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World Heritage

Online Map Platform

© UNESCO / Thomas Rigauts

Funded by the Flanders UNESCO Trustfund (FUT), this project aims to develop an online geographic information system for World Heritage in Europe and North America.

Over a thousand properties are currently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. To preserve the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World Heritage sites, potential impacts need to be swiftly identified and located. The attributes that convey the Outstanding Universal Value of a World Heritage property are identifiable within the boundaries of the property, with buffer zones providing an additional layer of protection. The precise delineation of these boundaries is an essential requirement for the effective protection of World Heritage properties. Clear, consistent and georeferenced maps of World Heritage sites are thus crucial to ensure the effective preservation of our world’s shared heritage by communities, heritage professionals and beyond.

Until now, the World Heritage Centre has lacked a single-access, open-to-all online platform where reliable geospatial data can be used for monitoring, analysis and decision-making. The World Heritage Online Map Platform project, supported by the Government of Flanders (Belgium), addresses this need.

The project


The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is currently finalising the development of a pilot online Geographic Information System (GIS) for World Heritage, linked to existing UNESCO databases, to display georeferenced boundaries of World Heritage sites and their buffer zones. GIS is a tool to store, process, analyse and visualise spatial information. The project started with Europe and North America, which undertakes the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting under the Convention between 2022 and 2023, as a pilot region.

In its pilot phase, all States Parties in Europe and North America were invited, in parallel with the Retrospective Inventory project, to submit georeferenced maps of their World Heritage properties as inscribed by the World Heritage Committee. A verification phase followed: only those layers that do not show any deviation from the maps as adopted by the World Heritage Committee will be displayed on the platform.

The World Heritage Online Map platform will be officially launched during the extended 45th session of the World Heritage Committee (10-25 September 2023) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Through an advanced multi-search engine for accurate data visualization and extraction, the platform will display verified georeferenced polygons of the boundaries and buffer zones (if any) of the World Heritage properties, on different basemaps fitting diverse purposes.

The platform will greatly facilitate the understanding of the boundaries of the World Heritage properties and their buffer zones, thus allowing better and earlier identification of potential impacts on their Outstanding Universal Value and helping States Parties to improve the monitoring of the state of conservation of the properties on their territory and to better protect them. This project represents a direct contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and in particular to target 11.4 ‘Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world cultural and natural heritage’. With the mobilisation of new support, several layers of information can be added to the system, such as, for example, the factors affecting properties as listed in the Online Information System on the State of Conservation of World Heritage Properties.

The platform will:

Strengthen the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage properties by providing State Parties with an online geographic information system to improve monitoring of the state of conservation.
Improve the quality and consistency of the maps of World Heritage properties, to facilitate access to and analysis of World Heritage geographic data. Improve the understanding of the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value within the boundaries of World Heritage properties, in order to develop adequate management systems.
Facilitate the planning and preparing of more accurate and complex Heritage Impact Assessments, Environmental Impact Assessments, and other relevant documents by State Parties by providing accessible and accurate maps of World Heritage boundaries and buffer zones.
Assist project developers (including private sector) to better understand the different boundaries of World Heritage protection, and guide them in the assessment of projects in or in the vicinity of a World Heritage property or buffer zones (a tool directly relevant for the implementation of, for example, No-Go commitments).

Contacts
Fernando Avakian (UNESCO)
Geographical focus
Europe and North America
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1
Dates
Date Start: Friday, 1 October 2021
Date end: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
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