Geographic Information Systems for World Heritage Preservation


Roberta Hardy


The University of Michigan
Department of Landscape Architecture
Master's Practicum Report
August 31, 1997





CONTENTS

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. ICOMOS and its Role in International Conservation

3. What is a GIS?

4. Benefits of a GIS for the World Heritage

5. Costs and Obstacles Associated with a GIS

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

Bibliography

Appendices



Abstract

An analysis is made of the usefulness of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in the management and documentation of World Heritage sites, sites of "outstanding universal significance" protected under international treaty (the World Heritage Convention). The analysis was the result of a summer internship at the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) headquarters in Paris, France. The roles of ICOMOS, the UNESCO World Heritage Center, and States Parties to the World Heritage Convention are discussed, with an in-depth description of the ICOMOS Documentation Center and its mission of cultural heritage preservation.

Preservation of cultural sites has traditionally been oriented toward the protection and restoration of built structures, but there is now a trend toward the protection of larger sites and a monument's surrounds. This trend calls for new tools and methods for site documentation and management, such as GIS, a computerized mapping system. GIS is defined and discussed in terms of its potential costs and benefits for World Heritage preservation. The benefits of a GIS include more accurate and accessible documentation of sites, and improved monitoring, maintenance and planning of sites. Costs include computer hardware and software, training and support, and data acquisition. The author recommends digitization of World Heritage documentation and the establishment of documentation standards which will allow the mapping of World Heritage sites onto a GIS. A web site has also been created as a complement to this report: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~roberta/cultGIS.html.



1. Introduction

This paper is the report of my master's practicum, a professional work experience in partial fulfillment of the master's degree requirements of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan. My practicum consisted of a three-month internship with the Documentation Center of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in Paris, France.

My involvement with ICOMOS began when I read an advertisement for its international summer internship program in Cultural Resource Management Bulletin. The internship program, sponsored by US-ICOMOS, began in 1984 out of a realization that most members of ICOMOS were professionals in the height of their career, and there were few opportunities for students and young professionals to become involved. Since its inception, the internship program has placed around 300 interns in professional assignments related to historic preservation. Interns are chosen on the basis of merit and academic excellence. The program advertisement invites students or young professionals in historic preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, archaeology, history or any preservation-related field to apply. I applied to the program and was accepted for an internship in 1995 but did not receive funding until 1996. In 1996 I traveled first to Washington, DC for an orientation program with the other ICOMOS interns and then to Paris for my three-month internship at the ICOMOS Secretariat.

The ICOMOS International Summer Internship Program is an exchange. Half of the interns come from countries abroad to work at various preservation organizations in the U.S.; the other half are Americans who go to preservation jobs overseas. Most of the internships are related to specific historic sites, the internship at the ICOMOS Documentation Center being an exception. At the end of the summer, all interns convene in Washington to give presentations on their work and to evaluate the program.

My specific interest in the ICOMOS Documentation Center grew out of my combined interests in historic preservation, international collaboration, and digital information technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the World Wide Web. I hoped to apply what I had learned in the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Michigan to a real-world situation. M work at the Documentation Center included entry of site information into the World Heritage cultural sites database, and the creation of web pages for the Secretariat. My internship happened to coincide with the Secretariat's movie to new office space, so I was also involved with such mundane but necessary tasks as packing and unpacking boxes of books and periodicals.

I found the Documentation Center to be an interesting workplace. For one thing, I was surrounded by 25,000 documents related to historic preservation, and for another, this was my first opportunity to see for myself how an international preservation organization functions. Because of the move, there were periods when work was impossible, and during these times my supervisor instructed me to take advantage of ICOMOS's resources to learn as much as I could about heritage preservation. I read widely from the Documentation Center's collection, everything from technical documents on the decay of stone to reports of the Historic Landscapes Working Group and UNESCO publications. I attended my first World Heritage meeting at UNESCO and visited the World Heritage Center, and I asked questions. As I worked and observed, I found myself impressed by the unexplored potential of the organization's resources. In particular, I found many opportunities for a greater use of digital information technologies, and an overall emphasis on the documentation of buildings which is unsuited to the documentation of larger cultural sites. I discussed some of my ideas, including GIS, with my supervisor, Suzanne d'Abzac. She encouraged me to write down my ideas in a proposal form.

This paper is the result of my experiences at ICOMOS. It is not specifically a proposal, but rather an analysis of the Documentation Center's opportunities for utilizing GIS and other digital information technologies. In this paper, I analyze the costs and benefits of a GIS for World Heritage protection. I give some general information on the topic which I hope will be informative to ICOMOS, and I offer some specific, concrete suggestions which could be implemented immediately. Along with this paper, I have created a website (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~roberta/) which demonstrates some of the ideas here.

I recognize that my perceptions of the organization after three months there are, at best, sketchy. However, I offer my suggestions respectfully and hope that they will be helpful as the Documentation Center determines the direction it will take, both for the short and the long term.

Credits

I wish to thank my advisors, Professor Robert Grese and Professor William Anderson of the University of Michigan, for their help with this paper and other projects. I also wish to thank everyone at ICOMOS who made my internship possible, particularly Ellen Delage, the Summer Internship Program Director at US/ICOMOS, and Suzanne d'Abzac, my supervisor at the Documentation Center. I would also like to thank the School of Natural Resources and the International Institute at the University of Michigan, who, together with ICOMOS, provided funding for the internship.



2. ICOMOS and its Role in International Conservation

2.1 ICOMOS and the Documentation Center

ICOMOS is an international organization composed of 87 national committees and several international technical committees. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 as an association of professionals to further "the conservation, protection, rehabilitation and enhancement of monuments, groups of buildings and sites, on the international level." The combination of ICOMOS's mission, funding base and membership makes it unique. Through its international conferences, its publications and its advisory role to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on World Heritage sites, ICOMOS is influential in developing policies and standards for historic preservation. The ICOMOS Secretariat in Paris is the head administrative office of ICOMOS.

The staff of the ICOMOS Secretariat during my internship consisted of the following people:

Carole Alexandre, Director of the Secretariat, appointed by the French government
Gaia Jungeblodt, secretary
Bernadette Bertel-Rault, secretary
Régina Durighello, World Heritage staff
Henry Cleere, World Heritage staff
Henri Verrier, accountant
Antonio Medina, janitor and errand-person
Suzanne d'Abzac, Chief Documentalist of the UNESCO/ICOMOS Documentation Center

Documentation Center
The UNESCO/ICOMOS Documentation Center is located at the Secretariat but shares its resources with UNESCO, its largest single source of funding. The Documentation Center is a library of approximately 25,000 documents related to historic preservation. It is also the repository for the original files related to sites proposed or accepted for inscription in the World Heritage List. The collection contains books, periodicals, slides and videotapes (although currently there is no video player in the Documentation Center). The Documentation Center is staffed by one permanent, full-time staff person, Suzanne d'Abzac, assisted by computer science interns from the Université de Jussieu and the US/ICOMOS intern during the summer.

The Secretariat's move to new quarters during July and August of 1996 was a major event during my internship. This move was seen as an opportunity to improve the services of the Documentation Center, to make the Documentation Center's resources more available to patrons, in keeping with ICOMOS's mission to promote preservation skills and education. However, I was surprised to learn that the Documentation Center's resources were reduced by more than 300 meters of shelf space at the new location, and the collection has not been completely unpacked because there is not enough space for it, according to the latest ICOMOS News. The Documentation Center's periodical display shelves were also removed for use in the administrative offices upstairs. While the collection is expanding, its shelf space has diminished by about half.

Another surprise to me was that ICOMOS members have less interaction with the Documentation Center than I had expected. According to Ms. d'Abzac, the Documentation Center is not much used by ICOMOS members, and most of its patrons are from other organizations. I believe this is largely because the collection is difficult to access and ICOMOS members are located throughout the world.

During my internship, I was aware of two ongoing projects in the Documentation Center. One is the development of the World Heritage cultural sites database. This database of approximately 400 items (currently inscribed World Heritage cultural sites) and 10 fields of information has been reformulated several times by different interns during the last three years. It will eventually be the larger portion of a database combining both cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) in Cambridge is building the natural sites database.

A second project is to add information about the Documentation Center to the ICOMOS Web pages. A Documentation Center page has recently been created, and links to the bibliographic database are being developed.

Computing Resources at the ICOMOS Secretariat

To accomplish the above projects and the day-to-day running of the office, there are eight or nine computers at the Secretariat, one for each staff person and several for the interns. At least five computers have modems and Internet access through the Université de Jussieu. Both PCs and Macintoshes are in use. The Documentation Center has five computers, but of these, four were outdated or broken during my internship. The older computers are used by Ms. d'Abzac and the interns, primarily for data entry.

The Secretariat's accountant uses a computer spreadsheet for the organization's accounts. The secretaries and other staff use computers for e-mail, Internet information searches, and word processing. There may be other applications in use besides these mentioned.

Information retrieval in the Documentation Center has not yet been computerized. Periodicals are cataloged on a kardex system (paper cards), and the books are listed in several ring binders, indexed by topic. There is a bibliographic database of the collection; this database lists the same resources as those in the ring binders (in fact, the binders contain printouts from the database), but in a more searchable form. Unfortunately, the database is not available to users at the Documentation Center. Ms. d'Abzac reports that the Documentation Center's current cataloging system works, but she regrets that she cannot provide better service to people wishing to browse the Documentation Center. To make the computerized catalog available for public use, a computer terminal with access to the database will have to be provided for the use of patrons. A secure access system will also need to be created to prevent patrons from accidentally overwriting records.

In summary, this organization is integrating computers into its work with the help of its national committees and partner organizations; however, the Documentation Center is remarkably nondigital for a modern library. The reasons that computers are not more fully exploited in the Documentation Center are common ones for an organization of its size: lack of equipment, frequent computer and network problems (the Secretariat lacks any permanent computer support personnel, and computer emergencies are handled by the interns or by outside consultants), lack of training, and lack of time.

The ICOMOS Future Plan, developed over a five-year period from 1990 to 1995, discusses the need to improve both the services and the funding of the Documentation Center. The Future Plan Committee's concerns and goals for the Documentation Center are similar to those expressed by Ms. d'Abzac. In the Future Plan's Summary of Key Recommendations, it is stated: "The Bureau of ICOMOS recognizes the importance of improving its information management capacity in order to achieve the primary strategic aims of ICOMOS. This can be done by extending the means of the Documentation Centre to link ICOMOS members electronically to the most up-to-date scientific and doctrinal developments in the conservation world." (ICOMOS Future Plan, 1995)

Computers and Internet connections are important tools for managing information. A greater development of the Documentation Center's electronic information resources seems justified, considering the importance of information to ICOMOS's mission of promoting preservation training and technology.


2.2. Relationship to UNESCO World Heritage

ICOMOS has an important relationship to the UNESCO World Heritage, possibly the most important of the three advisory bodies (ICOMOS, ICCROM, and IUCN).* ICOMOS serves as the principal advisor on cultural sites recommended for inscription in the World Heritage List. At semi-annual meetings of the World Heritage Committee, ICOMOS conveys the essential information about each proposed site in a slide presentation, and offers its recommendation as to whether the site should be accepted, deferred till the next meeting, or referred back to the nominating State for renomination when certain conditions have been met.

Nomination of sites by member States also takes place at these semi-annual meetings. The sites are voted on at the following meeting, so ICOMOS normally has six months to prepare its report after the nomination of a site. The report involves sending a preservation professional, not an ICOMOS staff member but a member of one of the national committees who has the appropriate expertise, on a mission to the site to gather information and to take slides. Members are paid a fee and expenses for this work.

ICOMOS is also involved in performing comparative studies, setting documentation standards, and recommending policies concerning cultural heritage preservation. ICOMOS has several international scientific committees which devote their attention to specific aspects of cultural heritage: Underwater Heritage, Wood, Stone, Earthen Architecture, Architectural Photogrammetry, Historic Gardens and Sites, Historic Towns, Vernacular Architecture, Cultural Tourism, Training, Economics of Conservation, Archaeological Management, Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage, Stained Glass, Wall Paintings, and Rock Art. The members of these committees provide expert assistance in matters pertaining to these aspects of the World Heritage.


The World Heritage Convention

The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, also known as the World Heritage Convention (Appendix A), was first proposed by the United States in 1972 and ratified by the U.S. in 1973. It was adopted by UNESCO in 1975 and has now been signed by approximately 140 countries. There are currently 506 officially inscribed World Heritage sites in 108 countries, with more presently undergoing the documentation and nomination process. The World Heritage List (Appendix B) includes some of the most famous cultural and natural monuments in the world: the Acropolis in Athens, the Chartres cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Vatican City, the monuments of Ancient Kyoto, the old city of Jerusalem, the cave paintings of the Vézère Valley in France, the Great Wall of China, the Temple and Cemetery of Confucius, the city of Venice, the pyramids at Giza, Kathmandu Valley, the Medina of Marrakesh, Machu Picchu, Auschwitz, the Kremlin and Red Square, Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, the Bauhaus buildings, and the Great Barrier Reef. As this partial list demonstrates, World Heritage sites represent a great diversity of ages (from prehistoric to 20th century), sizes (from individual statues to entire towns), locations (Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and a number of islands) and types (natural sites, works of human creative genius such as the Chartres cathedral and relics of important human [or inhuman] events, such as the concentration camp at Auschwitz).

