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Tourist Destination Poreč

Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Centre of Poreč — 2025 — WHE15D1F6F9D8

Urban identity preservation is critical for sustaining Poreč's appeal as a tourist destination, according to research analyzing its historic core and coastal development. The study identifies key elements of urban identity—including the Euphrasian Basilica, orthogonal block grid, and natural integration at city edges—as foundational to its spatial character. However, it highlights significant threats: poorly integrated hotel complexes along the coast, modernist-era housing that disrupts the block matrix, and fragmented tourist infrastructure. These interventions degrade the city's coherence and erode its natural appeal, undermining its attractiveness as a UNESCO-listed site. The research emphasizes the need for protective spatial planning to balance tourism development with public interest, ensuring long-term preservation of Poreč's unique urban fabric.

Tourist Satisfaction Simulation: A Case Study of the Old Town of Lijiang

Old Town of Lijiang — 2025 — WHE4C238F05E0

Research reveals that while tourists highly rate their environmental experience and overall satisfaction with the Old Town of Lijiang, significant dissatisfaction persists regarding product prices and service quality. This gap underscores urgent needs for improvement to better meet visitor expectations. The study validates its findings through repeated simulations, demonstrating consistent, normally distributed satisfaction levels that mirror real-world data. This dual confirmation not only highlights areas requiring enhancement in the scenic area but also establishes the robustness of the simulation model as a reliable tool for digital governance and sustainable tourism development.

Tourist's Attraction Towards UNESCO World Heritage Site -Brihadeeswarar Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Great Living Chola Temples — 2025 — WHE3AA06D5B1B

A study reveals that the Brihadeeswarar Temple, part of the UNESCO-listed 'Great Living Chola Temples' in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, serves as a significant tourist attraction due to its architectural brilliance and cultural significance. The research highlights the temple's role in boosting tourism and local economies, with findings based on a survey of 150 tourists using statistical tools like SPSS for analysis. The temple, renowned for its 11th-century bronze statue of Shiva as a dancer, celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 2010, underscoring its historical and artistic importance. The study employs methods such as percentage analysis, chi-square tests, t-tests, Pearson correlation, and factor analysis to examine variables related to tourist attraction.

Towards a Sustainable Algiers: Analyzing Urban Typologies for Sustainable Cities

Kasbah of Algiers — 2025 — WHEACF72A0184

A balanced urban development strategy that integrates historical contexts with modern advancements can enhance sustainability and livability in Algiers. This study analyzed the distinct sustainability advantages of three architectural typologies—traditional Casbah, 19th-century colonial architecture, and modern structures—using a mixed-method approach combining qualitative field observations and quantitative data from academic sources. The findings highlight how each typology contributes uniquely to social cohesion and citizen well-being, offering critical insights for sustainable urban planning in Algiers.

Towards participatory governance in the management of cultural heritage ecosystems: The Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape

Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia — 2025 — WHEEA37EBE7B8

Research identifies three distinct visitor and resident segments within Colombia's Coffee Cultural Landscape, each characterized by varying levels of engagement and valuation intensity. These groups' perceptions of government actions significantly influence their participation, underscoring the potential for participatory governance models to enhance sustainability and local economic development in cultural heritage ecosystems. The study innovatively combines latent class modeling with multiple correspondence analysis to classify audience behavior, providing actionable insights for heritage management strategies.

Towards Sustainable Heritage Conservation: A Hybrid Landslide Susceptibility Mapping Framework in Japan’s UNESCO Mountain Villages

Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama — 2025 — WHE1C45D0DC37

A hybrid landslide susceptibility mapping framework significantly enhances the accuracy of predicting landslides in Japan's UNESCO World Heritage sites, Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama. This approach integrates probabilistic slope stability modeling with ensemble learning techniques like XGBoost, CatBoost, and LightGBM, achieving AUC gains of 0.072, 0.066, and 0.063 respectively compared to buffer-based methods. The framework also incorporates future precipitation projections from ARIMA time-series modeling, providing a robust tool for sustainable risk management. SHAP analysis highlights the importance of physically meaningful features such as rainfall in landslide susceptibility. Additionally, the study evaluates the exposure of historic Gasshō-style houses and other buildings to varying levels of landslide susceptibility, offering actionable insights for local planning and heritage conservation.

Traces of hominin occupations in eastern Iran: Middle Pleistocene lithics from Khousf Plain in the Lut Desert margin

Lut Desert — 2025 — WHE57A0623A3A

A significant discovery of Middle Pleistocene lithic tools, including cleavers and Levallois artifacts, from the Khousf Plain in Iran's Lut Desert suggests that this arid region played a crucial role in early hominin dispersal. The findings, centered around the Goab playa, indicate that eastern Iran may have served as a corridor for human migration to Eastern Asia. Researchers employed geospatial analysis and sedimentary studies to identify and date these tools, providing new insights into the adaptability of early humans in challenging environments.

