How Might World Heritage Status Support the Protection of Sacred Natural Sites? An Analysis of Nomination Files, Management, and Governance Contexts

This study provides an overview of how sacred natural sites are given recognition within the World Heritage system. It offers an analysis of the extent to which sacred natural sites that are part of nine World Heritage sites are recognised in site nomination files, management plans, and governance of these sites. The World Heritage sites are located across all continents except for Antarctica. We analysed sites in Australia, Greece, Guatemala, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Russian Federation. We found that the cultural and spiritual significance of sacred natural sites is under-recognised, especially in natural World Heritage sites. In addition, Indigenous and religious custodians are frequently excluded from site management and governance. We make four recommendations for improving the recognition of sacred natural sites and the involvement of their custodians in the World Heritage process and in site nomination, governance, and management: (1) identification and recognition of sacred natural sites including their associated cultural and spiritual values; (2) recognition of, and articulated roles for custodians of sacred natural sites in the governance and management of World Heritage sites; (3) increased uptake of religious groups and Indigenous Peoples’ conservation approaches to the joint management of World Heritage sites that contain sacred natural sites, and (4) prevention of exclusion of custodians and ecological migration by applying inclusive conservation practices through rights-based approaches.

Stakeholders' consciousness of cultural heritage and the reconciliation of different needs for sustainable development

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the approach and tools adopted by an Italian city, included amongst the UNESCO World Heritage sites (WHS), to involve different stakeholders in the protection and valorisation of its historical centre to achieve the goals of sustainable development. The paper focusses on the role of local authorities as the key actors that should engage different city users to jointly achieve heritage conservation and socio-economic development.Design/methodology/approachData were collected, thanks to the researchers' direct participation in a project launched by the municipality of Urbino, which involved several local stakeholders and lasted about a year. Participant observation allowed the authors to collect informal interviews, join collective discussions and reflect on the direct observation of the activities undertaken.FindingsThe case study analysed suggests how participatory governance may be effective in fostering responsible principles in “asset usage” by any type of city users and how citizens actively co-design and co-implement initiatives of heritage revitalisation when engaged in cultural heritage (CH) policies.Originality/valueThe paper addresses a long-standing problem that has never been solved: how to enhance the consciousness of the CH amongst stakeholders and reconcile their different and conflicting needs in the historical urban environment in the process of revitalisation.

Conceptual Framework for On-site Digital Interpretation Developments in Cultural Heritage Sites

On-site heritage interpretation plays a vital role in cultural heritage sites in conveying the significance and multiple heritage values to the visitors. In an era where the world is transforming with innovative digital applications, the heritage sites are also being integrated with digital interpretation techniques to deliver a better interpretation and new dimensional experience to the visitors. Though multiple digital solutions are available, not all the techniques are appropriate, applicable and feasible to every site. Besides, neither proper worldwide principles nor framework has been exerted for these digital heritage interpretation developments. Therefore, this study is focused on building a generic conceptual framework to select the most appropriate digital interpretation technique(s) that fit the context of the heritage site, giving special reference to the six Cultural World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka. The relevant qualitative and quantitative data were gathered via in-depth interviews, field observation, literature survey and a visitor survey questionnaire. The main themes and sub-themes derived through the thematic analysis were adopted as the theoretical framework for the research to analyze the collected data of the six Cultural World Heritage Sites and the selected digital techniques. Based on the results, the study recommends appropriate digital techniques for each Cultural World Heritage Sites of the country. Further as aimed, the study presents a conceptual framework for on-site digital interpretation developments for cultural heritage sites by categorizing the 24 criteria derived for data analysis under five phases namely ‘Prepare’, ‘Assess’, ‘Design’, ‘Implement’ and ‘Sustain’.

Conservation Challenges and Emerging Trends of Digital Preservation for UNESCO Architectural Heritage, Pakistan

Recent worldwide initiatives at world heritage forums, especially UNESCO, have increased the importance of architectural heritage. Architectural heritage includes built structures that are of outstanding value of natural and cultural identity and require conservation, preservation, presentation and transmission to the future generations. In this regard, UNESCO has enlisted six World Heritage Sites in Pakistan that need to be preserved. Moreover, the heritage sites are undergoing theft, vandalism, natural decay and other socio-cultural harms. One of the state-of-the-art methodologies is the digital preservation of the historic sites. Amongst the various available computer technologies, photogrammetry is the quickest and most cost-effective method that can be used for digital preservation. The research will focus on the digital preservation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which is an emerging trend in an architectural context. Developing countries have limited funds and resources and most historic sites are being neglected by the lack of financial resources. The paper suggests digital preservation as an emerging solution, identifies its challenges and suggests photogrammetry as a cost-effective solution to six UNESCO enlisted historic sites of Pakistan. It also suggests that once digitally recorded, information of historic sites can also be used in diverse applications to generate further finances.

