Project HerO – Heritage as Opportunity. Sustainable Management Strategies for Vital Historic Urban Landscapes

Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency participates in the project HerO – “Heritage as Opportunity. Sustainable Management Strategies for Vital Historic Urban Landscapes”: www.urbact.eu/hero, which is implemented in the framework of URBACT thematic network. URBACT is European Programme for Urban Sustainable Development : http://urbact.eu/

Lead partner is City of Regensburg (Germany), other partners are cities of Graz, Naples, Sighisoara, Liverpool, Lublin, Poitiers, Valetta and Vilnius. 9 towns, featuring unique cultural heritage assets, from different European countries have come together to develop and implement integrated cultural heritage management systems as innovative tool to balance and coordinate the different demands and interests on historic urban landscapes to support a sustainable, future-oriented urban development, which combines the preservation of the historic urban landscape with the socioeconomic development.

The development phase of project Hero was implemented during April 2008 – October 2008. Since November 2008, HerO Thematic Network has officially entered the Implementation phase that will finish on 21st May 2011. Main expected outputs of the Implementation phase are:
–  Local action plans to support the sustainable protection and rehabilitation of historic urban landscapes associated with socio-economic urban development of old town areas to strengthen their attractiveness and competitiveness.
– The establishment of Local Support Groups for an enriching exchange and discussion among the relevant key stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable solutions which meet the needs of all parties concerned; thereby particular emphasis will be placed on the multi-level exchange with the responsible Managing Authority Institutions.

6 project meetings already took place in Regensburg, Poitiers, Graz, Liverpool and Valetta cities. HerO’s 1st Expert Workshop took place in Vilnius, 10–11 May 2010.

All results and outputs (Good-practice compilation, Strategy Paper, publications) of the project HerO are available for download on the HerO project website at www.urbact.eu/hero in the section “Our Outputs”.

Good-practice compilation (GPC) consists of 18 Good-practice examples divided around 8 topics related to 2 main HerO themes “Visual integrity” and “Integrated revitalisation approach”.

Contact:
Jūratė Raugalienė
tel. + 370 5 212 7723
mob. + 370 601 05488
e-mail: raugaliene@gmail.com