World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Urban Contexts: Participatory Approaches to Addressing the Impact of Tourism

This research addresses the latent disconnect between citizens and World Heritage sites, analysing how intensive tourism and declarations focused on monuments (1980s–1990s) have created a distance that makes managing these heritage sites very difficult. The main objective is to propose and validate participatory methodologies that restore social bonds and strengthen urban governance. The identified knowledge gap lies in the lack of operational tools that allow the theory of participation to be put into actual practice, overcoming the current methodological void in assessing social and economic impacts. Under the methodology of the WHATS-UP project, an action-research approach is employed that combines ethnographic work, mapping of key actors, and participatory workshops with shared walking tours in the Alhambra and the Alcázar. This data is integrated into Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) to map social perceptions of values and risks. The results show that, although tourism has led to alienation and gentrification, the participatory process succeeds in rescuing “invisible values”, such as memories and traditional trades, that are absent from official narratives. In conclusion, the study proposes a consensus-based co-management model between institutions and the community, transforming heritage into a resource for urban cohesion and resilience. This integration of methodologies, which combines collective mapping with safeguarding plans, enables progress toward protection strategies that are more effective and better reflect contemporary social realities.