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Matera, Italy is one of the oldest towns in the world, as is the City of Sassi, along with the Park of the Rupestrian Churches. Matera is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993. The original urban core developed from natural caves carved into the rock and then molded into increasingly complex structures within two large natural amphitheatres, which are the Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano. Matera has also received a coveted award: having reached the short list with 20 other Italian cities such as Venice, with Mibact Decree signed by Minister Dario Franceschini on December 23, 2014, it has been officially designated as European Capital of Culture for 2019.

The Galapagos environment is under pressure from an increasing population and rapidly-growing tourist numbers now reaching quarter of a million per year. This paper reviews the progress from establishing a management plan for the Galapagos marine reserve in the late 1990s, to its recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and that the boat traffic to supply both residents and tourists poses an ever-increasing likelihood of introducing marine invasive species. The route to establishment of a plan to prevent the import of marine invasive species is described including, identification of existing and likely new species, how to detect them if they do arrive and (unfortunately, but perhaps inevitably) putting in control measures for those that do slip through the safely net.

Charnwood Forest (UK) hosts some of the oldest and best-preserved macrofossils known from the Ediacaran. It is the counterpoint to the more widely studied fossil sites of south-eastern Newfoundland (Canada), which include the recently-designated UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mistaken Point. Discoveries made in Charnwood Forest since 2008 have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the evolution of complex macroscopic life and the subsequent development of ‘modern’ (i.e. Phanerozoic) ecosystems. The sites in Charnwood include the holotypes for several iconic Ediacaran taxa, and potentially both the oldest and youngest representatives of the deep-water Avalon Assemblage. These communities provide a unique opportunity to test models of community ecology, biological endemism and environmental sensitivity and adaptability in the Ediacaran. Here, we review the geology of Charnwood Forest and the palaeobiology of its biotas, and we summarise recent scientific advances in the context of our developing understanding of early macroscopic life. We review the application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to these ancient communities, and signpost exciting new directions for research in Charnwood Forest, almost 170 years after the fossils were first brought to light.

This paper considers and evaluates a landscape archaeology research framework which relies on methodologies of Visual Narrative Analysis (VNA) and spatial analysis to study rock art. The innovative approach in this case study is the use of multi-scale spatial analysis, first to examine the micro-scale visual narrative aspects of the images– e.g. composition, framing, panelling, and movement – and secondly, to map the macro-scale archaeological context. The case examined is the Middle Neolithic pictograph site on the cliffs at Astuvansalmi, in Ristiina, Finland. With approximately 60 painted images, the site is noteworthy as one of the largest rock painting sites in Northern Europe, listed as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site since 1990. It is argued that there is a need to go beyond traditional ethnoarchaeological approaches with a systematic spatial analysis. This multi-scale spatial analysis offers an alternative approach which seeks a more complete and varied understanding of the archaeological landscape.

Capítulo 9., Badlands occur in dissected landscapes on all continents and are of interest to tourists for their landscape and aesthetic value. People choose these eroded landforms as tourist destinations to pursue active tourism, movie tourism and geotourism. The geotouristic value of badlands varies across the world: some of them are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and attract hundreds of thousands of tourists per year; others, located in less accessible areas without tourist infrastructure are only known to scientists and adventure tourists. Global geotourism is now developing primarily within geoparks, some of which contain a small number of badlands. Establishing new geoparks containing badland areas will increase the attraction and conservation of these unique geomorphic features on Earth.

In this study, aerosol light-absorption measurements obtained at three sites during a winter campaign were used to analyse and identify the major sources of Black Carbon (BC) particles in and around the Alhambra monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that receives over 2 million visitors per year. The Conditional Bivariate Probability Function and the Aethalometer model were employed to identify the main sources of BC particles and to estimate the contributions of biomass burning and fossil fuel emissions to the total Equivalent Black Carbon (EBC) concentrations over the monumental complex. Unexpected high levels of EBC were found at the Alhambra, comparable to those measured in relatively polluted European urban areas during winter. EBC concentrations above 3.0 μg/m3, which are associated with unacceptable levels of soiling and negative public reactions, were observed at Alhambra monument on 13 days from 12 October 2015 to 29 February 2016, which can pose a risk to its long-term conservation and may cause negative social and economic impacts. It was found that road traffic emissions from the nearby urban area and access road to the Alhambra were the main sources of BC particles over the monument. However, biomass burning emissions were found to have very small impact on EBC concentrations at the Alhambra. The highest EBC concentrations were observed during an extended stagnant episode associated with persistent high-pressure systems, reflecting the large impact that can have these synoptic conditions on BC over the Alhambra., European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 654109, ACTRIS-2., Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER through project CGL2013-45410-R, CGL2016-81092-R 598 and CGL2012-30729., Andalusia Regional Government through project P12- RNM-2409 and P12-FQM-1889.

Fisheries co-management in the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage area was expanded to ecosystem-based management, in which the fisheries sector plays an essential role in management. A marine management plan was drawn up to define the management objectives, strategies to maintain major species, and methods for ecosystem monitoring. A network of coordinating organizations from a wide range of sectors was established to integrate policy measures. Experience from this case could inform ecosystem-based management in other countries where large numbers of small-scale fishers take a wide range of species under a fisheries co-management regime.

The present paper focuses on the issues related to the economic value of landscape and the role of indicators and indices systems. The aim of the study is the definition of a synthetic index of Landscape Economic Value (LEV) through a system of economic indicators, to measure the attractiveness of Vineyard Landscape of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (IT), recently included in the UNESCO World Heritage List (2014). Furthermore, the synthetic index is employed in a dynamic transformation model that works in a cluster system of municipalities, where the Landscape Economic Value acts as an attractor factor generating people flows. The results obtained by the evaluation model might be an innovative proposal to define development territorial scenarios in decisional making-processes.

Identifying the possible causes of existing damage in historical structures is a complex task. Common difficulties are the limited information regarding the history of the construction, the properties of materials and the morphology of structural members. This paper investigates the capability of advanced numerical modelling to address the aforementioned issues and to simulate the damage in complex masonry structures. The case under study is the church of the Poblet Monastery, one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain. The developed finite element model includes the actual-deformed 3D geometry of a selected bay, aiming to consider the important deformation of the structure during the analysis. Based on the historical survey, the analysis considers different hypotheses to investigate on the possible causes of existing damage: gravitational loading, settlements , past earthquakes and reported structural alterations. The influence of the material parameters on the structural safety is assessed with parametric analysis. Additionally, the parallel use of graphic statics with numerical analysis helps to interpret realistically the structure’s current equilibrium. The applied numerical strategy is effective to understand the causes of the present damage in the structure. The results of the study are useful to make a first diagnosis and are the prelude for future inspection, testing and monitoring activities

There is an ongoing struggle with the search for balance between tourism, conservation, authenticity and economic development. In the quest for balance, considerable tension in global-local relationships emerges when hosts and guests meet. Perhaps nowhere else is this tension more pronounced than when an international organisation becomes directly involved in the selection, conservation and presentation of a heritage which not only has to be defined at international and national levels, but which has a different meaning, value and expression at the local level.