The intention of the World Heritage Convention is to protect both cultural and natural sites, although cultural sites currently far outnumber natural sites on the World Heritage List. Cultural and natural sites must meet different sets of criteria for nomination, but their common feature is outstanding universal significance. By signing the Convention, States agree to accept the protocol for inscription and reporting of sites, to protect whenever possible those sites within their own borders, to promote preservation in general, and to cooperate with other nations in the preservation of the world heritage. One per cent of each nation's UNESCO dues go toward the World Heritage program, and UNESCO in turn provides training and financial assistance to States Parties to the Convention according to guidelines set forth in the Convention.


World Heritage Center

The World Heritage Center is a group of offices in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where the administration of UNESCO's World Heritage responsibilities is centered. The Director of the World Heritage Center, Bernd von Droste, oversees the activities of approximately 12 staff members, whose responsibilities are divided by geographic area and specialty. The Center keeps the accounts of the World Heritage Fund, updates the World Heritage List and database, and organizes meetings of World Heritage statutory bodies such as the World Heritage Committee. The Center also hires research fellows to study aspects of the World Heritage. Broad subjects such as the history of the World Heritage, development of World Heritage digital information systems (such as WHIN), Risk Preparedness, and enforcement of the Convention are researched. The WHIN Web pages were recently developed there (see http://www.unesco.org).



2.3. International Conservation: A Trend Toward a Larger-Scale Approach

Heritage conservation has traditionally been associated with buildings. Of the approximately 500 cultural sites on the World Heritage List as of 1996, the great majority are buildings or complexes of buildings. This focus can be attributed partially to long-held assumptions about cultural heritage, which has led nations to consider their cultural landscape primarily in terms of historic architecture. Even when preservationists have acknowledged the existence of other types of historic resources, such as burial mounds, petroglyphs or gardens, a building-centric attitude has persisted. The Venice Charter (1964), out of which ICOMOS was formed, states that monuments to be protected may include landscapes, but lapses repeatedly into descriptions of monuments as "buildings."

However, there are many indications that this emphasis on individual buildings is changing and that the protection of landscapes, towns, and of a site's context - economic, social, ecological and visual - will become a focus of policy in the future. Larger sites, particularly towns, are increasingly being nominated to the World Heritage List, and existing sites have been extended to include their surroundings. The town of Dubrovnik, for example, was first listed in 1979. In 1994 the official boundaries of the site were extended to include the town's ramparts and the nearby island of Lobrum. Rome was listed in 1980 and expanded in the next decade.

Gardens and landscapes have also been given a more important role than previously. In 1971, Rene Pechere, then President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and Chair of the Committee on Historic Gardens (established in 1968), brought the question of historic gardens to the attention of the ICOMOS General Assembly. As an outdome of this meeting, ICOMOS joined the Committee on Historic Gardens with IFLA. In 1973, at a conference of the International Committee on Historic Sites and Gardens at Granada, Jose Manuel Gonzalez Valcarcel stated, "The problems of gardens must be studied in the context of global preservation and especially in the framework of towns and historic sites," and went on to describe the use of gardens to restore a vital character to historic buildings: "The image of a historic town can be restored insofar as its silhouette and its volumetric composition as well as the harmonious color balance of its urban landscape. Its inhabitants and visitors can often benefit from the enjoyable presence of a garden which completes the charm of its monuments and its ancient surrounds; pedestrians are encouraged to extend their visit to the town which, by this means, appears not mummified but living."

This view of gardens as important - but only as a complement for monuments - has continued to evolve. Gardens and even larger landscapes are increasingly being seen as important in their own right. In 1990, the US/ICOMOS Specialized Committee on Historic Gardens was founded, but by 1993 had changed its name to the Committee on Historic Landscapes. According to Charles Birnbaum and Robert Page, current co-chairs of the Committee, "The new field of cultural landscape preservation has rapidly emerged over the past two decades." (Birnbaum and Page, 1996) An example of this emergence is the recent interest in protecting and presenting Civil War battlefields in the United States, and in preserving traditional rural patterns of the landscape. In 1992, the Committee revised the Operational Guidelines for inscription of World Heritage sites, to include cultural landscapes. In fact, the idea of preserving cultural heritage in context falls within the concept of the cultural landscape. The definition of the cultural landscape can include not only gardens and battlefields, but also buildings and complexes of buildings, since buildings are an aspect of the landscape.

This trend toward a larger-scale approach is being echoed in related disciplines, including archaeology and planning. Jeff Chartrand, speaking at a 1995 archaeology conference in Leiden, stated "Recognition of the need in archaeology to move from the site into the landscape has been well documented over the last few years. With the change has come the need to handle large amounts of data in archaeology and the recognition of the fact that the archaeological distinction between urban and rural represents an arbitrary classification rather than a real measure of social boundaries." (Chartrand, 1995)

Planners are also developing strategies which take a larger-scale view to the problem of heritage conservation. It is now recognized by most preservationists that the identification of heritage sites or districts is only a first step, and that potential impacts of development in the surrounds of these districts must also be considered if they are to be preserved. The vibration of traffic and construction can threaten the structual integrity of old buildings, nearby development can degrade the visual quality of the skyline, development in rural areas can alter the pattern and ecology of the landscape, and the economic impact of tourism can alter a community's social and cultural integrity. The entire cultural landscape, which may consist of buildings, agricultural uses, topography, ecology, economy, social functions, and inhabitants, must be treated as a coherent entity.

Kozlowski and Vass-Bowen, developers of Buffer Zone Planning (BZP) for environmental conservation, find that buffers can be used to protect heritage areas as well as natural areas. The sort of buffer they recommend is not simply a protective belt of a certain width, but a more complex demarcation of space. Based on a test case in the town of Ipswich, Australia, they recommend first identifying the potential threats to a heritage area, such as vibration, clearing of vegetation, signage and inappropriate building types. A protective buffer zone is calculated for each of these threats. The resulting buffer is a mosaic of overlapping boundaries, each with its own set of legal protections, displayed as a series of maps.

S. Cantacuzino summed up some of these developments in heritage conservation at the 1996 ICOMOS General Assembly: "Coincidental with the social change of the last decade, and perhaps stimulated by it, there has been a change in the concept of cultural heritage. While at the beginning, in the case of the built heritage, it was an exclusive concept which concentrated on individual buildings, it has become an inclusive concept comprising groups of buildings, quarters and even whole towns....It is only recently that the importance of a setting of a bulding in its full sense has come to be understood." (Cantacuzino, 1996)

Certainly the settings of buildings, as well as of other types of cultural resources, should be incuded in a conservation plan, but we are not yet at a point where this logic is routinely carried out. The impact of adjacent uses is well known by planners and conservationists, but strategies to balance competing demands for heritage resources (e.g. tourism, business, and scholarship) are still evolving. Not only have the tools and legal instruments for achieving this holistic approach to preservation not yet been perfected, but our understanding of the relationship between "site" and "context" (perhaps an artificial distinction) is continuing to develop.

The BZP approach of Kozlowski and Vass-Bowen attempts to integrate building and landscape into a single cultural entity. An even more profound integration, however, is the integration of cultural and ecological functions in the treatment of a site. This mission has been expressed in official documents of UNESCO, including the World Heritage Convention (1972), and is symbolized by the logo of the World Heritage, a square within a circle. The square, representing works of human culture, and the circle, representing nature, are intertwined to express their integral relationship. An underlying theme is our global interconnectedness, exemplified by the World Heritage Convention itself and the birth of international conservation standards in the last few decades. Both themes express a view of conservation which is becoming larger, more inclusive, more holistic, in geographical as well as theoretical scope.

The implications of these ideas continue to be refined in practice. One area for future progress is the development of international documentation standards which will facilitate the mapping of sites and their surrounds. A final draft of a revision to documentation standards, which was ratified by the 11th ICOMOS General Assembly in 1996, requires that locations of sites be recorded in the following form: "The location and extent of the monument, group of buildings or site must be given accurately; this may be achieved by description, maps, plans or aerial photographs. In rural areas a map reference or triangulation to known points may be the only methods available. In urban areas an address or street reference may be sufficient." These types of information may help a visitor find the site or help to legally identify sites, but it is not very useful for mapping and analysis purposes. Furthermore, locations given in such diverse formats as aerial photographs, triangulation to known points, and street addresses would be impossible to compile into a single map without extensive further research and conversion to a single form of coordinates. It would be greatly preferable if those documenting individual sites took this task upon themselves and recorded each site's location in a standard format.

As heritage conservation becomes more holistic, larger in scope, and international, new tools will be required. Maps -- particularly computerized maps -- will become more important for documentation and analysis. Maps are more suitable than written descriptions for conveying information about large areas; maps are also less language-dependent, since they convey information graphically. Computerized maps (GIS maps) can even be linked to photographic images, textual information, CAD technical drawings, and other maps, providing an integrated record which can be transmitted electronically from one side of the world to the other. The recent proliferation of desktop GIS programs and GPS (Geographic Positioning Satellite) receivers for personal use has made it possible for people without specialized training to create digital maps of individual sites. GIS is therefore an ideal tool for the evolving field of international conservation.



3. What is a GIS?

Since GIS is a relatively new technology, some explanation of what it is and does is in order.

Geographic information systems are cartographic databases and associated software and hardware - in other words, computerized mapping systems. These systems consist of databases containing location information (where) and attribute information (what), combined with computer software for organizing the data, and the hardware needed to run the system. Examples of GIS software include programs such as Arc/Info (the most powerful GIS software on the market today, according to many), MapInfo, SuperMap, GRASS and ERDAS Imagine. Software exists for Macintosh, DOS, Windows, and Unix platforms. Hardware usually includes computers with large storage capacity, CD-ROM drives, color printers or plotters, monitors, and input devices such as digitizing tables, scanners and GPS (Geographic Positioning Satellite) receivers.

Geographic information systems generate maps with such speed and accuracy that they are rapidly replacing traditional methods of map production and spawning a variety of new applications. An important benefit of a GIS is that it allows spatial information to be displayed in various ways, in essence creating customized maps, charts and statistics, rapidly enough to perform complex analyses. A GIS is also an efficient storage medium for spatial data, since digital maps take up less physical space and can be updated much more easily than paper maps.

Because of these advantages, GIS are becoming widely used in such fields as urban planning, utilities management, cartography, natural resource management, commercial site selection, and some areas of academic research, such as archaeology. Because it puts map production into the hands of anyone with the necessary computer resources, a GIS allows many businesses, municipalities and researchers to take control of their spatial data, with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails.

The different types of GIS are discussed in the Costs section, but some typical GIS analytical functions or operations should be mentioned here. These include the operations commonly called "Spread," "Cover," "Radiate" and "Recode" or "Reclassify." (The names vary from one program to another.) A few examples will give a better idea of how these operations are used.

Let us assume that we have a digital map of an area, and we wish to find the quickest route between two points. This is a common function in navigation, for example, in the GIS navigators installed in some automobiles. With the "Spread" operation, we define our starting point, for example, at the intersection of two roads. We also define our destination distance, which might be 50 kilometers away. The "Spread" operation creates concentric rings from the starting position to the specified distance. We can modify the operation by adding the commands "over <absolute barrier layer>" and "through <friction or relative barrier>." An absolute barrier is one which is completely impenetrable; a relative barrier is one which has a rating of impenetrability, set by the user. By assigning all non-road areas to the absolute barrier layer, we assure that the concentric rings spread only along roads. By assigning roads to the relative barrier layer with ratings dependent on their posted speed limit, we can find the quickest route between two points.

The "cover" operation is used to create overlays. Let us assume we have a map showing land ownership, public or private, and a second map showing vegetation cover. We wish to find all public land which is wooded, and to compute its area. This is a common land management or forestry application. On the vegetation map, we assign one color or value to all woodland (e.g. green) and a different color or value to other types (e.g. white). This shows us clearly where the woodlands are located. Then we take the ownership map and designate all privately owned areas as opaque for our purposes (different systems do this in different ways) and all public areas as transparent. When we cover the vegetation map with the ownership map, the resulting view will show only those areas which are public land, and they will be differentiated as woodland or non-woodland. Using a menu command, we can then view the statistics, including area, of each cover type. We can also choose to cover the public woodlands map with a road map to provide a reference for orientation, in this case allowing roads to be opaque and non-road areas to be transparent.

"Radiate" can be used to identify viewsheds. With this operation, a viewing point is specified and a distance from that point. Using a digital elevation map, perhaps combined with a map showing building heights or vegetation, one can quickly compute which areas are visible from the viewing point. This operation can be used to determine the potential impact of buildings on the visual quality of natural or cultural landscapes.

"Recode" or "reclassify" is one of the most commonly used operations. As the example above illustrates, when performing an analysis operation, it is first necessary to classify spatial elements in a way which will reveal the desired information. The original vegetation cover map in the above example may have shown various values and colors for different types of woodland: 10 or blue for pine stands, 11 or red for lowland mixed forest, 12 or yellow for upland mixed forest, etc. These values would be recoded for simplification. Likewise, the ownership map would need to be recoded to make our target element, public land, transparent and all other elements opaque. Recoding can never add more detail to a map, but when combined with other functions, it can add to the information one can extract from a map.

These are just a few of the most typical GIS operations. There are many others, and programs such as Arc/Info and Arc/View provide programming languages - AML and Avenue - which can be used to create customized operations. By combining different operations and progressively re-organizing available maps, one can generate precisely the map one needs and answer a wide range of spatial analysis questions.



