Heritage Ecosystems: a heritage ecosystems impact assessment project

Heritage Ecosystems: a heritage ecosystems impact assessment is a pilot project led by PI Dr Dacia Viejo Rose and Co-I Dr Tanja Hoffmann. The project looks at the relationship between people and place, working with communities in South Cambridgeshire to devise methods and approaches that can generate Heritage Ecosystem Impact Assessments (HEIA) that consider the role that environments play in generating and sustaining community identities.

This research operates from the premise that heritage ecosystems, intangible heritages, and cultural landscapes work together to construct human relationships with place. The pilot project works with local stakeholders to test and refine an HEIA methodology and provide a summary of anticipated impacts of the proposed East West Rail project to towns and villages in South Cambridgeshire for developers that will be made available in Spring 2023. 

Project researchers have attended public drop-in sessions on the East-West rail development to begin community-led research for the project, asking participants to mark up a map of the area with places of personal importance to them. The final methodologies used to map the areas heritage ecosystem will be decided on in collaboration with community participants but might include focus groups, interviews, guided walks or different forms of audio or visual representations. 

For further information or to get involved please get in touch with Dr Tanja Hoffman at th510@cam.ac.uk.