Assessing Impacts on World Heritage

Assessment of impacts on World Heritage involves determining whether the proposed action would affect the property’s Outstanding Universal Value and other heritage/conservation values (see Section 3.2). As a proposed action should not be detrimental to a property’s OUV, the focus of the assessment should change from ‘What is the impact of this project/plan?’ to ‘What is its impact on OUV?’

This requires an understanding of the attributes that contribute to the OUV of the World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. and its other heritage/conservation values, within its boundary, buffer and wider setting, which may then mean that the scope of the assessment should be extended to include the relevant geographical, ecological and landscape areas around the heritage, while also considering the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts (Figure 4.3).