Assessing the Impact of Coastal Erosion on Archaeological Sites: A Case Study from Northern Ireland

Westley, Kieran; McNeary, Rory

doi:10.1179/1350503315z.00000000082

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Daire et al (2012) also developed a methodology to assess the vulnerability of archeological sites, taking into account various factors, such as distance from the cliff and exposure of the site to wave action, which Shi et al (2012) also applied to the Vilaine Estuary in Brittany, France. Work has also been undertaken in other areas to identify archeological sites at risk of SLR and associated coastal impacts, notably in the UK (Cook et al, 2019; Westley & McNeary, 2015), Italy (Anzidei et al, 2020), Newfoundland and Labrador (Pollard‐Belsheim et al, 2014; Westley et al, 2011), California (Reeder et al, 2010; Reeder‐Myers, 2015), Australia, and New Zealand (Bickler et al, 2013; Carmichael et al, 2017; Rowland, 1992).…”

Section: Impact From Changes In the Natural Physical Environment On Cultural Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Sesana

Gagnon

Ciantelli

et al. 2021

WIREs Climate Change

236

111

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Climate change, as revealed by gradual changes in temperature, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and wind intensity, as well as sea level rise and changes in the occurrence of extreme events, is already affecting cultural heritage sites. Accordingly, there is a rapidly increasing body of research reporting on the impacts of climatic stressors on cultural heritage and on the assessment of climate change impacts on cultural heritage assets. This review synthesizes the international literature on climate change impacts on tangible cultural heritage by developing hazard‐impact diagrams focusing on the impacts of gradual changes in climate on: (1) the cultural heritage exposed to the outside environment, (2) the interiors of historical buildings and their collections, and (3) a third diagram associated with climate change and the impacts due to sudden changes in the natural physical environment (e.g., storm surges, floods and landslides, wildfire) in addition to sea level rise, permafrost thawing, desertification and changes in the properties of the oceans. These diagrams, which depict the relationships between various stressors and their impacts on cultural heritage, will allow other researchers, stakeholders, and potentially decision makers to determine the potential impacts of climate change on a specific cultural heritage asset without a separate examination of the literature. This review thus provides the current state‐of‐the‐art on the impacts of climate change on the tangible, built heritage, that is, monuments, archeological sites, historical buildings, as well as their interiors and the collections they hold, highlights the limitations of previous research, and provides recommendations for further studies. This article is categorized under: Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Evaluating Future Impacts of Climate Change

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Section: Impact From Changes In the Natural Physical Environment On Cultural Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Sesana

Gagnon

Ciantelli

et al. 2021

WIREs Climate Change

236

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There have been several studies on the vulnerability of archaeological heritage to erosion (e.g., recording threats to a standing stone or palaeosol, [6,7]). However, attempts to reconstruct the geomorphology around eroding sites have mostly looked at reconstructing sea level during lower or higher stages during prehistoric periods, or during the last few centuries from paintings or photographs [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal Erosion and the Promontory Fort: Appearance and Use during Late Iron Age and Early Medieval County Waterford, Ireland

et al. 2020

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Promontory forts are an understudied but distinctive maritime archaeological feature from the Iron Age to the early medieval period from northern Spain to Scotland. Their coastal location renders them susceptible to erosion and loss to history, a situation exacerbated by increased storm frequency and sea level rise. Reconstruction of their original form is important to determine their role in the society of the time. This paper concentrates on a particularly notable group of promontory forts along the Copper Coast of Co. Waterford, where traces of up to 32 remain today within a 24 km stretch of coastline. The methodology has involved using oral tradition, historical records and field survey. This has been enhanced by aerial survey using drones and light aircraft. This paper models the data to estimate areas eroded and show how forts were once significantly larger and dominated coastal resources with an economy of farming, fishing, mining and trading. This paper calculates a likely erosion rate of 4–5 cm/yr and anticipates the last remains to be lost in 350 years, perhaps sooner with climate change.

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“…Several studies assess the vulnerability of archaeological heritage to environmental processes (e.g. Daire et al 2012;Reeder et al 2012;Reeder-Myers et al 2015;Westley et al 2011;Westley and McNeary 2014). However, these studies base their VIs on historic or observed rates of environmental change, and therefore do not consider the ways in which climate change is predicted to alter current environmental processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consideration of changes to temperature, precipitation patterns and wind were included inDaly's (2013) vulnerability assessment of SkelligMichael and Brú na Bóinne (see also Chadwick-Moore 2014;Grossi et al 2007;Westley et al 2011). In contrast, while acknowledging that climate change may increase the vulnerability of archaeological and heritage sites, several studies only based the VI on historic or observed rates of erosion or sea-level rise, rather than projected future change (e.g Daire et al 2012;Reeder et al 2012;Reeder-Myers et al 2015;Westley and McNeary 2014)…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change and Cultural Heritage: A Landscape Vulnerability Framework

Cook

Johnston

Selby

2019

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

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This paper proposes a new framework for calculating vulnerability indices within archaeological resource management on a landscape-scale. Current approaches consider archaeological sites in isolation from their context within the historic landscape. The new framework advocated in this article assesses the vulnerability of landscape character areas, as defined through historic landscape characterisation. This framework uses a two-step vulnerability index: the first assesses the vulnerability of archaeological sites and landscape features; the second uses the results of the first vulnerability index, as well as spatial data on the landscape character areas and the threat in question to calculate the vulnerability of each landscape character area. The framework is applied to a brief case study in coastal North Wales, UK.

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Assessing the Impact of Coastal Erosion on Archaeological Sites: A Case Study from Northern Ireland

Cited by 23 publications

References 15 publications

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Coastal Erosion and the Promontory Fort: Appearance and Use during Late Iron Age and Early Medieval County Waterford, Ireland

Climate Change and Cultural Heritage: A Landscape Vulnerability Framework

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