World Heritage: UNESCO Guide to Managing Disaster Risks

According to UNESCO, cultural and natural heritage is increasingly affected by events that “are less and less “natural” in their dynamics, if not in their cause”. Damage due to floods, landslides, fires, earthquakes, as well as those following war events or geopolitical instability are increasingly the subject of interest in the study of measures to be implemented to protect cultural heritage.

For this reason, UNESCO defined this Resource Manua l as part of the new World Heritage Resource Manual Series by ICCROM in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS and IUCN.
The purpose of the publication is to raise the awareness of World Heritage managers and administrators of the real extent of risks associated with disasters. To this end, it intends to provide heritage protection authorities, local governments, site managers and local communities linked to World Heritage sites, as well as other stakeholders in the identification and conservation process with targeted guidance on the implementation of the Convention to States Parties.
The objective is pursued by providing knowledge and assistance to improve the management of the assets that make up the World Heritage List

This handbook provides guidance on disaster risk management for World Heritage properties. It has been prepared by cultural heritage experts with input from experts in natural heritage conservation with the purposes of:

To help managers and management authorities of cultural and natural World Heritage properties reduce risks to these properties from natural and man-made disasters.
To explain the basic principles of disaster risk management (DRM) for heritage and a methodology for identifying, assessing and mitigating disaster risks.
To explain how to prepare a DRM plan based on this methodology.
To demonstrate that heritage can play a positive role in reducing disaster risks and thus help justify the conservation of World Heritage properties.
To suggest how DRM plans for heritage properties can be integrated with national and regional disaster management strategies and plans.

The handbook is primarily aimed at site managers, management teams and agencies and organisations with a direct interest in the management of a heritage property. It can also be adapted and applied by other stakeholders, depending on their mandate and responsibilities.

Structure of the handbook

The handbook is structured as a series of questions that the user might ask themselves about the preparation of a DRM plan. The questions are answered by reference to a single and coherent approach to the principles, methodology and process of disaster risk management in heritage sites. The first three sections (1 to 3) explain why DRM plans are needed, how they relate to other management plans and who should be involved in their preparation. Each of the subsequent sections (4 to 8) focuses on a stage in the process of preparing a DRM plan. Throughout the handbook, the methodological principles are illustrated by case studies. These examples are drawn from the experience of a wide range of disaster risks on the one hand, and a wide range of World Heritage property types on the other.

The appendices provide a glossary of DRM terms, a typology of common risks and lists of relevant organisations, sources and publications for further reading.

Essential elements of a DRM plan

A DRM plan should not be a simple list of actions, but should describe the processes that, for different situations, should be followed by the responsible authorities in deciding and implementing appropriate actions.
It should clearly state the main objectives and process of the plan, its scope, its target audience and the agency (or agencies) responsible for its implementation.
Essentially, a plan is based on the identification and assessment of the main disaster risks that could have a negative impact on the heritage values of the property, as well as on human lives and property in the property.
It should then set out the tools, techniques and implementation strategies for prevention and mitigation, emergency preparedness and response, recovery, maintenance and monitoring.
Periods of time and deadlines for periodic reviews of the plan should be defined.
Depending on the nature of the asset, a plan should be as comprehensive as possible.
A DRM plan can take many forms depending on the intended audience.
Copies of the site’s DRM plan should be stored securely in multiple locations so that they can be easily retrieved if needed, especially during a disaster.

Risk analysis process

List all natural and man-made hazards that expose the asset to disaster risks.
Analyze the vulnerability of the asset to the various listed hazards.
Analyze the cause-effect relationships between the hazards and the vulnerability of the asset.
Analyze the potential impact on heritage values.

Risk assessment and prioritisation of risk reduction measures/strategies

Likelihood of a particular disaster scenario occurring on the property.
Consequence of a particular disaster scenario occurring (in terms of social, economic and/or physical impact).
Unacceptable level of risk.

The Handbook also highlights the importance of adopting and implementing measures that, to the extent possible, do not diminish the heritage values of the property. In addition, there may be traditional local knowledge on disaster vulnerability that can be integrated into a DRM plan.

Glossary

We believe it is important to also include the glossary that accompanies the text, as it allows for a vision of the breadth of the sector to which the document is addressed. In particular, the Glossary of relevant disaster management terms cite:

Climate change: a change in climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; http://unfccc.int/).

Disaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (www.unisdr.org).

Emergency: An unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, www.m-w.com).

Hazard: Any phenomenon, substance or situation, which has the potential to cause disrup- tion or damage to infrastructure and services, people, their property and their environment (Abarquez and Murshed, 2004).

Mitigation: Taking action in the timeframe before a disaster to lessen post-event damage to lives and property. In risk management, many hazards such as earthquakes cannot be reduced, but the risk from that hazard can be reduced, or mitigated, for example by con- structing earthquake-resistant buildings, or shelves that prevent objects from sliding off. The former is structural mitigation, the latter is non-structural.

Prevention: Measures taken to reduce the likelihood of losses. Ideally, these measures would seek to reduce losses to zero, but this often is not possible. Key question: How much prevention do you need to undertake?

Recovery: The process of returning the institution to normal operations, which may also involve the repair and restoration of the building or site.

Response: The reaction to an incident or emergency to assess the damage or impact to the site and its components, and actions taken to prevent people and the property from suffering further damage.

Risk: The chance of something happening that will have an impact upon objectives. (Emergency Management Australia, 2000).

Vulnerability: The susceptibility and resilience of the community and environment to hazards. ‘Resilience’ relates to ‘existing controls’ and the capacity to reduce or sustain harm. ‘Susceptibility’ relates to ‘exposure’ (Emergency Management Australia, 2000).

World Heritage property: World Heritage properties are those defined in Articles 1 and 2 of the World Heritage Convention and inscribed on the World Heritage List on the basis of their outstanding universal value, which is fulfilled through meeting one or more of criteria (i)–(x) in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO / WHC, 2008a).

Tags: Disaster Risk Management, DRM, heritage buildings protection, Risk management