4. Benefits of a GIS for the World Heritage

My recent coursework at the University of Michigan convinced me that the documentation of the world's most important historic and natural sites could logically be managed with a GIS, and that a GIS was perhaps even already in use or under development by the organizations involved with the World Heritage. What I discovered is that the subject of Geographic Information Systems is indeed beginning to penetrate the international preservation community, but that neither the World Heritage Center nor the UNESCO/ICOMOS Documentation Center is close to implementing one.

WCMC, which is in charge of the World Heritage natural sites database, is implementing a GIS of natural sites, and the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OVPM), led by Quebec, is implementing a GIS of World Heritage cities. ICOMOS recently sponsored a seminar on GIS for historic preservation, which was attended by Regina Durighello of the ICOMOS Secretariat. However, there are no immediate plans to implement a GIS at the Secretariat according to Ms. Durighello, or at the World Heritage Center, according to Sarah Titchen, a research fellow there.

Nevertheless, GIS is an increasingly hot topic -- there has been an explosion of books and articles on the subject in the last ten years -- and it is inevitable that it will be examined more closely by preservationists in the next several years, just as the uses of the Internet and World Wide Web are now being examined. This is the appropriate time, therefore, to begin to think about the costs and benefits of a GIS for World Heritage preservation.

Any cost-benefit analysis for a GIS must begin with the benefits. It is essential to decide first of all how the system will be used. Once this question is answered and there is interest in the project, decisions can be made regarding the scale and extent of the data to be managed and therefore the system and personnel requirements.

Following is a discussion of five potential benefits of a GIS related to the World Heritage. The first two benefits -- Information accessibility and dissemination, and Efficient and accurate map storage and updating - deal with the management of information, the Documentation Center's primary responsibility. The last three benefits look at the bigger picture of World Heritage site monitoring, maintenance and planning, for which ICOMOS, States Parties of the Convention, UNESCO and its partners, and even the public share a joint responsibility.


4.1 Information Accessibility and Dissemination

ICOMOS, UNESCO, and other organizations associated with the World Heritage support the concept of information sharing for the purposes of cultural and natural preservation. The following excerpts from publications of ICOMOS, UNESCO, and WCMC illustrate the value these organizations place on the dissemination of information.

Venice Charter (out of which ICOMOS was formed), Article 16:
"In all works of preservation, restoration or excavation, there should always be precise documentation in the form of analytical and critical reports, illustrated with drawings and photographs. Every stage of the work of clearing, consolidation, rearrangement and integration, as well as technical and formal features identified during the course of the work, should be included. This record should be placed in the archives of a public institution and made available to research workers. It is recommended that the report should be published."

ICOMOS Statutes, Aims and Activities:
"Objectives: ...to collect, evaluate and diffuse information on conservation principles, techniques and policies"

Charter on Cultural Tourism (adopted by ICOMOS):
"Representatives of these bodies [ICOMOS]...express the wish that the states...shall adopt all appropriate measures to facilitate the information and training of persons travelling for tourist purposes inside and out of their country of origin."

Principles for the Recording of Monuments, Groups of Buildings, and Sites (ICOMOS):
"The format of the records should be standardised, and records should be indexed wherever possible to facilitate the exchange and retrieval of information at a local, national or international level."

Declaration of the General Assembly of the States Parties (9th Session, 29-30 October 1993):
"The Representatives of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, meeting at UNESCO on 29 and 30 October 1993, in the Framework of their General Assembly:
Express their grave concern in the face of the multiplication of risks brought about by armed conflict, turmoil and acts of terrorism, which increasingly threaten the very existence of the world cultural and natural properties;
Urgently request all States Parties to the Convention to make use of the media, to strengthen educational programmes and cultural events, and to encourage all populations world-wide to respect the cultural and natural heritage of their fellow men."

Resolution on Information as an Instrument for Protection Against War Damages to the Cultural Heritage (1994):
"Although it could be argued that the knowledge of the cultural heritage has served as a guide for selective destruction, we must not cease our efforts to develop further the promotion of mutual understanding of and tolerance between all peoples and their cultures."

World Heritage Convention, Article 27:
"1. The States Parties to this Convention shall endeavor by all appropriate means, and in particular by educational and information programs, to strengthen appreciation and respect...of the cultural and natural heritage...
2. They shall undertake to keep the public broadly informed of the dangers threatening this heritage and of activities carried on in pursuance of this Convention."

World Conservation Management Centre Mission Statement:
"WCMC is committed to the principle of exchange of data with other centres and noncommercial users, and wherever possible data managed by WCMC is placed in the public domain."

The Documentation Center gathers and stores an assortment of publications, slides and maps related to World Heritage sites and preservation. Unfortunately, these materials are difficult for the public to access. They are stored in paper form at the Documentation Center in Paris and may not be removed from the Center for the practical reason that, if lost, they would be difficult to replace. Many of the documents are reports or maps printed in small numbers by government agencies and preservation organizations. Until recently, even the catalog of the Documentation Center was unavailable except by browsing the indexes in person.

ICOMOS is involved in several projects intended to improve information accessibility. Use of the Internet has been an important means to achieving this goal. In 1986, the Documentation Center became a partner in the Conservation Information Network (CIN), created by the Getty Conservation Institute, with the goal of giving all researchers direct access to the ICOMOS database. Although access to the CIN's Internet resources requires a $100 subscription, the CIN provides access to several useful databases from various conservation organizations. The Documentation Center will also soon be making its own bibliographic database available on the World Wide Web.

ICOMOS's web pages were originally developed by ICOMOS-Canada (see http://www.icomos.org), and the Secretariat is now taking over the responsibility of revising and maintaining these pages. Currently, the web pages contain the most important conventions, charters, declarations, and other agreements related to international preservation and the World Heritage, as well as ICOMOS newsletters, meeting minutes, conference schedules, and other links. A Documentation Center web page was recently added and currently (as of July 1997) contains contact information and a brief description of the collection. This web page is an excellent opportunity to make some of the information gathered by the Documentation Center over the years, including maps, accessible to researchers, the public, members of ICOMOS, preservationists, and States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.

A recent archaeological survey of the ancient Tunisian city of Leptiminus, published on the World Wide Web (http://classics.lsa.umich.edu/PRAP.html and http://classics.lsa.umich.edu/projects/lepti/lepti.html), demonstrates the importance of electronic publishing and information retrieval. The preliminary results of the survey were presented at conferences of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1993 and 1994, attended by a total of two or three hundred people. On a randomly chosen day in 1995, users at 244 different machines accessed the same information on the Classics server's Web pages. Of these, 125 were from outside the United States. (Heath and Alcock, 1995.) As the authors point out, "the Web...is allowing us to distribute the most up-to-date of archaeological information to a far wider audience than was previously possible."

Ms. d'Abzac keeps a clipping on her computer which says "Information is useless if it is not accessible." Time differences are sufficient reason in themselves to put information on the Internet, especially for an international organization such as ICOMOS. To reach the Documentation Center from Honolulu, for instance, one would have to call between 10:00 p.m. and 6 a.m. Hawaii time. The more information that is digitized and put on the Internet, the greater the number of users who will benefit from it, regardless of the availability of ICOMOS staff. And once it is digitized, it can be used in a multitude of ways, such as in a GIS.

Of the many sorts of information which the Documentation Center disseminates, maps are among the most useful. Maps are the most indispensable illustrations in any case study. They are useful in comparative studies and research, heritage planning and management, route planning, environmental impact assessment, and analysis of threats such as wildfires and landslides. Maps have the additional benefit of being a graphical rather than a textual information source, and therefore understandable by people who speak varying languages. Language barriers are an important consideration for any international organization, and particularly for those whose mission includes the dissemination of information.

A GIS makes map information even more accessible. One of the important reasons that many townships and other governmental bodies are developing GIS projects is to provide spatial information access across departments. For example, the Mojave Desert Cultural Resources GIS project in the United States is bringing together a variety of spatial information -- cultural, natural and administrative -- to assist planners and developers in making informed decisions. This information previously existed only on separate maps in geographically separate offices. With a GIS, spatial information can be combined and transmitted as needed. Since a GIS is a digital form of information, it can also be displayed or downloaded via the Internet. Van Brakel and Pienaar, writing from a librarianship perspective, find the World Wide Web an ideal medium for the dissemination of spatial information, as it permits graphical display and rapid updating and transmission. They recommend the use of the Web in two ways: for facilitating an index to geographic sources, and to provide a full-scale GIS site.

An index can be used in two ways. One way is as a map catalog. For example, several national governments provide indexes to government maps. Although the index is electronic and searchable on the Web, the index provides references to paper as well as electronic maps. This sort of index allows users to locate and order maps more easily. An index can also provide access to downloadable digital maps. With this sort of index, the printing, ordering, shipping and digitization of paper maps is completely bypassed. The information is available in the time it takes to download it and open the file in a GIS program. Since one has access to the "raw data," one can use these maps to create custom maps. And users can help themselves, rather than requiring assistance from staff members. GIF-format "thumbnails" of each map can be provided as a guide and for those lacking GIS software.

Van Brakel and Pienaar's second suggestion, full-scale GIS sites on the Web, is more difficult to implement, but many organizations are already building such sites. For example, the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OVPM), led by Quebec, is building a GIS which will link digital maps of several World Heritage cities. Cities will digitize their maps separately, upload the maps to a central server, and then be able to view and download each other's information. This will allow city managers and others to collaborate in the most effective management of their local resources. Canada's online GIS, the NAIS Map Server, functions as both a GIS and a map index. One can query the database to show particular features. One can also find out the identifying information for government paper maps covering the area in question.

It is not only preservationists who could make use of such information. Students from the university level to elementary school age now access the Web. The University of Michigan Classics server mentioned above was accessed by two elementary schools on the same randomly-chosen day. The exposure of these students to World Heritage site information furthers the aims of conservation organizations by helping to create a generation of world citizens concerned with our global heritage. This sort of educational access is strongly suggested in Articles 27 and 28 of the World Heritage Convention (Appendix A) and in the Statutes of ICOMOS. The availability of digital basemaps on the Internet will also facilitate research into cultural and natural heritage. Section 6, Conclusions and Recommendations, will discuss the potential of ICOMOS and UNESCO to serve as clearinghouses for spatial data.


4.2 Efficient and Accurate Map Storage and Updating

In digital form, a large collection of spatial and textual data can be stored in very little space and printed as needed. The Paris Land Documentation Department (S.T.D.F.), which is using a GIS to manage its extensive parcel plans of Paris, demonstrates the practicality of storing data digitally. This office stores over a thousand parcel plans in addition to other specialized map sets (e.g. utilities and thematic data) and distributes around 36,000 copies each year. The benefits of the system include the option of printing plans at different scales (1:1000, 1:2000 and soon 1:5000) which are automatically reconstituted on the initial base drawing at 1:500. The system also has the ability to print documents with the windowing which will best show the area desired, free from the fixed subdivision imposed by hard copy plans. (Star Informatic SA, Angleur, Belgium)

Efficiency of space is another benefit. Imagine the space required by 1000 maps stored in flat files. If each file cabinet had 10 drawers and stored 20 maps per drawer, you would need five cabinets, as well as a large-format photocopier. In contrast, the same 1000 plans could be stored digitally in a single server about the size of a breadbox. A computer workstation with a large-format printer could fulfill the same storage and reproduction needs in half the space, and provide greater flexibility in using and updating the data. According to Star Informatic, the vendor of S.T.D.F.'s system, "Several laser plotters are included in the configuration and allow plans combining raster and vector data to be produced. One of them which operates at particularly high speed produces plans destined to be sold in less than one and a half minutes. This productivity means the end of stock management of printed plans for the S.T.D.F., and the recovery of a considerable storage area!"

GIS maps are space-efficient in another way as well. Each GIS map consists of data layers which can be manipulated as needed. For example, a GIS map with seven different layers can be displayed and printed with only three or four of the layers visible. Elements within the layers can also be reclassified to create specialized thematic maps, e.g. to show only those monuments with handicapped access or to show the extent of a 100-meter buffer along a meandering town rampart. This capability effectively allows each map to play the role of many different maps.

The Documentation Center has different needs and a much smaller budget than the city of Paris, but it also could benefit from a more efficient storage method. The new Documentation Center has less shelf space than the previous one had, and is already beyond capacity. Alternative storage arrangements will need to be made in the near future if the collection is to be made fully accessible. For now, some of the collection will probably have to be archived in another location. Digitization of archived information would keep it accessible to visitors to the Documentation Center. Digitizing text would be a more efficient way of reducing storage needs than digitizing maps, but if space is cleared for another computer workstation, that space could be further developed into a GIS workstation, saving additional space now taken up by paper maps.

Even more important than storage considerations for the Documentation Center are issues of accuracy. Any map or spatial data set represents a snapshot in time. By the time a map is printed, changes have already occurred. Regular updating of spatial data reduces the possibility of error from the use of the data, and also provides an ongoing record which can reveal trends as well as spatial relationships. Spatial data is much more easily updated once it has been digitized, since the entire map does not need to be replaced but only the portion of data which is being updated. As with a word processor, which allows entire blocks of text to be replaced or a specific word wherever it appears throughout the text, digital maps allow new layers to be added to an existing map (e.g. tourist visits data) or existing layers to be modified or reclassified in a number of ways. The latest version of a map can be printed as needed from a laser printer or plotter, without the delay imposed by hand drafting and offset printing.

