Making Sustainable Historical River City Through Place Attachment

Abstract

Palembang is one of old historical city in Indonesia. It is an old river city, which its riverside settlements become the physical evidences of past riverine culture. Therefore, the existence of the settlements become a determinant for sustainable identity of river city. Previous studies have explored how the people place relationship support the sustainable identity of a certain heritage area. There is limitation in studies which discussing the people place relationship and the sustainable city identity. The paper examined the way people place relationship at old riverside settlement can support the sustainability of Palembang's identity as historical river city through memorability and place attachment. To achieve this aim, paper has two objectives. Firstly, paper investigated the memorability on the history of the old elements. Secondly, paper investigated the place attachment of old building and spaces along the riverside both at city center and riverside settlement. The study used quantitative method. It surveyed the people of six riverside settlements by using questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using factor analysis. Results found the memorability of historical elements located at riverside settlements is relatively lower than the ones at city center. Meanwhile, the attachment is relatively high for historical elements at settlement. Paper also found the most memorable and attached city elements that represent city identity are located at city center. The sustainability identity comes from the integration between physical aspect and historical value of the old urban elements that lead to the high attachment to people. Paper conclude that encouraging place attachment through promoting historical value and place identity of old elements at riverside settlement lead to the recognition of Palembang’s identity as river city. The study enriches the city branding strategy in urban heritage area.