- Embrace the Future with the Past: ’Canal Heritage’ and the Role it Plays in the Development of its Host City    973 kb by    He, Shuaishuai & Viles, Heather | shuaishuai.he@ouce.ox.ac.uk    Short Outline This paper argues that identifying and conserving ''canal heritage'' will aid the revitalization of the host city(Zhenjiang, Jiangsu in this case), and that this will be facilitated by the on-going World Heritage listing application for the Grand Canal. Abstract Taking advantage of the opportunity to work with the on-going World Heritage listing application for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, this paper outlines a project which explores the issues of “canal heritage” conservation in the built environment of China and how heritage can aid realizing urban revitalization in the chosen area. This paper firstly reviews the history and current situation of urban development and heritage conservation in China. The aim is to develop a theoretically-informed, but practically-viable approach to linking heritage conservation and urban development in China which learns from the past and looks to the future. The project focuses on Zhenjiang (Jiangsu Province) - a city in eastern China along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The first phase of the field work is to identify, evaluate and gather information on ''canal heritage” in Zhenjiang. Based on this step conservation proposals will be made accordingly, respectively and systematically later on. The second phase will focus on investigation into the relations between the “canal heritage” and the urban environment in Zhenjiang. This will include application of urban development theories and history examining the impact brought by the canal to the city form, the city image, as well as economic, social and political aspects of the city. The third phase will proceed to analyze and predict the future influences that the “canal heritage” will bring to the city. Keywords canal heritage; urban revitalization; World Heritage Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2011: LIVEABLE CITIES: URBANISING WORLD, Meeting the Challenge   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper