Assessment of Visual Values as a Tool Supporting the Design Decisions of the Cultural Park Protection Plan. The Case of Kazimierz and Stradom in Kraków

Krakow is a city of high landscape values, which has found confirmation in the entry onto the UNESCO heritage list. Its cultural landscape requires protection and clarification within the context of intensive tourist use and a rapid pace of urban spatial development. For preservation protection and restoration of landscape values, the city authorities undertook work on the creation of a Cultural Park in the Stradom and Kazimierz districts, providing a comprehensive, sustainable, and multidisciplinary approach to natural, cultural and visual values of the urban structure. The article presents the application of the method of research on visual values in order to protect individual scenic resources of the historical urban structure. It is one of the analytical studies of a comprehensive protection plan project. This project defines the scope, framework and methods of development and management of a Cultural Park. The task of the visual analysis was to identify, characterize and evaluate the visual resources. It created a visual framework for further development of the historical district while preserving its local spatial identity. The studies resulted in a division into zones according to their nature and intensity of activities as well as outlining protection zones and intervention zones adjusted to individual characteristics of those places. An original method combining achievements of the method of landscape and visual assessment (LVIA) as well as achievements of the Krakow School of Landscape Architecture (KSLA) in terms of cultural landscape assessment was used for the research. The applied method provided guidelines to support sustainable project decisions regarding further development of the district for the preservation of local spatial identity. Its universal character creates possibilities for its application into the plans of other Krakow districts and is intended to be applicable to both urban and rural structures