Tracing glass production in urban centers along the Silk Roads in the early Islamic period

State Historical and Cultural Park “Ancient Merv” — 2025 — WHEA1D51E4ED4

By the 9th century, the globalized glass trade of the early Islamic period had fragmented into localized production centers along the Silk Roads. Elemental analysis of glass from Merv (Turkmenistan) reveals a shift away from long-distance raw material transport toward decentralized, urban-based manufacturing, producing distinct compositional groups. This transformation challenges the notion of a unified trade system, instead highlighting regional adaptability and diversity in glass production during this pivotal era.

Tracing the biogeographic history of the world's most isolated insular floras

New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands — 2025 — WHE3C82BB3777

A new study reveals that the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, one of Earth's most isolated regions, have maintained high biological connectivity with southern landmasses like Australia, New Zealand, and South America since the Miocene. Contrary to expectations, long-distance dispersal—not tectonic vicariance—has been the primary mechanism for plant colonization, facilitated by eastward-moving marine and wind currents, short-term weather systems, or bird dispersal. Phylogenetic reconstruction, divergence time estimation, and Bayesian biogeographic analyses of seven vascular plant lineages show that most species diverged during the Plio-Pleistocene, with crown ages predating the Last Glacial Maximum, indicating these islands acted as biodiversity refuges. The findings highlight their dual role as both refugia and sources of (re)colonization, emphasizing the urgent need for conservation planning in this remote sub-Antarctic region.

Tracing the Evolution of Tourist Perception of Destination Image: A Multi-Method Analysis of a Cultural Heritage Tourist Site

Old Town of Lijiang — 2025 — WHE03DEF43613

Tourist perceptions at Lijiang Old Town have undergone significant shifts over seven years—pre-, during, and post-pandemic—revealing adaptability and resilience in cultural heritage tourism. Post-pandemic, visitors increasingly prioritized cultural depth and high-quality service experiences, while pre-pandemic narratives focused more on attractions and commercial elements. During the pandemic, narratives adapted to quieter, safer, and personalized experiences, highlighting the impact of safety measures. The study used a multi-method approach combining TF-IDF, Social Network Analysis (SNA), and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to analyze 50,022 user-generated reviews, offering empirical insights for sustainable tourism management.

Tracking data reveal high spatiotemporal consistency in migration of the threatened Taiga Bean Goose (Anser fabalis middendorffii) along the East Asian-Australasian flyway

Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape — 2025 — WHEB13C3C3799

Research tracking the migration of the threatened Taiga Bean Goose (Anser fabalis middendorffii) from 2017 to 2021 reveals high spatiotemporal consistency in their annual migration along the East Asian-Australasian flyway. The geese consistently used familiar stopover and wintering sites, with strong temporal consistency in departure and arrival at summering sites but more variability at wintering sites. Key stopover locations included the Hongyashan Reservoir and Hetao Plain in China, and the Orkhon River Valley in Mongolia, with a notable preference for repeatedly used sites where stopover durations were significantly longer. Alarmingly, only 13% of these critical stopover sites are currently protected, highlighting an urgent need for conservation action to safeguard this underprotected yet consistently utilized habitat.

Tracking Microplastics in Paradise: First Evidence of Pollution in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Maranhão, Brazil), a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park — 2025 — WHE040746F1C5

Microplastic pollution, previously undocumented in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (LMNP) has been detected for the first time. The study identified significant variability in microplastic (MP) size, color, and polymer types, including rare materials like poly(ether–ether–ketone) (PEEK). Analysis revealed strong anthropogenic influences on MP distribution, particularly near urban areas and tourism hotspots, with Area 2 adjacent to the park emerging as a key source. Spectral analysis and dispersion modeling based on ocean currents and wind patterns confirmed transport connections between Areas 1 (inside LMNP) and 2, providing critical insights into pollution pathways. These findings establish a baseline for MP pollution in this vulnerable ecosystem and underscore the need for targeted conservation and waste management strategies.

Tracking Scientific Attention on Kaziranga National Park: A Bibliometric Study

Kaziranga National Park — 2025 — WHE610E2A3D57

A bibliometric analysis of Kaziranga National Park reveals a dynamic and evolving research landscape, with steady scholarly growth from 1993 to 2025. The study, based on 44 documents retrieved from the Web of Science database, highlights key contributors such as Tezpur University, CSIR India, and the University of Edinburgh, and explores diverse themes including biodiversity conservation, megafaunal extinction, paleoecology, geochemistry, and environmental history. Thematic mapping identifies well-developed major themes alongside niche-specialized topics and emerging areas, underscoring Kaziranga's significance for ecological conservation and its multifaceted scholarly engagement.

Trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem services and their drivers in the forests of the South China Karst

South China Karst — 2025 — WHEAA679F0DCE

A decline in ecosystem service values of up to 9.77% has been observed in the forests of South China Karst, primarily driven by trade-offs between services such as water yield and soil conservation, which increased by 13.44% and 4.94%, respectively, while carbon storage and biodiversity declined. The study reveals that these changes are influenced by both internal and external drivers, with precipitation and temperature positively affecting ecosystem services, whereas population density has a negative impact. These findings suggest that adopting a framework based on these drivers could guide optimal forest management strategies in this region.

Trade‐Offs/Synergies and Drivers of Ecosystem Service Sustainability at Multiple Scales: Insights From the South China Karst

South China Karst — 2025 — WHEEF47ABDD11

A new study reveals that ecosystem service sustainability (ESS) in the South China Karst region exhibits complex trade-offs and synergies that vary with time and spatial scale. While habitat quality and carbon sequestration have declined, water yield, soil conservation, and food provision have improved, with more gradual changes observed at the watershed scale compared to county-level variations. The research highlights that social and terrain factors predominantly influence habitat quality, while vegetation and climate play significant roles in shaping soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and water yield. Notably, climate and terrain interactions often result in negative indirect effects on ESS sustainability, particularly at larger scales. To enhance ecological management, the study advocates for multi-scale approaches that prioritize synergistic management between supply and demand to resolve conflicts and achieve balanced outcomes.

Traditional agroecosystems for urban temperature regulation: a remote sensing analysis of an historical palm grove

Palmeral of Elche — 2025 — WHED7288EE629

A historical date palm grove, the UNESCO World Heritage Palm Grove of Elche (Spain), demonstrates significant thermal regulation capacity, effectively mitigating urban heat island effects. Remote sensing analysis revealed that this traditional agroecosystem, characterized by its unique irrigation system, maintains lower land surface temperatures compared to surrounding urban areas, with cooling effects extending several hectares. The study highlights the potential of conserving or regenerating such traditional agroecosystems within cities to improve natural temperature regulation and provide essential ecosystem services, particularly in semi-arid regions with limited water resources.

Traditional Chinese Architecture

Longmen Grottoes — 2025 — WHE1F40DAC17D

Traditional Chinese architecture stands out for its enduring craftsmanship and artistic achievements, marking a significant chapter in world art history. This study highlights how the architectural tradition evolved distinctly during pivotal dynasties, particularly from the Qin and Han to the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties, coinciding with the introduction of Buddhism from India. This period saw the emergence of iconic Buddhist sites like Longmen Grottoes, which became emblematic of the fusion between Chinese architectural innovation and foreign influences. Later dynasties, including Yuan, Ming, and Qing, further refined urban planning, palace, and garden architectures, epitomized by the Beijing Forbidden City. The research underscores the stability and continuity of this tradition, tracing its development through historical transitions and cultural exchanges.

Traditional council Rapa Nui

Rapa Nui National Park — 2025 — WHE7781394126

Rapa Nui's Traditional Council emerged as the sole administrator of Rapa Nui National Park and its Marine Protected Area by 2018, marking a significant recovery from the loss of sovereignty in 1888. The study emphasizes genealogy as a critical framework for research, urging scientists to address questions of identity and origin ('who you are' and 'who brought you here'). It also highlights ongoing efforts to repatriate artefacts and human remains, reflecting an ethical imperative in scientific practice. This approach integrates indigenous governance with conservation, offering a model for balancing cultural heritage preservation with modern management.

Traditional knowledge of medicinal macrofungi commonly used by riverine populations of the Taï, Comoé and Marahoué national parks (Côte d’Ivoire)

Comoé National Park — 2025 — WHE4620CF453E

A comprehensive ethnomedicinal survey of medicinal macrofungi used by riverine populations in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï, Comoé, and Marahoué national parks reveals that women are the primary custodians of this traditional knowledge. The study identified twelve fungal species grouped into seven ethno-species based on morphological traits like sporophore shape and color, as well as sociolinguistic factors. These fungi are employed to treat or alleviate 28 conditions, with whole sporophores being the most commonly used part. Preparation methods often involve grinding into powder, while administration varies depending on the ailment's location. The research highlights significant variability in ethnopharmacological practices and uneven exploitation of species, emphasizing the need for documentation and preservation of this eroding knowledge among younger generations.

Traditionalising of Yogyakarta’s urban landscape: The return of the cosmological axis

The Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta and its Historic Landmarks — 2025 — WHE290F1861D6

Yogyakarta's Sultanate has significantly strengthened its influence over the city's spatial planning and conservation efforts through the Yogyakarta Special Region Law of 2012. This law grants the Sultanate exceptional powers, which, combined with charismatic authority and budgetary reforms, have enhanced the recognition of Yogyakarta’s royal palace and cosmological axis as a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate. The study highlights two key cases where royal influence shaped spatial planning norms: regulating building heights within the walled palace area and relocating semi-formal street traders along the axis to meet UNESCO criteria. These actions demonstrate an aesthetic governance logic that expands the Sultanate's authority by traditionalizing the urban landscape, blending legal reforms with cultural preservation.