Damage risk assessment, economic impact and mitigation strategies for sustainable preservation of cultural heritage in the times of climate change

Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time which also threatens cultural heritage. As a non-renewable important resource to the European identity, sustainable adaptation strategies are required for long term preservation. For this purpose and for the first time ever, the CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project will couple completely new high resolution (10x10km) climate change evolution scenarios with whole building simulation models to identify the risks for specific regions. The innovation lies in the elaboration of a more reliable damage assessment by connecting the future climate data with whole building simulation models and new damage assessment functions. In situ measurements at UNESCO sites throughout Europe will allow a much more precise and integrated assessment of the real damage impact of climate change on cultural heritage. Appropriate sustainable mitigation/adaptation strategies, also from previous projects, are further developed and applied on the basis of these findings simultaneously. All these results will be incorporated into an assessment of the economic impacts. In order to ensure an efficient use of resources, this project will build on the results of already concluded EU research projects (Noah’s Ark). Techniques from FP5/6 projects will be reassessed for their applicability in future scenarios at different regions in Europe and Mediterranean to fully meet sustainability criteria. The proposed project will thus be able to estimate more systematically the damage potential of climate change on European cultural heritage. The team consists of 27 multidisciplinary partners from all over Europe and Egypt including the world’s leading institutes in climate modelling and whole building simulation. The final achievement of the project will be a macro-economic impact report on cultural heritage in the times of climate change akin to the STERN report which would be a truly European contribution to future IPCC Reports.