CI PA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey 
basis can only be developed through an appropriate 
determination of strategies with a potential of awaking 
competitive advantage. 
All these arguments may sound strange to our main concern - 
conservation and revitalization - at the first instance. However, 
approaching revitalization of historic urban quarters with this 
kind of philosophy would increase the chance of success of 
related implementations: 
First of all, conservation and revitalization are both future- 
oriented and they should be in a mutually exclusive 
relationship, simply because, the main aim of conservation 
cannot be met by creation of museum environments for the sake 
of preservation. As many authors in literature stress, 
conservation and revitalization are both focused on creating a 
future of the past. Hence, conservation and revitalization 
efforts have to be addressed to make the concerned area ‘ready 
for the future’ and to make the area ‘competitive’ with the rest 
of the cities of which they are parts. The key question ‘How to 
do this?’ inevitably calls for developing relevant strategies on 
conceptual basis. In addition to this, preparation of the historic 
urban quarters for the future and assigning them competitive 
advantage can be considered as a real challenging issue, just 
like as strategies. Why challenging? Challenging, because, 
successive conservation and revitalization involve complex 
relationships between a variety of multi-dimensional factors in 
physical, functional, social, cultural and economic terms, which 
are far beyond the scope of pure preservation. In other words, 
breaking the vicious circle of deterioration and decay of a 
historic urban quarter needs a real challenge. 
Secondly, evaluation of different practices in conservation of 
historic urban quarters in many cities throughout Europe and 
Turkey shows that, the most frequent practices and decisions are 
basically operational in nature. Operational in a sense that they 
are prescribed form of methods with straightforward protection 
of the cultural heritage concern: (i) listing of buildings, (ii) 
declaration or designation of conservation area, and (iii) 
conservation plans. 
Listing of Buildings: When some buildings are listed (due to 
certain accepted criteria), the buildings are protected against 
demolition. The owners are obliged to meet certain rules and 
obtain some incentives described or declared by concerned 
authorities. The general framework of listing the buildings 
shows similar characteristics in the western world, since 
democratic and cultural development of western European 
countries are in parallel directions. Listing of the buildings as a 
mean to preserve the existing buildings of architectural / 
historical interest is an operational decision in nature, since it 
only serves the preservation of them through legislative 
measures without any concern about economic viability. 
Additionally, listing is not a challenging measure, since without 
additional sound decisions on financial terms, it is only a matter 
of chance whether competitive advantage over other quarters of 
the cities arises through interventions for preserving the listed 
buildings. 
Declaration or Designation of Conservation area is also an 
operational decision. Declaration only implies that the area is 
worth to be preserved. Unless supported by relevant applicable 
measures, they might be ‘optional lines on maps with no special 
protective provisions. Besides, it does not give any clues about 
‘How making the area ready for the future and how to make it 
competitive?’ ‘The problem is that conferring of such status 
contains an open-ended permanent commitment to the 
maintenance, renovation and rehabilitation of the area as a 
whole’ (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 1990, p. 16), designation 
cannot be considered as a strategic mean in conservation. Since 
an open ended permanent commitment cannot guarantee the 
success of the consequent actions towards conservation. 
Conservation plans, which may include legislative, 
administrative, and financial measures (grants, funds, tax 
exemptions), may b 1 strategic or operational, depending on how 
far the dynamism of the area, as well as the type and level of 
obsolescence are considered. ‘Conservation Plans, which tends 
to be more or less uniform, prepared according to the same 
‘stenciling pattern’ (£ubuk (ed.), Din?er, 1994, p.227), can be 
considered as being operational since distinctive characteristics 
and the dynamism of the areas are not appropriately evaluated. 
All of these tools aim to serve the preservation of the historical 
and cultural heritage in one way or another. But, ‘What about 
the resources?’, ‘The unique qualities, dynamics and level of 
obsolescence of any particular historic urban quarter?’. Most of 
the legislation and policies that is related to conservation of 
these areas do not pay enough attention to the problem of 
encouraging the utilization of the capital stock of them. This is 
mainly due to the neglect of determination of appropriate 
strategic approach. For this determination, identification of the 
dynamics of a place and the type and level of obsolescence 
should be considered as one of the main prerequisites, through 
which the distinctive characteristics of the area will come out. 
Thus, in order to identify of the dynamics of a place and the 
type and level of obsolescence, the initial stage - before 
strategy development, conceptual design and detailed design, is 
the analysis stage which is the crucial basis for successful 
planning proposals for conservation and revitalization of a 
specific historic urban area. 
2. ANALYSIS STAGE IN STRATEGIC 
CONSERVATION PLANNING 
The analysis stage is the crucial basis for successful planning 
and urban design proposals and therefore should be given due 
attention and effort. Thus, determination of the most relevant 
strategic approach should rest upon a through analysis. 
There are two main questions to be answered at this point: 
What should be analysed? - The analysis topics 
How to analyse? — The analysis methods / techniques 
and tools 
The answers to these questions will clarify the scope of overall 
analysis stage in strategic conservation planning. Accordingly, 
the analysis topics can be classified under three main headings: 
Analysis of the natural environment 
Analysis of the man-made (built) environment 
Analysis of the socio-economic environment 
2.1 Analysis of the Natural Environment 
Analysis of this kind includes the identification of topographical 
features, vegetation, plantation, landscape, flora/fauna, soil, 
water, climatical features.