Safeguarding heritage sites from climate change: UNESCO’s ‘buffer zones’ as a tool for managing sea level rise in Cyprus

The Natural World Heritage site (NWH) has a dual role of protection and utilization. The buffer zone of the South China Karst (SCK) World Heritage (WH) site is scattered with village dwellings, which adds pressure to preserve the outstanding universal value (OUV) and integrity protection of the WH site. The development of agroforestry is an essential means to maintain rural livelihoods, protect the ecological environment, and realize the protection and development of the heritage site. Studying the synergy and regulation of the heritage site integrity protection and the buffer zone agroforestry development is essential. This study takes the Shibing and Libo–Huanjiang karst WH as the study areas and administrative villages as the evaluation unit. From 2020 to 2023, through data methods such as remote sensing data interpretation, information data survey and collection, comprehensive index analysis, coupling coordination degree model, and GIS spatial analysis, a systematic study was conducted on the basic frontier research, synergy relationship, and regulation of the heritage site integrity protection and the buffer zone agroforestry development. The results demonstrate that the Shibing and Libo–Huanjiang karst WH sites integrity protection and agroforestry development in the buffer zone have a high coupling degree and a good coupling coordination relationship. This reveals that the heritage site integrity protection and the buffer zone agroforestry development are an interconnected and mutually influential whole, which the synergistic relationship between them is developing in a positive direction; The buffer zone agroforestry development lags behind the heritage site integrity protection, based on which proposed the regulatory measures for the synergy development of the heritage site integrity protection and agroforestry development in the buffer zone. The findings in this study provide references for the synergies development of the WH karst site integrity protection and agroforestry development in the buffer zone.

Large conservation opportunities exist in >90% of tropic-subtropic coastal habitats adjacent to cities

Disaster risk management of cultural heritage: A global scale analysis of characteristics, multiple hazards, lessons learned from historical disasters, and issues in current DRR measures in world heritage sites

The Mediterranean Sea has a long record of cultural heritage sites located near its coast, reflecting each nation’s historical continuum and identity. These monuments also attract tourism and provide financial benefits to local communities. However, they are subject to structural damage and decay exacerbated by climate-change-related phenomena including extreme weather events, sea-level rise, etc. Sea Level Rise (SLR) is a major threat to coastal heritage sites as it can  lead to extensive inundation and soil erosion. SLR projections are constructed by studying representative pathway scenarios (RCP), which try to deliver possible alternatives about the future atmospheric composition.  SLR has escalated from an average of 1. 2 mm/year before 1990 to 3 mm/year between 1993 and 2010, with projections indicating a rise of 1–2 meters by 2100 across different scenarios.The ongoing Triquetra Project, funded by the European Union, aims to design a toolbox for assessing and mitigating climate-related risks and natural hazards, expected to affect Heritage Sites. A methodology has been developed to evaluate future exposure of coastal heritage sites SLR in EU Mediterranean Countries. This workflow uses open-access data to produce SLR projection maps for 2050 and 2100 based on the IPCC (2019) report for RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5. Four main sources of data were used: a hybrid coastline vector file combining national fine-scale datasets with the European Environment’s Agency (EEA) coastline file, FABDEM as the primary source of elevation information,  the European Ground Motion Vertical Service’s (EGMS) L3 product which measures vertical ground movements using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) data from the Sentinel-1 mission, and, finally, NASA’s Sea Level Projection Tool which provides information on all RCP scenarios. Coastal Heritage Sites and Assets were identified using OpenStreetMap and UNESCO’s Word Heritage Site point layer.The pre-processing stage of the algorithm involves the projection of all datasets into a common coordinate reference system, the clipping of the data into the area of interest (AOI), defined as a 2km buffer zone from the coastline, and the conversion of EGMS and NASA’s SLR data units to meters. The algorithm proceeds with raster calculations to determine the AOI’s elevation for the target years 2050 and 2100 under different RCP scenarios by adding the elevation values to the EGMS data and subtracting NASA’s SLR projected values. Raster calculations and Boolean algebra are performed to identify sub-areas affected by these scenarios. Finally, spatial queries are conducted to find coastal heritage sites at risk from Sea Level Rise, organized by monument type and country for vulnerability assessment.The results demonstrate that Greece, France, and Italy are expected to be more affected by SLR phenomena due to their extensive coastline and unique geomorphology, with the impact being more severe on Greece and Italy between 2050 and 2100. Finally, more than 240 heritage sites appear to be at risk primarily on the Greek and Italian coast, including UNESCO sites like Delos, the Medieval City of Rhodes, et al.

