ICOMOS Heritage Impact Assessment – Application to National Conservation Practice

For many years the issue of intensification of transformations of historical buildings has been a global challenge in the field of conservation practice. This process has also been observed in Poland in recent years. Today the adaptation and transformation of historical buildings is a common phenomenon.
However, the processes of transforming the architectural heritage in Poland on a mass scale are not accompanied by the development of tools enabling conservation practice to determine the principles of protection and preparation of programs and projects for the development of buildings and historic buildings. This situation does not facilitate effective conservation policy in the country. This article aims to introduce the method of conducting heritage impact assessments for World Heritage sites developed in 2009 at an international workshop organized by ICOMOS (the heritage impact assessment method, in Polish: "ocena oddziaływania na dziedzictwa" – OOD) as a contribution to the use of international experience in the Polish reality. Since 2013, the author has undertaken a number of activities related to the adaptation of the OOD method, developed for world heritage sites, to the Polish conservation practice. The content of the paper is a collection of experience gained in developing conservation opinions based on the OOD method.