CPM7003 Module: World Heritage at Risk and Sustainable Construction

This report examines the threats to World Heritage sites and the principles of sustainable construction. It analyzes the impact of global change, including climate change and human activities, on both natural and cultural heritage. The report discusses the role of UNESCO, the World Heritage Committee, and international agreements like the Millennium Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity in protecting these sites. It provides specific examples of World Heritage sites at risk, such as Bam city in Iran and the Zabid Historic Town in Yemen, and explores mitigation strategies at local, national, and international levels. Furthermore, the report delves into the challenges of sustainable construction, including the impact of urbanization and climate change on water quality and flooding, and the role of greenhouse gas emissions. It discusses global warming, and the need for sustainable practices to reduce environmental impacts. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the issues and potential solutions for preserving our world heritage and building a sustainable future.

World heritage at risk & Sustainable Construction

World heritage at risk
Abstract:-
A list of the world heritage in danger was designed to analyze the condition of threatening of the
heritage property. So that encourage communities can take corrective actions. Cultural properties
of the world classified into two parts: Ascertained Danger and Potential Danger. Ascertained
Danger is proven imminent danger, such as severe deterioration of the material, structure,
architectural, natural environment, loss of historical authenticity or cultural significance. Other is
the potential danger that includes in the risk because of lack of conservation policy, impacts of
climatic or geological. In this study, we analyze the effect on the environment by the World
Heritage intervention and mitigation at local, national and international level.
Introduction:-
1. The role of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) is beneficial for the development of communities and cities (Guzmán and
Pereiraroders, 2017). The main approaches to be identified for the heritage such as urban
phenomena and cultural capital made to measured urban management. Sustainability of urban
factors currently links to cultural heritage. The terms 'world heritage', 'natural heritage', or
'cultural heritage' relates to the restoration, preservation and display of history, nature, history
and culture (Labadi, 2016). The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) investigate to preserve and protect such sites through the World Heritage
Convention in 1972. This convention relates to the protection of world natural and cultural
heritage. Governments of countries affirm the conference to identify suitable sites, and the list is
maintained for these sites by the UNESCO. The World heritage network at global level helps to
raise awareness on the issues of ecosystem services, cultural diversity, biodiversity, human
societies and the world’s cultural and natural heritage. It also serves the observation of climate
change and shares this information on tested monitoring, adaptation and mitigation practices
(Maturan and A., 2005)
1.1 Environment of Heritage Sites-
Changing of Climatic condition directly effects on Cultural and Natural sites (example weather
and catastrophic events), but it has an indirect impact on the environmental resources. Climate

change may impact on heritage sites since the people in that region has to face the problem of
natural resources shortage. Due to this increase the population density to move in the urban
areas. So, we have to consider the main impact of global change rather than climate. Natural
Heritage sites strongly related to the natural environment. Increasing the usage of water
associated with the pollution that directly affects the Natural Heritage site. According to the
current list of the UNESCO (World Heritage Center) water-related properties are 119, Cultural
Heritage is 59, and Natural Heritage is 51 mixed with eight sites. Reserves and National parks
categorized in the Natural heritage sites based on biological diversity (Labadi and Long 2010).
1.2. Effect on Global Change: - Typical impact on Natural Heritage sites of ecosystem refers to
the illegal human activities like clearance of woods, pollution and fishing. Change in the climate
is the other challenge that poses precipitation patterns and change in temperature. It directly or
indirectly affects the flora and fauna and other species of Natural Heritage sites. It causes
geographic distributions, extinctions, shifts in species, and alterations of the structure of the
ecosystem (Lang, 2018).
Climate change increases the impact on natural resources –driven shift in food and water
security. It also affects on global catastrophic activities such as droughts and flood.
Fig. 1 Global Climate Change
Overall, due to contributing factors and close inter-linkage, it has to consider the effect of global
change
2. The World Heritage intervention and mitigation at local, national and international level
2.1World Heritage gives Committee guidelines:- Committee core policy is based on the the
'Strategic Objective' and 'Global Strategy'. The World Heritage Committee launched the Global