Probability and severity of climate change threats to natural world heritage sites vary across site specifics and over time

Understanding population changes in seabirds requires examining multiple causal factors and developing science‐based adaptive species conservation plans

During October 2012, Superstorm Sandy became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, ravaging the US Eastern Seaboard. While the storm caused billions of dollars in property damage and clean-up costs, it also provided a wake-up call to the risks faced by our historic national treasures. Ellis Island, the gateway to the American dream for millions of immigrants, was completely submerged under the massive storm surge caused by the hurricane. Liberty Island, home to the iconic Statute of Liberty, was 75% submerged and faced tens of millions of dollars of damage. The intensity of Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath revealed that rising sea levels and aberrant weather events are increasingly placing our nation’s historic landmarks and sites of cultural heritage at risk. While the impacts of climate change may potentially devastate historical sites, hope is not lost. As oceanographer John Englander points out, we are given a “blessing” in some ways because, “unlike a storm, rising sea level does give us time to prepare.” To protect precious historic resources in the face of climate change, the first thing that must be “adapted” is our nation’s overall preservation approach. The importance of preserving historic and archeological sites has long been recognized in the nation, with a comprehensive preservation scheme codified with the passing of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act. This landmark piece of legislation embodied the traditional concepts of preservation: that historic buildings and their cultural landscapes should remain intact, in their original locations, with their original features. However, a changing climate will challenge the traditional approach. Treasured historic properties are becoming increasingly vulnerable in their current conditions and locations. Many of the sites crucial to the development of the nation are located along the coasts and are at most risk from rising sea levels. Flood-proofing measures and adaptation plans will be critical strategies for withstanding sea level rise in the decades to come, but many of these strategies are incompatible with federal, state, and local historic preservation laws. Raising the elevation of a historic home or refurbishing it with modern materials may make the property more resilient, for example, but will fundamentally change its look and be inconsistent with the character of a historic district. To promote adaptation and protect precious resources, preservationists therefore should re-evaluate what it means to “save” a historic building or cultural landmark. Given rising sea levels, maintaining a structure as is, in its historical location, could end up being a death sentence for the structure in its entirety; introducing flexibility into the standards for gaining and retaining historical designations will be needed. This white paper maintains that both the federal government and local governments will have large but different roles to play in adaptation efforts designed to conserve the nation’s history and culture under the existing national preservation framework. Section I examines the statutory schemes behind two major federal laws that impact decision-making regarding historic structures: the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Flood Insurance Program. The section then highlights the relationships between the regulatory schemes promulgated under these federal laws and suggests how new adaptive measures and incentives can be built in to encourage resiliency planning and action for vulnerable buildings. Section II moves away from individual historic property decision making and suggests how climate change resiliency strategies can be incorporated into the review procedures required by the National Historic Preservation Act when federal agency actions affect historic properties. Section III maintains that while changes to federal regulations will be important for a long-term and cohesive preservation response to climate change, local governments will be on the frontline of identifying and protecting their most vulnerable and cherished historic assets. This section highlights important local work being done to preserve cultural heritage and suggests a model for other susceptible coastal cities to undertake while waiting for policy change on a national scale.

PurposeBuffer zones are tools to protect the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World Heritage Sites (WHS), whose delineation process depends on state parties. There is a lack of research on the concept and understanding of buffer zones, especially in the Indian context. The aim of this paper is to build a theoretical understanding of the concept and relevance of buffer zones for WHS of different scales, contexts and typologies.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative study analyzing secondary literature (global and Indian official documents, research and publications, etc.) using both thematic and comparative analysis. While thematic analysis was employed to code and decode existing literature, comparative analysis was done for nine Indian WHS.FindingsThis analysis shows some criteria are relevant across buffer zones globally but are not clearly established or documented. Moreover, in India, although there are nine relevant buffer zone criteria, most heritage sites focus on two criteria – Visual Integrity and Laws and Regulations. This paper argues that all nine criteria must be considered while defining buffer zones.Originality/valueThis is the first attempt at a comprehensive analysis and understanding of buffer zones based on different heritage contexts.

