What is a social-ecological system?

ARCH adopts the definition of historic areas as provided by UNESCO:

Historic area

“[a]ny groups of buildings, structures and open spaces including archaeological and palaeontological sites, constituting human settlements in an urban or rural environment, the cohesion and value of which, from the archaeological, architectural, prehistoric, historic, aesthetic or sociocultural point of view are recognized. Among these `areas’, which are very varied in nature, it is possible to distinguish the following in particular: prehistoric sites, historic towns, old urban quarters, villages and hamlets as well as homogeneous monumental groups, it being understood that the latter should, as a rule, be carefully preserved unchanged.”

UNESCO, “Recommendation Concerning the Safeguarding and Contemporary Role of Historic Areas,” Nairobi, Online: https://www.icomos.org/publications/93towns7o.pdf, 1976

However, to identify sources of risks and suitable resilience building measures that go beyond the implementation of broad policies and procedures it is important to acknowledge that historic areas are (partially) made up of single heritage assets. And it is also important to acknowledge that historic areas are nt just the tangible buildings, structures, and landscapes they contain, but are linked to the broader concept of cultural heritage.

Historic asset

“[a] building, monument, site, place, area or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. Heritage asset includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority (including local listing).”

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, “Annex 2: Glossary, National Planning Policy Framework,” 2012. Online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/annex-2-glossary

Cultural heritage

“[…] an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expression and values.”

ICOMOS Cultural Tourism Committee, International Cultural Tourism Charter, ICOMOS, 2002

Following this approach, ARCH understands historic areas as social-ecological system (SES):

Social-ecological system

“[c]omplex systems of people and nature, emphasising that humans must be seen as a part of, not apart from, nature.”

F. Berkes, C. Folke and J. Colding, Linking Social and Ecological Systems: management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

More specifically, ARCH understands historic areas as being composed of an ecological sub-system containing structural elements (natural and built environment) and a social sub-system containing social, cultural, economic, and political elements. These sub-systems are related to each other, with the ecological sub-system providing services for the social system, which in turn conducts interventions on the ecological system (see figure below).