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The overall objective of this study is envisaged to provide decision makers with actionable insights and access to multi-risk maps for the most in-danger stave churches (SCs) among the existing 28 churches at high spatial resolution to better understand, reduce and mitigate single- and multi-risk. In addition, the present contribution aims to provide decision makers with some information to face the exacerbation of the risk caused by the expected climate change.

Material and data collection started with the consultation of the available literature related to: (1) SCs' conservation status, (2) available methodologies suitable in multi-hazard approach and (3) vulnerability leading indicators to consider when dealing with the impact of natural hazards specifically on immovable cultural heritage.

The paper contributes to a better understanding of place-based vulnerability with local mapping dimension also considering future threats posed by climate change. The results highlight the danger at which the SCs of Røldal, in case of floods, and of Ringebu, Torpo and Øye, in case of landslide, may face and stress the urgency of increasing awareness and preparedness on these potential hazards.

The contribution for the first time aims to homogeneously collect and report all together existing spread information on architectural features, conservation status and geographical attributes for the whole group of SCs by accompanying this information with as much as possible complete 2D sections collection from existing drawings and novel 3D drawn sketches created for this contribution. Then the paper contributes to a better understanding of place-based vulnerability with local mapping dimension also considering future threats posed by climate change. Then it highlights the danger of floods and landslides at which the 28 SCs are subjected. Finally it reports how these risks will change under the ongoing impact of climate change.

Aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of UNESCO Periodic Reports for the assessment of hazards affecting the UNESCO world heritage sites (WHSs) and to rank the most critical WHSs in Europe through multicriteria analysis.

The Periodic Reports represent the available continental-scale knowledge on hazards that threaten the WHSs in Europe and include 13 different natural threats. The information included in these reports has been first validated with high-quality data available in Italy for volcanoes, landslides, and earthquakes. Starting from the Periodic Reports, a multicriteria hazard analysis has been developed by using the analytical hierarchy procedure (AHP) approach. This analysis allows to identify and to rank the most critical WHSs at the European scale.

The data provided by Periodic Reports are demonstrated to be a good starting point for a continental-scale analysis of the actual distribution of natural threats affecting WHSs in Europe. The Periodic Reports appear to be reliable enough for a first-order assessment of hazards. The general overview of the hazard at the European scale shows high value of hazard index in the Eastern Mediterranean area and Balkans, due to a combination of earthquakes and landslides. The most at danger cultural site is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the most at danger natural site is Norway.

The paper gives a contribution to improve the continental-scale knowledge on hazards affecting the UNESCO heritage sites. The assessment of hazard inside the WHSs is an important task for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, and it is important for UNESCO to achieve some of its goals. Through this research, European WHSs have been ranked according to their degree of hazard.