Visual conflicts in innovative maintenance of UNESCO post industrial green spaces

This transnational research and innovation initiative addresses the challenge of socially and environmentally sustainable management of cultural heritage areas, focusing on green and blue post-industrial landscapes (spoil heaps, brownfields, former mining sites).

As these sites undergo natural succession, urban greening, climate adaptation, or tourism development, tensions arise between heritage preservation, ecological processes, contemporary public use, and aesthetic expectations. These gradual transformations often reduce the visual and semantic legibility of historic heritage values. "Visual conflict" is thus understood not merely as an aesthetic issue, but as a tension between what is visible in the landscape, what users recognize as heritage, and how the space is transformed and used.

Living Lab & International Case Studies

Main Living Lab ( Poland): Located at a post-industrial UNESCO World Heritage Site, serving as a demonstrator for the full research cycle: diagnosis ->perception & eye-tracking studies -> public consultation -> co-creation & intervention ->evaluation.

International Case Studies: European partners will contribute comparative case studies of post-industrial heritage landscapes facing similar tensions, testing the transferability of the developed methodology across European contexts.

Methodology & Consultation as Research The project merges heritage conservation, landscape architecture, urban planning, environmental psychology, and public participation. Key activities include:

Eye-tracking (ET) studies analyzing user perception and visual attention.

Spatial and behavioral analysis of landscape perception and space use.

Research-driven public participation frameworks to test effective communication of heritage and ecological values.

Co-creation, testing, and evaluation of pilot spatial/landscape interventions,

Expected Results

-An evidence-based management model for green post-industrial heritage transformations.

-A data-driven method for diagnosing spatial and visual conflicts.

-Practical guidelines and mediation frameworks for urban managers.

-A tested demonstration intervention in the Living Lab and transferability assessment for European cities.

Partners Sought

We are looking for at least two European academic/research or practice-based partners from eligible DUT participating countries with expertise in:

Environmental psychology / behavioural science.

Sustainable / regenerative tourism, cultural tourism, or destination management, interested in exploring visitor perception and managing tourist flows in green heritage sites.

Museology, site interpretation & heritage management

Post-industrial heritage, green transition, willing to contribute a comparative European case study.

(coauthor / coperation with Joanna Dobrzańska)