Exploring spatial methods to foreground social significance and mitigate heritage dissonance in everyday site conservation-management

In this chapter we explore three spatial methods to visualise the social significance(s) of heritage sites and conservation landscapes, through a case study-based approach. The methods include networks, storytelling, and desire paths, which we apply at three distinct conservation landscapes in southern India: Pattadakal World Heritage Site, Hampi World Heritage Site, and historical sites and settlements along the River Tamirabarani, in this instance the prehistoric site of Adichanallur. Based on our long-standing engagements with these sites and other conservation landscapes in the Indian subcontinent, we consider our contribution both timely and relevant. As more and more sites come under the legal purview of conservation-management, heritage dissonance due to everyday social significances being set aside is only bound to increase. Moreover, the interdisciplinary field and GIS-based method we present offer ways to account for the complexities of heritage, conservation, and communities in the Indian subcontinent. As practitioner-academics, not only are we invested in theorising observations from the ‘field’, but also we are equally invested in how such insights can serve the interests of conservation-management on-ground. Finally, we clarify that we offer a methodological way forward and not a prescriptive solution to be applied at all sites, sans context.