The laborious process of initially digitizing data often results in improved accuracy within the existing spatial records as well. As described in a recent case study, a GIS implemented by Clinton Township, Michigan, revealed discrepancies between the township's various databases and files. "The tax parcel records...were cross checked against water taps digitized from the water maps. Discrepancies were reconciled and corrected as needed. Similarly, street addresses and hydrant locations checked for the fire department were matched to water and sewer data files. Thus, the GIS has facilitated the correlation of data from a variety of sources. As a result, the Township has significantly improved the quality and consistency of its data." (Korte, 1997)

Rectifying maps from different sources to each other requires the establishment of a consistent geographic coordinates system, such as Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates or latitude and longitude. This process also demands that inconsistencies between different maps or data sets be reconciled. Cleaning or conditioning of the data to resolve these issues is usually necessary. In the process, specific inaccuracies can be corrected and overall accuracy of maps can be improved by rectifying points and boundaries whose position is known to their precise geographic coordinates. "Ground-truthing" (checking accuracy in the field) is also made easier with a GIS, since a GPS receiver can be used to map points or boundaries and the information can be loaded directly into a digital map.


4.3 Monitoring, Risk Preparedness Scheme and The Blue Shield

Site monitoring is one of the most important aspects of conservation. Monitoring is necessary to ensure that conservation goals are being met and to allow timely recognition of potential threats and emergencies. An administrative mechanism known as "the Risk Preparedness Scheme" has been developed to protect sites in the case of natural and manmade disasters. The Risk Preparedness Scheme consists of 1. an independent fund, 2. the Blue Shield,* 3. documentation and information management, 4. training and manuals, 5. awareness and advocacy. According to a UNESCO pamphlet, "Blue Shield Preparedness and Emergency Response,"

"Steps towards the development of national and local programmes will include:

1. Identification of Partners
2. Establishment of National and Local Field Committees
3. Appointment of National and Local Risk Managers monitoring the process and being (or his/her deputy) permanently on call
4. Provision of disaster instructions for the supervisors or managers in charge of conservation of heritage sites (similar to hotel emergency plans used by fire marshals)
5. Development of Disaster Plans in conformity with specifications"

The Risk Preparedness Scheme is designed primarily to save individual monuments or works of art, as is suggested by Step 4 above, comparing the Scheme to a fire marshal's plan. According to Ms. Jungeblodt of the ICOMOS Secretariat, a hurricane approaching a World Heritage site such as a temple or cathedral would cause the Risk Preparedness Scheme to be put into effect in more or less the following way: the appropriate authorities would be notified, the monument would be protected as well as possible, perhaps with lumber and tarpaulins, and movable artifacts would, if possible, be transferred temporarily to a safe location. However, with larger properties such as natural sites and historical landscapes and towns, there is less one can do to defend against natural disasters such as hurricanes. Everglades National Park, whose Florida Bay was devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, is a case in point.

Lumber and tarpaulins can be useful tools in protecting individual monuments during emergencies, but for most natural sites and historic towns, a larger-scale approach is needed. Of course, no one can stop a hurricane or a volcanic eruption. Even man-made disasters, such as bombardment, may be impossible to control, as was proved by the bombing of Dubrovnik, Croatia shortly after it was placed on the World Heritage in Danger list. However, there are disasters which can be forestalled by large-scale monitoring.

An example of the latter is the primary danger now threatening Everglades National Park in the United States. Everglades was placed on the World Heritage list in 1979. Since then, according to a 1994 article in the World Heritage Newsletter, the park has experienced a 93% decline in the number of wading birds, 14 new threatened or endangered species (for a total of 63 in the region), the spread of invasive exotic species, reduced water levels, and mercury contamination. This devastation has continued despite an annual budget of $13 million. It's no mystery why the park is in danger: the population in the region has grown from 500,000 in 1945 to 6 million today, and the development and infrastructure supporting this population expansion has had a damaging effect on the region's natural hydrology and its dependent ecosystems. In 1979, Everglades was placed on the list of World Heritage in Danger. Although it remains to be seen if the park can be saved, recent legislation has reduced pressures on the park, such as fertilizer pollution.

The problems of development are the sort of human-made "disasters" that can be addressed and protected against with a GIS. A GIS is an excellent tool for organizing the many variables affecting large sites, such as sewer outlets, water temperature and land cover, and to track changes in these variables over time. Just as an electronic spreadsheet can organize financial data, allowing it to be searched by client or vendor, date, account number, or in any other useful way, a GIS organizes spatial data. Water quality surveys, for example, can be put into the system and immediately correlated spatially with other data such as bird or plant population surveys. Monitoring at a larger scale is useful not only for natural sites such as Everglades but for any site which may be impacted by pollution, development, desertification, and flooding, to name just a few of the threats that can be mapped onto a GIS.

In 1992, the World Heritage Center decided to improve the monitoring of World Heritage Sites. A meeting of experts identified three types of monitoring: systematic (continuous with periodic reporting), administrative (follow-up by the Center to verify compliance with recommendations), and ad hoc (monitoring by the Center, other sectors of UNESCO or advisory bodies under exceptional circumstances). Of these three types, systematic monitoring has the most relevance to the development of a GIS. Systematic monitoring includes observation of the site, the identification of threats, the identification of decisions and actions to be taken, and the reporting of findings to appropriate authorities. Each of these aspects of systematic monitoring can be assisted with the use of a GIS.

While a GIS is not strictly an observation tool, it can help organize periodic measurements so that subtle changes can be observed and trends recognized. For example, digitized aerial images showing irregular patches of defoliation can be compared and the areas calculated. By comparing different dates, a GIS can reveal if fluctuating patches are gradually increasing in total size, a trend that may be difficult to interpret visually. In their article "Monitoring landscape change-the role for GIS," authors Bird et al. describe two separate projects which used a GIS to monitor landscape change. The first was a larger-scale analysis of British National Parks. GIS was recommended because of the large number of paper maps that would be involved (874), requiring 1748 map overlays to compare two dates of data collection. The second project was on a smaller scale and involved a smaller volume of data but a more sophisticated spatial processing. The authors make a case for using GIS to monitor landscape changes over time, since the initial work of setting up the databases is repaid over several uses of the data.

How would this technique apply to a World Heritage site? To use a hypothetical example, an aerial image showing coral death in the Great Barrier Reef could be digitized and laid over an older, digitized baseline image. Using a Cover function, a GIS can combine the two and almost instantaneously display a third map showing the changes between the two dates of data collection. Areas where coral has died during the study period would be color-coded gray (for example), with previously dead coral a paler gray, while living coral would show as brighter areas. The extent of all three areas could be automatically computed and displayed as a statistic. Several dates of data collection could be compared to test the effectiveness of conservation methods.

Identification of threats and the necessary precautions to take would also be assisted by the use of a GIS. To continue the hypothetical example above, researchers studying the Great Barrier Reef could compare areas of dead and dying coral with other spatial elements such as public beaches, marinas, and populations of other marine organisms, whatever elements would be most relevant in determining relationships between coral death and environmental threats.

Finally, the maps produced by a GIS are a persuasive tool for communicating with authorities as well as the public, so much so that there is an enormous potential for the misuse of GIS maps. Seeing is believing. As Mark Monmonier states in How to Lie with Maps, "Because of advances in low-cost computer graphics, inadvertent yet serious cartographic lies can appear respectable and accurate." Whether one speaks of a digital or a paper map, "a single map is but one of an indefinitely large number of maps that might be produced for the same situation or from the same data." (Monmonier, 1991) A GIS at best can inform policy, at worst, become a propaganda tool for conflicting interests. It should also be noted that even a highly accurate GIS is not a panacea. As the case of the Everglades demonstrates, the best information and analysis in the world is useless unless there is also the political will to use it. However, the ease which a GIS affords in producing maps and statistics can be a powerful tool for educating resource managers and the public.

The benefits of a GIS apply not only to the monitoring of individual sites, but to the World Heritage List in general. On a larger scale, a GIS can be used to show all World Heritage sites or only those which are scheduled for regular monitoring missions. The monitoring frequency required for each site can be determined according to spatial features such as, for example, severity of air pollution, weak enforcement of legal protection, and other risk factors. This application would provide ICOMOS and the World Heritage Center with a quantitative method for determining monitoring priorities.

Monitoring of World Heritage sites is one of the responsibilities of the World Heritage Center, assisted by ICCROM and other advisory organizations. It must be mentioned, however, that UNESCO and the World Heritage Center have had an uncertain role in monitoring the properties owned by States Parties to the Convention. "Because of its perceived similarity to 'auditing,' monitoring by outside experts can be perceived as threatening to the owners, who may view monitoring suspiciously -- as foreign intervention with a potential for making local administrators appear negligent or incompetent." (MacLean, 1995)

The most extreme measure which the World Heritage Committee can take against a State which has failed to protect a World Heritage site is the removal of that site from the World Heritage List. An intermediate action is to place a site on the World Heritage Danger List. Since the World Heritage Convention has no force of law and is completely voluntary, UNESCO prefers to work with the States to assist them in the protection of their properties rather than to alienate them by removing a site from the World Heritage List. The World Heritage Center and ICOMOS concentrate their efforts on financial assistance, education, and training. The responsibility for sites, including on-site monitoring, still rests with the States Parties. An improvement in monitoring will therefore depend on an improvement in the States' abilities to conduct this monitoring and provide the data to the World Heritage Center. Development of digital maps would allow a more effective information exchange between the World Heritage Center and States Parties. Furthermore, satellite images, pollution measurements, and other current data can be most easily compared with spatial features such as historic monuments and towns through the use of a GIS.



4.4. Site Maintenance

Site maintenance goes hand-in-hand with monitoring to ensure that a site's cultural or natural value will be protected for future generations. Site maintenance may include scheduled cleaning or repair of signs and tourist facilities, the repair of fences, the application of stone preservation products, anti-graffiti treatments, etc. GIS is a logical tool to apply to site maintenance, particularly the maintenance of large sites. Facilities maintenance is in fact a common use of GIS in some industries, such as public utilities. Public utilities use GIS to manage their miles of gas pipelines and numerous service structures. A GIS can locate, for example, all service structures which are scheduled for repainting in a given year. Municipalities also use GIS to manage the maintenance of their city sewers and water mains.

By organizing all pertinent information, a GIS can help a site manager make informed decisions regarding maintenance priorities. A GIS can cross-link spatial data (the location of objects) to attribute data such as the date of installation, date of last servicing, and any other information which may relate to maintenance. The raw data used for the GIS can be organized in any number of ways, as a site manager deems appropriate. For example, a new type of lavatory might be installed at several locations in a national park. The new lavatories can be given a different maintenance schedule than the older ones, and both types will appear in the appropriate years in the maintenance schedule. Another purely hypothetical example might concern the protection of a petroglyph park. Archaeological research might show that a particular style of petroglyph is much rarer than other styles, leading to an emphasis in the maintenance schedule on the rarer petroglyphs. If later research overturns these findings, the GIS is easily adapted to a new model of preservation priority. Regardless of what model is used, the GIS can be used to highlight the location of only those elements of interest to the site manager.

An example of how a GIS is being used in this way is a project currently underway in Venice, Italy. Venice has an abundance of outdoor art - so much outdoor art that it is difficult to know where to begin to provide the necessary repairs and maintenance. Professor Carrera of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, together with his students, has been building two interrelated GIS databases to organize all of Venice's outdoor art, one borough at a time. (Carrera 1993) The first database consists of information taken from Alberto Rizzi's definitive catalog, which describes each piece, its age, dimensions, and other identifying information. The second database consists of information relevant to the restoration of a piece, such as its height from the ground, whether it is on a canal, and ratings as to its degree of corrosion, grime, cracking, and missing pieces.

Carrera created a mathematical formula to derive each piece's "Conservation Number" (its need for restoration) and its estimated cost of restoration, which includes the significant cost of scaffolding for higher pieces. The result of his calculations can be shown as a restoration/maintenance priority rating for each piece. Pieces of highest priority can be shown as points on a map of Venice, and can even be cross-linked to addresses to help maintenance staff find them.

Besides the obvious benefit of helping to organize the monumental task of cleaning and restoring Venice's outdoor art, Carrera's GIS has other benefits. It is a computerized inventory, easily transportable and updatable. It is also a thematic map, which can show the location of outdoor art by age, type or other feature or combination of features, e.g. 15th century coats of arms. This can be useful not only to tourists but also to art historians and other researchers. Finally, the GIS can even generate graphs showing particular thematic relationships, such as century to type for all types in the database. These capabilities allow previously known information to be displayed in new ways, informing our understanding of the cultural landscape, while at the same time allowing for its protection.



4.5 Preservation Planning and Analysis

Preservation planning is perhaps the most effective use of a GIS, since careful planning can prevent some threats to World Heritage sites before they become problems (imagine if development around Everglades had been planned with ecological issues in mind). One of the most important uses of a GIS for the World Heritage would be in the planning of tourism. Tourism is both a friend and foe of historic and natural sites. The money it brings in can be used to support the management of the site and to benefit the surrounding community, which is particularly important in developing countries. In 1992, there was an estimated $3.1 trillion of revenue generated by tourism, and 130 million people were employed in this industry. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) forecasts that by the year 2000 there will be 661 million international (non-domestic) tourist arrivals, representing an annual growth of 3.8%. (Bequette, 1996)

ICOMOS and UNESCO are supportive of tourism to World Heritage sites; in fact, the very idea of the World Heritage implies public access to these sites. On the other hand, both organizations are concerned about the destructive effect which tourism can have on a site. Tourism can result in increased air pollution, noise, lights, new development near the site, wearing of stone floors and steps, erosion, damage from vehicles, vandalism and theft. According to an article in the UNESCO Courier from 1996, UNESCO encourages study and action in four areas: defense and promotion of the cultural heritage and cultural identity; protection of the natural environment against inroads from tourism; encouragement of a form of tourism that respects the social, cultural and natural environment and provides a basis for development; and extension of cultural tourism activities that generate income and jobs, especially for young people in developing countries. (Bequette, 1996)

UNESCO and ICOMOS are not alone in their concern for sustainable tourism. In 1995, 500 participants in the World Conference on Sustainable Tourism adopted the Charter for Sustainable Tourism. This Charter states, "Tourism should contribute to sustainable development and be integrated with the natural, cultural and human environment; it must respect the fragile balances that characterize many tourist destinations, in particular small islands and environmentally sensitive areas. Tourism should ensure an acceptable evolution as regards its influence on natural resources, biodiversity and the capacity for assimilation of any impacts and residues produced."

