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Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. 33 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts Strategic environmental assessment International environmental conventions Environmental flows Cumulative impacts Cultural assessments Health assessments Greenhouse gas emissions Mitigation measures Hydropower industry's approach What do ADB policies say? VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

Incorporating cultural heritage assessments

Consideration of cultural property has been a feature of EIA's for some time. More recently, the term cultural heritage has been adopted to encompass a broader range of cultural issues, including:

• Cultural resources of living populations (e.g., their mode of subsistence, social organization, religion, ideology, political organization, language, and the material expression of their ideas and practices which range from sacred elements of the natural landscape to artifacts and buildings;

• Archaeological resources (e.g., occurrences and sites which may include artifacts, plant and animal remains associated with human activities, burials, and architectural elements) which may or may not be an integral part of the cultural heritage of the local inhabitants; and

• Cultural landscapes which consist of landforms and biotic as well as non-biotic features of the land resulting from cultural practices over historical, or even prehistoric times, by generations of peoples of one or more cultural traditions. These resources constitute the cultural heritage of a people, a nation, of humanity. (Source, Fekri and Hasan, 2000)

For more information, see:

• World Commission on Dams on cultural assessment
• World Bank guidance on cultural property being updated

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