Good work Solivagant (I would only exclude Samarra as it is an Arab site, whereby ancient Mesopotamian cultures are far older - Sumerian, Babylonian, Elamite...).
Maybe we could make some sort of connection out of it.

We can also count Berat and Mostar as Ottoman.

Thanks - I have gone back and "corrected" for the Hahoe (rural), Samarra, Berat and Mostar suggestions to keep the numbers up to date in a single location.

I haven't added Hahoe to the "Oral tradition" - how strong is that and i have followed a convention (so far) of not assigning more than 1 "gap" subject per site within any of the individual A/B/C "collections" (could be changed if the argument were particularly strong I guess

Also add Sewell to non European technological sites (A) as well as post independence in the Americas (B).
And another question, are Alfeld and Pontcysyllte really industrial landscapes or rather single constructions (C)?
I would also make an exception to the one assignment per inscription and add Subak to historical irrigation systems (A).
Also add Sokolovoc to Ottoman (B).

Hahoe includes 2 Confucian Ademies, therefore directly associated with education. Secondly, the Andong Mask Festival is held at Hahoe Village and it is one of Korea's most iconic living traditions/festivals.

However, I do not disagree with the placement of 1 assignment per inscription.

And now to the gaps in the natural heritage, a report from 2004 http://archive.org/stream/reviewofworldher04magi#page/112/mode/2up.
Here too there is a division into three categories: biogeographic division (A), ecoregions (B), and habitats (C).

Gaps to be filled include:

A
1) cold winter deserts
2) tundras
3) polar systems

B
1) Andaman
3) Benguela Current
4) Central Asian deserts
5) Fiji (marine)
6) Gulf of California
7) Karoo desert
8) Madagascar moist forests
9) Maldives-Chagos atolls
10) New Caledonia dry and moist forests
11) Palau
12) Red Sea
13) Soqotra
14) Sudd-Sahelian savanna and flooded grasslands
15) Tahiti
16) Volga and Lena river deltas
17) Western Ghats

UNAM is also associated with education - but are either the "expression of an oral tradition". The trouble is i guess I am not quite sure I would know it when I saw it!!

I guess the Margravian opera house is pretty closely associated with "Music" too!!

Perhaps on reflection all 3 could be added but i wonder if we are moving across to 2nd or 3rd level "connections" rather than aspects which could be regarded as leading to a nomination in order to "fill a gap"

I have taken out both Fagus and Pontcycyllte from Industrial Landscapes.

PS - I have added "Camino Real" to "Land roads".

Here is the equivalent list of Natural inscriptions since 2005. I have "bolded" the sites identified later as filling an identified gap under Category A (biogeographic division) and Category B (ecoregions) (still awaiting Cat C "Habitats")

1 2005 Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection (Panama)
2 2005 Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex (Thailand)
3 2005 Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (Mexico)
4 2005 Shiretoko (Japan, Japan)
5 2005 Vredefort Dome (South Africa)
6 2005 Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) (Egypt)
7 2005 West Norwegian Fjords – Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord (Norway)
8 2006 Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary (Colombia)
9 2006 Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - Wolong, Mt Siguniang/Jiajin (China)
10 2007 Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes (Korea, Republic of)
11 2007 Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpaths/Ancient Beech Forests (Germany) *
12 2007 Rainforests of the Atsinanana (Madagascar)
13 2007 South China Karst (China)
14 2007 Teide National Park (Spain)
15 2008 Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Canada)
16 2008 Lagoons of New Caledonia (France)
17 2008 Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Mexico)
18 2008 Mount Sanqingshan National Park (China)
19 2008 Saryarka – Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
20 2008 Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)
21 2008 Surtsey (Iceland)
22 2008 Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona (Switzerland)
23 2009 The Dolomites (Italy)
24 2009 The Wadden Sea (Germany) *
25 2010 Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka)
26 2010 China Danxia (China)
27 2010 Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati)
28 2010 Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island (France)
29 2010 Putorana Plateau (Russian Federation)
30 2011 Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley (Kenya)
31 2011 Ningaloo Coast (Australia)
32 2011 Ogasawara Islands (Japan)
33 2012 Chengjiang Fossil Site (China)
34 2012 Lakes of Ounianga (Chad)
35 2012 Lena Pillars Nature Park (Russian Federation)
36 2012 Sangha Trinational (Cameroon)
37 2012 Western Ghats (India)

Plus of course the 4 "mixed sites"
1 2007 Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda (Gabon)
2 2010 Papahanaumokuakea (United States of America, United States of America)
3 2011 Wadi Rum Protected Area (Jordan)
4 2012 Rock Islands Southern Lagoon (Palau)

Thus - of the 41 sites inscribed on the basis of Natural criteria between 2005 and 2012 7 filled IUCN-identified gaps whilst 34 did not.

