More than 380 coastal World Heritage Sites may face climate risks, new data shows

Researchers led by coastal engineer Robert Nicholls have published the first global high-resolution dataset mapping 386 coastal UNESCO World Heritage Sites, covering more than 235 million hectares, to help assess climate vulnerability. The team manually digitized 1,250 individual boundary polygons from existing maps, without using AI, for sites ranging from Senegal's Djoudj bird sanctuary to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Outside researchers noted that UNESCO itself lacked precise digital boundary maps for many of its own listed sites, which made prior risk assessments difficult. Threats vary by site: erosion and flooding for cultural landmarks, and compounding risks like pollution, illegal fishing, or nearby industrial development for natural and mixed sites.

Experts caution the dataset is a starting point, not a substitute for localized climate modeling, since simple sea-level thresholds can't capture site-specific risk.

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