The discussion on the permissibility and extent of changes, which has become a turning point in the history of international heritage protection, is still relevant for historical cities that belong to one of the most dynamic categories of protected sites. With the introduction of such a concept as “historic urban landscape”, the concept of the urban territory and its values has expanded significantly, and management systems have been supplemented with a new approach that takes into account the most diverse components of the human environment: from natural to man-made, from material to socially determined. Historic Center of Saint Petersburg is the core of the historically formed urban agglomeration and is characterized by unique cultural and natural features. One of the urgent tasks is to determine the limits of permissible changes and potential impacts on the heritage of a particular development project. Under these conditions, the identification of attributes of outstanding universal value, which are the subject of protection of the World Heritage property in the terminology of Russian legislation, is the key to preserving one of the most complex urban systems in the world. The article, highlighting copyright developments in the field of analysis of the value characteristics of World Heritage sites, offers methodological approaches to identifying attributes of outstanding universal value.