Matches by Category and type are as follows - in bold

Cat A - 1 gap types filled, 2 not
1) Cold winter deserts - NO (Putorana claimed it but IUCN didn't accpet)
2) Tundras - YES - 2 (Putorana, Lena Pillars)
3) Polar systems - NO

Cat B - 6 gap types filled, 11 not
1) Andaman - NO
2) Arctic tundra - YES 2 (Putorana, Lena Pillars)
3) Benguela Current - NO
4) Central Asian deserts NO
5) Fiji - NO
6) Gulf of California - YES
7) Karoo desert - NO
8) Madagascar moist forests - YES
9) Maldives-Chagos atolls - NO
10) New Caledonia dry and moist forests - NO
11) Palau - YES
12) Red Sea - NO
13) Soqotra _ YES
14) Sudd-Sahelian savanna and flooded grasslands - NO
15) Tahiti - NO
16) Volga and Lena river deltas - NO (Lena Pillars isn't in the Lena Delta)
17) Western Ghats - YES

For assessing the impact of the Filling the Gaps strategy, we could also consider some of the major projects currently being undertaken wich will almost certainly lead to inscriptions (if only because of all the work, time and money that has gone into them, namely:
- Qhapaq Nan (nicely filling the gap of Land roads as well as pre-columbian cultures
- Silk Road (a conglomerate of sites that can easily fill several of the gaps, from Central Asia to the various Asian religions to cultural route)

As well as looking at those sites inscribed since 2005 which DO seem to address a gap, it is perhaps also of interest to look at those which do NOT! Based on our current assignments, there are 52 of these out of the 139 mixed/cultural inscriptions (The Natural ones not filling a gap are identified above). Well of course there was no policy that every inscription HAD to "fill a gap" but, prima facie, these could be regarded as having been potentially less important, duplicates etc - although the ICOMOS group may perfectly well have missed out certain valid "new" inscription subjects from their analysis.
Some of them could probably be identified as filling a gap if we were a bit less "strict" (E.G Centennial Hall under "Modern city",) but here also are the repeats of vinyards, forts, colonial towns, European towns, Christian buildings etc etc which seem to slip in every year!
Here are the 52
2005 Architect', Resid' + Cultl Complex of the Radziwill Family at Nesvizh (Belarus)
2005 Biblical Tels - Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba (Israel)
2005 Historic Centre of Macao (China)
2005 Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl (Russian Federation)
2005 Qal'at al-Bahrain – Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun (Bahrain)
2005 Struve Geodetic Arc (Belarus) *
2005 Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica (Italy)
2006 Bisotun (Iran (Islamic Republic of))
2006 Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din (Syrian Arab Republic)
2006 Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli (Italy)
2006 Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town (Ethiopia, Ethiopia)
2006 Old town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof (Germany)
2006 Vizcaya Bridge (Spain)
2007 Bordeaux, Port of the Moon (France)
2007 Gamzigrad-Romuliana, Palace of Galerius (Serbia)
2007 Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces (Switzerland)
2007 Red Fort Complex (India)
2007 Rideau Canal (Canada)
2008 Al-Hijr Archaeological Site (Madâin Sâlih) (Saudi Arabia)
2008 Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran (Iran (Islamic Republic of))
2008 Bahá'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee (Israel)
2008 Fortifications of Vauban (France)
2008 Historic Centre of Camagüey (Cuba, Cuba)
2008 Mantua and Sabbioneta (Italy)
2008 Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia)
2008 San Miguel and the Sanct of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco (Mexico, Mexico)
2008 Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes (Italy) *
2008 San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino)
2008 Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpath Mountain Area (Slovakia)
2009 Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande (Cape Verde)
2009 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal (UK)
2009 Tower of Hercules (Spain)
2010 Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi (Viet Nam)
2010 Episcopal City of Albi (France)
2010 São Francisco Square in the Town of São Cristóvão (Brazil)
2010 17thC canal ring area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht (NL)
2011 Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (Viet Nam)
2011 León Cathedral (Nicaragua)
2011 Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power (568-774 A.D.) (Italy)
2011 Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai (Mongolia)
2011 Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps (Austria) *
2011 Residence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans (Ukraine)
2011 The Persian Garden (Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iran (Islamic Republic of))
2011 West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou (China)
2012 Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley (Malaysia)
2012 Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilg, Bethlehem (Palestine)
2012 Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications (Portugal)
2012 Margravial Opera House Bayreuth (Germany)
2012 Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy (Bahrain)
2012 Rio : Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea (Brazil)
2012 Site of Xanadu (China)
2012 Sites of Human Evol mt Carmel: Nahal Me'arot/Wadi el-Mughara Caves (Israel)

