Open research questions in Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation

What the literature leaves open

• The lack of a method to evaluate conservation and exhibition design together, room by room. The need for a technique to assess the spatial legibility of historic buildings converted into museums.

  Conservation, Exhibition Design, and Spatial Legibility in a Historic Palace—Museum: Comparative Spatial Intervention Analysis of the Ibrahim Pasha Palace (Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts), Istanbul · 2026 · DOI

• The limited number of academic studies carried out in universities in this field has proven to be inadequate in terms of creating general public awareness about the subject. The intangible cultural heritage convention could not be signed in the TRNC due to political reasons, leading to a lack of sufficient change and awareness about it on the island.

  The Impact of the Sustainability of Intangible Cultural Heritage Elements (ICH) and the Awareness of the Ministry of Culture Personnel on the Safeguarding and Sustainability of Cultural Heritage · 2025 · DOI

• The lack of strategic heritage management frameworks grounded in environmental impact assessments, long-term planning, and principles of sustainability. The need for alternative tourism models that promote more resilient and inclusive development.

  Cultural Heritage Preservation and Management in Areas Affected by Overtourism—A Conceptual Framework for the Adaptive Reuse of Sarakina Mansion in Zakynthos, Greece · 2025 · DOI

• The paper acknowledges the need for prioritising safety and safeguarding in the development of GenAI systems.

  Generative AI in Heritage Practice: Improving the Accessibility of Heritage Guidance · 2025 · DOI

• The study faces challenges due to its limited sample size and scope. The research acknowledges the risk of cultural homogenization and the loss of distinct cultural identities. The study identifies the need for further validation and scalability assessment.

  Integrating Memetics and Gamified Virtual Reality for the Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage: The Case of Mo Jia Quan · 2025 · DOI

• There is a gap in understanding the relationship between vernacular architecture and tourism policy in non-EU countries. The paper identifies a need to examine the role of preserving the vernacular cultural landscape in sustainable tourism.

  Preservation of Vernacular Cultural Landscape and Sustainable Tourism: A Case Study from the Western Carpatho-Balkan Region · 2025 · DOI

• The study highlights the need for a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to vulnerability assessment in cultural heritage contexts.

  Contributions to Architectural and Urban Resilience Through Vulnerability Assessment: The Case of Mozambique Island’s World Heritage · 2025 · DOI

• The role of buffer zones in urban UNESCO World Heritage sites is not well understood. There is a lack of research on the significance of buffer zones for tourism and heritage conservation. The management of buffer zones is not well thought out, leading to suboptimal policy and management.

  How Significant Are Buffer Zones for Tourism at Urban UNESCO World Heritage Sites? · 2025 · DOI

• The lack of quantitative analysis regarding the non-linear driving mechanisms of spatial distribution. The misalignment of culture–tourism coupling. The need for a holistic spatial governance approach to address the challenges of linear cultural heritage.

  Spatial Mechanisms and Coupling Coordination of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Along the Jinzhong Segment of the Great Tea Road · 2025 · DOI

• Physiological barriers, such as mobility issues and long-term health conditions, can limit older adults' access to the historic environment. Financial barriers, such as the cost of transport and entry fees, can also limit access. The study highlights the need for tailored approaches that address the needs of older adults and provide additional support to access historic places.

  Situating Place and Wellbeing Within Heritage Interactions for Older Adults · 2025 · DOI

• There is a lack of understanding of the needs of older adults in interacting with the historic environment. There is a need to develop a wider knowledge base on aging, well-being, and the local historic environment. The study aims to address this gap by exploring the views of professionals on how older adults interact with the historic environment.

  Situating Place and Wellbeing Within Heritage Interactions for Older Adults · 2025 · DOI

• Theoretical discussion of place identity has largely evolved in urban contexts within environmental psychology and human geography.

  Reframing Place Identity for Traditional Village Conservation: A Theoretical Model with Evidence from Dali Dong Village · 2025 · DOI

• The lack of clear conceptual definitions or consistent evaluative criteria for gamification in architectural heritage - The ambiguity of the concept of gamification in cultural heritage contexts - The need for a unified terminological framework for heritage-gamification…

  What Is Architectural Heritage Gamification? · 2026 · DOI

• Further study on the application of CSIA in other historic buildings, - Investigation of the impact of exhibition design on visitor experience, - Analysis of the relationship between conservation and exhibition design in different cultural…

  Conservation, Exhibition Design, and Spatial Legibility in a Historic Palace—Museum: Comparative Spatial Intervention Analysis of the Ibrahim Pasha Palace (Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts), Istanbul · 2026 · DOI

• The poor quality of some Official Government Gazette topographical charts and maps made certain boundary sections unclear, - The socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing urban expansion were not explicitly included…

  The Impact of Built-Up Area Dispersion on the Cultural Heritage of the Region of the South Aegean, Greece · 2025 · DOI

• An integrated spatial planning system that incorporates landscape and cultural heritage assets into strategic planning regulations is needed, - Further research on the impact of built-up area dispersion on cultural heritage…

  The Impact of Built-Up Area Dispersion on the Cultural Heritage of the Region of the South Aegean, Greece · 2025 · DOI

• The MGWR model's sensitivity to spatial scale and data resolution may further explain the observed limitations, - The low significance ratio of river density could stem from its uniform global distribution or nonlinear interactions with modern conservation mechanisms, - Socioeconomic variables constrained by administrative boundaries might mask localized cultural or historical dynamics, - The current grid-based…

