Birds have co-inhabited American cities since the colonial era, and as people have noticed and appreciated them, they have taken steps to make cities even more hospitable for them. This dissertation documents the history of birds in cities and efforts to create more bird-friendly urban areas. The examination starts with the commercial core of modern cities, moving outwards through the residential and industrial zones, taking note of parks and other urban oases as well as the transportation and communications networks that help shape and define American cities. Bird conservation activities in scattered cities across the country make each of these urban zones better for birds. The future of birds in American cities depends on how these zones are managed, and the ability of local governments, nonprofits, corporations, and bird enthusiasts working together to protect birds from hazards and provide additional habitat opportunities within the city. / text

In an increasingly urbanised world, historic settlements have been facing tremendous urbanisation and development pressures. In this context, historic settlements included on the World Heritage List ought to be flagships for urban conservation. This dissertation investigates how effectively the existing protection and management policies under the World Heritage Convention contribute to the protection of historic urban settlements and especially their surroundings. The factors affecting urban settlements, and the responses adopted by the international community for the protection of urban heritage, are investigated – first in relation to urban settlements in general, and then in relation to historic settlements included on the World Heritage List. To get a holistic view of how historic settlements have been protected under the World Heritage Convention, the monitoring mechanisms established under the Convention are examined. The analysis of the results of the first cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise and of the state of conservation reports resulting from the Reactive Monitoring process provide an overall view of the main issues influencing the protection of World Heritage settlements. To get an overview of the factors affecting the surroundings of World Heritage settlements in particular, the concept of buffer zone – adopted under the World Heritage Convention as the main mechanism for the protection of the surroundings of World Heritage properties – is investigated not only in relation to its use in other disciplines and to the protection of natural protected areas, but also in the nomination files over time. To investigate how historic settlements and their surroundings in particular have been affected by urbanisation and development pressures, and how they have been protected under the World Heritage Convention, four case studies are studied, namely Angra do Heroísmo in Portugal, Olinda in Brazil, Marrakesh in Morocco and the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. In all four cases I examine how their inscription on the World Heritage List has influenced their protection and that of their surroundings in particular, how the existing managements systems established for their protection have responded to urbanisation and development pressures, and what are the main factors affecting their state of conservation. In addition, as the Kathmandu Valley has received enormous attention under the World Heritage system, this case study is also analysed to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the system has been implemented for the protection of World Heritage settlements. The case studies shed light on five inter-related aspects. First, that the legal and management arrangements adopted for the protection of the World Heritage settlements are not built upon what is considered to be their outstanding universal value, and are insufficient to effectively address existing urbanisation and development pressures. Second, that the factors affecting the state of conservation of World Heritage properties increasingly originate from beyond the properties‘ boundaries, but there is nevertheless no integration of the planning and management arrangements for the World Heritage settlements within their wider urban context. Third, that the surroundings of the World Heritage settlements investigated have continued to undergo considerable change since the time of inscription and are now much more urbanized areas, despite existing legal mechanisms for their protection. Fourth, that although Angra do Heroísmo, Olinda and Marrakesh present similar factors affecting their state of conservation to those identified for the Kathmandu Valley, they have not received the same attention from the World Heritage Committee, pointing to a lack of clarity on the selection process for the follow-up of the state of conservation of a property through Reactive Monitoring. Fifth, in relation to the Kathmandu Valley only, that the involvement of the international community has considerable limitations and needs to be improved. These aspects show that the protection and management policies under the World Heritage Convention are limited, not effectively implemented or enforced, and only address a limited number of the existing needs. The dissertation concludes by articulating how existing trends influencing urban settlements can be more effectively addressed by existing mechanisms under the World Heritage Convention. Finally I bring forward the policy implications deriving from the research findings and suggest broad strategies for improving some of the processes and practices for the protection of World Heritage settlements and their surroundings in particular.

