Intangible heritage and cultural landscapes: improving an evaluation system.

Abstract

Many cultural landscapes present a high heritage value and should be classified as heritage landscapes. So management tools should be found out and discussed regarding its importance in the context of land management measures for countryside valorization to promote rural development. The heritage value of the landscapes will be calculated by means of a weighted linear combination. This path integrates intangible cultural heritage which is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, interacts with nature and history, and provides a sense of identity and continuity. A reflection about the methodology is presented through the comparison of two Portuguese case-studies: the Upper Douro terraced landscape and the Alentejo montado landscape. Both means and represent a different interaction with landscape, connected to communities’ practices and uses. The need for a multidisciplinary approach to this heritage assessment leads the authors to view this study primarily as an experimental essay.