The UNESCO Chair of Historic Urban Landscapes and Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment at Hochschule RheinMain and the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University organized the Sino-German Symposium in March 2025, which was funded by the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion and Funding (a joint institution of the German Research Foundation, DFG, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC). The scientific coordinators of the symposium were Prof. Kou Huaiyun from Tongji University and Prof. Michael Kloos from Hochschule RheinMain, and numerous female scientists from both universities and other institutions were involved.

The main aim of the symposium was to examine the systematic management of cultural landscapes with a specialization in Heritage Impact Assessments (HIA). This was based on German and Chinese case studies: the UNESCO World Heritage Sites West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou and Upper Middle Rhine Valley. The symposium comprised three main components: Field research, thematic lectures and a panel discussion.

The results of the German-Chinese symposium will be published shortly.