Towards the Implementation of the Historic Urban Landscape Approach in the Guayaquil Waterfront (Ecuador): A Scoping Case Study

The Malecon Simon Bolivar (the Simon Bolivar boardwalk), located in the city of Guayaquil, forms an urban space in which implicit heritage values, minimally identified by the City Council, are also found. These include values associated with the city's history, the origin of its settlement and its historical and social processes. The management of this space as a predominantly tourist zone by governmental and municipal representatives has meant that the urban landscape heritage components are yet to be recognised. This, therefore, suggests that there is an imminent risk that the urban and social imaginary will disappear. This piece of research aims to identify the area's heritage values, as well as assessing the zone's problems and potentialities. The implementation of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape approach, as proposed by UNESCO (2011), will be used as a starting point for this paper. Developing a methodology based on the six steps suggested by Unesco will allow for the heritage values and attributes significant when drawing up the heritage management strategies to be used in the Malecon Simon Bolivar. It will also provide an opportunity for the challenges which the municipalities are facing in the implementation of the HUL approach.