The potential of traditional built environments is internationally acknowledged, not only as unique urban settings providing for exceptional human experiences, but also as a reflection on social, political, and economic history of associated communities – thus the only means of maintaining a link with the past and ensuring continuity in the evolution of human development. Additionally, these are a source of learning for environmentally-friendly and climatically responsive ways of shaping the built fabric; a knowledge base for traditional building materials and crafts.

Shikarpoor is only one such case among several other neglected historic cities in Pakistan that represent regional history and socio-cultural traditions and which should be safeguarded as a national asset enriching regional experiences. Awareness-building programmes must be developed to involve community participation through educational institutions, community centres, and city government institutions. Given the historic significance of Shikarpoor, it is of utmost importance that the value of its surviving fabric is recognized, locally, nationally, and internationally, leading to efforts to prevent further destruction and, at the same time, encouraging revival and regeneration of the historic urban environment. In view of present realities and the level of awareness for heritage conservation in the country, especially at the scale of historic cities or urban areas, achieving this goal seems like an enormous undertaking. However, having documented the city in detail and having received a positive response from concerned authorities and a few residents, there is a ray of hope for getting community support and cooperation from city administrators for any conservation plans initiated for implementation.

Lack of research-based existing documentation has been a major factor, retarding professional growth in the heritage conservation and management sector. This has resulted in weak national policies that fail to create a positive impact for protection and revival of historic towns and sites. The extent of city-scale detail incorporated in this work has enabled an in-depth interpretation and formulation of distinct definition of regional history, identities and characteristics of traditional built environment. The replication of such research could create comprehensive regional and national level heritage inventory databases, providing an opportunity for progressive and well directed actions to overcome the present inadequacies in the field.