via SEAMEO SPAFA: Readers may be interested in this upcoming webinar on heritage impact assessment at Ayutthaya happening tomorrow and the day after (21-22 December 2021). Zoom registration link in the page below.
Founded c. 1350, Ayutthaya flourished to be one of the important centres of global diplomacy and commerce. The city is now an archaeological ruin, characterized by the remains of tall prang (reliquary towers) and Buddhist monasteries of monumental proportions, which give an idea of the city’s past size and the splendour of its architecture. Well-known from contemporary sources and maps, Ayutthaya was laid out according to a systematic and rigid city planning grid, consisting of roads, canals, and moats around all the principal structures. The scheme took maximum advantage of the city’s position in the midst of three rivers and had a hydraulic system for water management which was technologically unique in the world.
Since the inscription of the Historic City of Ayutthaya into the World Heritage List in 1991, this thirty-year-old World Heritage property has faced various challenges from either natural factors or human-induced actions. A two-day webinar titled ‘Promoting Heritage Impact Assessment in Southeast Asia – Three Decades of Ayutthaya World Heritage: Values, Challenges and Impact’ to be conducted on 21-22 December 2021 at 9am-1pm (Bangkok time), aims to reflect on future approaches for the more holistic management of the historic city. It will provide a platform for leading experts including the well-known historian, Srisakara Vallipodom, and Chris Baker – an honorary editor of the Siam Society Journal and author of the book “ A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World” – to give a short talk on their works together with several presentations on new findings and studies on Ayutthaya by a number of scholars. While the key government agencies will discuss the significance of greater Ayutthaya within the historic urban landscape and the potential to safeguard the site within an expanded footprint. The heritage impact assessment as a tool to discuss mitigation measures among relevant sectors will be also introduced in brief.
