Objectives of the demonstration project

Framework:

According to the rules of the World Heritage Convention, each country shall provide, when proposing a site for nomination, precise information indicating the boundary of the site as well as the boundary of the ‘buffer zone’ surrounding the site.
The Convention also requests that both of these areas (site-boundary and site-buffer-zone) should be protected by an appropriate legislation. Unfortunately, a large number of countries do not have accurate maps available, thus site-boundary information is often of very poor quality.
To provide good and efficient monitoring and protection of World Heritage sites, it is necessary to be able to detect changes in land use in and around the park, for example deforestation, desertification and other impacts. When negative changes are occuring, actions can be taken to protect the site.
Remote sensing and GIS can make a valuable contribution to both the production of new maps and the management and conservation of World Heritage sites.

The objectives of the project are to demonstrate the usefulness of Remote Sensing and GIS to:

• Provide a basic cartography of each site and of its buffer zone.
• Detect the land use changes in and around the site during the last 10 to 20 years.
• Monitor the state of conservation and improve management of World Heritage sites.

A buffer zone is defined by the operational guidelines as an area surrounding the property which has restrictions placed on its use to give it an additional layer of protection.

Selection of the five sites for the demonstration project

Two cultural and three natural sites were selected upon the following criteria:

• Diversity
• Representativity
• Availability, at OSTC, of satellite imagery and of other data on the sites

The natural sites represent different ecosystems:

• Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is mainly composed of tropical forest, grasslands, swamps, steppes, snowfields, lava plains and savannas.

Virunga National Park

• Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) includes some 1600 islands and islets forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars.

Ha Long Bay

• Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal) ecosystem consists of gallery of forests and savannas.

Niokolo-Koba National Park

The cultural or historical sites:

• The historic centre of Warsaw (Poland) was destroyed during World War II but is now an exceptional example of a total reconstruction of a span of history from the 13th to the 20th century.

The historic centre of Warsaw

• The lively medina of Marrakesh (Morocco) contains an impressive number of architectural masterpieces, including the walls and the monumental gates, the Kutubiya Mosque with its 77-metre-high minaret, the Saadian tombs and characteristic old houses.

The city of Marrakesh

Learn more about the criteria for the inclusion of properties in the World Heritage List