The new publication establishes an authoritative set of principles to promote good practice in cultural heritage impact assessment across the UK, and help achieve sustainable development for current and future generations
The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), in partnership with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), has published a new document, Principles of Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment in the UK.
The publication supplements existing guidance with a set of guiding principles and a consistent framework for cultural heritage impact assessment in a variety of settings. Applying the principles will enable practitioners, regardless of their specialism within the discipline, to improve the standard of their assessments.
‘The cultural heritage of the UK is phenomenal,’ said IEMA’s Impact Assessment Policy Lead Rufus Howard. ‘The UK has been settled by homo sapiens since the stone age and is today home to 27 cultural World Heritage Sites.’
But the UK’s cultural heritage, Howard argues, comprises more than just world-famous sites.
‘The UK is home to a breathtaking variety of buildings and structures, monuments, parks and gardens, battlefields, townscapes, landscapes, seascapes, archaeological sites, myths, festivals and traditions.
‘Safeguarding these cultural heritage assets through professional impact assessment is . . . critical to achieving sustainable development for present and future generations. However, guidance on this area of practice varies across different sectors, geographies and specialisms within the wider disciple of cultural heritage.’
In 2015, IEMA began to bring together leading practitioners in cultural heritage impact assessment to produce definitive, interdisciplinary guidance. Writing for the Spring 2020 Landscape journal, two members of the advisory panel – Ian Houlston CMLI and Dr Stephen Carter – argued that every development should respond to local context.
‘As the inheritors and creators of legacy,’ they wrote, ‘decisions need to respect and reflect the genius loci by purposefully considering context and by drawing on the cultural dimension of the land. Such decisions must serve to strengthen local identity, rather than detract from it.’
Download the new document
IEMA members can log into IEMA’s reading room to download the guidance. Non-IEMA members can access the guidance by completing a short form.
