In recent years, it has been noted that increasing numbers of World Heritage properties are facing pressure from various forms of development - including for examples housing projects, commercial buildings and infrastructures - and other significant changes that affect their Outstanding Universal Value. The World Heritage Committee has seen the impacts of these factors in considerable numbers of State of Conservation Reports and have been requesting impact assessments to inform decision making for many years. As part of their complementary mandates to build capacities of State Parties to the World Heritage Convention, WHITRAP Shanghai together with ICCROM, have organized training courses on Heritage Impact Assessment since 2012.

National Museum, Brazil. Notre Dame, Paris. Shuri Castle, Japan. Table Mountain, South Africa.
Invaluable heritage resources get destroyed in catastrophic fires every year. In most cases, they are highly preventable. In order to develop tailored solutions, it is important to better understand the nature of fire risk for heritage and work with relevant stakeholders.