World Heritage, Climate Change and Resilience

Disaster response and Emergency risk preparedness for

heritage under climate change induced threats

organized on the occasion of the ICOMOS International Day for Monuments and Sites

21 April 2023

14.00-16:30 Beijing time (UTC+8)

Following the 6 WHITRAP Shanghai World Heritage Dialogues organized in 2022 for the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention: The Next 50: World Heritage as a Source of Resilience, Humanity and Innovation, WHITRAP Shanghai is continuing the World Heritage Dialogues series co-organized by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) Tongji University (Shanghai, China) to deliver cutting-edge professional information and expert perspectives provided by experts from the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

The 1st 2023 WHITRAP Shanghai World Heritage Dialogue is organized on the occasion of the ICOMOS International Day for Monuments and Sites (18th April). The 2023 ICOMOS Day theme is “Heritage Changes” in accordance with the ICOMOS Three-Year Scientific Plan (2021-2024) and the 2020 ICOMOS Resolution on a Human-Centered Perspective on Heritage.

On 21 April 2023 from 14:00-16:30 Beijing time (UTC+8), the WHITRAP Shanghai World Heritage Dialogue will discuss World Heritage, Climate Change and Resilience – Disaster response and Emergency risk preparedness for heritage under climate change induced threats. In this round table Chinese and international scholars, experts and heritage managers will discuss how to respond to the threat of climate change and how to deal with the emergency climate risks, and share their experiences and reflections.

This Dialogue will continue the discussion on climate change, which was held on 14th September 2022 at the 4th WHITRAP Shanghai World Heritage Dialogue titled “World Heritage and Climate Change and Resilience. Heritage as a solution to confront Climate Change: Perspectives and tools.”

The written summary of the session is available at: http://www.whitr-ap.org/index.php?classid=1461&newsid=3354&t=show

The video recording is available at:http://heritap.whitr-ap.org/index.php?classid=12497&id=38&t=show

The previous Dialogue, discussed more of the theoretical basis of climate change, heritage response to disasters, and the use and function of heritage itself as a tool to cope with climate change induced threats in relationship with its surrounding environment. The objective of the 2023 Dialogue is to further focus on practice. In addition to our understanding of climate change, scholars, experts and heritage managers will share their working experience and reflections on several issues such as what needs to be done to complement and strengthen heritage conservation and management under climate change threat? What are the traditions and indigenous knowledge that should be carried forward? How to further link sustainable development and cultural heritage conservation practice.

Language
The online Dialogue will be bilingual with simultaneous interpretation. Video recordings of the Dialogue and a brief synthesis will be published online on the WHITRTAP website.