Developing climate risk assessments for World Heritage: the Climate Vulnerability Index

Abstract

Climate change is recognised as the fastest growing threat to World Heritage (WH) properties by ICOMOS and the IUCN. The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) was first piloted at the Natural WH property of Shark Bay, Western Australia in 2018; the first application to a Cultural WH property took place in April 2019 at the Heart of Neolithic Orkney in Scotland. This paper outlines the results of the Orkney workshop together with one for Edinburgh conducted in May-June 2021 and looks at the benefits of the CVI assessment process.

Climate Risk Management in Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Adaptation Actions in Nigeria

“…Recently, the Climate Vulnerability Index [44] was applied at Sukur Cultural Landscape, a world heritage site, to assess and prioritise climate risks to inform decision making on adaptive actions to improve preparedness and resilience. The approach, as implemented by Megarry et al [45] and Jones et al [46], requires the use of climate models and risk matrices which require a high-level of climate literacy and technical skill to apply.…”