UNESCO World Heritage Sites (with buffer)
This layer maps UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with a surrounding buffer zone.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre Year: 2016 Category: Transition risks · Sensitive areas · Protected areas Coverage: Global Format: Boundary polygons (with surrounding buffer) Used in risk analysis: Yes — gates Sensitive areas
What it shows
This layer maps UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with a surrounding buffer zone. The sites are over 1,200 locations recognised worldwide for outstanding cultural or natural significance, including ancient cities, landmarks, distinctive landscapes and areas of exceptional biodiversity. The buffer extends sensitivity beyond the strict site boundary to capture nearby activity. It matters for nature-related risk because both the TNFD and the CSRD identify World Heritage Sites as biodiversity-sensitive areas.
How it is built
The layer is drawn from the UNESCO World Heritage Sites inventory, where each site is inscribed on the basis of criteria assessing its outstanding universal value — cultural, natural, or both. A surrounding buffer is added to each site boundary so that locations close to, but not directly within, a site are also captured. The dataset represents these buffered boundaries with no derived score; inclusion follows official UNESCO inscription.
How to read it
This is a boundary layer. A site that intersects the buffered area — that is, the World Heritage Site itself or the zone immediately around it — is flagged as overlapping a biodiversity-sensitive or culturally significant area, warranting closer review under TNFD and CSRD expectations. The buffer makes the layer more conservative than the unbuffered version, flagging near-site activity as well as direct overlap.
Class thresholds
This is not a continuous physical-flux layer and has no numeric thresholds. It is a presence / boundary mask with a proximity buffer: the underlying feature is the official UNESCO World Heritage inventory (over 1,200 inscribed sites), here pre-buffered into world_heritage_with_buffer polygons that extend each site boundary outward. The dataset stores only the buffered boundaries and site attributes (NAME, COUNTRY, REGION, …) with no modelled score, so there are only two states for any location: inside the buffered area, or outside it.
The single "class" is presence-within-buffer. A site is flagged on the Sensitive areas dimension when it intersects the buffered World Heritage polygon — that is, when it falls on the site itself or within the surrounding buffer zone (the proximity trigger is an intersection against the pre-buffered geometry) — combined with a material ENCORE pressure/service as set out in the Risk analysis table above.
How these thresholds were set. There is no Darwin classification here: membership is taken verbatim from the UNESCO World Heritage inventory — a site is included if and only if it has been officially inscribed by UNESCO — and Darwin then applies a fixed buffer around each boundary to capture near-site activity. No score breaks, bins or cut-offs are applied.
Reference: UNESCO World Heritage Centre — whc.unesco.org.
Source
UNESCO World Heritage Sites — UNESCO interactive map and inventory, with an added buffer zone.
Comparison with the WWF Risk Filter Suite
This maps to WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter indicator S14_1 Protected/Conserved Areas, covering culturally and naturally designated sites. WWF derives its protected-area indicator from the global WDPA (UNEP-WCMC via IBAT); Darwin uses the UNESCO inventory directly and adds a buffer to capture proximity. The two are aligned in intent, with the buffered Darwin layer flagging near-site activity that a strict boundary would miss.
Risk analysis
A site is flagged on a dimension by combining a proximity trigger (this layer) with an activity trigger (the entity's ENCORE pressure/service). Proximity only → Potentially material; proximity and the matching ENCORE pressure/service is material → Very material; neither → Not material.
| Dimension | ENCORE service / pressure | Proximity trigger (this layer) | Activity trigger (entity) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensitive areas | Sensitive area disturbance | Site overlaps / is near the feature | impact ratio ≥ 10%; “Disturbances (e.g noise, light)” pressure ≥ 4; “Introduction of invasive species” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of freshwater use” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of seabed use” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of land use” pressure ≥ 4; “Other biotic resource extraction (e.g. fish, timber)” pressure ≥ 4; “Volume of water use” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of non-GHG air pollutants” pressure ≥ 4; “Generation and release of solid waste” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of toxic soil and water pollutants” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of nutrient soil and water pollutants” pressure ≥ 4 |
Generated from darwin/layers/layer-unesco-world-heritage-sites-with-buffer.toml and risk_indicator_pairs.toml (develop).