States Parties are encouraged to document and protect all culturally and naturally important sites within their borders, not just those which are already listed as World Heritage sites. On such a large scale, tourism planning can play an important role in the protection of sites. For example, some sites are over-visited while others have not yet been discovered by tourists. One way to protect over-visited sites is to divert tourism to other sites. Which sites to develop for tourism should be decided not only on the basis of the sites' cultural or natural interest but also on their ability to support tourism. For both natural and cultural sites, a tourism carrying capacity can be calculated using a GIS. This analysis would be based on such factors as soil type, biological fragility (some species can tolerate more human interaction than others), topography, and hydrology. Available water and parking space would be considered, with a goal of minimal intervention. Other factors to consider would be the proximity of existing infrastructure such as roads and airports, and the proximity of other sites of interest. Spatial elements such as these are important to consider not only in the selection of a site to develop, but in the planning of that site. A large natural area may have many possible entry points, but one may wish to encourage entry in a particular location because of its lower fragility and proximity to other sites of interest.

A model for the selection of a tourist destination or park entry point could include the following elements:

Cultural Elements Natural Elements 
Favorable:

Proximity to roads 

Soil Type 
Type of road (capacity & speed) Steepness 
Proximity to airports Aspect (e.g. north-facing) 
Capacity of airport Biological Fragility 
Proximity to border

Proximity to population centers

Size of population center 

Proximity to wild populations (e.g. large mammals or bird colonies) 
Proximity to cultural monuments

 

Proximity to special geographic points (e.g. beaches, caves) 
Importance of monument Importance of geographic point 
Unfavorable:

Visual access to distracting views 

Visual quality (views) 

These lists could be expanded upon, but considering only the elements listed above would result in a complex model. To perform all of these analyses with paper maps would be extremely time-consuming. With a GIS, the task of analysis is much simpler. Analysis commonly begins with an operation to remove unsuitable sites from the analysis, those sites which do not meet the boundary conditions. Then the remaining sites are rated in a multi-step process and spatial aspects are weighted according to their importance. For example, one might first remove from the study area any land that falls outside the country's borders. Then one might query the GIS to show the 100-kilometer radius with the highest density of cultural and natural sites, or to show the top five areas in order of density of potential tourist attractions. Having located clusters of possible tourist destinations, a GIS can facilitate the rating of sites according to their ecological and economic suitability and their projected number of tourist arrivals.

Some types of analysis, such as classifying monuments by age and type, can be done statistically with the results displayed as text and numbers. A GIS does more: it allows the user to see spatial relationships such as clusters of sites, patterns of distribution (linear groupings which may suggest a tourist route rather than a single destination), and relationships to other elements which may not have been clear in the initial formulation of the model. Spatial models usually include the option of refining the model at several stages, because the analysis process usually reveals erroneous assumptions. It is the automatic and rapid display of selected spatial data as a map which allows a researcher to explore many alternatives and to perform a complex analysis in a reasonable time period.

The Charter for Sustainable Tourism states, "all those responsible [for tourism] must take upon themselves a true challenge, that of cultural, technological and professional innovation, and must also undertake a major effort to create and implement integrated planning and management instruments." A GIS is one sort of innovation which can help those responsible for planning sustainable tourism.



5. Costs and Obstacles Associated with a GIS

The cost in both money and time of implementing a GIS should not be underestimated. Failure to commit the necessary resources to a GIS project can result in its being abandoned before it has had a chance to prove itself and become productive. It is essential to have a clear plan and goals, based on a grasp of both the costs and the benefits, before beginning to implement a GIS. It is all too easy to be swept away initially by the technology's glamour only to end up bogged down in the problems of implementation. As George Korte writes in The GIS Book, "It is very difficult to find continued funding for a discredited project."

Several publications on GIS describe a typical implementation plan. The steps below are synthesized from implementation plans from several sources: Woolpert's 10-Step Plan, The GIS Book by George Korte, and a course at the University of Michigan, "GIS for Natural Resource Applications."

Step 1: Decide what questions would be answered or what problems could be solved with a GIS. Staff input is important to determine the nature and flow of work. Typical applications would be map maintenance, space planning, design, and facilities or site maintenance.
Step 2: Determine what data are available and what will need to be obtained.
Step 3: Determine hardware and software needs.
Step 4: Develop a database design based on intended purpose and hardware/software. Typical design elements include accuracy standards, graphic parameters such as line weights, and data and file organization.
Step 5: Refine goals and outline steps to follow for installation of hardware and network, software, training, support, and database.
Step 6: Install hardware and software.
Step 7: Train or hire appropriate staff.
Step 8: Acquire necessary digital data, which may include locating and digitizing paper maps, conditioning and rectifying maps, and performing quality control
Step 9: Use data to perform analyses, create custom maps.
Step 10: Produce the output as needed and present/deliver/distribute.

The costs of implementing a GIS are primarily in the areas of hardware and software, database development, and training and support. Each of these costs will be discussed in detail.


5.1 Hardware and Software

Hardware and software needs should be considered together, since which software package to choose depends partly on one's computing environment (e.g. Unix, Macintosh, Windows). GIS software can be classified into three broad groups. The simplest is the desktop mapping type, such as MapInfo Professional and ArcView. Many do not consider the desktop mapping type a "true GIS," but I am including it in this discussion because it may in fact be the best choice for some clients considering a GIS. Desktop mapping applications can store geographic coordinates, display selected spatial data layers as a map, manipulate boundaries, find objects, and calculate proximities. This type of software is easier to use than full-featured GIS packages, but its capabilities are much more limited. Also called "View Only" packages, desktop packages are cheaper, but the cost saving is negligible compared with the cost of obtaining, digitizing, and conditioning the data, which must be done for any type of GIS. The main advantage of a desktop mapping package is its greater ease of use. If extensive analytical capabilities are not needed, the lower training and support costs of a desktop package may be a significant advantage.

The remaining two groups of software are full-featured GIS packages of two types: raster-based and vector-based. Raster-based software includes ERDAS Imagine, SuperMap and GRASS. This type of software plots spatial data on a grid, which can give a pixelated look to maps produced with it. The size of the files is huge, since every square meter -- or foot or kilometer, whatever the size the user sets for an individual grid cell or pixel -- is assigned a value. This is repeated for each data layer. It may take hours to open a single map, depending on the speed of your computer, but with an adequate processor and RAM this slowness can be avoided.

An advantage of raster types is that data can be easier to digitize, since they can read a spreadsheet as a map. Using graph paper laid over a paper map as a reference, one can encode an existing map without the need for any high-tech equipment. Grid cell A1, for example, would correspond to the northwesternmost square meter of a particular area, and so forth. The values assigned for each raster are given a meaning in the legend, e.g. 0 for water, 1 for land, or numbers corresponding to elevations, and the rasters are accordingly color-coded for viewing the resulting map. Topographic maps can thus be produced and combined with land cover maps, street maps, and so on. With linear objects such as streets, the actual area covered by the street is mapped, rather than the centerline. If you wish to map the centerline of a street, the closest you can come with a raster system is to map the rasters in which the centerline falls. The smallest point one can calculate in a raster-based system is the size of one cell, which can be assigned any dimensions, but the smaller the cell, the bigger the file. Raster-based systems are most useful for mapping elements such as land cover or the results of field surveys rather than linear elements such as streets and gas lines. Raster-based systems are often preferred by natural resource managers.

Vector-based systems such as Arc/Info improve the efficiency and precision of spatial data storage by calculating areas based on the trajectories of their boundaries. Two or more points can define a line or arc, and three or more lines enclosing an area define a polygon. This makes data conversion more complicated, but not necessarily more time-consuming. The full-featured GIS packages of both types generally include tools for converting scanned paper maps or aerial photographs into digital maps and orthophotos (photos overlaid with geographic references). Vector-based systems are excellent for mapping linear resources such as roads and utilities and are therefore often preferred by urban planners. Arc/Info is one of the best-known and most powerful of the vector-based systems.

Increasingly, the boundaries between the various types of GIS software are becoming blurred. Vendors are creating software for many levels of use, and many hybrid raster/vector systems have been developed for specific uses. For example, ArcView, a desktop mapping type, is gaining more analytical capabilities, while other intermediate packages are being marketed. In the near future, distinctions between raster and vector type or full-featured and desktop mapping type may be much less important.

One advantage of the rapid evolution of GIS software is that earlier versions are now available as "freeware." They can be downloaded from the World Wide Web and copied freely. Examples are ArcView 1.0 and OSU Map-for-the-PC. Of course, the earlier versions lack the analytical capabilities and more user-friendly interface of later versions. There may also be some difficulty in finding basemaps for these systems.

Hardware needs for a GIS will depend on the software selected and the amount of data to be handled. An input device, such as a digitization table, will almost certainly be required for converting existing paper maps into digital basemaps. A digitization table allows the user to trace elements on a paper map with a stylus and have the tracing converted to a vector file. Other useful input devices are a scanner for conversion of maps and a GPS (Geographic Positioning Satellite) receiver for data collection in the field.

GPS receivers are one of the newest and most interesting GIS accessories. Most GPS receivers are about the size of a cellular phone. They receive transmissions from U.S. military satellites whose positions are known, and triangulate the readings to calculate one's precise position on the earth. The least expensive models are under $200. With some GPS receivers, accuracies of one meter can be obtained, although this degree of accuracy is usually not needed. With a GPS receiver, one can walk the perimeter of a site, taking readings at regular intervals, and upload the information later to a GIS, creating an instant map of the site's boundaries. A GPS can also be used to record attribute information during a field survey, storing the attributes as number codes or even as a text file.

Other useful equipment includes a large-format color printer, which will allow the maps to be produced in full color for presentation. A color monitor is a necessity for performing analyses. The color coding of elements, which allows you to view the maps on the screen, is useless on a black and white monitor. The size of the server is also an important consideration. Generally, the vendors of GIS software can provide specific advice based on the requirements of their systems and the anticipated size of the data sets to be managed.

It is common to begin a GIS project with a prototype or pilot project. Some companies test the usefulness of a GIS with a simpler system, such as a desktop mapping type, and have to completely rework the system later because the smaller system does not meet their needs. The pilot project should be planned to become part of the eventual working GIS if successful. One strategy which several projects have adopted, for example, the Nebraska Cultural Resources GIS Project (Wandsnider, 1995), is to begin with a system which can export files in Arc/Info format. Arc/Info is one of the most widely used and powerful GIS programs. If the project expands in the future to require the more extensive capabilities of Arc/Info, there will be no trouble adapting the existing data to the new software. Even if the project upgrades to a program other than Arc/Info, there is a good chance that Arc/Info file formats will be supported by that program as well.



5.2 Training and computer support

A GIS can have far-reaching effects on an organization's way of working. Those involved with data storage and retrieval, resource management, and computer support, among others, will need to be trained with the implementation of a GIS. GIS operators normally take three to six months to become proficient. (Korte, 1997) Training programs are usually offered by vendors, but on-going in-house training and support should also be provided. An experienced GIS manager or system support technician, whether on staff or hired as an outside consultant, is extremely valuable, especially in the beginning stages of the project. In-house support saves employees considerable time and frustration.

Learning any new technology takes time, and making mistakes is a necessary part of the learning process. Users may be reluctant to experiment with the new system, particularly if they feel under a time pressure to do their work. While a GIS should eventually improve efficiency, it should be expected that it will be a time drain during the implementation and learning process. How long depends on the quality of the training. Until the system is completely functional, a GIS expert should be available to handle questions and problems, and extra help should be provided for routine tasks.

Initially, users may fear they will break something or cause some irreparable loss of data, or that they will get "stuck" and there will be no one to help them. These fears can be alleviated with adequate training. While it is possible to send staff away to a training seminar, they will not feel completely comfortable with the technology until they know how to use their own system to accomplish their routine tasks. This includes starting up the computer and printing the output. It is not enough to have theoretical information.

There are different levels of GIS staff, from GIS consultant to system manager. How much assistance a project needs depends on its size and the size of the organization. A GIS consultant is generally engaged in the planning phase of the project. George Korte warns of two pitfalls when hiring a consultant. The first is "lengthy reports that state the obvious" and the second is "analysis paralysis." Korte points out that "consultants make their money doing studies, so there is a temptation to study the problem ad nauseum and never get around to making a concrete recommendation." (Korte 1997) A system manager or technical support person is the user's most indispensable support during the installation phase. A system manager with GIS proficiency can provide both hardware and software support. Other specialized staff, such as a GIS manager and a GIS database manager, may not be needed with a small project. One essential staff person, however, is the person responsible for map conversion and accuracy, usually a cartographer or GIS specialist. Under the cartographer works the digitizer(s), who need not be highly trained. However, since digitizing is extremely tedious and requires manual precision, digitizers should be given frequent breaks. It is difficult to avoid introducing error even when digitizers are not tired.

