**3. Methodology**

### *3.1. Analysis Sources*

This study focused on using SOC reports and their qualitative data on WH managemen<sup>t</sup> and conservation-related issues. The SOC reports, elaborated on a yearly basis, provided a brief analysis of the conservation threats to properties that both the WH Centre and advisory bodies considered as having high relevance for discussion by the WHCOM. These reports are requested when 'the values for which a property was inscribed on the WH List appear to be significantly threatened by either existing processes, or by potential processes with a high likelihood of taking place' [28] (e.g., climate change, development). Despite lacking quantitative information and analysis, SOC reports are the source of more objective discussions on WH issues such as the range of impacts on OUVs [12]. In their text format, reports include the viewpoints of the State party, advisory bodies, and the WH Centre in the form of concerns and recommendations that may differ from those of the national authorities or heritage managers [76]. Although SOC reports identify climate change and severe weather events among a list of 14 factors (https://whc.unesco.org/en/factors/) affecting the conservation of WH properties, the system does not systematically correlate extreme weather events (e.g., hurricane, drought) with climate change. Additionally, UNESCO's SOC database is not designed to provide systematic insights about the interactions between heritage managemen<sup>t</sup> and the factors that both positively and negatively impact the conservation of WH properties. Nonetheless, it has proved valuable for the collation of information from numerous individual practices. Thus, SOC reports can be used to systematically assess patterns linked to the identification of threats to WH areas, managemen<sup>t</sup> deficiencies, and conservation needs and developments [76]. For example, it has enabled the monitoring and quantification of the qualitative aspects of factors affecting the conservation of cultural and mixed heritage properties across time and geographical location [29].

### *3.2. Data Collection*

In this study, we focused on 'climate change' as a key term. The SOC reports were downloaded from the UNESCO website and gathered in PDF format in order to conduct an advanced search in Acrobat Reader DC v.2020 using 'climate' + 'change' as keywords. Through directed content analysis, we sought to explore insights on the situational and managemen<sup>t</sup> context in which climate change was noted in SOC monitoring exercises. The aim was to understand commonalities and differences between the challenges and/or opportunities discussed by conservation practice in all categories of WH properties when confronted by climate change as a global phenomenon of systemic complexity. We selected reports online from 2000 up to 2019.

### *3.3. Data Analysis*

A coding system was applied to classify mentions of 'climate change' based on two pre-coding dimensions and two post-coding dimensions (Table 1). First, pre-coding identified mentions using the set of keywords 'climate change' and extracted all mentions found for analysis. The second pre-coding dimensions were SOC reports' general information, which was extracted and compiled in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in order to identify mentions according to the year of the SOC report, WH name, heritage category (i.e., natural, cultural, or mixed) and geographical location (country and region). The post-coding dimensions served to structure analysis involving advances in theory and practice. First, post-coding dimension three, context of references, identified the standard situational context in which mentions could be discussed, based on World Heritage Convention (WHC) protocols when elaborating on SOC reports. These included three viewpoints according to which debates on conservation issues revolved: (1) expression of concerns (C) by the WH Centre or advisory bodies on unresolved issues or possible negative outcomes of past and future measures; (2) recommendations (R) by both the WH Centre and advisory bodies to State Parties on prioritising actions; (3) implementations (I), which concerned the WHC's acknowledgement of efforts made by State Parties for dealing with a given threat or other conservation issues identified in previous WHC meetings. Viewpoints varied in order of appearance within reports. The second post-coding dimension, landscape-based conservation principles, comprised the operational definitions of landscape approaches identified through a taxonomic analysis of mentions. Four typologies were defined to formulate an initial framework for identifying landscape approaches related to climate change in WH conservation practices: (1) landscape scale, which refers to the upscaling of conservation activities in the wider context in which WH properties are located; (2) evidence of climate change impacts on OUV (lack or availability) to inform heritage management; (3) landscape governance, which includes the lack or existence of coherent planning and governance tools in collaboration with other sectors and actors (policies, managemen<sup>t</sup> plans, and strategic actions); (4) adaptation measures addressing one of or the cumulative impacts of other identified factors that are exacerbated by climate change.


**Table 1.** Coding dimensions and definitions.

Collected qualitative data (mentions) were entered into an Excel spreadsheet and analysed using content analysis (Creswell, 2014). We calculated the frequency of each pre-coding and post-coding item, i.e., the number of times an item was coded across SOC reports. Next, relationships between pre and post-coding items were analysed based on their occurrence and following the hierarchical order of coding dimensions. The Excel COUNTIF function was used to count the number of extracted texts that met the criteria of coding dimensions. This allowed for interpretation of the meaning of mentions in the theoretical context of landscape conservation and the WH system. The key aspects of our analysis, which structured our results presented in the next section, were the following: (1) the complexity of discussion around climate change based on WH categories, regions (pre-coding dimensions one and two in Table 1) through the period 2000–2019; (2) the discussion of climate change drivers within the WH system (post-coding dimensions three and four in Table 1); (3) trends related to how WH conservation practice employed principles of landscape approaches to respond to climate change (relationships among all coding dimensions).
