Cultural Landmarks and Urban Landscapes in Three Contrasting Societies

Jiquan Chen, Hogeun Park, Peilei Fan, Li Tian, Zutao Ouyang and Raffaele Lafortezza
Additional contact information
Jiquan Chen: Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Hogeun Park: The World Bank, Washington, DC 20433, USA
Peilei Fan: School of Planning, Design, and Construction and Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Li Tian: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100864, China
Zutao Ouyang: Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Raffaele Lafortezza: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: Cultural heritage sites and landscapes are intuitively connected in urban systems. Based on available databases of cultural landmarks, we selected three pairs of cities that are currently dominated by three contrasting religions (Catholic, Buddhist and emerging culture) to compare the long-term changes in cultural landmarks, to quantify their spatial distribution in the current landscape, and to examine the potential influences these landmarks have on landscapes. The landmark database and landscapes were constructed from archived maps, satellite imagery and the UNESCO heritage sites for Barcelona, Bari, Beijing, Vientiane, Shenzhen, and Ulaanbaatar. Roads in Asian cities are mostly constructed in alignment with the four cardinal directions, forming a checkerboard-type landscape, whereas Bari and Barcelona in Europe have examples of roads radiating from major cultural landmarks. We found clear differences in the number of landmarks and surrounding landscape in these cities, supporting our hypothesis that current urban landscapes have been influenced similarly by cultural landmarks, although substantial differences exist among cities. Negative relationships between the number of cultural landmarks and major cover types were found, except with agricultural lands. Clearly, cultural landmarks need to be treated as “natural features” and considered as reference points in urban planning. Major efforts are needed to construct a global database before an overarching conclusion can be made for global cities.

Keywords: heritage landmarks; landscape; cultural influences; urban planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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