The relationship between computing technology and organizational context is often overlooked in implementation plans. Heather Campbell describes the pitfalls of "technological determinism," which equates acquisition with utilization. This perspective views technology "narrowly, as a set of equipment and methods virtually in isolation from the context of its use." (Campbell, 1996) Since the social and political context of an organization influences the chances of reaching the goals of any new policy or technology, implementation should be seen as a process of social interaction between the technology and its organizational context. Adoption of a GIS cannot succeed unless those who use it are convinced of its legitimacy, are well-trained in its use, and have adequate support.



5.3 Database Development

Spatial data is a necessity for anyone involved in planning development and in protecting natural and historic resources. Spatial data is also the foundation of a GIS. A GIS uses layers of data, taken from maps or other sources of information. These layers are built on a digital basemap, usually including topography, water features, political boundaries, and roads. When building a database for a GIS, the first task is to determine one's needs for the basemap. This involves setting accuracy standards, graphic standards, and deciding on the scale and geographic area to include.

A survey of map and data sources will inform these decisions and usually modify one's ambitions. A sample of available spatial data sources includes the following:

Satellite Images

Large-scale images, generally only useful for environmental analyses. Products in this category include Russian, French (SPOT) and American (Landsat) images. There is a significant price difference between new and old images. Old images which have already been archived may be purchased from anywhere between a few dollars to a few hundred dollars (US). A few can be downloaded for free from the Web. New images are currently selling for US$4400 per scene.

Aerial Photographs/Images

Can be quite detailed and very useful for photogrammetry, planning and monitoring. Conventional aerial photographs are also quite expensive, although it is possible to acquire usable aerial images much less expensively by using an ordinary video camera. The lower price of doing it this way is offset by the lower resolution.

Databases

Some databases exist which can be downloaded and used for map building and spatial analysis. An example is the U.S. Geographic Names Server, which includes over 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the U.S. Other databases include the GeoNET Names Server's gazetteer of the world and a French gazetteer, both of which are searchable on the Web. A searchable database may be useful for a limited number of points, but a downloadable database is more useful for map creation.

Government and Commercial Printed Paper Maps

Many government maps are available for a reasonable fee to the public. The United States, for example has an extensive system of maps maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). However, USGS maps contain limited information and exist in only a few scales. Spatial data for some countries, at other scales, and for specialized thematic information can be difficult to obtain, if not impossible, and their accuracy may vary widely. Some governments have no record of the geographic coordinates of towns within their borders.

Paper maps are still the most widely used sources of information for building a GIS database. This situation may change as more maps become available in digital format. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey offers some of its maps in digital format and plans to offer more in the future. It will probably be a long time, however, before most maps are available digitally.

GIS Maps on CD-ROM, Magnetic Tape or Diskette

Most of the GIS vendors sell general-purpose basemaps compatible with their software; however, even more so than with paper maps, there is not yet a very large selection of areas and scales available. To find a digital basemap for a small country, you may have to buy a map of the whole world. For example, ESRI sells the Digital Chart of the World, a basemap of the world at 1:1,000,000 scale. At this scale, even with National Map Accuracy Standards, a given point can be up to .85 km (.53 miles) from its mapped location.* This degree of accuracy is insufficient for many purposes. A 500-meter buffer around a historic monument, for example, may erroneously appear to coincide with private property under development, or bird nesting sites may appear to be in a body of water when they are actually 100 meters from the shore.

Digital maps are also available through vendors who specialize in spatial data, but again, they are rather expensive. These vendors will digitize existing maps for you or create custom maps. Many of them advertise on the World Wide Web.

GIS on the World Wide Web

It would be ideal to be able to access digital maps in the desired format directly from the World Wide Web, and this is a dream of many. However, while there are many projects in the prototype stage, GIS on the Web is just beginning. Many sites which seem to dangle data temptingly on their introductory page turn out not to have any GIS maps available just yet. Nevertheless, the Web is a very promising area for future data acquisition and indexing. Following is a selected list of current websites offering digital geographic data or an online GIS:

Archeologis
Prototype GIS covering Mediterranean archaeological sites
http://www.aec2000.it/archeologis

United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency GEONet Names Server
Electronic gazetteer with latitudes and longitudes of world features displayed to four decimal degrees.
http://www.nima.mil

Colorado Plateau Research Station - GIS Data Archive
Downloadable Arc/Info coverages include several cultural monuments: Montezuma's Castle, Montezuma's Well, and Tuzigoot.
http://www.nbs.nau.edu/GISD/data.html

U.S. National Parks Service
Gazetteer related to National Parks and other geospatial data.
ftp://ftp.its.its.nps.gov/pub/

Intermountain GIS Support Center
Digital orthophotos and scanned images of Petroglyphs National Monument and Pecos National Historic Park. DEM of Salinas Missions.
http://nps.unm.edu/doq.htm

NAISMap
Interactive GIS of the geography of Canada
http://www.ellesmere.ccm.emrca/naismap/naismap.html

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Offers satellite radar images of archaeological sites in Asia and the Near East,including views of Giza, the Great Wall of China, Angkor, and the city of Florence.
http:www.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/sircxsar/

Nice GIS Sites
Index of other links related to GIS, geography and remote sensing
http://www.frw.ruu.nl:80/nicegeo.html

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
Free data sets include GIS maps of Manila and Washington
http://www.esri.com

Bartholomew EuroMaps
GIS maps of Great Britain at 1:250,000; London at 1:5,000
http://www.esri.com/base/data/catalog/bart/bart_des.html

T-Kartor Sweden AB
GIS maps of Sweden. All villages of 50+ inhabitants are shown.
http://www.esri.com/base/data/catalog/tkar/tkar_des.html

SatCITTA
Satellite images of main Italian cities and street maps at 1:10,000.
http://www.esri.com/base/data/catalog/esri/esrt_des.html

Cartographic Data Archives
Free digital maps, currently focuses on U.S. maps. Invites anyone to add their data to the website.
http://spectrum.xerox.com/pub/map/www/index/html

GEOWeb Project
A project to improve geographic data accessibility.
http://wings.buffalo.edu/geoweb/

(For more sources, see my Cultural Heritage GIS Resources index.)

The problems of data acquisition are many. Van Brakel and Pienaar list a few of them: "Currently geographic data sets (e.g. maps) are scattered across South Africa and the world, with no standardized method of accessing them. Data needed by a specific GIS system must be 'ordered' or down-loaded from a remote site. No centralized index to existing geographic data exists. The results from a specific GIS analysis are not necessarily directly available to others. When downloading and thus duplicating a set of complex data from an external site, with the purpose of further manipulation, the copy gradually becomes less current when compared to the original data set." (Van Brakel and Pienaar, 1997) Jeff Chartrand, speaking for archaeologists, stated: "Our woefully inadequate approach in developing spatial models of archaeological processes has been both a function of the incomplete nature of the datasets as well as of our individual understanding, control, and identification of cultural processes." (Chartrand, 1995)

Acquiring a database is surprisingly time-consuming and therefore expensive. Assuming a paper basemap of the appropriate area and scale can be located, the map must be converted to a digital format. This involves not only tracing or scanning the map, but resolving accuracy issues, since the conversion process generates errors and also reveals discrepancies between different data sources. The latter is an advantage in the long run, as it eventually results in improved data accuracy, but for the short term, it means extra work to "clean" or "condition" the data. When using more than one data source, these must be rectified, or aligned. This means more work, especially when rectifying maps of different projections and scales. Furthermore, the basemap is just the beginning; most GIS projects also require specialized datasets related to the features under analysis, e.g. wildlife habitat, flood records, or World Heritage sites.

Until digital maps are more widely available, database development can be expected to take up 75-80% of a project's budget. However, this cost is spread over a long period of time. It may take several months to several years to build the database, during which time the system will become increasingly functional. Future technology such as improved software for interpreting scanned images and other automated data input tools may accelerate the process and reduce costs.




6. Conclusions and Recommendations

There is no doubt that a GIS can be a powerful tool for spatial data management, but how can and should it be used to support the World Heritage, if at all? There are several possible clients for a GIS project related to the World Heritage, each with similar goals. Three of these possible clients - the World Heritage Center, States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, and the ICOMOS Documentation Center - will be discussed, with a particular emphasis on ICOMOS's role.


The World Heritage Center

The World Heritage Center is a likely client for a GIS. The World Heritage Center, in its monitoring role, could make use of a GIS to examine World Heritage sites globally, to answer questions about distribution of sites and threats to sites, and to facilitate thematic studies, such as the recent study of the Silk Route. A GIS would provide the means to map sites, to classify them as to type or other attribute, and to analyze them in relation to their spatial context. For example, one possible analysis would be the distribution of sites by type, showing possibilities for future thematic studies or assistance.

A GIS could also be used to inform States Parties of the status of the World Heritage. The World Heritage Center has a mandate to regularly publish an updated list of all World Heritage sites and a list of Sites in Danger. A map showing the sites' locations would be a useful communication tool. UNESCO produced a poster several years ago showing the "approximate location" of World Heritage sites on a map of the world, but many more sites have been added since the map was produced, and the map's accuracy could be improved. A GIS would allow the World Heritage Center to produce these maps in-house on a regular basis.

GIS is an ideal tool for large-scale resource managers and policy-makers. It is also the sort of highly technical tool which requires both specialized training and extensive resources for the gathering and converting of data. Both of these characteristics recommend the adoption of a GIS by the UNESCO World Heritage Center. The technical strengths of ICOMOS members and financial assistance from UNESCO could be combined to definitively map World Heritage sites and to promote a greater use of GIS by preservationists and resource managers at the national or local level.


States Parties to the Convention

States Parties to the Convention have potentially the most to gain from the use of a GIS for the protection of sites within their borders. The work involved in building the database would be repaid over several uses: monitoring, planning, maintenance, education and research. A GIS map can be used for maintenance recordkeeping, to produce tourism brochures, to evaluate the impact of development in the region, and in many other ways. Many States Parties are already using GIS to manage some of their public lands and parks, and even small municipalities are adopting GIS for management of local resources. Unfortunately, the cost and technical requirements of GIS put it out of the reach of many who could benefit from it. ICOMOS and its funding partners such as UNESCO can assist in the development of geographic information systems at the national level by offering training, by coordinating spatial data collection at selected scales, by indexing existing data and making the index searchable on the Web, and by proposing data standards for World Heritage documentation with GIS in mind. States Parties can contribute to the documentation of sites by supplying geographic coordinates to a specified accuracy.

ICOMOS Documentation Center

With the increasing availability of digital maps, many libraries are expanding their computer resources to include GIS workstations. Obviously, GIS is highly applicable to a library specializing in the documentation of geographical sites. As the center for all documentation related to World Heritage sites, including maps, the ICOMOS Documentation Center would be a logical client for a GIS. As digital maps of historic sites become more widely used, the Documentation Center should be technically able to acquire and view these maps.

Currently, the Documentation Center lacks the staff and equipment it would need to implement a full-fledged GIS. However, there is certainly potential to use the Documentation Center's existing computer resources to greater advantage and to pave the way for an eventual GIS. Before the eventual implementation of a GIS in the Documentation Center, intermediate steps toward the digitization of information would be appropriate. Useful goals would include the following:

Intermediate Goals

Goal 1. Completion of the World Heritage cultural sites database. It would be practical to begin immediately adding geographic coordinates for each site in the database, which as of August 1996 contained none. Adding this extra information to the database would not require much more time and would eventually make the entire list of sites mappable. Geographic coordinates can be taken from the site nomination forms, obtained from gazetteers or found on the Web (see the GEONet Names Server website at http://www.dma.gov).

A field should be added to this database stating whether the geographic coordinates listed are approximate or meet the accuracy standards to be set at a later date. This will allow approximately accurate maps to be viewed while the information is being gathered, and will allow the Documentation Center to produce reports of which sites need verification of their geographic position. Another useful field would be a type classification, such as town, church, archaeological site, or garden.

Goal 2. Making the Documentation Center's bibliographic database available and searchable on the World Wide Web as well as in the Documentation Center. This project is currently underway. Users should be able to specify types of media in their searches, such as maps. A recommended addition to the database is a field listing the Web address of any items which are available as full-text or images on the Web, as this report is. Full-text articles are available in several places, including the George Wright Forum website, the ICOMOS website, and the World Heritage Center website. These web references could also be linked to an eventual GIS. For example, reports and images related to the pyramids at Giza could at some future point be linked to a GIS map, to create a multimedia document of the area.

Goal 3. Indexing sources of spatial data for World Heritage and other historic sites. While many libraries and websites have created indexes of spatial data for GIS, to my knowledge none attempts to index spatial data related to cultural sites. This would be an ideal project for the ICOMOS Documentation Center. Such an index would facilitate the sharing of data among government agencies, researchers, and preservationists involved with the World Heritage and other cultural sites. In fact, the Documentation Center and the World Heritage Information Network could take a proactive role in contacting public agencies and requesting that they make their spatial data available to the Documentation Center. The Documentation Center web page could be a contact point between the Documentation Center and potential partners with spatial data or other resources to share.

The World Heritage Information Network (WHIN) does something similar. The WHIN web page invites other organizations involved with World Heritage sites to register as "partner institutions" and offers a link to their web pages. The WHIN page may also contain some links to maps, or photographs of specific sites. However, the WHIN web page is a contact point, not a respository for information, and it is strictly concerned with World Heritage sites. It also has made no organized attempt to provide access to spatial data for use in heritage conservation or research. The Documentation Center is potentially the richest information source on World Heritage sites as well as on cultural heritage sites in general, and is in an ideal position to organize the most up-to-date and useful spatial documentation on cultural heritage sites.

