American archives and climate change: Risks and adaptation

Mazurczyk, Tara; Piekielek, Nathan; Tansey, Eira; Goldman, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.crm.2018.03.005

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Museums host a variety of collections, both organic and inorganic, often located in historical buildings lacking modern climate control measures; therefore the potential climate change impacts on the internal conditions also need to be assessed (Bertolin & Camuffo, 2015; Huijbregts et al, 2011; Tornari et al, 2013). These collections include paper‐based collections, including archives (Turhan et al, 2019), and can also be exposed to flooding (Mazurczyk et al, 2018; Tansey, 2015). The potential impacts of climate change on museum collections was the focus of roundtable discussions at the 2008 congress of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC).…”

Section: Impacts Of Gradual Changes In Climate On Indoor Cultural Heritage and Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For WHS in the UK Howard (2013) and Howard et al (2016) highlighted areas where adaptation against the impacts of climate change will be required in the Derwent Valley Mills area in Central England. Tansey (2015) and Mazurczyk et al (2018) anticipated an increase in the impacts of flooding on archives in the United States. Flooding can also be caused by melting glaciers; Berenfeld (2008) predicted that in the Himalayas this will affect traditional wood and mud temples.…”

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

confidence: 99%

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Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Sesana

Gagnon

Ciantelli

et al. 2021

WIREs Climate Change

263

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: Impacts Of Gradual Changes In Climate On Indoor Cultural Heritage and Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

263

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…36 For the most part, these efforts have focused on adapting to climate change, interest in which, unsurprisingly, crosses geography: Matthew Gordon-Clark and Simon Shurville explore the unique, climate-related vulnerabilities of island ecosystems in the context of Pacific islands archives; 37 G. E. Ebunuwele explains the global warming implications for library work in Nigeria; 38 and Tansey and T. Mazurczyk et al explain how climate change will affect North American organizations. 39 Globally, historic sites and environments are at risk, as shown in reports and promotional materials by the Centre for Sustainable Heritage 40 and the National Trust, 41 and by numerous case studies from UNESCO. 42…”

Section: Adapting To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation

Pendergrass¹,

Sampson²,

Walsh³

et al. 2019

The American Archivist

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Digital preservation relies on technological infrastructure (information and communication technology, ICT) that has considerable negative environmental impacts, which in turn threaten the very organizations tasked with preserving digital content. While altering technology use can reduce the impact of digital preservation practices, this alone is not a strategy for sustainable practice. Moving toward environmentally sustainable digital preservation requires critically examining the motivations and assumptions that shape current practice. Building on Goldman's challenge to current practices for digital authenticity and using Ehrenfeld's sustainability framework, we propose explicitly integrating environmental sustainability into digital preservation practice by shifting cultural heritage professionals' paradigm of appraisal, permanence, and availability of digital content.The article is organized in four parts. First, we review the literature for differing uses of the term "sustainability" in the cultural heritage field: financial, staffing, and environmental. Second, we examine the negative environmental effects of ICT throughout the full life cycle of its components to fill a gap in the cultural heritage literature, which primarily focuses on the electricity use of ICT. Next, we offer suggestions for reducing digital preservation's negative environmental impacts through altered technology use as a stopgap measure. Finally, we call for a paradigm shift in digital preservation practice in the areas of appraisal, permanence, and availability. For each area, we propose a model for sustainable practice, providing a framework for sustainable choices moving forward.

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“…Determining the nature and potential scope of climate change and climate-triggered phenomena that threaten archives is an initial step in the extensive process of developing a disaster management plan (Mazurczyk et al, 2018). A study conducted by Ngulube and Tafor (2006) indicated that the region faced challenges concerning the lack of a disaster management strategy and sector awareness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of climate change on the Mpumalanga Provincial Archives and records management activities

Netshakhuma

2021

RMJ

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of climate change on South Africa’s Mpumalanga Provincial Archives (MPA) and related records management activities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach/method was used to collect data from the source, including purposive sampling and expert knowledge solicited through semi-structured interviews. A review was undertaken to source climate data and related archival sector literature. Findings Recent extreme weather events in Mpumalanga seem to bear out climate change projections. The current absence of relevant strategies and plans implies that the MPA and provincial departments are not yet prepared for emergencies. The lack of a plan, an implementation strategy and related training may increase the impact of disasters on the provincial archives’ environment. Without disaster plans and robust preparedness, the question of how the MPA is going to preserve archives for future generations is raised. In addition, due to a lack of guidance for registry staff, appraisal is not allowing for identification and processing of archival materials, so combined with a lack of disaster management strategies and plans contributes to the loss of archives. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to the MPA; however, the findings may be extended to other South Africa provincial archives and parts of the world experiencing similar issues. Practical implications When archivists accept holdings into their repositories, they take the responsibility for their archival custody. But, these efforts may come to nothing if the archives are lost. Disaster management is the key to the protection of the archives. This study evaluated the present and future consequences of climate change impacts by assessing the risk to Mpumalanga archives by climate change-related floods. Social implications There is a need to conduct similar research on a larger scale so as to explore the impact of climate change in other provincial archives to provide a wider context of the problem within South Africa. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of climate change on archives. The results achieved should be seen as a first step towards identification of the issue.

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American archives and climate change: Risks and adaptation

Cited by 19 publications

References 51 publications

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation

The impact of climate change on the Mpumalanga Provincial Archives and records management activities

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