Examining the Role of Cultural Landscape in Regional Development: Defining Criteria and Looking at Ephesus

Abstract

The link between regional development and cultural heritage has been at the center of theoretical discussions and practices in the field of preservation. Especially, varieties of practices and regional plans have been developed in different parts of the World such as Europe, Russia and South Africa in order to ensure regional development through cultural heritage. In this paper, it is accepted that a cultural landscape, as a sub-region of a particular region, is a relevant and meaningful unit that can contribute to the qualities of the region in terms of socio-cultural and economic aspects. In this context, the main goal of this paper is to develop a set of criteria that will act as a tool for identifying to which aspects of a cultural landscape has the potential to contribute regional development and to evaluate possible contributions of Ephesus and its cultural landscape to regional development. These criteria can be classified according to a framework implying a three-fold classification; improvements in the physical quality of the cultural landscape, economic dimension and socio-cultural dimension. As a result, this case indicates that cultural landscape has great potential to contribute to the social and economic development of a region. There is a great need to support community through tools such as awareness raising programmes, regional heritage planning, regional heritage institutions acting as regional agencies.