This exploratory study offers an analysis of Abu Dhabi’s living heritage ecosystem. It borrows from approaches predominantly used in the healthcare field and develops a value-based framework that provides a broader understanding of heritage and its integration into innovation, economic development, and societal change in Abu Dhabi. This framework includes three steps: (1) identification of the individual heritage values (‘heritage drivers’) through ethnographic interviews; (2) aggregation of the dynamics impacting the practical realization of these values and relative identification of value-based policymaking areas; and (3) suggestion of an approach that builds indicators to assess the impact of living heritage policies contributing to the achievement of the UN SDGs and their relevance to grassroots ‘heritage drivers’. This study also addresses the existing methodological gap in qualitative surveys focusing on Abu Dhabi’s cultural landscape, which is characterized by ongoing transformations. The UAE’s current social, economic, and political conditions continuously shape Abu Dhabi’s approach to using its rich tangible and intangible heritage as a catalyst for new articulations between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. Even if the epistemological approach suggested in this paper is far from exhaustive, the interdisciplinary aspect of this research has practical implications that may be useful for international researchers and policymakers working in a variety of fields.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03841-5