Twenty-first century sea-level rise could exceed IPCC projections for strong-warming futures

Currently, global warming, invasive alien species and tourism development pose major threats to Natural World Heritage sites, and the strengthening of conservation methods and management programs in buffer zones is urgent for the sustainable development of sites. Agroforestry, as a nature-based solution, not only promotes the buffer zone to effectively maintain the Outstanding Universal Value of the heritage site, but also balances the relationship between the conservation of the heritage site and the economic development of the buffer zone, and effectively enhances the protection of the buffer zone in response to various threats. However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive understanding of research trends, research focuses, and recent developments, regarding the conservation of natural heritage sites and buffer zone agroforestry development. Therefore, this study utilized the Scopus database along with Excel and Bibliometrix software to conduct a bibliometric analysis and explore and visualize popular research topics and foreword issues related to Natural World Heritage conservation and buffer zone agroforestry development. We discuss the current publication trends and quantity, keyword and abstract word frequencies, thematic maps and evolutions, journal productivity, national publication outputs, collaboration relationships, and contributing institutions. The research shows that the relationship between biodiversity conservation and agroforestry has been the focus of research in the field since 1992, and the development of agroforestry has contributed to biodiversity conservation in heritage sites. However, there have been fewer studies addressing the geomorphic and aesthetic value of agroforestry conservation, and little attention has been paid to buffer zone development. Based on this, this manuscript suggests that in the future, emphasis should be placed on the linkage between the development of buffer zones and heritage conservation, especially in the Karst World Heritage Sites with ecologically fragile, and that the role of agroforestry development in buffer zones should be strengthened in the promotion of ecological balance and sustainable development of the sites, to provide scientific references for the conservation and development of other geoheritage sites around the globe.

Conservation Management Plan (CMP) and its implementation is a relatively new practice in the protection and safeguarding of heritage buildings and sites in Malaysia. The CMP is a vital legal document which details out the management strategy for historic assets, heritage sites and significant places; as well as prescribes future use, management, alteration, or repair to retain the significance of heritage buildings and sites. Without proper CMP implementation, gazetted heritage buildings or sites are at risk due to potential development threats that may affect their significant values. This article presents the fundamentals of the CMP as stated under the Malaysian laws, which are the National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645), State of Penang Heritage Enactment 2011 (Enactment 14) and Sarawak Heritage Ordinance 2019 (Chapter 77). This study involves a qualitative research in examining provisions in the Malaysian heritage laws; as well as reviewing the contents of the CMP of Brooke Dockyard in Kuching, Sarawak as a case study. The study found that all three Malaysia heritage laws have similar provisions in aspects of authority, power, control, management, and designated criteria for heritage property. Specific provisions of the Sarawak Heritage Ordinance 2019 (Chapter 77) laws were found to be fully complied and well documented in the case study of the CMP of Brooke Dockyard. Hence, the CMP of Brooke Dockyard serves as an instrumental tool in safeguarding the significant values of this heritage building prior to its transformation into a maritime museum. The CMP provides guidance to envisage future care and use of Brooke Dockyard including new development proposals within the designated core and buffer zones. The CMP also portrays Brooke Dockyard as one of the significant heritage sites in Sarawak that should be conserved for the benefits of future generations.

Understanding the spatiotemporal variation and drivers of ecosystem services is fundamental to optimal management and sustainable development of World Heritage (WH) sites. Although WH sites face multiple natural and anthropogenic threats, our understanding of their ecosystem services is still limited, especially for karst WH sites. In this study, we assessed habitat quality (HQ), carbon storage (CS), soil retention (SR), water conservation (WC), and the combined ecosystem service (CES) of karst and non-karst WH sites in Southwest China from 2000 to 2020 using the InVEST model. We also assessed trade-offs/synergies among ecosystem services using the spatial overlay method, and identified driving factors of variation in ecosystem services using geographical detector and structural equation models. The results showed that ecosystem services of the WH sites exhibited high spatiotemporal variation. In particular, there were higher values in the property zone than in the buffer zone, and an increasing trend in SR but a decreasing trend in HQ and CES over time. Compared to non-karst sites, karst WH sites had significantly lower values of HQ, CS, SR, and CES, but higher spatial heterogeneity in CS, WC, and CES. Weak trade-offs among ecosystem services dominated the WH sites, with the proportion of weak synergies increasing over time. Compared to non-karst sites, karst WH sites had a significantly lower proportion of strong synergies and a significantly higher proportion of weak synergies. The provision of ecosystem services was primarily influenced by natural factors (e.g., landscape division index and normalized difference vegetation index), followed by anthropogenic factors (e.g., distance from road and population density). Overall, these findings may have important implications for decision-making aimed at protecting the outstanding universal value, authenticity, and integrity of WH with different attributes.

