Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Abstract

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

Investigating Surface Fractures and Materials Behavior of Cultural Heritage Buildings Based on the Attribute Information of Point Clouds Stored in the TLS Dataset

“…In the context of heritage buildings, at least two potential factors are generally identified as causative aspects of vulnerable building structures, namely human (e.g., war [3,4] and accidents [5,6]) and the environment (e.g., natural disaster [7,8] and aging [9,10]). These factors have a massive impact, not only on the physical (i.e., chemical, biological mechanism) [11] and functional performance of the heritage building, but also on the financial performance (i.e., maintenance cost) [12]). Specifically for climate change, due to the natural weathering of materials and lack of regular monitoring [11], geometric defects such as cracks [13], the loss of thermal performance [14], and structural deformation [15] are often unavoidable in the surface morphology of heritage buildings.…”

“…These factors have a massive impact, not only on the physical (i.e., chemical, biological mechanism) [11] and functional performance of the heritage building, but also on the financial performance (i.e., maintenance cost) [12]). Specifically for climate change, due to the natural weathering of materials and lack of regular monitoring [11], geometric defects such as cracks [13], the loss of thermal performance [14], and structural deformation [15] are often unavoidable in the surface morphology of heritage buildings.…”

“…According to Sesana et al [11], the gradual changes in climate can significantly cause various threats on the indoor environment of heritage buildings. For example, mechanical degradation often occurs based on freeze-thaw cycles, salt crystallization cycles, and physical damage on hygroscopic wooden materials and masonry buildings.…”

Effects of Climate Change on the Future of Heritage Buildings: Case Study and Applied Methodology

“…Proofs that the interest in such topics is increasing are the number of recent scientific publications [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] as well as the funded projects at the European level [16][17][18].…”

Elastic Properties Estimation of Masonry Walls through the Propagation of Elastic Waves: An Experimental Investigation

“…The aim of restoration works is to preserve the artifacts and increase the safety and then the life span of existing buildings and their structures. In this context, deep knowledge of the constituent materials, with their interaction with environmental loads and the degradation effects on the mechanical properties, is crucial to diagnostic operations [1][2][3].…”