As a follow-up to this week's blog post, this topic is meant to keep track of all sites that are in the pipeline of becoming a WHS and are not linked to a nomination year yet. This based on offical interactions only with the WHS Bureau/WHC etc, not on news items or other rumours (which we collect in other topics).

It includes sites that have not been inscribed yet and belong to the following 5 categories:
1. Incomplete dossiers
2. Referred WHS
3. Upstream Process
4. WHC budget allocated for preparation of a nomination dossier
5. Decisions postponed or adjourned

I started looking back 8 years and list them here to see whether this is workable. Find the dynamically generated list here.

For item 4 I created a new category in the Site History, called Preparatory Assistance. It logs when funds were granted to a country to prepare a nomination for a specific TWHS (and also where they were not given – it still is an indication of activity).

Looked at Khor Dubai, one of only 2 Referred sites still on this list.
Although to the local press they tried to save face by citing different reasons, they withdrew their nomination in 2018 because of the AB Advice Not to Inscribe: "ICOMOS does not consider that what remains has the potential to justify Outstanding Universal Value."

It is still on the T List though. But except when we see reports popping up that indicate a fully revised nomination, we can ignore this one.
Also - it's in the Operational Guidelines (#159) that if you do not come back on a Referred site within 3 years, it will be considered a new nomination. (I wll try to tweak my query accordingly -> done)

Thanks Els for compiling the data on our efforts to predict future nominations! It certainly is interesting and a fun exercise, even when we get things wrong. I have noticed most of those 10 years (exceptions in the first few years), we tend to predict more nominations than the final # of complete submissions. Yet, a few always seem to allude us and come as a surprise! You mentioned "some countries have no accessible press outlets" and that indeed has been an issue. I also pondered what potential effect having a poor rating on the corruption index might suggest? Not exactly the exact rating itself so much, but generally a perceptible higher level of corruption. For example, our prediction accuracy regarding most EU countries, Korea/Japan, Australia, the Gulf States, and Canada/US is far higher than some of our potential guesswork for some countries in Central/South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. "Preparatory Assistance" has also been a difficult measure of when the nomination will actually be submitted. As we've learned, some nominations like the Coral Stone Mosque's just never come to fruition.

I am trying to do some minimal enquiry about Bagnoregio, but on mainstream channels it has simply disappeared. Most articles date prior to the Riad session, or they continue citing the candidature efforts even afterwards. A couple just notes the withdrawal, and teh yare also puzzled. The only passage I could find is in this news article:

Prosegue il cammino di Civita di Bagnoregio verso il riconoscimento quale patrimonio dell'umanità UNESCO.
"The route of Civita di Bagnoregio towards the acknowledgement as WHS goes on."

But no details. I can only try to wildguess that a) they fear overcrowding, as this is already now a hot topic; b) they have been content with some other acknowledgement as "top cultural heritage" or whatever they have received recently.

I will try to send again an email...