Monitoring Climate Change in World Heritage Properties: Evaluating Landscape-Based Approach in the State of Conservation System

Paloma Guzman,Maya Ishizawa,Sandra Fatorić

doi:10.3390/cli8030039

Abstract

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a threat to natural and cultural World Heritage (WH) sites worldwide. Through its interaction with other stressors, climate change accelerates existing risks while also creating new obstacles. A more considerable focus is needed in both research and practice to explore proactive measures for combatting this issue (e.g., mitigation and actions prior to impacts occurring). World Heritage values in climate change decision-making processes is an important factor in this regard. This paper explores a discussion of climate change within the WH monitoring system. It offers an overview of practice based on the extent to which WH properties (natural, mixed and cultural) implement landscape-based approaches alongside the conservation and management of their outstanding universal value within the context of climate uncertainty and environmental change. Landscape approaches are gaining importance in the WH conservation system, where they aim to provide concepts and tools for managing heritage toward sustainable practices. This research analyses the state of conservation reports and provides an overview of practice across time, categories and geographical regions. Based on a theoretical approach, empirical analyses identify four landscape principles that are increasingly shaping the debate around climate change issues in WH properties. Although these are highly relevant to advancing much-needed collaboration among scientific disciplines and governance sectors, we argue that further understanding is required on the transformational process of heritage values, as well as on the nature–culture relationship, in order to underpin heritage as a source for local resilience and climate mitigation.

Highlights

In the coming decades, climate change risks to various socioeconomic and natural systems are expected to increase due to projected anthropogenic climate changes, demographic development, and land-use changes [1]
Climate change risks to World Heritage (WH) areas are acknowledged in the list of factors threatening properties, our analysis showed that the term ‘climate change’ by itself was mentioned only 103 times within State of Conservation (SOC) reports in the period 2000–2019 (Figure 1)
This study provided an overview of how climate change is discussed within the WH monitoring system (SOC reports)

Summary

Introduction

Climate change risks to various socioeconomic and natural systems are expected to increase due to projected anthropogenic climate changes, demographic development, and land-use changes [1]. These changes are increasingly being recognised as threat multipliers for global natural and cultural heritage via their interaction with other stressors, thereby accelerating existing risks and creating new ones [1,2,3]. An initial report on climate change and World Heritage (WH) properties Recent studies [3,6,7] found that heritage conservation practice has primarily focused on reactive measures that are taken after climate change impacts occur; these impacts include damage or loss to heritage properties [6,8,9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion