ECONOMICS UNIQUENESS

9
Mapping Heritage Economics for
Spatial Analysis in Historic City Cores
Christian Ost
Professor in Economics, ICHEC Brussels Management School (Belgium)
The identifi cation of economic values in historic city cores, and their measurement
with the use of indicators, aims to provide the basic material for a mapping
process. Availability of reliable data makes the identifi cation of statistical units to
measure economic values a key element in the mapping process. The identifi cation
of thematic maps is related to the defi nition of economic values, and this
chapter identifi es tentative thematic maps belonging to several categories of
values: non-use values, use values related to the real estate market, use values
related to cultural tourism, and use values related to impacts on local economy.
Showcasing the geographic information provided by economic values on maps
requires the identifi cation of patterns, connections, and relationships between
indicators of all categories of values. This process is two-fold: fi rst, the analysis
of indicators related to categories of values; second, the analysis of aggregated
values to summarize and map the information. Mapping of selected key indicators
describes the relationship between public intervention and economic values.
Finally, an economic landscape map is made of compounded values measured
for an entire area. Successive layers of values have been laid on top of each other,
the fi rst layer being a base map. The fi nal product visualizes the economic landscape
of the city. A detailed case study on Mali is presented to apply the concepts
described in the chapter.
■ 245