Planning in Germany and Iran - Cross-cultural perception of urban and rural landscapes and cultural heritage

Historic areas and urban heritage are considered priceless treasures with cultural, religious, social, economic and physical values, especially in the Arab and Muslim world. Unfortunately, the endless civil wars in many countries in the Middle East and Northwest Africa, as well as drastic sanctions and threats have led to devastating destruction of cultural heritage by terrorist groups, endangering and destroying many archaeological sites and historic cities. An essential dimension of cultural heritage preservation is the individual variability of cultures in their perceptions of valuable landscapes. To date, most research on perception of landscapes and cultural heritage has been conducted by groups with relatively similar cultural backgrounds. Departing from the UNESCO principle that a country's cultural heritage belongs to the whole world, the research of the contributions in this edited book was conceived and developed through an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations between researchers from TU Dortmund University, Department of Spatial Planning, and young academics from the partner university in Iran, Daneshpajoohan Pishro Higher Education Institute (DHEI), Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, and their Iranian network universities within the framework of the three year funded research project "Planning in Germany and Iran: Responding to Challenges of Climate Change through Intercultural Dialogue" funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Following a similar approach in addressing the first breakthrough topic in this joint research project of responding to the challenges of climate change through intercultural dialogue (in 2019 and 2020), the second breakthrough topic of Cross-Cultural Perception of Urban and Rural Landscapes and Cultural Heritage (2020-2021), whose contributions are collected in this second edited book, emphasizes the interrelated dimensions of cultural heritage planning.