Swiss Alps Jungfrau Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site - The state of this World Heritage region as a starting point for regional monitoring

Gasser, Judith; Wiesmann, Urs (2011). Swiss Alps Jungfrau Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site - The state of this World Heritage region as a starting point for regional monitoring. Eco.mont - journal on protected mountain areas research, 3(2), pp. 33-41. Wien: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press 10.1553/eco.mont

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The UNESCO listing as World Heritage Site confirms the outstanding qualities of the high-mountain region around the Great Aletsch Glacier. The region of the World Heritage Site now faces the responsibility to make these qualities visible and to preserve them for future generations. Consequently the qualities of the site must not be regarded in isolation but in the context of the entire region with its dynamics and developments.
Regional monitoring is the observation and evaluation of temporal changes in target variables. It is thus an obligation towards UNESCO, who demands regular reports about the state of the listed World Heritage assets. It also allows statements about sustainable regional development and can be the basis for early recognition of threats to the outstanding qualities. Monitoring programmes face three major challenges: first, great care must be taken in defining the target qualities to be monitored or the monitoring would remain vague. Secondly, the selection of ideal indicators to describe these qualities is impeded by inadequate data quality and availability, compromises are inevitable. Thirdly, there is always an element of insecurity in the interpretation of the results as to what influences and determines the
changes in the target qualities.
The first survey of the monitoring programme confirmed the exceptional qualities of the region and also highlighted problematic issues.

Item Type:

Newspaper or Magazine Article

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Critical Sustainability Studies (CSS)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability
10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

UniBE Contributor:

Gasser, Judith, Wiesmann, Urs Martin

ISSN:

2073-106X

Publisher:

Austrian Academy of Sciences Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:25

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:07

Publisher DOI:

10.1553/eco.mont

Web of Science ID:

000305549000006

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/9064 (FactScience: 214735)

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