Wetland Heritage in the Balance: Developing an Exploratory Model for Understanding Local Perceptions of Wetland Heritage

TL;DR

This study explores how local people in the UK perceive the cultural heritage of wetlands, proposing a model to understand the blend of natural and cultural elements in these environments.

Contribution

The paper introduces an exploratory model for understanding local perceptions of wetland heritage, emphasizing the interplay between natural and cultural aspects.

Findings

Local perceptions of wetland heritage are influenced by a mix of natural and cultural factors.

The proposed model highlights the fluidity between natural and cultural heritage components in wetlands.

Qualitative insights reveal diverse understandings of heritage in contested wetland landscapes.

Abstract

Wetlands are well known and researched for the potential biodiversity, ecological and environmental benefits that they contain. In general, these aspects have been referred to as ‘natural’ elements of the wetland landscape. Outside of subject specific studies, such as archaeological projects, less research has explored the cultural aspects of wetland environments, though there is a growing interest in understanding how populations interact with wetland environments. This study focusses on two wetland environments from the UK (Ilkley Moor, Thorne and Hatfield Moors) and uses qualitative research through online questionnaires and interviews using participant selected imagery to prompt discussion and gain insights into public perceptions and understandings of cultural heritage within these wetland environments. We use this qualitative research to propose a model of how wetland heritage is conceptualised and perceived by local users of these environments and to highlight the fluidity between ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ aspects which are identified as components of the heritage of wetland environments. The research discusses the multiple influences on individual constructions of wetland heritage, with the model offering potential means to explore and work across plural understandings of heritage in landscapes of contested use.

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