Over the past two decades, the concept of cultural heritage has transitioned from being defined and designated through political and disciplinary lenses to being regarded as a social construct, much predicated on the people’s preference for what they hold dear. Often, such preferences become evident only after cultural features have experienced negative impacts. Heritage Impact Assessment methods aim to evaluate potential damage beforehand, playing a crucial role in integrating heritage management with urban and spatial planning.
Cultural geography plays a pivotal role in amalgamating and translating the various facets that render urban features culturally significant, historically relevant, and cherished by the community. ‘Territorial and Social Innovation for the Energy Transition in the Iberian Peninsula’ is a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science. Its objective is to enhance the territorial planning of the energy transition using innovative interdisciplinary methods. The transdisciplinary team behind the project envisions tools for evaluating impact and improving decision-making processes related to urban heritage.
This presentation will showcase an impact evaluation method based on an iterative pair-wise comparison, resulting in a scalar ranking of townscapes based on their sensitivity to small photovoltaic installations. The results can be applied by energy communities for locating pool installations and by administrations to assess their suitability.

Torres García, M. & Giusti, M. (2024, 24-30 de agosto). Using pair-wise comparison to identify visually sensitive townscapes in the context of Heritage Impact Assessment [Ponencia]. XXXV Congreso Internacional de Geografía, Dubín, Irlanda. Enlace: https://igc2024dublin.org/