Impact of Environmental Changes on UNESCO World Heritage Sites

CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Cause and effect of environmental changes on UNESCO World heritage sites....................3
Intervention and mitigation at local, national and international level....................................5
Appropriate reference to protocols, International agreements, organisations documents and
relevant legislation and its application to the World Heritage Site under investigation........6
Consider three world heritage sites that may be at risk of losing their status, due to
environmental degradation through inappropriate development, human intervention or
consumption or natural deterioration of fabric and material..................................................9
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................11
Discuss key issues associated with the safety of dams.........................................................11
Discuss the importance of developing on-site and off-site emergency preparedness and
response plan in the case of emergency or a dam failure.....................................................12
Elements of emergency action plan......................................................................................15
Impacts of failure of a dam on safety of the people living downstream, damages to properties
and infrastructure and the environment................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
This report revolves around impact of environmental issues on world heritage sties and
impact of climate change on these heritage at local, national and international level.
Environmental issues such as Global warming, ozone depletion etc. are factors which have
affected climate across the globe. Climate change become major threat for several cultural sites
and natural world heritage site. This report focuses on impact of climate on world heritage sites
and how climate change can also increase the other effects such as urbanization, natural
resources, pollution etc. There are more than 1000 world heritage sites in 163 countries as some
of them are considered as important tourist destinations across the globe. Tourism have also
affected world heritage site in negative manner, tourism which is considered beneficial for
economic development of economy and help in bringing financial stability to economy but there
are some negative effects of tourism such as tourism development and excessive visitors.
Climate change have affected existing issues which are affecting world heritage sites and factors
such as sea-level rise, higher temperatures, shift in habitat and different weather conditions such
as storms, floods and droughts etc. have affected world heritage site and these factors are
affecting attributes of world heritage sites which is considered as serious issue.
This report focus on identifying and resolving environmental issues which are affecting
world heritage sites which includes cultural heritage site are vulnerable to climate change and
tourism sector also is considered vulnerable to climate change (Ahmed, 2018). Threats to
cultural heritage site includes extreme weather which increases costs related to insurance and
concerns related with safety and damages to premises of heritage site. This report focuses on
issue related with disruption to natural and cultural heritage site in world due to climate change
and it can also affect the tourism sector and reduce the attractiveness of heritage sites.
TASK 1
Cause and effect of environmental changes on UNESCO World heritage sites
Environmental changes have affected heritage sites all across the globe and UNESCO as
a body is focusing on maintaining values within those properties and help in maintaining heritage
properties for future generation. World heritage sites which should be preserved and maintained
in order to promote tourism sector (Burger and Zulch, 2018). Environment changes have made
its impact on world heritage site as impact of change in temperature, rise in sea level, greenhouse

gas emission have made its impact on several world heritage sites. World heritage sites are also
affected by unplanned tourism development and poor management of visitors. Some of the well
known heritage sites in world are Taj Mahal in India, the great Barrier reef in Australia and
Grand Canyon in United States. It has been shown by UNESCO report that many heritage sites
are facing effects of climate change and it have affected the structure of heritage sites. Australia
great barrier reef have faced coral bleaching which occurs due to warmer water which can be
linked with change in temperature at global level. High sea level in Venice have caused damage
to properties in Venice. Heritage sites are considered as important sites due to their uniqueness
and connection to past entities (Callistus and Clinton, 2018).
Heritage help in bringing great amount of revenues for government by encouraging
tourism industry. World heritage sites are considered as one of the valuable tourist destinations
all across the globe and many people livelihood is dependent on their existence as it help in
attracting tourist. UNESCO focuses on developing appropriate plans and strategies which can
help in adopting climate changes and reduce the emission rate in nature. Coral reefs are
considered as example to understand problem of climate change as coral reefs are considered as
world heritage site and most vulnerable to change in environment and other issues related to
climate change. Figures shows that more than half of world reefs are considered at risk of
degradation and it can affect several countries as several countries tourism is associated with
reefs and tourism revenue contributes in GDP of several economies. Reefs in worldwide are
affected by several issue related to environment and climate changes as warm waters and ocean
acidification played vital role in degradation of coral reefs. Coral are important part of marine
environment as its existence is from several million years and temperature change in recent years
have affected adaptability of coral reefs and that's why climate change is considered as threat to
coral reefs (Erdogan, Šaparauskas and Turskis, 2019). Climate change have made its impact on
world heritage sites and it also exacerbate other issues such as lack of management of tourist,
poverty, urbanization etc. Higher temperature helped in influencing changes in environment such
as meting of glaciers, floods and droughts etc.
Protecting world heritage site is considered as priority and it can be possible by
protecting ecosystem. In order to protect world heritage sites focus should be on expanding and
managing buffer zones which help in ensuring connectivity between sites and protected areas.
Monuments, Building and archaeological monuments of cultural world heritage sites and