An example of how this index could be organized can be viewed at my website: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~roberta/cultGIS/html. The index can be searched by geographic region via an image map, or by category. The index also includes links to downloadable GIS software and related links.

An efficient way to begin is by searching one of the existing indexes to GIS sites, such as the "Nice Geography Sites" website. Another way of finding geographic data is to seek out organizations with similar data needs. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), for example, could use digital maps in the same way as the World Heritage Center -- for education, monitoring, and long-term planning. The geographic areas of their concern certainly coincide in some cases with World Heritage sites. Universities also need data, and many GIS applications have already been developed by academic researchers, particularly in departments or faculties of geography, urban planning, natural resource management, and archaeology. Other possible sources are governments, some of which have been digitizing maps of their own protected areas as well as areas of foreign concern. The U.S. military, for example, has done extensive digital mapping of Bosnia, while Canada already has an interactive GIS of Canada on the Web. Spatial data is also used by watchdog organizations, special interest groups, and humanitarian organizations. Most importantly, many World Heritage cultural sites have already been mapped onto a GIS, including Venice, Rome, and Angkor. In September 1997, a prototype GIS of World Heritage cities will be presented at the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OVPM) conference in Evora, Portugal. There may be many unexplored possibilities for cooperation.

Goal 4. Establishment of data standards for the mapping of sites. Heritage documentation has traditionally focused on the recording of individual buildings. In accordance with the growing attention being given to historic landscapes and towns, mapping will become an increasingly necessary aspect of cultural heritage documentation. Documentation standards should require or strongly recommend geographic coordinates such as latitude and longitude to a specified accuracy. Accuracy standards can be set which exceed ICOMOSís currently available information. For larger sites such as Everglades National Park, it should be decided where the coordinates will be taken. A set of coordinates defining the boundaries would be ideal for smaller-scale views, but the main entrance of a site could be a suitable point for a single set of coordinates. This degree of accuracy would be useful for large-scale analyses of the World Heritage as a whole. Map projections could also be recommended for various scales. National GIS centers or members of ICOMOS with cartographic skills should be consulted on this point (see below).

A Selection of National GIS Centers
U.S.A.National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
FranceConseil National de líInformation GÈographique (CNIG)
NetherlandsNetherlands Center of Expertise for Geographical Information Processing (NexpRI)
PortugalCentro Nacional Informacao Geogr·fica

Regardless of ICOMOS's current capabilities, considering the requirements of a GIS now could ensure that data acquired by the Documentation Center will be in a useable form for an eventual GIS related to the World Heritage. Since organizations such as the OVPM are already developing a GIS, this is the time for ICOMOS to make recommendations.

Goal 5. Verification of site locations to a specified accuracy and conversion to a consistent form of geographic coordinates. This can be a long-term project, taking advantage of scheduled site visits to obtain updated geographic information. A high-quality hand-held GPS receiver would be one possible way of obtaining geographic coordinates reliably. A GPS receiver is no more difficult to use than a camera. A simple instruction sheet, which could be provided with the receiver, is all the training needed. When the receiver is returned, the data can be uploaded to the cultural sites database.

GIS Prototype Implementation Goals
If the Documentation Center decides eventually to implement a GIS, the most appropriate and least expensive type would be a desktop mapping system running on a PC or Macintosh, with a color inkjet printer. This type of system would be useful to researchers in the Documentation Center for viewing digitized maps, has the advantage of simplicity, and would allow maps to be printed as needed. The first logical GIS project for the Documentation Center would be a GIS of all World Heritage sites at 1:1,000,000 scale or smaller. The end product would be a series of thematic maps which could be displayed on the ICOMOS website as well as printed. This prototype project could be implemented as follows:

Goal 6. Based on the sample implementation plan given in Section 5, the first step for this project is already complete. The project has been defined as a GIS of all World Heritage cultural sites. The second step is to determine what data will be needed and what is available. Since a basemap of the entire world at any scale larger than 1:1,000,000 will require huge amounts of storage and be difficult to gather (very few countries have digital basemaps already available for the entire country), it would be best to use a basemap of 1:1,000,000 or smaller, several versions of which are commercially available. Possibilities include basemaps offered by ESRI and MapInfo from 1:1,000,000 to 1:3,000,000 scale. The ArcView program also comes with a dataset of the world, which includes country boundaries but little else. This layer would be a good beginning, and the other layers could be added later.

One advantage of using an ESRI product is that the WCMC database of World Heritage natural sites is being mapped with Arc/Info at 1:1,000,000 scale. To be compatible with this system, I would recommend using the ArcView program for the PC or Macintosh, with the ESRI Digital Chart of the World at 1:1,000,000 scale as the basemap. To view a map of the entire world at this scale, however, would not be feasible on a 486 PC, so the tradeoff is the expense of a more powerful computer. Therefore, the advice of a technical consultant or vendor should be weighed along with budget considerations and the advantages of compatibility with WCMCís database, to determine the scale of the dataset. A smaller scale, e.g. 1:3,000,000 divided into continents or regions, would be quite feasible to run on a 486 PC or PowerMac, but this would be less compatible with the WCMC's system.

Goal 7. Acquire hardware and software. Appropriate hardware would be at least a 486 PC or a PowerMac, with a CD-ROM drive and color monitor. The computer should be linked to a color printer, which could also be networked to the other computers in the ICOMOS Secretariat if desired. Vendors should be consulted as to the required speed and memory of the printer. The software will most likely be ArcView, available from ESRI (http://www.esri.com), but if compatibility with the WCMC's system is not required, desktop mapping programs available from MapInfo, ERDAS, and other vendors could also be considered.

Goal 8. Hire appropriate staff. Staff should probably be increased by one full-time staff person with computer expertise and additional clerical help, but the needs of existing staff should be determined by consulting them. Optimal support will, of course, depend partly on budget constraints.

Goal 9. The first work to be done with the system is to download the appropriate layers, such as political boundaries, into the computer. They will then need to be merged into one map of the world. Once the World Heritage cultural sites' coordinates are entered into the cultural sites database (Goal 1), they can easily be converted to a layer of point data to be superimposed on the basemap. Add separate layers of desired thematic data, such as date of inscription, type of site, and whether the site is on the World Heritage in Danger List.

Goal 10. Manipulate information as desired to produce thematic maps, e.g. all World Heritage cultural sites on the Danger List, all World Heritage towns or gardens, or all World Heritage cultural sites inscribed since 1990. These thematic maps could be used as an educational tool for the public and as a communication tool for UNESCO and States Parties, to support comparative studies and budget requests.

Goal 11. Convert maps to GIF image files and make available on the ICOMOS website.

Other projects, such as more detailed analyses of particular areas or sites, will require more extensive data collection and conversion. A more extensive GIS system in the Documentation Center will most likely require a partner or several partners to provide digitized maps. The prototype project described above could, over time, be developed into a more extensive project. There are many possible applications. One example which could be developed fairly easily, since it would use the same basemap, is a database of universities with potential interest in World Heritage protection. Universities often precede government offices in their use of new technology. Universities are listed by country on the World Wide Web, and the geographic coordinates of the cities where they are located can be looked up in the GEONet Names Server. Once this information is put into a database, ICOMOS could search for the universities with the closest proximity to World Heritage sites. These universities could be excellent potential partners for geographic data sharing and other projects of benefit to the World Heritage.

Finally, regardless of whether the Documentation Center implements a GIS, the Center will need more space, equipment, and staff if it is to fulfill its mission of information dissemination in the future. Currently, the Documentation Center is open during the afternoon on Monday through Friday. The only point of contact between the Documentation Center and the public is Ms. d'Abzac, who has many other responsibilities. Until the Documentation Center is better equipped to assist visitors, advertising its resources while simultaneously implementing new technologies could result in frustration for both the staff and the visitors. As more information about the Documentation Center is made available on the ICOMOS Web pages and other new information technologies are implemented, the Documentation Center will need assistance with correspondence, answering the phone, and providing reference support. It would be helpful to have one permanent person on staff with computer expertise to manage projects and the activities of the interns; this would assure continuity and minimize interruption of the work when interns leave the organization. Improving the Documentation Center's information management capacity, as called for in the Future Plan, will depend on such basic requirements.



In summary, the implementation of a GIS, and particularly the development of the database, is a time-consuming and expensive project. However, the explosion of new applications of GIS in land use planning, natural resource management and archaeology, among other disciplines, shows that GIS can be a powerful tool for heritage conservation. As the vision of heritage preservation is evolving to consider sites and their context holistically, preservation will inevitably involve a greater use of cartographic tools such as GIS. Adoption of this tool among researchers and conservationists will increase in the coming years, particularly for the documentation of larger sites. By adopting this technology as quickly as possible, ICOMOS and its partners in World Heritage preservation can play a leading role in the development of data standards and spatial databases related to these sites, and advance the adoption of GIS as a tool in heritage preservation.





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APPENDIX A

Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage

Adopted by the General Conference at its seventeenth session, Paris, 16 November 1972

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in Paris from 17 October to 21 November 1972, at its seventeenth session,

Noting that the cultural heritage and the natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with even more formidable phenomena of damage or destruction,

Considering that deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world,

Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific and technical resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated,

Recalling that the Constitution of the Organization provides that it will maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge, by assuring the conservation and protection of the world's heritage, and recommending to the nations concerned the necessary international conventions,

Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of safeguarding this unique and irreplaceable property, to whatever people it may belong,

Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole,

Considering that, in view of the magnitude and gravity of the new dangers threatening them, it is incumbent on the international community as a whole to participate in the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, by the granting of collective assistance which, although not taking the place of action by the State concerned, will serve as an effective complement thereto,

Considering that it is essential for this purpose to adopt new provisions in the form of a convention establishing an effective system of collective protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, organized on a permanent basis and in accordance with modern scientific methods,

Having decided, at its sixteenth session, that this question should be made the subject of an international convention,

Adopts this sixteenth day of November 1972 this Convention.

I. Definitions of the cultural and the natural heritage

Article 1

For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as "cultural heritage": monuments, architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements of structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and of man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological points of view.

Article 2

For purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as "natural heritage":

natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;

geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;

natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.

Article 3

It is for each State Party to this Convention to identify and delineate the different properties situated on its territory mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 above.

II. National protection and international protection of the cultural and natural heritage

Article 4

Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 and situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State. It will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and cooperation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able to obtain.

Article 5

To ensure that effective and active measures are taken for the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage situated on its territory, each State Party to this Convention shall endeavor, in so far as possible, and as appropriate for each country:

(a) to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programs;

(b) to set up within its territories, where such services do not exist, one or more services for the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage with an appropriate staff and possessing the means to discharge their functions;

(c) to develop scientific and technical studies and research and to work out such operating methods as will make the State capable of counteracting the dangers that threaten its cultural or natural heritage;

(d) to take the appropriate legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of this heritage; and

(e) to foster the establishment or development of national or regional centers for training in the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage and to encourage scientific research in this field.

Article 6

1. Whilst fully respecting the sovereignty of the States on whose territory the cultural and natural heritage mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 is situated; and without prejudice to property rights provided by national legislation, the States Parties to this Convention recognize that such heritage constitutes a world heritage for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to cooperate.

2. The States Parties undertake, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, to give their help in the identification, protection, conservation and preservation of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 if the States on whose territory it is situated so request.

3. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 situated on the territory of other States Parties to this Convention.

Article 7

For the purpose of this Convention, international protection of the world cultural and natural heritage shall be understood to mean the establishment of a system of international cooperation and assistance designed to support States Parties to the Convention in their efforts to conserve and identify that heritage.

III. Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage

Article 8

1. An Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage

of Outstanding Universal Value, called "The World Heritage Committee", is hereby established within the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It shall be composed of 15 States Parties to the Convention, elected by States Parties to the Convention meeting in general assembly during the ordinary session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The number of States members of the Committee shall be increased to 21 as from the date of the ordinary session of the General Conference following the entry into force of this Convention for at least 40 States.

2. Election of members of the Committee shall ensure an equitable representation of the different regions and cultures of the world.

3. A representative of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (Rome Centre), a representative of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and a representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), to whom may be added, at the request of States Parties to the Convention meeting in general assembly during the ordinary sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, representatives of other intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, with similar objectives, may attend the meetings of the Committee in an advisory capacity.

Article 9

1. The term of office of States members of the World Heritage Committee shall extend from the end of the ordinary session of the General Conference during which they are elected until the end of its third subsequent ordinary session.

2. The term of office of one-third of the members designated at the time of the first election shall, however, cease at the end of the first ordinary session of the General Conference following that at which they were elected; and the term of office of a further third of the members designated at the same time shall cease at the end of the second ordinary session of the General Conference following that at which they were elected. The names of these members shall be chosen by lot by the President of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after the first election.

3. States members of the Committee shall choose as their representatives persons qualified in the field of the cultural or natural heritage.

Article 10

1. The World Heritage Committee shall adopt its Rules of Procedure.

2. The Committee may at any time invite public or private organizations or individuals to participate in its meetings for consultation on particular problems.

Article 11

1. Every State Party to this Convention shall, in so far as possible, submit to the World Heritage Committee an inventory of property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage, situated in its territory and suitable for inclusion in the list provided for in paragraph 2 of this Article. This inventory, which shall not be considered exhaustive, shall include documentation about the location of the property in question and its significance.