Although urban heritage has been a research field in the focus of scholars’ attention since the concepts of restoration and rehabilitation of monuments had been extended to entire areas such as historical city centres, before the mid‐twentieth century, architectural studies approached towns only through individual historical monuments, and historical studies only through juridical, political, and religious institutions or economic and social structures. In consequence, urban space as the manifestation of the urban phenomenon in its complexity has been largely ignored by the practice of urban conservation. This thesis aims to be a theoretical approach to the field of urban conservation, revealing its place at the crossing of history, architecture, urbanism, geography, philosophy, and anthropology. The creation of place, its understanding, the meaning that places hold for human identity and the way they shape us in return. The basis of such an enquiry is set by looking at attitudes towards the historic fabric over time and the origins of the notion of ‘urban conservation’ in its European context. The concentration of economic, social and cultural exchanges over long periods of time, which characterises traditional urban cultures, gives the value of historical areas in towns. Therefore, the history of urban development provides a substantial contribution towards the protection, conservation, and restoration policy of historic towns and urban areas as well as towards their development and adaptation to contemporary life. The term ‘integrated conservation’ emerged as a response to these changes in conservation’s relationship to heritage and its context. This broadened image of heritage enables a better understanding of how human activity has shaped the urban fabric and of how conservation can be perceived today as a component of management of urban change. This raises a number of theoretical and methodological issues, which are discussed in detail in this thesis: how do we understand the historic urban areas and how do we elicit their cultural values in order to protect and use these values. This research is therefore concerned with the origin and nature of ideas relevant to urban conservation, rather than with what is commonly regarded as being a prescriptive doctrine in heritage conservation generally, and indeed urban conservation. In reality, this latter view of the theoretical and philosophical body of research in conservation is hindering its theoretical development as a discipline and has an undesired, stalling effect on practice development. This is why this research aims to provide tools for thinking about specific conservation issues, not self‐sufficient theories. The references span a very wide timescale because of the inherent preoccupation of humans with their own inhabiting of the world, which is ultimately the frame in which urban settlements are inscribed.

Johannesburg is by international standards, a young city. Yet in its brief existence, just under 120 years, it has exploded from a mining camp into a metropolis - The economic capitol of both South and Sub Saharan Africa (Johannesburg Development Agency, www.jda.co.za). The rapid, and in most cases, poorly planned development of the city has resulted in the destruction of many of the city's heritage resources. Today historical buildings and historical areas exist side by side with contemporary office and residential tower blocks - juxtaposing the city’s past and present in the constant struggle for new space for development and densification. Past and present exist simultaneously, if not always harmoniously - a collision in space and time. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

