Mapping the global distribution of coastal World Heritage Sites: Glo-CoH, a new Global Coastal Heritage dataset

Bescoby, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5127-9085, Clarke, Joanne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7954-6561, Okolie, Chukwuma, Nicholls, Robert J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9715-1109, Simpson, Nicholas P., Vafeidis, Athanasios T. and Vousdoukas, Michalis Ioannis (2026) Mapping the global distribution of coastal World Heritage Sites: Glo-CoH, a new Global Coastal Heritage dataset. Scientific Data, 13 (1). ISSN 2052-4463

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Abstract

Coastal heritage sites face significant global challenges such as flooding and coastal erosion, exacerbated by climate-induced sea-level rise and coastal development. The ability to accurately simulate and assess potential exposure of heritage sites to these hazards has been hampered by a lack of digital high resolution spatial data accurately recording the topographic boundaries of heritage sites. The Glo-CoH dataset contains digitized boundary extents of all the heritage sites inscribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as World Heritage properties of Outstanding Universal Value that are situated along the global coastline under 20 m Above Mean Sea Level (AMSL). It comprises a total of 1,250 individual serial sites covering the breadth of designated cultural, natural and mixed heritage sites and encompasses an area covering over 235 million hectares. A programme of site digitisation utilised extant site plans and Google Earth worldwide satellite imagery to locate and digitise heritage site boundaries. The quality of the resulting dataset was assessed by applying a mixed qualitative/quantitative validation procedure to a stratified sub-sample, encompassing the quality of source material, site identification, visibility and digitising accuracy. The validation procedure suggests 92% of digitized sites obtain validation scores indicative of optimal digitisation accuracy. The Glo-CoH dataset is made available for geo-spatial analysis and intended for use by researchers and practitioners looking to assess or plan environmental, climatic, economic, infrastructural and societal dimensions relating to coastal heritage at site, city, and regions up to global scales.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability: Version 2 of the Glo-CoH dataset and all supporting data is available from ZivaHub at the University of Cape Town – https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.28547267. https://figshare.com/s/23e443449ab774999814.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Beyond Materiality Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Heritage and History Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Art History and World Art Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Centres > Centre for African Art and Archaeology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-0...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	03 Aug 2026 12:46
Last Modified:	03 Aug 2026 12:49
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103965
DOI:	10.1038/s41597-026-07758-3

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