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| A STUDY ON LEISURE & RECREATION ORIENTED URBAN HISTORICAL WATERFRONT REVITALIZATION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES |
| ZHANG Huan-zhou1, WU Mao-ying2 |
1. Department of Scientific Research, Zhejiang Education Institute, Hangzhou 310012, China;
2. School of Business, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia |
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Abstract Urban historic waterfronts are fascinating places, exhibiting both natural charm and rich heritages that generated significant tourist interest in some areas. As a result, different levels of government in developed countries, like USA, UK Canada, Netherlands, Australia, and Japan, pay special attention to these areas in their post-industry era. In these countries, the revitalization of urban historical waterfront has turned from being commercial oriented to being leisure & recreation oriented. This trend is a human-oriented change. It highly recognizes the close and interdependent relationships between urban development and waterfronts, and gives new recreational values to these waterfronts, whose original functions declined or even disappeared. This kind of change has some positive outcomes. At macro level, it helps to keep and appreciate the heritages in a more authentic way, and enhance the city's images, reputation and competitive power. At micro level, it enriches the recreational choices, diversifies the residents' and tourists' recreational activities, and thus improves their living quality. This paper reviews the foreign literatures of historical waterfront revitalization and recreation development, concluding the revitalization background, patterns and experience. According to previous research, the authors find that the successful historical waterfronts revitalization has something in common, like easy accessibility, diversified public space, a rich range of recreational activities, balance between community needs and recreational needs. Finally, the authors suggest that, firstly,recreation-oriented pattern should be encouraged, which can keep a balance between residents' and tourists' benefit and demands. Secondly, special attention should be paid to the development ideas. Last but not least, the projects of revitalization and redevelopment of historical waterfront are huge, and they need the cooperation of the government and private sectors. The planning, implementation, and monitoring of projects should be carried out according to market economy principles.
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Received: 11 May 2009
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2010, Vol. 25 
