Urban shrinkage vs heritage protection: exploring the dilemma and promotion path of built heritage protection under urban decline

Globally, cultural heritage renewal has become an important strategy for promoting economic development. However, against the background of persistent urban shrinkage, built heritage conservation faces severe challenges. Taking provincial-level historical and cultural districts in Liaoning Province as the research object, this study conducts field investigations and semi-structured interviews with residents, and applies grounded theory to construct an explanatory relational framework for heritage conservation dilemmas in shrinking cities. It aims to answer the question of how conservation dilemmas in historical districts are formed under urban shrinkage. The findings show that, in shrinking contexts, growth-oriented conservation systems face structural maladaptation, and Government Support, Economic Conditions, Service Level, and Heritage Resources exhibit cumulative associations. This is manifested in a main explanatory pathway of ‘weakened Government Support–strained Economic Conditions–declining Service Level–degradation of Heritage Resources’: (1) fiscal contraction and institutional maladaptation constrain the capacity of government support; (2) weakened government support and shrinking demand jointly undermine the market foundation of historical districts; (3) declining market activity and sustained population outflow jointly weaken public service provision and community networks, further resulting in the decline of social functions and spatial vitality in historical districts. Based on these findings, this study proposes a smart-shrinkage-oriented response framework. Under the premise of accepting population decline and economic contraction, the framework seeks to optimise the allocation of limited resources through differentiated conservation, low-cost maintenance, and incremental reuse. This study provides empirical evidence for understanding the formation process and governance pathways of built heritage conservation dilemmas in the context of urban shrinkage.