Enhancing Cultural Heritage Preservation with Copernicus World Heritage Hub

Cultural heritage sites around the world are increasingly threatened by the combined impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and human activity. Air pollution, humidity, temperature fluctuations, and ground movement accelerate the deterioration of heritage sites and create new challenges for conservation professionals. As these pressures grow, accessible data-driven tools are becoming essential to support informed monitoring, risk assessment, and conservation planning.

EUSPA helps organisations translate Copernicus data into practical tools and services that address their needs. Through the Copernicus Demonstrator initiative, EUSPA launched a collaboration with CIPA and ISCEAH, two International Scientific Committees of ICOMOS, to explore how the Copernicus World Heritage Hub (WHH) could support cultural heritage monitoring and conservation. ICOMOS is a global organisation dedicated to the conservation and protection of cultural heritage sites worldwide and serves as an advisory body to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.

The WHH provides a centralised interface for accessing and visualising 39 Copernicus datasets relevant to the monitoring and management of cultural and natural heritage sites. Through a dedicated demonstration, EUSPA has introduced CIPA and ISCEAH participants to the WHH, showcasing how freely available Copernicus-based analysis could strengthen the protection of cultural sites globally. The demonstration enabled CIPA and ISCEAH participants to test how a unified Copernicus data platform could support heritage monitoring, focusing on indicators such as air pollution, temperature, soil-related conditions, and ground movement.

The demonstration enabled the visualisation of three ICOMOS sample sites within the WHH environment, together with relevant Copernicus environmental data. Participants were guided through the core functionalities and interacted directly with the platform and data. They praised the WHH as an intuitive, user-friendly tool for climate-related heritage monitoring.

The project provided a concrete real-world application of the platform and confirmed that the Hub responds to genuine user needs. The exercise also generated valuable expert feedback to further improve usability, data presentation and relevance for heritage conservation workflows.

Looking ahead, this collaboration opens the way for broader uptake across the CIPA and ISCEAH networks, as well as the wider cultural heritage community.

You want to learn more about the Copernicus demonstrators, contact us at market@euspa.europa.eu.

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