Historic Urban Landscape; the Main Concept and Approach of Conservation Discourse

Nowadays, the rhythm of "change" in cities has been intensified and the serious challenges and problems in historic cities have become more and more. Responding to this situation, the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach has been proposed by international institutions which is reflected in the reference documents of Conservation discourse. HUL by acknowledging the "dynamic and changing nature of cities" and emphasizing the need for "change management", sheds light on facing the challenges and complexities of managing and conservation of historic cities. Despite the numerous historic cities with valuable contexts in Iran, this approach has not been well considered, especially in policy making, practice and designing integrated management frameworks.
Therefore, the present article intends to explain the concept-approach of the HUL and its key principles, and introduce a process to identify, evaluate, conserve and manage historic urban landscapes based on analyzing the UNESCO Recommendation that was published in 2011. According to the current problems in the management of historical cities in Iran, (e.g. the conflict between conservation and development at different levels), proposed process can be effective in guiding the dynamic nature of the cities and conserve of HUL continuity.