DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.181523.1 ISSN: 2046-1402

Heritage Plants and Place Memory in the Heart of Sharjah: A Biocultural Flora Inventory and Mapping Approach

Saud Alqahtani, Majdi Faleh, Ali El-keblawy, Abdulaziz Al-Musallam
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Background Vegetation in historic urban districts is often treated as a secondary landscape element, despite its potential role in shaping social practice, place memory, and heritage experience. This study examines heritage-linked floristic elements in the Heart of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, with a focus on the mid-twentieth century (1950–1965), to assess how vegetation functioned within everyday urban life and how it may be meaningfully integrated into contemporary heritage management. Methods A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining oral-history interviews, spatial reconstruction using historical imagery and GIS, and botanical verification based on authoritative regional flora sources. Results The results indicate that vegetation was deliberately embedded within the historic urban fabric, contributing to social interaction, microclimatic comfort, and collective memory rather than serving a purely decorative role. Analytically structured findings reveal that heritage vegetation is not a homogeneous category; instead, individual species exhibit differentiated value profiles across social, cultural, environmental, economic, and architectural dimensions. These profiles underscore the need for species-specific interpretation and management strategies. Conclusion The study demonstrates how triangulating cultural memory, spatial evidence, and botanical knowledge can support the development of a heritage flora guide that functions as both an interpretive and management instrument, that help maintain the heritage site authenticity. By foregrounding vegetation as a living heritage attribute, the proposed framework offers a transferable approach for integrating biocultural considerations into urban heritage conservation, particularly in arid and semi-arid contexts.

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