Strategy plan in 1994 for Representative and World Heritage Credible list for cultural heritage.
This list is extended in 1996 and covers natural heritage.
2.2 In 2002 at 26th session: World Heritage Committee adopted Conservation through 4
strategic plans: Credibility and Strengthening of the World Heritage List, development of the
effective Capacity building, involvement in World Heritage trough communication and
increasing awareness in public.
2.3. Global Development agenda and MDGs (Millennium Development Goals):- The United
Nations General Assembly In September 2000, identifying the main challenges of the world
community that is facing recently. This assembly focuses on the loss of biodiversity and its
conservation in a sustainable manner.
2.4(1) Millennium Development Goals gives eight goals to address the challenges and put
forward to achieve progress on these challenges by 2015. For the World Heritage work, Goal -7-
relates to the 'Environmental Sustainability'. That can be achieved by the use of renewable
energy resources that gives sustainable management of resources. The World Heritage
Convention is an essential part of achieving a suitable target. It protects the areas of high
biodiversity and ecosystems (Fuller and Dwived, 2019)
2.5 CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity):- CBD sets the agenda for conservation and
biodiversity. This policy framework the activities related to the biodiversity conservation through
the process of 'Biodiversity Liaison Group'. It describes the four international major agreements,
The World Heritage Convention- Convention on Migratory Species, Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and The Wetlands ‘Ramsar’ Convention.
 World Heritage Committee allows immediate assistance for the World Heritage in
Danger property. Some lists included the site of the world (Roberts and O'leary, 2020)
1. Bam city Iranian :-In the Iranian city of Bam approximately 26000 people in the earthquake
of December 2003 lost their lives, World Heritage List inscribed by UNESCO’s of Danger in
2004.

2. Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan:- In the List of World Heritage, this cultural landscape was
written on the List in Danger in 2003. The property is in a beautiful state of conservation,
considering that it has suffered from dynamite explosions and military action. Some parts of this
landscape are out of reach due to the presence of impersonal mines. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) request to the Bamiyan
Government to coordinates with all international efforts to enhance cultural heritage and
safeguard.
3. The Zabid Historic Town in Yemen:-The outstanding historical and archaeological heritage
of Yemen has severely decayed in recent years. Concrete buildings have replaced more than 40%
of its houses. In 2000, UNESCO inscribed this historic town in the List of World Heritage of
Danger at the request of the State Party. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization helps the local authorities for the development of an urban conservation plan and
strategic approach for the preservation of these sites.
4. The National Parks of Kahuzi-Biega, Garamba, Virunga, Salonga and the Okapi
Wildlife Reserve of the Congo:- All these World Heritage sites Since 1994 has added in the
danger list of World Heritage. Its impact has seen on the civil conflicts of the Great Lakes
region. UNESCO launched an international safeguarding campaign In 1999 with several
international NGOs to protect the endangered species like the northern white rhino, and the okapi
Emergency programmed around US$3.5 million in 4-year have implemented to save these five
sites by the Government of Belgium and the United Nations Foundation (Belgium and B., 2007)
Conclusion:-
The world cultural heritage value contributes to mutual comprehension among cultures and
people. Through tourism gives success in terms of the social and economic development. So,
remove the heritage sites from the world heritage list of danger country need to take steps for the
development of the sites in the period of the crisis.

Sustainable Construction
Abstract:-
The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and the WMO (World Meteorological
Organization) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 for
scientific, socio-economic research on the climate change. The concentration of GHGs in the
atmosphere goes on increases. This study analyzes the impact of global warming and what steps
had taken to reduce greenhouse gas emission and steps were taken by the UNFCCC (The United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to reduce the carbon emissions among the
countries.
Introduction:-
1. In the 21st century, at urban centres, flooding is one of the significant issues.
Urbanization and climate changes have tremendous threats to the quality of water and flooding in
urban areas. Leading utility is managing and setting the environmental legislation for the water
environment in the future, and control interventions. It mainly focused on the urbanization and
climate change on flooding and quality of water in the United Kingdom urban areas. It shows
that water quality is not meeting at the specified level, and the risk of flooding is increasing.
With this climate change pose a central challenge. Factors that limit urban environment
management are:
1. For storm rainfall lack of sub-daily projections
2. Urban environment complexity in modelling and managing.
3. Suitability and uncertainty on the prediction of climate change
In the metropolitan area, flooding poses the most significant challenges in sustained
economic growth and human safety in the UK .annual damages estimated in the UK from

flooding approximately £1bn. Delay in rainfall causes due to change in the climatic condition.
This condition has predicted to alter the flooding conditions by using technology in the many
urban areas of the UK. Without the proper knowledge leads to the increase the flooding risk in
future and cause destruction (D, 2017)
2. Global warming changes related with the high flow:- According to river gauging good
history across the UK, observed that change in the water flow at peak level could not link be
directly with the climate changes.it is affected by natural variability. Flood Event of autumn
2000 have taken under consideration, finds that the probability of flooding is increased by
anthropogenic emissions the greenhouse gases. The International Plant Protection Convention
(IPPC) concludes it with confidence that flood frequency is affected by the anthropogenic
climate change (Easterbrook, 2018)
The primary issue in 21 century of pollution is toxic waste, Global warming, air and water
pollution, and acid rain, which may threaten our future. Human impact can be seen on the
physical environmental condition in many ways such as the burning of fossil fuels, pollution,
deforestation and overpopulation (GOV.UK, 2010). These pollution activities impacts on soil
erosion, climate change, undrinkable water and poor air quality. These are some specified
activities which are impact from human activities from the past and future.
The landfill is the method of disposal of biodegradable solid waste. Recently analyzed by
the researcher of different countries, landfill becomes a source of greenhouse gas emission.
Increasing population causes the increasing the MSW (Municipal solid waste) dramatically.
Landfills are approximately accounted for 5% GHG emission that contributes to anthropogenic
climate change (Zhang, 2019)
Another cause of climate change is the excess emission of heat-trapping in the atmosphere. This
greenhouse gases emission produced by the burning of a large amount of coal, oil, and burning
of the forest (GOV.UK, 2020).The scientist has recently after so many efforts invested that
global warming caused by fossil fuel companies. Human activities produce these emissions by
using dryer and washer, flipping a light switch and driving.

