Resources

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Projects and initiatives of the Alliance and the Partnership provide resources to members, partners and the public on how heritage areas work, how they succeed, and how their success is being measured and evaluated.

Heritage Areas: Background, Proposals and Current Issues

Released by Congressional Research Service
CRS Report -- Heritage Areas.pdf

Evaluations: An Important Component to National Heritage Areas

Each authorized National Heritage Area completes a Management Plan, which is approved locally and by the Secretary of the Interior. It serves as the framework for actions by the management entity over the initial 15-year authorization period.

Progress toward implementation of the Management Plan also serves as the yardstick by which success of a National Heritage Area is measured. As a National Heritage Area nears its initial authorization period, Congress and the National Park Service require a comprehensive evaluation of what has been accomplished, what has yet to be accomplished and whether the management entity has developed a network of sustainable partnerships.

The methodology for Heritage Area evaluations continues to evolve. The Alliance of National Heritage Areas, as part of its commitment to professionalism, remains involved in this process. As evaluations become public, they will be added below:

Heritage Area Impact and Sustainability Report, 2009
Click here to open report

2008 Pennsylvania Heritage Area Economic Impact Study - A Full Report
Click here to open report

2008 Pennsylvania Heritage Area Economic Impact Study - Summary
Click here to open report

Measuring Economic Impact in National Heritage Areas using the Revised Money Generation Model (MGM2), 2005
Click here to open the report

Measuring Economic Impact in National Heritage Areas using the Revised Money Generation Model (MGM2), 2004
Click here to open the report

Other initiatives to measure the impacts of heritage development and sustainability include:

• Impact of Visitors to Historic Sites in the Hudson River Valley: A Marist-Greenway Survey of Visitors, Hudson River Valley, June 1997

• Southwestern Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Commission Survey

• Northern Forest Wealth Index: Exploring a Deeper Meaning of Wealth, Northern Forest Center, 2000

• Atlas of Social Indicators for the Upper Columbia River Basin, USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem management Project, 1995

• Quality of Life in Canada: A Citizens' Report Card, Canadian Policy Research Network, 2003

• Quality of Life in New Zealand's Eight Largest Cities,

• Australia State of the Environment 2001 Report,

• Values and Heritage Conservation, Getty Conservation Institute,

• Preservation Economic Impact Model 2.0 (measures total economic impacts of historic preservation), developed by the NPS National Center for Preservation Training and Technology (NCPTT) and Rutgers University.

• Baseline data and indicators on the national heritage areas are available from the NPS National Heritage Areas website.

Partnership Best Practices

The Alliance is proud to highlight ten of its members' successful programs, projects and practices in a full-color publication that showcases the best in heritage development.

All copies of our full-color publication have been sold. For a text version of the ten best practices highlighted in 2005, click here.