UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape

This web page was developed with the support of theNanjing Municipality.

• SDG 11, Target 11.4 highlights the importance of cultural and natural heritage for making safe and resilient cities. The New Urban Agenda underlines the need for integrated approaches to urban sustainability.
• The Historic Urban Landscape approach addresses the policy, governance and management concerns involving a variety of stakeholders, including local, national, regional, international, public and private actors in the urban development process.
• Having one foot on the Sustainable Development Goal, Target 11.4, and the other on the New Urban Agenda (UN-Habitat), the HUL Recommendation addresses relevant urban issues for the historic urban areas. There are important interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda (UN-Habitat) and UNESCO’s Culture Conventions.

• TheWorld Heritage Cities Programme is one of six thematic programmes formally approved and monitored by the World Heritage Committee. The programme uses the approach of the HUL Recommendation as a tool to reconcile conservation and development in urban World Heritage properties.
• To learn more, visit
  • World Heritage Cities Programme
  • Understanding urban heritage: applying the approach of the HUL Recommendation in World Heritage Cities
  • International Experts Meeting - Heritage in Urban Contexts: Impacts of Development Projects on World Heritage properties in Cities
  • Fukuoka Outcomes - 8 step-methodology for the implementation of the HUL Recommendation in World Heritage Cities
  • World Heritage City Lab – Management of World Heritage Cities 

• Urban sites and historic cities in particular are facing unique challenges related to the risks caused by climate change. Over 90% of all urban areas are coastal, putting most cities on Earth at risk of flooding from rising sea levels and powerful storms. Historic cities are particularly at risk because many of them developed, for historical reasons, along the coast or along major rivers. With rising temperatures and accompanying sea-level rise, the risk of climate change-related disasters is increasing in historic and World Heritage cities.
• The HUL Recommendation is a key tool to help cities to tackle climate action. It presents an integrated, people-centred and landscape approach to urban management, where climate action, DDR, urban development, and energy transition initiatives integrated with heritage conservation and management strategies.

Consultations on the implementation of the HUL Recommendation by UNESCO Member States

First UNESCO Member State Consultation (2015)

TheConsolidated Report contains an overall description on the conventions and recommendations of UNESCO that the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations is required to monitor, and an analysis of specific measures adopted by the Secretariat within the framework of the monitoring of the implementation of standard-setting instruments and the difficulties encountered for each of the instruments, since the 195th session of the Board.

Second UNESCO Member State Consultation (2019)

TheReport of the Second Consultation is based on the data gathered by the survey sent by the Director-General in February 2018 to UNESCO Member States, requesting the submission of national reports and focal points. Responses from 55 Member States were received. The data shows that some progress has been made in implementing key concepts of the Recommendation, yet much remains to be done. In the implementation of the HUL approach, it is crucial to establish links between national/federal and local level decision makers at the country level.

Third UNESCO Member State Consultation (2022)

TheConsolidated Results of the implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscapeare based on an assessment of the urban heritage situation for the period 2019-2022, where UNESCO Member States were invited to complete the survey to report on their implementation of the 2011 Recommendation. Progress in the Member States’ implementation of the 2011 Recommendation since the Second Consultation in 2019 is evident and encouraging, with reports received from 69 Member States with 62 national reports and 125 local reports out of the 193 Member States and 11 Associate Member States. The 2011 Recommendation is more relevant today than ever as cities and urban heritage face many complex global challenges and seek sustainability, inclusion, and climate resilience. The data shows the progress made by several Member States in implementing the Recommendation as well as the urgency to implement it more widely and effectively.