In the twenty-first century 'Biggest global health threat' is global warming. Many observers
expect the temperature of the earth will increase up to 3.6 °F(2 °C); as a result sea level will rise,
rainfall patterns will change, weather events will change more frequently, flooding will increase
in coastal areas (Fadda, 2019). These changes may have serious repercussions worldwide. The
main objective is to find the cause of global warming.
The burning of non-renewable energy resources such as fossil fuels, oils is the main
factor of global warming. After discovering oil in 1960, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) face
economic development with population growth. As a result, it arises tremendous demand for
energy in various sectors such as commercial, residential and industry. Arman and Murad
(2012). In this, we relate the relationship between temperature change and CO2 emission in the
United Arab Emirates concerning global warming. The UAE (United Arab Emirates) has included in
the list of 55 countries which is responsible for producing around 55% of the world's Green House Gases
(GHGs) (A. and et al., 2019)
3. In the UAE emission of CO2 in the last 48 years are averaged about 33.6 metric tons per
capita. It clearly shows that in the UAE’s average emission of CO2 in these previous 48 years is
approx. Eight times higher than the world average CO2 emission. The CO2 emission of the world
is around 4.1 metric tons per capita. The rainfall data shows decrement in mean average from
12.8 to 4.61 mm as compared to last years. As a result, the less rainy area is hotter. So, Increase
the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, and that contributes to global warming (Zhenmin
and Espinosa, 2019)
At COP 21, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) reached an agreement to combat climate change held, on 12 December 2015. This
convention, as a result, gives a landmark is known as 'Paris Agreement. The main objective of
the Paris Agreement - 2015 to coordinate all nations to undertake ambitious efforts to combat
climate change (Tobin et al. 2018).
The central aim of the Paris Agreement's is to strengthen the global response to the threat of
climate change to limit the Temperature is rises from 1.5 degrees Celsius to 2 degrees Celsius
(Ari and Sari 2017).The goal of the Paris agreement is that all countries work together to bring

GHG’s (Greenhouse gas emissions) reduces to zero within half of the 21st century. Paris
agreement also provides the support and transparency of action through a framework.
4. Building construction is the primary sources of GHG (greenhouse gas) emission. It
arises to meet the climate change mitigation analyze the GHG emissions full life cycle. Many
opportunities exist to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the construction sector. The
energy and emissions savings potential in building construction will not change, if continued, use
the less efficient technologies (Yao and R. 2013)
According to the new report of Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, Some
action will be needed by governments, if the construction sector and global buildings are to cut
its carbon footprint in line with international agreements. The Global status report of UN
Environment and the International Energy Agency Written to highlights the emission of
construction and emission of the buildings towards a zero-carbon emission (Zabcik and B. 2014).
Government shifts towards new energy-saving technology such as improved insulation and
windows, heat pumps, buildings design, and the use of less energy-intensive materials (Chester,
et al. 2014)
Other practices to reduce carbon emission:-
1. Measure and Evaluate models of carbon footprint building
2. Continuous insulation of buildings
3. Recycled content –Recycle, Reduce and Reuse
4. Usage of Renewable energy source
5. Water usage.

Fig.1 GHG emission of building Röck, M. and Mendes saade, M. (2020)
To achieve sustainability in the building industry multi-disciplinary approach covers
some features such as improved use of materials, emissions and pollution control, waste-
material minimization, and energy saving. O., et al., 2012). There are many ways from which
building activity can be improved and controlled to make it less environmentally damaging. A
framework can be implemented for sustainable building design.
1. Resource conservation
2. Design for Human adaptation
For efficient building design, one of the most important technology is the Green building design.
Green building Design:-Green building design increase the efficiency of the building and use of
water, energy, materials reduces the building impact on the environment. Some parameter such
as design, operation, construction and maintenance are taken on the complete building life cycle.
Sustainability and development are an integral part of the green building. That leads to
1. By using less energy and water in these building reduces cost and increase productivity.
2. By using sustainable resources reduced environmental impact.
Conclusion:- To resolve the issue of global warming needs to be take initiative towards new
energy-saving technology such as improved insulation and windows, heat pumps, buildings
design, and the use of less energy-intensive materials and adopt the protocol such as Kyoto
protocol frame by the UNFCCC (The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change). Paris agreement is also a significant adaption agreement for climate change. So that
carbon emission can be reduced at zero level.

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