downtown's attractiveness. The current views of the city's merchants, based upon a survey exercise conducted mid-project, provide useful feedback to the city, but of broader importance, provide valuable lessons for other historic tourist cities striving to preserve their urban retail core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• Real dwellings within representative historic buildings of Seville, Spain, were monitored under summer conditions. • Indoor environmental quality, thermal comfort and energy performance were assessed. • The findings show that they are more polluting than recently constructed dwellings and many of them may lack thermal comfort. • User-driven thermal loads have a significant effect on overall energy demand. • Reducing their mechanical cooling demand would not require intrusive physical interventions. The potential benefits for making the historic buildings of heritage cities non-polluting and energy efficient have only recently stirred the interest of researchers and policy makers in facing the necessary challenges. In southern Europe, most of these buildings are residential and are mainly listed at low grades of protection, allowing for significant transformation. This article quantitatively evaluates the indoor environment and energy performance of the residential heritage building stock under the severe summer conditions characteristic of the Mediterranean climate zone. The historic centre of Seville (Andalusia, Spain) is used as a case study. Three dwellings located in representative listed buildings within its conservation area were monitored and analysed taking occupant behaviour into account. The findings show that many dwellings may lack thermal comfort conditions, which cannot always be guaranteed by passive strategies alone. In addition, these buildings are more polluting than recently constructed ones because they depend entirely for their energy supply on the public electricity grid. Interestingly, in most cases reducing the mechanical cooling demand would not require intrusive physical interventions, but would largely rely on suitable window shading and nightly natural ventilation when outdoor conditions allow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]