State Image of Mongolia: Between National Identity and Globalization

The article studies the construction of the state image of Mongolia and its peculiarities. Mongolia is a country undergoing social and cultural transformation that includes reevaluation of image strategies. State image is an international statement based on highlighting one’s original characteristics that make a country attractive to investors and international partners. At the same time, it should reflect real cultural practices and allow for advancing national interests. The present study deploys the methodology of case study, SWOT analysis, thematic analysis of connotations that form the external and internal image of Mongolia. The purpose of this article is to investigate the strategies of image construction in today’s Mongolia. The article is aimed to give a semantic vision of the external image of Mongolia by identifying the most common words and expressions that are used in media to describe modern Mongolia. The second objective was to lay out the problematic aspects of creating an image of Mongolia as a promising and growing country despite the fact that now it goes through a challenging period of its history. The third objective is to investigate the ways Mongolia attempts to address these problems. For this purpose, the authors analyze government programs set to form and establish a modern image of Mongolia. These programs include a variety of documents, such as the National Program for the Promotion of Mongolia Abroad and others. Another line of research included the analysis of the work on the inclusion of Mongolian natural and cultural heritage on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The novelty of the research comes from a unique perspective on the construction of state image of Mongolia as an ethnic and cultural brand from the point of view of marketing strategies. The authors conclude that building brand and image of Mongolia is based on the civilizational approach. This approach to re-evaluating and re-creating Mongolia’s image leads to combining opposite characteristics. The country is presented as both ancient and modern, traditional and responsive to change. Such combination of controversial aspects makes allows for implementing archaic elements into the discourse of the catch-up modernization resulting in a positive state image. Mongolia’s experience in making a new image shows the potential of equating national and ethnocultural identity.

A Global Scale Analysis of River Flood Risk of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Floods can significantly affect Cultural Heritage with consequences that might not easily be repaired, given the unicity of this type of exposed asset. Flood losses are both tangible and intangible since communities rely on cultural heritage for its historical, spiritual, aesthetic, and socio-economic values. This work aims at examining river flood risk of UNESCO tangible World Heritage (UNWH) sites to identify the most at risk assets with a risk matrix approach entailing hazard, exposure, and vulnerability at a global scale. A distinction is made between natural sites, for which only hazard and exposure are assessed, and cultural and mixed sites. Hazard is evaluated by using the river flood maps at global scale developed by JRC for six probabilistic scenarios, exposure classification is based on the World Heritage List selection criteria and vulnerability is based on site typology. The analysis on 1,121 sites, as of March 2021, shows that 35% of natural and 21% of cultural and mixed UNWH sites are exposed to river floods. The risk matrix combining hazard, exposure, and vulnerability reveals that 2% of UNWH is at extremely high risk and 7% at very high risk, mostly in the Europe-North America and Asia-Pacific Regions. The analysis also stresses the need for a systematic collection, update, and storage of georeferenced data for cultural heritage. Further analysis should be carried out at local scales, with a priority for higher risk sites to better estimate hazard and vulnerability at a higher spatial resolution.

Gerda von Bülow, Sofija Petković (eds), Gamzigrad-Studien I. Ergebnisse der deutschserbischen Forschungen im Umfeld des Palastes Romuliana. Römisch-Germanischen Forschungen, Band 75, Wiesbaden 2020, Reihert Verlag

As the title suggests, this work is only first volume of the final publication of German-Serbian excavations at Gamzigrad in the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. It is very important archaeological site, one of Serbia’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.1 The ruins itself were well known and have been excavated since 1953 by Serbian archaeologists as well as being mentioned in several publications previously (Herder 1846 [first mention]: 20–21; Kanitz 1861: 8–9; Breithaupt 1861 and few mentions in Serbian literature, Serbian excavations: Vasič 2007 and Żivić 2011). However, it was not until the 1980s that an inscription was found during excavations that allowed for final identification (Srejović 1985).The archaeological site is located south of the Danube River, near the present city of Zaječar. Its unique position on the map of archaeological sites in Europe is a consequence of being the location of the complex including palace and temples called Felix Romuliana built by the emperor Galerius (Caesar during first tetrarchy, 293–305 AD, and Augustus in the second – 305–311 AD) in the ancient province of Dacia Ripensis. The whole area of this complex covers about 40,000 m2 and was thus clearly a site of some importance especially in the late Roman period.