Developing a heritage impact assessment framework for cultural World Heritage protection: a case study of West Lake Cultural Landscape

Safeguarding cultural World Heritage amid urban development demands rigorous assessment methods to identify and address impacts on Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). This study presents a structured heritage impact assessment (HIA) framework tailored to World Heritage contexts, with particular attention to legal, institutional, and operational conditions in China. Drawing on UNESCO and ICOMOS guidance, the framework includes two tools: Assessment Tool 1 (heritage attribute identification and sensitivity analysis) and Assessment Tool 2 (impact magnitude and significance evaluation). The framework is applied to the West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, a UNESCO-listed site facing mounting development pressures. Using the post-construction case of the Shangri-La Hotel East Wing expansion, the assessment identifies major visual impacts on key heritage attributes and illustrates how mitigation, such as height reduction, architectural modification, and landscape buffering can reduce adverse effects. The findings emphasize the importance of value-based assessment, even in late-stage interventions, and contribute to evolving practice in heritage-sensitive planning. The framework offers a structured and transferable approach for evaluating development impacts on heritage sites worldwide.