projects
spot
Cultural tourism has traditionally focused upon visiting “high art” museums and galleries. Our model of cultural tourism, by contrast, reflects a massive widening of cultural tourism that more accurately reflects patterns of travel in the 21st century and digital revolution in travel as a way of accessing culture. This revolution has widened the meaning of culture to include landscape, media, ethnic cultures, gastronomy and amateur as well as professional collections. It reflects popular culture as well as high culture and therefore massively extends the reach of cultural tourism. SPOT will be the first attempt ever to capture this widened concept of cultural tourism on an international and comparative basis across Europe. The EU-funded SPOT project aims to develop a new approach to understanding and addressing cultural tourism and to promote the sound development of both disadvantaged and tourist pressure areas.
role: consultant for Wageningen Environmental Research, one of the 15 partners in a consortium led by Brno University
smart rivers
The Foundation Smart Rivers is a platform in the Netherlands for exchange and advice on river flood protection based on the ‘DNA of the River’. Smart Rivers has three pillars:
Inherent quality principles. The specific characteristics of the river stretch in question are central to the design of river projects. Smart Rivers builds on 30 years of experience especially in the large Dutch rivers and tries to define projects and structures that really fit to the relevant river stretch. This gives direction to the dimensions of projects and to any concessions to quality (which are inevitable in every project).
Quality assurance. How do you organise “quality” in a project and how do you ensure that quality is maintained throughout the plan and implementation process? The position and quality assurance in sometimes complex planning processes is often even more important than the actual content of a plan.
Knowledge exchange. The knowledge and experience of river experts must be exchanged, enriched and applied. Smart Rivers brings together knowledge and experts and seeks to expand communities of practice.
role: member of the Expert Group
link: http://www.smartrivers.nl/
petrarca
Role: founding member