"Land Roads" is no longer zero as the Camino Real should have been included - I have now done so.

Yes, even 8 years isn't long enough to bring to fruition some sites which will "fill gaps".

Spitzbergen is another one which will fill a gap in the "Natural" category (Arctic/Polar).

There are also some sites which could fill gaps but, given the history of the area over the last 8 years it is perhaps hardly surprising that little has been accomplished - e.g Mesopotamian sites!

Further to the Hahoe/UNAM and Margravial opera house inscriptions and their potential for being regarded as addressing the "Gap" of "Expressions of oral traditions, music, education, philosophy, health and justice" as discussed above.

One might have thought that, if this aspect of the inscription were important, a site possessing it would be inscribed, at least in part, on Criterion vi - "to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance."

In fact none of these 3 inscriptions is.

Interestingly Hahoe/Yangdong was nominated for criteria iii, iv, v AND vi. However ICOMOS didn't accept either v or vi. Indeed ICOMOS wanted the site REferred for Management Plan reasons. I am not aware of why the 2011 WHC over-ruled this, but it was inscribed SOLELY on Criteria iii and iv (Presumably Korea cut its losses on the other criteria which it didn't really need)- so, Els, the info on the site about its inscribed criteria needs to be corrected as it currently displays all 4 "originally requested" criteria!

Interesting analyses! And 82 out of 139 that can be assigned to one of the gaps isn't bad. One cannot expect, that the WH Committee would dramatically alter its decision process and in future only inscribes sites that fill a gap.

Taking into account that it takes many years to prepare a nomination and to complete the dossier, it could be interesting to go one step back and analyse the recent additions to the T-list. The advanced search features at the Unesco WHC homepage are very useful for that (though the thematic search does not work for most of the keywords) . However, I was surprised by the number of new additions: since 2005 there were in total 803(!) new entries, from Europe/North America 257.
Much work to examine the complete list. But a quick look at already well represented countries that recently have substantially revised their entries or submitted new T-lists revealed different examples: In the Netherlands (2011) and UK (2012) the new list was the result of expert evaluations and they at least tried to avoid repeats. In contrast, Belgium (2008) and Italy (2006) mainly added sites from already over-represented categories, hard to believe that all these sites will make serious attempts to get an inscription.

Putorana does fill up the gap as a tundra but it is not a cold winter desert.
Examples of cold winter deserts are the Patagonian Desert, Gobi, Great Basin Desert, Karakum and the Colorado Plateau none of which has been inscribed.
The gap ecoregion New Caledonia dry and moist forests hasn't been filled by the New Caledonia nomination as it was a marine ecoregion that was inscribed.

Kaiping Diaolou and Villages (China) and Fujian Tulou (China) do fill up the gap of Asian vernacular architecture (A) as well as rural settlements (C).
The Incense Route in the Negev is a cultural route.
I'm not sure if Nisa really represents Zoroastanism (C), but if so so can Bisotun.
Centennial Hall is a modern heritage (A).
Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty (Korea, Republic of) is a necropolis (C).