O presente trabalho procura contribuir para a discussão sobre a preservação de espaços urbanos, investigando o Centro Histórico da cidade de São Paulo como Patrimônio Cultural. Desse modo, avalia os procedimentos adotados para a intervenção urbana no centro da capital paulista, analisando os principais planos, programas e projetos de intervenção que foram completamente ou em parte executados, a partir da década de 1970, elaborados pelas instâncias de preservação do patrimônio (IPHAN - Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional -, CONDEPHAAT - Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Artístico, Arqueológico e Turístico do Estado de São Paulo - e CONPRESP - Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico e Cultural do Município de São Paulo) e também pelos órgãos de planejamento urbano, sobretudo SEMPLA - Secretaria Municipal de Planejamento Urbano - e EMURB - Empresa Municipal de Urbanização. Analisando as diversas políticas públicas relacionadas à preservação de áreas centrais, assim como as ações da iniciativa privada e a perspectiva da sociedade, no Brasil e no exterior, busca refletir sobre a natureza e a metodologia dos projetos implantados em São Paulo, suas áreas de concentração, agentes financiadores, bem como os significados das intervenções, identificando continuidades e descontinuidades na implementação dessas ações, sua abrangência e relevância em relação à preservação do conjunto urbano do Centro Histórico de São Paulo. No âmbito das políticas públicas, a pesquisa procura verificar tensões e diálogos existentes entre as instituições de planejamento e as instituições de preservação do patrimônio, confrontando suas iniciativas, a partir da perspectiva da preservação e valorização dos conjuntos urbanos de valor histórico. / The present work intends to contribute to the discussion about urban spaces preservation, analyzing São Paulos Historic Center like a Cultural Heritage. It tries to evaluate the proceedings adopted for the urban interventions in the center of the capital paulista, analyzing the most important plans, programs and projects, that was completely or in part executed, since the 1970 decade, developed by the heritage agencies (IPHAN - Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional -, CONDEPHAAT - Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Artístico, Arqueológico e Turístico do Estado de São Paulo and CONPRESP - Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico e Cultural do Município de São Paulo) and also by the Urban Planning agencies, above all SEMPLA - Secretaria Municipal de Planejamento Urbano -, and EMURB - Empresa Municipal de Urbanização. Analyzing the several historic center preservation public policies, just as the actions of the private sector, carried out in Brazil and in abroad, intends to ponder about methodology and nature of the projects that was introduced in São Paulo, the areas of implementation, the financial agents, as well as the interventions purpose, identifying its continuities and discontinuities, in addition to the preservation prominence of the São Paulos Historic Center. In what concerns the public policies, this research intends to verify tensions and dialogs between urban planning agencies and cultural heritage preservation agencies, making a comparison between theirs initiatives, in a perspective of preservation and valorization of urban areas with historic values.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between the ownership issues and the conservation of historical housing areas, which is still an ongoing problem in Turkey. The study was carried out with respect to the local and international conservation approaches, as well as three urban conservation experiments from Turkey and Italy. Istanbul - Zeyrek World Heritage Area was taken as a case study to understand further on the issue. Approaches of international authorities on urban conservation such as UNESCO and European Council, and existing conservation legislation in Turkey were studied in relation with the concept of ownership and integration of property owners into the conservation process. Besides, recent changes in Turkish conservation legislation were studied and criticized from the same perspective. Three urban conservation experiences, &ldquo / Renovation of the Historic Center of the City of Bologna&rdquo / from Italy, &ldquo / Rehabilitation of Fener and Balat Districts Programme&rdquo / and &ldquo / TarlabaSi Urban Renewal Project&rdquo / from Istanbul Turkey were also studied within the frame of this study. These practices supplied information about how property owners&rsquo / integration into the process effects conservation of urban environments, from three different perspectives. Zeyrek World Heritage Area is a conservation area with monumental buildings from Byzantine Period and timber houses from Ottoman Period. Although many conservation plans concerning the area has been prepared, historical building stock of the area is in danger. Conservation problems and opportunities of the area were investigated by analysis and social and economic research in the area. At the end of the study, with reference to the experiences discussed, it was emphasized that Zeyrek World Heritage Area could be conserved, with an approach considering property owners within existing social and economic conditions of Zeyrek and current conservation legislation.

Property rights within historical urban contexts, an important aspect when considering how inhabitants create an urban pattern from an urban context, being starting point of living, using, building, designing and forming the built environment. Property rights can refer not only to the physical forms, socio-cultural structures, administrative issues, and political and economic conditions of the urban context, but also their way of defining an order between the context and its inhabitance, investigates the combination of tangible and intangible values and their continuity in an urban context, which has emerged as an important issue in urban conservation studies. While urban conservation studies have sought rational solutions to investigating the combination of tangible and intangible values and its hidden values in the historical urban context, the thesis is to focus to research the relationship between ownership and the physical urban context so as to define the tangible and intangible values of human experiences within the urban context. The city of Antakya (Antioch) has been selected as the case study of this thesis as not only a crucial empirical case owing to its rich historical, multi-cultural historic urban core, but also due to the fact that the current historical urban form was affected and formed under Islamic ownership norms, and later developed under Ottoman land tenures. Additionally, as archive documents such as title deeds have been translated into Turkish, and the cadastral plans of the urban form have been prepared during the French Mandate Period, they can be viewed as sources of reliable information on ownership norms for every single property unit, which is a key asset when attempting to decode the physical urban structure and reveal the hidden salience of the city. Fundamentally, this research clarifies that ownership has the means of affecting something that lies beyond the existence, beyond the apparent, beyond the known and beyond the man-made settlement boundaries that define elusive historical urban forms. The Antakya case reveals clearly that property rights have major implications when attempting to understand the formation and persistence of every single component of an urban form / and accordingly, these aspects deserve greater consideration in urban conservation when attempting to make holistic assessments.

