The Global Heritage Fund has recently launched an early warning and threat monitoring system for various heritage sites around the world that are under threat of being looted and/or destroyed.
The Global Heritage Network
is the product of successful partnership with Google, Esri and DigitalGlobe, with those companies having donated millions of dollars in critical support, satellite imagery and GIS-mapping technologies to enable early warning and monitoring for 500 global heritage sites. Each site has a coordinator to manage the information, which comes in from not only professional site monitors, but also volunteers, travelers and local communities.
Sites are marked on the map with various colors to indicate the state of the site. Black means the site was destroyed, Red means “rescue needed”, Yellow indicates the site is “At Risk” and Green means the site is stable. Sadly, it’s a very colorful map.
The goal is to scale this to allow thousands of experts from around the world to collaborate on the project. The sites are estimated to generate over $100 billion in tourism revenue by 2025 for the world’s poorest countries, greatly contributing towards poverty alleviation and the UN Millennium Development Goals.
For more, check out the GHN community at: globalheritagenetwork.ning.com.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.