The coastal cultural heritage sites are expected to be affected negatively by sea-level rise, although these impacts will be observed at different levels in different areas. ICOMOS (2019) has urged the member states to determine and assess the vulnerability and risks of those cultural heritage sites that are under threat and increase the efforts to protect and adapt these locations to the impacts of climate change. Turkey has many significant natural and archeological heritage sites with outstanding values, and these areas are protected by law. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (TUBITAK) funded project “Vulnerability of Coastal Cultural Heritage Areas to Sea Level Rise and Its Impacts” (No: 122M613) focused on assessing the vulnerability of the coastal areas with heritage sites (both natural and cultural sites protected by law) to sea level rise and its impacts (coastal erosion, inundation and coastal flooding due to extreme water levels) using the Fuzzy Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Model, FCVAM (Ozyurt, 2010). Within the project, an additional module is developed to determine the vulnerability of coastal cultural heritage sites based on their interaction with the coastal area and the coastal vulnerability. The assessments use several sea level rise projections based on different climate change scenarios to ensure that the vulnerability of these sites reflects the latest sea level rise research and the uncertainty ranges. Thus, the coastal cultural heritage sites of Turkiye will be prioritized according to their vulnerability at a national level and using a multi-dimensional approach. This study will present these Turkish coastal archeological heritage sites exposed to impacts of sea level rise, their respective coastal vulnerability indices, and the heritage vulnerability results based on the heritage site characteristics and their interaction with the coastal vulnerability.

The continuous cumulative worsening impact of climate change on heritage sites represents a new challenge for most of the nonrenewable resources of heritage sites and buildings in general; this is especially true with respect to coastal heritage sites, which are facing a more dangerous situation as the climate becomes more extreme in coastal areas and sea levels rise, putting heritage sites at risk. A strict adaptation plan, usually made for reducing the impact of climate change, may not be the solution, as different heritage site locations, materials, and hazard types need tailored plans. Therefore, in this research paper, a resilience approach was introduced to help adapt the most problematic sites to the impacts of climate change, i.e., coastal heritage sites. To fulfill the objective of achieving adaptation in a resilient way that can easily be developed in relation to different types of sites, mixed research methods were used. First, the literature was reviewed using the Connected Papers tool. Then, machine learning methods were used to process and analyze the input data of the resilience adaptation plan for an Egyptian coastal heritage site case study, i.e., Alexandria. Next, the data were arranged and analyzed, highlighting the main classifying algorithms responsible for identifying the resilience range, using the machine learning software packages Infra Nodus and WEKA, according to the differences in the climate change impact at the heritage sites. The final outcome of this research is a resilience approach that can be adapted to rescue plans for coastal heritage sites via machine learning.

Heritage buildings are considered unique assets with a significant value for the country where they are situated that must be conserved or preserved for the coming generations. However, heritage sites, as any other site where a construction is present, experience tremendous risks that impact both the condition and the withstanding of the building or asset they include. Therefore, a risk management framework is essential for these sites and buildings, in particular to be able to decide how to respond and act upon foreseeable risks when they occur or even before experiencing them. This study starts with investigating the most dominant risks in the heritage buildings context with a focus on Yemeni sites, and consequently 38 Yemeni experts in the field of heritage building management were surveyed to examine the identified risks in three case study heritage sites in Yemen. The significance of the risks as well as their impact, likelihood, and detectability levels were measured using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) basis that reduces the subjectivity of the expert opinions. After risks were analyzed, a suitable response action was therefore suggested to manage and minimize risk impacts as much as possible. In addition to the relative scoring for the priority of each identified risk, an overall risk proneness metric is presented in this paper that can be used to compare the vulnerability of different heritage buildings and/or sites for a strategic efficient budget allocation for the management and preservation of those areas. The preliminary results revealed that armed conflicts, climate change, and flooding are three of the most critical risk factors in Yemeni heritage buildings. This framework is expected to aid heritage building managers in identifying the correct course of actions to prevent or mitigate risks from disturbing the heritage sites and help preserve their value and significance.