<p>Cape Town is a unique city. It has a global biodiversity hotspot, in the midst of an urban area. Historically, nature conservation practice excluded and marginalized certain groups of people based on their race and class. This has led to peoples&lsquo / disconnection from nature. Rapid biodiversity loss is a major concern for conservators. In the last three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in conservation practice in certain parts of the world. The Cape Flats Nature programme based in Cape Town followed suit and aimed to stimulate a bottom-up participatory approach to conservation and replace the traditional top-down management strategy. The programme was tasked to reconcile the challenges of complex and conflicting relationships between urban poverty, unequal access to resources and biodiversity conservation. This study was aimed at investigating the relationships between conservation management, community partners and urban conservation areas. These relationships are vital for the progression of new conservation practice in places where people live and work. In addition, the transformative aspects of conservation in relation to social inclusion and the shift in conservation approaches was investigated. The study was conducted at five of Cape Town&lsquo / s nature reserves, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Macassar Dunes, Harmony Flats, Wolfgat and Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserves. Data collection included in depth interviews with key informants from various conservation organizations, the Cape Flats Nature Programme team, the managers of the selected reserves and community partners. Others included observational methods and analysis of secondary data. It was found that relationships between conservators and local communities are not easily created and maintained but relationships regardless of its depth are equally beneficial to communities and the conservators. Balancing social needs with conservation needs is a struggle for conservators but many successes came in cases where this balance was realized. In addition, the transformation of conservators&lsquo / identity has changed community perceptions of conservation practice holistically. Although, many informants feel that transformation continues to remain unequal.</p>

<p>Cape Town is a unique city. It has a global biodiversity hotspot, in the midst of an urban area. Historically, nature conservation practice excluded and marginalized certain groups of people based on their race and class. This has led to peoples&lsquo / disconnection from nature. Rapid biodiversity loss is a major concern for conservators. In the last three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in conservation practice in certain parts of the world. The Cape Flats Nature programme based in Cape Town followed suit and aimed to stimulate a bottom-up participatory approach to conservation and replace the traditional top-down management strategy. The programme was tasked to reconcile the challenges of complex and conflicting relationships between urban poverty, unequal access to resources and biodiversity conservation. This study was aimed at investigating the relationships between conservation management, community partners and urban conservation areas. These relationships are vital for the progression of new conservation practice in places where people live and work. In addition, the transformative aspects of conservation in relation to social inclusion and the shift in conservation approaches was investigated. The study was conducted at five of Cape Town&lsquo / s nature reserves, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Macassar Dunes, Harmony Flats, Wolfgat and Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserves. Data collection included in depth interviews with key informants from various conservation organizations, the Cape Flats Nature Programme team, the managers of the selected reserves and community partners. Others included observational methods and analysis of secondary data. It was found that relationships between conservators and local communities are not easily created and maintained but relationships regardless of its depth are equally beneficial to communities and the conservators. Balancing social needs with conservation needs is a struggle for conservators but many successes came in cases where this balance was realized. In addition, the transformation of conservators&lsquo / identity has changed community perceptions of conservation practice holistically. Although, many informants feel that transformation continues to remain unequal.</p>

Cape Town is a unique city. It has a global biodiversity hotspot, in the midst of an urban area. Historically, nature conservation practice excluded and marginalized certain groups of people based on their race and class. This has led to peoples‘ disconnection from nature. Rapid biodiversity loss is a major concern for conservators. In the last three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in conservation practice in certain parts of the world. The Cape Flats Nature programme based in Cape Town followed suit and aimed to stimulate a bottom-up participatory approach to conservation and replace the traditional top-down management strategy. The programme was tasked to reconcile the challenges of complex and conflicting relationships between urban poverty, unequal access to resources and biodiversity conservation. This study was aimed at investigating the relationships between conservation management, community partners and urban conservation areas. These relationships are vital for the progression of new conservation practice in places where people live and work. In addition, the transformative aspects of conservation in relation to social inclusion and the shift in conservation approaches was investigated. The study was conducted at five of Cape Town‘s nature reserves, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Macassar Dunes, Harmony Flats, Wolfgat and Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserves. Data collection included in depth interviews with key informants from various conservation organizations, the Cape Flats Nature Programme team, the managers of the selected reserves and community partners. Others included observational methods and analysis of secondary data. It was found that relationships between conservators and local communities are not easily created and maintained but relationships regardless of its depth are equally beneficial to communities and the conservators. Balancing social needs with conservation needs is a struggle for conservators but many successes came in cases where this balance was realized. In addition, the transformation of conservators‘ identity has changed community perceptions of conservation practice holistically. Although, many informants feel that transformation continues to remain unequal. / Magister Artium - MA