The Network of UNESCO Sites

Changes and Patterns visualized with Cartograms

What we will learn

• How to plot data in QGIS
• How to install a plugin
• How to add further data
• How to create a cartogram

What we need

• Dataset "UNESCO World Heritage in Danger" (own research based on UNESCO, Copyright©1992-2021 UNESCO/World Heritage Centre. All rights reserved)
• UN subregions scheme (Data source: Countries, Scheme source: UN subregion M49)
• Oceanic basemap (Source: Natural Earth)

Download data here

What to do

1. Download the provided data & open in QGIS
2. Install plugins
3. Explore a World Heritage Site in Danger
4. Analyse the distribution of World Heritage Sites in Danger worldwide

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The context we are working in

Since its foundation in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) became one of the most famous international institutions worldwide. With its different programs, the UNESCO has transformed itself into an important brand for the protection of cultural and natural landmarks. Continuously, the list of UNESCO designated sites is growing. However, the last five decades have been characterized by global economic and political changes, which have also repeatedly made it necessary for UNESCO to adapt. The List of World Heritage in Danger shows impressively, that also centuries-old properties have to accommodate to ascertained and potential sources of danger.
The constantly increase of UNESCO designated sites can be shown very well on the basis of tables and graphs. However, the regional weighting and influence of certain policies can barely be displayed with tables and numbers, if at all. Maps can be helpful, making the spatial distribution over varying times visible. By using cartograms, warping a regular map based on a certain value, the different weighting of the individual regions can be shown even more clearly. This allows an interpretation of past developments and implementation of the individual policies of UNESCO.

Figure 1: Map of the global distribution of UNESCO Global Geoparks, Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites within the UN subregions

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Hands-on

Exercise 1

a) Download the data and open all files in QGIS. You can find a quick tutorial here (1 min).
b) Take care about the project coordinate reference system (CRS). Set a equal-area projection, i.e. World Robinson (EPSI: 54030).
c) Find the World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Vienna". Have a look into the attribute table.

I. When was the designation of the "Historic Centre of Vienna"?

II. How is the great age of the"THistoric Centre of Vienna" called?

Exercise 2

Now we are adding maps and satellite images to our project. Those can be used for orientation and simple analyses. This can be done by the large library of plugins which is offered by the QGIS Plugin Repository.
a) The QGIS Plugin Manager enable us to install a Plugin directly in QGIS. Watch this tutorial (1 min) and install the QuickMapServices (QMS) plugin.

b) * Now add the OSM Standard layer

To add satellite imagery via the "Bing Satellite Layer", we must extend the plugin by adding a contribution pack via

Web

QuickMapServices

Settings

More services

Get contributed pack

c) * Now you can add the Bing Satellite layer

Figure 2: Example map with Bing Satellite as basemap

What's the difference of the OSM Standard and the Bing Satellite layer?

Exercise 3

Explore the site Abu Mena in QGIS and online.

I. Describe the land use around Abu Mena.

II. Why is Abu Mena in danger?

III. What is the advantage of a GIS?

Excersice 4

Now we need to know how many UNESCO sites in danger are within each UN subregion.
a) Therefore, open the downloaded "UNESCO_world-heritage-in-danger.shp" file in QGIS.
b) Check if every point is in a UN subregion. Compare these points with the points of the UNESCO_world-heritage-in-danger_analysis-ready.shp file. c) Then we add the number of UNESCO sites in danger (point features) to the UN subregions (polygon features) with the "Count points in polygon" algorithm. Use the UNESCO_world-heritage-in-danger_analysis-ready.shp file.

I. Open Processing Toolbox

Processing

Toolbox

II. Search the "Count points in polygon" algorithm

III. Run the "Count points in polygon" algorithm

IV. Export the file as csv format

Layer (right-click)

Export

Save Features As...

Now you can use the csv file to create graphs i.e. in excel to support the visualization of a map.

V. Which UN subregion show 15 World Heritage Sites in Danger?

Exercise 5

a) Follow the steps in Exercise 2 to install the cartogram3 plugin.
b) Use the World Heritage in Danger file to calculate a cartogram. Generate a cartogram with the iterator 10, 25 and 40.

Hint: Use the land_mass_basemap.shp file to compare the extent to the normal map.

I. What's the advantages and challenges of the iterator?​

II. Which continent show the most World Heritage in danger?

III. What's the difference to the World Heritage cartogram below?

Figure 3: Cartogram of the World Heritage Sites in Danger

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