Preparations for climate change's influences on cultural heritage

Abstract

PurposeIn Norway the most critical effects of climate change are predicted to be increased rain and snow, higher temperatures, increased wind loads, and sea‐level rise. This will increase the number of floods and landslides, along with more cycles around the freezing point and increased exposure to high moisture. The main issue for protecting Norway's historical monuments from climate change is how to be aware of and how to handle the coming problems. One challenge is to define and give this information to heritage owners and local authorities. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the practical threats related to climate change, and provide suggestions for mitigation and adaption strategies.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical information of the problem is useful at a general level, but the practical impact has to be used at a local level. Improved knowledge about the risks for deterioration at different exposure levels, thorough surveys, and practical solutions, can significantly reduce the negative effects. This knowledge must reach the people that have local and daily contact with the cultural heritage. Information to the owners and responsible authorities about the normal risk of deterioration and how to identify risks related to climate change is crucial.FindingsThe main results of the authors' work is a methodology dealing with the problem step‐by‐step production of a web‐site based on fact sheets for heritage owners and managers. The fact sheets are divided amongst different subjects and are designed to be informative and easy to use for owners and responsible authorities.Originality/valueThe results presented in this paper will increase the knowledge of how owners of cultural heritage can be prepared for climate change on a practical, hands‐on level. This can, for example, be done by a brief overall analysis of the threats of the cultural heritage in a specific municipality. The analysis can be summarised in a list of increased possible risks, with direct practical information given to those needing it, and placed online. This would enable detection of and reaction to warning signs of an unusual situation. Information, training and production of both general and specific plans for action in case of extreme situations are also important in order to prevent the negative effects of climate change.

Securing the Future of Cultural Heritage by Identifying Barriers to and Strategizing Solutions for Preservation under Changing Climate Conditions

“…These findings corroborate the observations of other researchers who have noted that planning and implementing climate adaptation strategies can be impeded by ongoing knowledge and skill insufficiencies, particularly related to evaluating preservation strategies, monitoring of and interpreting changes to materials and the values embedded within cultural resources, and understanding the acceptance of permanent losses to cultural heritage e.g., [36,39,42,[44][45][46]. Moreover, Phillips [41] documents that even though knowledge and skills of adaptation may exist among various government levels, at a local site level, actors may not be fully knowledgeable.…”

“…Technical barriers to heritage preservation under changing climate conditions can relate to inefficient or the lack of technical skills for making decision about adaptation, e.g., [34,35,41], as well as to limited procedures for gathering data or monitoring cultural resource conditions e.g., [41][42][43][44][45][46]. Further, research on the climate change impacts on cultural resources is limited [39,47]; when coupled with climate change uncertainty, this knowledge insufficiency may hinder adaptation or preservation, e.g., [24,41].…”

The design of a legacy indicator tool for measuring climate change related impacts on built heritage

“…comm.). Thus the formula implies that lower temperatures result in greater growth, which is not necessarily the case for northern climates where temperatures in winter can be low enough to retard growth [45]. Research on algal greening in Belfast did note a negative correlation with the stone surface temperature, but also found that it only explained 14 % of the variance [28].…”

Adapting Cultural Heritage to Climate Change Risks: Perspectives of Cultural Heritage Experts in Europe

“…Efforts in the area of adaptation are yet limited to the dissemination of guidelines and recommendations for implementing adaptation measures [1,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], the identification of the determinants of adaptive capacity [26], and the identification of the barriers to adaptation [27][28][29][30]. Sabbioni et al [1,16] developed guidelines for adapting the European cultural heritage to climate change impacts, which were later adopted by the Italian Strategic Agenda [31,32].…”

“…Heathcote et al [17] described the adaptive measures suggested in the Historic England climate change adaptation plan to cope with the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage in England, for example, developing approaches to deal with change and loss. Haugen and Mattson [18] investigated the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage in Norway, and recommended adaptive measures to deal with the risks identified. Also in Norway, Grøntoft [23] discussed options for adapting the surface of heritage material and the facades of heritage buildings to the impacts of climate change, including encouraging the adoption of adaptive measures that preserve building surfaces, incorporating climate change projections in building regulations, and developing new technologies to adapt buildings to future climatic conditions.…”