The 4th Huangshan Dialogue on UNESCO-designated Sites and Sustainable Development opens in Huangshan, Anhui province, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Digital technologies are becoming a powerful tool to advance the sustainable development of UNESCO-designated sites, namely World Heritage Sites, biosphere reserves and global geoparks, experts said at an international dialogue.

The 4th Huangshan Dialogue on UNESCO-designated Sites and Sustainable Development opened Thursday in the city of Huangshan, eastern China's Anhui province.

Themed "Digital Technologies Enabling Sustainable Development of UNESCO-designated Sites," the two-day event has gathered over 200 decision-makers, researchers and managers of UNESCO-designated sites from more than 10 international organizations and 20 countries.

Guo Huadong, director of the International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, addresses the opening ceremony of the 4th Huangshan Dialogue via video link, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

At the opening ceremony, Guo Huadong, director of the International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage (HIST) under the auspices of UNESCO and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized the need to apply digital technologies for effective management of heritage sites. He also called for international collaboration on interdisciplinary research and capacity building in the digital tech field to address the challenges of natural disasters and human activity.

HIST, as the only UNESCO category II center applying space technologies to the monitoring and conservation of the world's natural and cultural heritage sites, will further contribute to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in this regard, Guo said.

Qu Xing, deputy director general of UNESCO, addresses the opening ceremony of the 4th Huangshan Dialogue via video link, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Qu Xing, deputy director general of UNESCO, said via video link that UNESCO has long used space technologies, remote sensing, geographical information systems and other applications in its designated areas, "for instance, to identify threats to World Heritage Sites when access is difficult or impossible."

He added that big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and even smartphone apps are creating new opportunities to achieve such goals.

Qu expressed his thanks to HIST for its great help in using satellite imagery to monitor World Heritage Sites, such as East Rennell in the Solomon Islands and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Tales Carvalho Resende, project officer of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, also called for increasing the use of earth observation for the management and conservation of world heritage.

"Climate change is the fastest growing threat to UNESCO World Heritage Sites," he said. "To address that, satellite imagery can be more powerful than maps in emergency situations, in large areas and in areas of difficult access."

Teresa Patricio, president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, addresses the opening ceremony of the 4th Huangshan Dialogue via video link, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Teresa Patricio, president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, echoed the opinion via video link, saying that innovative digital technology must be fully harnessed in favor of research, management, education and training, and risk reduction.

"We must put technology at the service of the sustainable use of heritage — in particular for ensuring responsible and diversified cultural tourism development and management that contributes to cultural heritage preservation; community empowerment, social resilience and wellbeing; and a healthy global environment," she said.

Ling Yun (front row, center), secretary of the Huangshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, at the opening ceremony of the 4th Huangshan Dialogue, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

The dialogue has been held in Huangshan for four consecutive sessions. Ling Yun, secretary of the Huangshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, said that the city has been long committed to the conservation and development of its heritage sites through innovative methods.

She added that as well as using digital technologies to bring life to relics in museums, heritage sites across the city and words in ancient books, the city aims to serve as an example in heritage conservation and development.

Also at the opening ceremony, the 2023 HIST Award on Best Practice in Sustainable Development of UNESCO-designated Sites was granted to the University of Padua in Italy and the Mt. Huangshan Administrative Committee in China for their innovative methods in promoting the conservation, management and sustainable development of UNESCO-designated sites.

Ye Jianqiang, executive director of the Mt. Huangshan Administrative Committee, delivers a keynote speech during the 4th Huangshan Dialogue, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Ye Jianqiang, executive director of the Mt. Huangshan Administrative Committee, shared its main methods and successful experience of using digital technologies to enable the sustainable development of Mt. Huangshan, saying it represents a profound reform of the governance system and charts a course for future development.

The opening ceremony also saw the release of an English map on the environmental context of world cultural heritage along the Silk Road. It showcases the distribution of 801 world cultural heritage sites and mixed sites along the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road.

The map will provide reference value for gaining deep insight into the Silk Road as well as the cultural and environmental contexts of heritage sites along it, according to Luo Lei, an associate professorat HIST.

An English map on the environmental context of world cultural heritage along the Silk Road is released at the opening ceremony of the 4th Huangshan Dialogue, June 29, 2023. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

The dialogue also released the Draft Recommendations on Climate Action for Heritage Conservation, calling for decision-makers and stakeholders to take appropriate contingency measures and use the best available technology to improve resilience and adaptation of UNESCO-designated sites in ways that do not negatively affect their authenticity and integrity.

The 4th Huangshan Dialogue was hosted by HIST, the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Huangshan Municipal People's Government, and organized by the Mt. Huangshan Administrative Committee.

Inaugurated in 2014, the dialogue was the first international event to advocate the application of space technologies in the conservation and sustainable development of UNESCO-designated sites.