2. On the basis of the inventories submitted by States in accordance with paragraph 1, the Committee shall establish, keep up to date and publish, under the title of World Heritage List, a list of properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage, as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Convention, which it considers as having outstanding universal value in terms of such criteria as it shall have established. An updated list shall be distributed at least every two years.

3. The inclusion of a property in the World Heritage List requires the consent of the State concerned. The inclusion of a property situated in a territory, sovereignty or jurisdiction which is claimed by more than one State shall in no way prejudice the rights of the parties to the dispute.

4. The Committee shall establish, keep up to date and publish, whenever circumstances shall so require, under the title of List of World Heritage in Danger, a list of the property appearing in the World Heritage List for the conservation of which major operations are necessary and for which assistance has been requested under this Convention. This list shall contain an estimate of the cost of such operations. The list may include only such property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage as is threatened by serious and specific dangers, such as the threat of disappearance caused by accelerated deterioration, large-scale public or private projects or rapid urban or tourist development projects; destruction caused by changes in the use or ownership of the land; major alterations due to unknown causes; abandonment for any reason whatsoever; the outbreak or the threat of an armed conflict; calamities and cataclysms; serious fires, earthquakes, landslides; volcanic eruptions; changes in water level, floods, and tidal waves. The Committee may at any time, in case of urgent need, make a new entry in the List of World Heritage in Danger and publicize such entry immediately.

5. The Committee shall define the criteria on the basis of which a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage may be included in either of the lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article.

6. Before refusing a request for inclusion in one or the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article, the Committee shall consult the State Party in whose territory the cultural or natural property in question is situated.

7. The Committee shall, with the agreement of the States concerned, coordinate and encourage the studies and research needed for the drawing up of the lists referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article.

Article 12

The fact that a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage has not been included in either of the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 shall in no way be construed to mean that it does not have an outstanding universal value for purposes other than those resulting from inclusion in these lists.

Article 13

1. The World Heritage Committee shall receive and study requests for international assistance formulated by States Parties to this Convention with respect to property forming part of the cultural or natural heritage, situated in their territories, and included or potentially suitable for inclusion in the lists referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11. The purpose of such requests may be to secure the protection, conservation, presentation or rehabilitation of such property.

2. Requests for international assistance under paragraph 1 of this article may also be concerned with identification of cultural or natural property defined in Articles 1 and 2, when preliminary investigations have shown that further inquiries would be justified.

3. The Committee shall decide on the action to be taken with regard to these requests, determine where appropriate the nature and extent of its assistance, and authorize the conclusion, on its behalf, of the necessary arrangements with the government concerned.

4. The Committee shall determine an order of priorities for its operations. It shall in so doing bear in mind the respective importance for the world cultural and natural heritage of the property requiring protection, the need to give international assistance to the property most representative of a natural environment or of the genius and the history of the peoples of the world, the urgency of the work to be done, the resources available to the States on whose territory the threatened property is situated and in particular the extent to which they are able to safeguard such property by their own means.

5. The Committee shall draw up, keep up to date and publicize a list of property for which international assistance has been granted.

6. The Committee shall decide on the use of the resources of the Fund established under Article 15 of this Convention. It shall seek ways of increasing these resources and shall take all useful steps to this end.

7. The Committee shall cooperate with international and national governmental and non-governmental organizations having objectives similar to those of this Convention. For the implementation of its programs and projects, the Committee may call on such organizations, particularly the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (The Rome Centre), the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), as well as on public and private bodies and individuals.

8. Decisions of the Committee shall be taken by a majority of two-thirds of its members present and voting. A majority of the members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum.

Article 14

1. The World Heritage Committee shall be assisted by a Secretariat appointed by the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

2. The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, utilizing to the fullest extent possible the services of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (the Rome Centre), the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in their respective areas of competence and capability, shall prepare the Committee's documentation and the agenda of its meetings and shall have the responsibility for the implementation of its decisions.

IV. Fund for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage

Article 15

1. A Fund for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Outstanding Universal Value, called "The World Heritage Fund", is hereby established.

2. The Fund shall constitute a trust fund, in conformity with the provisions of the Financial Regulations of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

3. The resources of the Fund shall consist of:

(a) compulsory and voluntary contributions made by the States Parties to this Convention,

(b) contributions, gifts or bequests which may be made by: i) other States; ii) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, other organizations of the United Nationsl system, particularly the United Nations Development Program or other intergovernmental bodies; iii) public or private bodies or individuals

(c) any interest due on the resources of the Fund;

(d) funds raised by collections and receipts from events organized for the benefit of the Fund; and

(e) all other resources authorized by the Fund's regulations, as drawn up by the World Heritage Committee.

4. Contributions to the Fund and other forms of assistance made available to the Committee may be used only for such purposes as the Committee shall define. The Committee may accept contributions to be used only for a certain program or project, provided that the Committee shall have decided on the implementation of such program or project. No political conditions may be attached to contributions made to the Fund.

Article 16

1. Without prejudice to any supplementary voluntary contribution, the States Parties to this Convention undertake to pay regularly, every two years, to the World Heritage Fund, contributions, the amount of which, in the form of a uniform percentage applicable to all States, shall be determined by the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention, meeting during the sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This decision of the General Assembly requires the majority of the States Parties present and voting, which have not made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. In no case shall the compulsory contribution of States Parties to the Convention exceed 1% of the contribution to the Regular Budget of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

2. However, each State referred to in Article 31 or in Article 32 of this Convention may declare, at the time of the deposit of its instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession, that it shall not be bound by the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article.

3. A State Party to the Convention which has made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article may at any time withdraw the said declaration by notifying the Director-General of the United Nationsl Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. However, the withdrawal of the declaration shall not take effect in regard to the compulsory contribution due by the State until the date of the subsequent General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention.

4. In order that the Committee may be able to play its operations effectively, the contributions of States Parties to this Convention which have made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, shall be paid on a regular basis, at least every two years, and should not be less than the contributions which they should have paid if they had been bound by the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article.

5. Any State Party to the Convention which is in arrears with the payment of its compulsory or voluntary contribution for the current year and the calendar year immediately preceding it shall not be eligible as a Member of the World Heritage Committee, although this provision shall not apply to the first election. The terms of office of any such State which is already a member of the Committee shall terminate at the time of the elections provided for in Article 8, paragraph 1 of this Convention.

Article 17

The States Parties to this Convention shall consider or encourage the establishment of national, public and private foundations or associations whose purpose is to invite donations for the protection of the cultural and natural heritage as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Convention.

Article 18

The States Parties to this Convention shall give their assistance to international fundraising campaigns organized for the World Heritage Fund under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. They shall facilitate collections made by the bodies mentioned in paragraph 3 of Article 15 for this purpose.

V. Conditions and arrangements for international assistance

Article 19

Any State Party to this Convention may request international assistance for property forming part of the cultural or natural heritage of outstanding universal value situated within its territory. It shall submit with its request such information and documentation provided for in Article 21 as it has in its possession and as will enable the Committee to come to a decision.

Article 20

Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 13, sub-paragraph (c) of Article 22 and Article 23, international assistance provided for by this Convention may be granted only to property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee has decided, or may decide, to enter in one of the lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11.

Article 21

1. The World Heritage Committee shall define the procedures by which requests to it for international assistance shall be considered and shall specify the content of the request, which should define the operation contemplated, the work that is necessary, the expected cost thereof, the degree of urgency and the reasons why the resources of the State requesting assistance do not allow it to meet all the expenses. Such requests must be supported by experts' reports whenever possible.

2. Requests based upon disasters or natural calamities should, by reason of the urgent work which they may involve, be given immediate, priority consideration by the Committee, which should have a reserve fund at its disposal against such contingencies.

3. Before coming to a decision, the Committee shall carry out such studies and consultations as it deems necessary.

Article 22

Assistance granted by the World Heritage Committee may take the following forms:

(a) studies concerning the artistic, scientific and technical problems raised by the protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage, as defined in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 of this Convention;

(b) provision of experts, technicians and skilled labor to ensure that the approved work is correctly carried out;

(c) training of staff and specialists at all levels in the field of identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage;

(d) supply of equipment which the State concerned does not possess or is not in a position to acquire;

(e) low-interest or interest-free loans which might be repayable on a long-term basis;

(f) the granting, in exceptional cases and for special reasons, of non-repayable subsidies.

Article 23

The World Heritage Committee may also provide international assistance to national or regional centers for the training of staff and specialists at all levels in the field of identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage.

Article 24

International assistance on a large scale shall be preceded by detailed scientific, economic and technical studies. These studies shall draw upon the most advanced techniques for the protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the natural and cultural heritage and shall be consistent with the objectives of this Convention. The studies shall also seek means of making rational use of the resources available in the State concerned.

Article 25

As a general rule, only part of the cost of work necessary shall be borne by the international community. The contribution of the State benefiting from international assistance shall constitute a substantial share of the resources devoted to each program or project, unless its resources do not permit this.

Article 26

The World Heritage Committee and the recipient State shall define in the agreement they conclude the conditions in which a program or project for which international assistance under the terms of this Convention is provided, shall be carried out. It shall be the responsibility of the State receiving such international assistance to continue to protect, conserve and present the property so safeguarded, in observance of the conditions laid down by the agreement.

VI. Educational programs

Article 27

1. The States Parties to this Convention shall endeavor by all appropriate means, and in particular by educational and information programs, to strengthen appreciation and respect by their peoples of the cultural and natural heritage defined in Article 1 and 2 of the Convention.

2. They shall undertake to keep the public broadly informed of the dangers threatening this heritage and of activities carried on in pursuance of this Convention.

Article 28

States Parties to this Convention which receive international assistance under the Convention shall take appropriate measures to make known the importance of the property for which assistance has been received and the role played by such assistance.

VII. Reports

Article 29

1. The States Parties to this Convention shall, in the reports which they submit to the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on dates and in a manner to be determined by it, give information on the legislative and administrative provisions which they have adopted and other action which they have taken for the application of this Convention, together with details of the experience acquired in this field.

2. These reports shall be brought to the attention of the World Heritage Committee.

3. The Committee shall submit a report on its activities at each of the ordinary sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

VIII. Final Clauses

Article 30

This Convention is drawn up in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish, the five texts being equally authoritative.

Article 31

1. This Convention shall be subject to ratification or acceptance by States members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures.

2. The instruments of ratification or acceptance shall be deposited with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Article 32

1. This Convention shall be open to accession by all States not members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization which are invited by the General Conference of the Organization to accede to it.

2. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Article 33

This Convention shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification, acceptance or accession, but only with respect to those States which have deposited their respective instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession on or before that date. It shall enter into force with respect to any other State three months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance or accession.

Article 34

The following provisions shall apply to those States Parties to this Convention which have a federal or non-unitary constitutional system:

(a) with regard to the provisions of this Convention, the implementation of which comes under the legal jurisdiction of the federal or central legislative power, the obligations of the federal or central government shall be the same as for those States Parties which are not federal States;

(b) with regard to the provisions of this Convention, the implementation of which comes under the legal jurisdiction of individual constituent States, countries, provinces or cantons that are not obliged by the constitutional system of the federation to take legislative measures, the federal government shall inform the competent authorities of such States, countries, provinces or cantons of the said provisions, with its recommendation for their adoption.

Article 35

1. Each State Party to this Convention may denounce the Convention.

2. The denunciation shall be notified by an instrument in writing, deposited with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

3. The denunciation shall take effect twelve months after the receipt of the instrument of denunciation. It shall not affect the financial obligations of the denouncing States until the date on which the withdrawal takes effect.

Article 36

The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization shall inform the States members of the Organization, the States not members of the Organization which are referred to in Article 32, as well as the United Nations, of the deposit of all the instruments of ratification, acceptance, or accession provided for in Articles 31 and 32, and of the denunciations provided for in Article 35.

Article 37

1. This Convention may be revised by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Any such revision shall, however, bind only the States which shall become Parties to the revising convention.

2. If the General Conference should adopt a new convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new convention otherwise provides, this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification, acceptance or accession, as from the date on which the new revising convention enters into force.

Article 38

In conformity with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, this Convention shall be registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations at the request of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Done in Paris, this twenty-third day of November 1972, in two authentic copies bearing the signature of the President of the seventeenth session of the General Conference and of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and certified true copies of which shall be delivered to all the States referred to in Articles 31 and 32 as well as to the United Nations.

The foregoing is the authentic text of the Recommendation duly adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization during its seventeenth session, which was held in Paris and declared closed on the twenty-first day of November 1972.

In faith whereof we have appended our signatures this twenty-third day of November 1972.

The President of the General Conference

The Director-General

* ICCROM = International Center for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property; ICOM = International Conservation Union * The Blue Shield is the emblem of the UNESCO Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict (The Hague Convention - 1954) and natural disasters. This emblem denotes a World Heritage site in danger. * National Map Accuracy Standards (NMAS) are the most widely accepted principles for map accuracy in the United States. NMAS requires that at least 90% of well-defined points on the map fall within 1/30 of an inch of their true position. i ICOMOS Statutes, adopted by the Vth General Assembly (Moscow, 22 May 1978). ii ICOMOS Future Plan, adopted by the Tenth General Assembly (Sri Lanka, 1993). iii Korte, George. The GIS Book, 4th edition, p. 319. OnWord Press: Santa Fe, 1997. iv --. The World Heritage Newsletter No. 4, March 1994. v Margaret Mac Lean, p. 8, "The Tools of Preservation: Documentation and Monitoring," US/ICOMOS Newsletter, No. 4, 1995.