The Role of Built Heritage for Sustainable Development Goals: From Statement to Action

Abstract

The importance of culture and cultural heritage for the achievement of sustainable development is widely stressed in official documents. Nevertheless, the role of cultural heritage for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Agenda 2030 is limited in practical terms, as explicit references to it only appear in Target 11.4. Focusing on the built cultural heritage, the article tries to throw light on its potential with regard to all 17 SDGs by reflecting on the environmental, social and economic connection to communities’ development. Then, based on its cross-cutting importance and on its peculiarities, the work proposes and discusses priorities, observation perspective, actions and tools for concrete actions on the built heritage, identifying also specific criticalities.