Assessment of the Cultural Heritage Potential in Poland

Cultural heritage is a complex and multi-faceted concept, thus eluding a definition. Consequently, it is a daunting task to assess the cultural heritage potential of a country, region, or community unambiguously. The paper defines “cultural heritage potential” and presents an example of a synthetic assessment of the potential with Poland as an example. The assessment involved several normalised diagnostic variables grouped into four thematic fields. This way, cultural heritage potential could be represented by a “synthetic quality index”. The analysis yielded a ranked list of voivodeships (third-tier subdivision units) and their classification (typology) regarding cultural heritage potential. An in-depth analysis demonstrated that the cultural heritage potential rank of a voivodeship could be determined by values of selected diagnostic valuables, such as the number of heritage objects, number of food products of documented quality and particular cultural significance, and extensive cultural infrastructure. The typology can be a background for decision-making with the consequences of voivodeship classification depending on the context of a specific analysis. The proposed method for assessing cultural heritage potential is not related to the territorial extent of the area. Any quantifiable attribute of cultural heritage can be used in the assessment regardless of the unit of measure. Such an assessment can be useful for the identification of trouble areas, areas of concern, and model areas.