  Spatiotemporal Distribution and Evolution of Global World Cultural Heritage, 1972–2024 · 2025 · DOI

• The XGBoost model achieved a relatively low R 2 of 0.16 on the test set, - The relatively small sample size may limit the generalizability of findings at micro scales, - The study primarily focuses on national-level analysis, lacking fine-scale exploration at provincial or municipal levels, - This study was unable to quantitatively assess implicit factors such as historical evolution, socio-cultural identity, policy…

  Industrial Heritage in China: Spatial Patterns, Driving Mechanisms, and Implications for Sustainable Reuse · 2025 · DOI

• Expand the set of variables to include socio-cultural identity, policy environment, and land-use change, - Enhance the model's ability to capture complex non-linear relationships and spatial heterogeneity, - Address limitations through indirect quantification and the use of proxy indicators, - Use measures such as the intensity of local government financial investment, the number of cultural heritage protection…

  Industrial Heritage in China: Spatial Patterns, Driving Mechanisms, and Implications for Sustainable Reuse · 2025 · DOI

• Further research should include longitudinal monitoring and impact evaluation to determine the effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability of the proposed model over…

  Community Branding and Participatory Governance: A Glocal Strategy for Heritage Enhancement · 2025 · DOI

• Evaluating HAZEL's effectiveness in real-world workflows, such as outlining guidance documents or producing summaries, - Examining potential affective dimensions of (Gen)AI, - Conducting formal beta testing, - Investigating whether ChatGPT indeed exhibits a particular writing…

  Generative AI in Heritage Practice: Improving the Accessibility of Heritage Guidance · 2025 · DOI

• The study is positioned as an exploratory effort due to its limited sample size and scope, - the study has a small sample size of ten participants, - no other limitations are explicitly…

  Integrating Memetics and Gamified Virtual Reality for the Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage: The Case of Mo Jia Quan · 2025 · DOI

• ChatGPT's reliance on textual data rather than direct visual analysis, - The tool's inability to meet specific academic requirements such as word count and accurate referencing, - Limited accuracy in identifying specific pathologies, - ChatGPT's lack of expertise in traditional conservation…

  Architectural Heritage and Artificial Intelligence: Diagnosis and Solutions Proposed by ChatGPT for Algerian Historical Monuments · 2025 · DOI

• Training AI models with detailed input and feedback mechanisms, - Integrating AI with comprehensive databases and expert validation, - Exploring the application of AI in other cultural heritage…

  Architectural Heritage and Artificial Intelligence: Diagnosis and Solutions Proposed by ChatGPT for Algerian Historical Monuments · 2025 · DOI

• Lack of staff has been and remains a major issue, - Finding and training employees is difficult, - Building a network of farmers and smallholders to work…

  The Heritage Paradox: When Tourism Turns the Idyllic into the Mercantile in Rural Transylvania · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation

• Staged authenticity and heritage tourism · Annals of Tourism Research · 2003 · 703 citations
• Stakeholder collaboration and heritage management · Annals of Tourism Research · 2005 · 606 citations
• The core of heritage tourism · Annals of Tourism Research · 2003 · 574 citations
• Built cultural heritage and sustainable urban development · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2007 · 465 citations
• The role and dimensions of authenticity in heritage tourism · Tourism Management · 2019 · 465 citations
• The Cultural Values Model: An integrated approach to values in landscapes · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2007 · 431 citations
• Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice · The American Indian Quarterly · 2006 · 401 citations
• The Impact of Cultural Events on City Image: Rotterdam, Cultural Capital of Europe 2001 · Urban Studies · 2004 · 390 citations
• Managing heritage tourism · Annals of Tourism Research · 2000 · 390 citations
• Implementation challenges to the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings: Towards the goals of sustainable, low carbon cities · Habitat International · 2011 · 381 citations

Most recent work

• Branding historic cities through urban regeneration: the paradigm of Gulf’orification · Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering · 2026
• Knowledge graph-driven digital preservation of intangible cultural heritage: a cross-cultural comparative study of Chinese and Western implementation paradigms · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · 2026
• Integrating Vernacular Architecture into Contemporary Urban Regeneration: Heritage, Identity and Modernization in Saudi Cities · Land · 2026
• Heritage Tourism Beyond World Heritage Sites: Urban Development of Al-Diriyah Through the Lens of the Experience Economy Model · Land · 2026
• Community-engaged digital safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage: a review of methods and challenges · npj Heritage Science · 2026
• Establishing Linear Cultural Heritage Corridors by Integrating Cultural and Ecological Values: A Case Study of the Jinzhong Section of the Great Tea Road · Land · 2026
• Historic districts in a global context: a comparative analysis of Dubai and Sharjah through the historic urban landscape framework · Frontiers in Built Environment · 2026
• Integrating heritage conservation into urban building energy modelling for retrofit decision-making in historic districts · npj Heritage Science · 2026
• Visitor Perception of Urban Fixtures in Historic Gardens and Implications for Cultural Heritage Tourism · International Journal of Tourism Research · 2026
• Decoding the continuum of architectural intention and public perception in industrial heritage regeneration: A multimodal social media data analysis · Habitat International · 2026

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