Challenges for sustainable urban heritage conservation in the 21st century: The French perspective

International audienceOver the past decades, the interest in urban sustainability has grown internationally through the implementation of a multitude of policies, initiatives, and tools. This growth is primarily due to the intensity of climate change, intensification of pollution, and rapidly increasing urbanization, among other factors. In this worldwide context, heritage conservation tools have often proved to be inadequate in handling contemporary challenges. The conservation community has called for a renewed approach to better integrate heritage management strategies within the larger goals of overall sustainable development. However, the convergence of heritage conservation and sustainability agendas is not evident despite the fact that the role of heritage in sustainable development is becoming unquestionable. To date, several publications on this topic tend to focus mostly on theoretical discourse. There is practically no general consensus in terms of how to update heritage conservation policies and tools to take the imperatives of sustainability into account. To address this gap, the current paper aims to discuss the need to implement a holistic and integrated approach to urban conservation by presenting the French case study. Indeed, since the beginning of the 2000s, France has revised its consolidated regulatory framework for the safeguarding of urban heritage to open up to sustainability targets. Recognizing sustainability as a primary challenge facing urban conservation, the paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of urban heritage conservation and sustainable development is provided. Secondly, the French context is presented, focusing on the influence of national environment and sustainability legislation on urban conservation tools. Lastly, the emblematic case study of Paris is investigated. The research finds that an integrated approach appears to be necessary, both at theoretical and operative levels, and some first-stage answers have been provided in this direction