Climate change and underwater cultural heritage: Impacts and challenges

Pérez-Álvaro, Elena

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2016.03.006

Cited by 49 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Rising sea level poses a significant threat to cultural heritage (Perez‐Alvaro, 2016) situated in coastal areas, and Marzeion and Levermann (2014) have estimated that 19% of UNESCO WHS globally could be lost to inundation in a 3°C warming scenario. Studies in Europe on this topic have to date focused on the Mediterranean region.…”

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

confidence: 99%

“…Warmer Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) could cause changes in water currents, oxygen levels, and salinity (Perez‐Alvaro, 2016; Wright, 2016). In addition, the absorption of atmospheric CO 2 by the oceans leads to its acidification and could affect underwater heritage, notably shipwrecks and submerged archeological sites.…”

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

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

“…The marine environment in the Mediterranean is largely exposed to global challenges, such as the climate change [100,101]. In fact, as various studies demonstrate, the Mediterranean region constitutes a hot spot with respect to, among others, climate change impacts [11,52,102], with these impacts creating a natural environment that places UCH stability at risk.…”

Section: Uch Management Concerns In the Mediterranean Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage: The Route from Discovery to Engagement—Open Issues in the Mediterranean

Argyropoulos

Stratigea

2019

Heritage

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Fatal events taking place in World War (WW) I and II have left behind important historical evidence as an underwater cultural heritage (UCH) (e.g., shipwrecks, submerged aircraft, war artifacts), lying in peace at the bottom of, among others, the Mediterranean Sea. The article aims at exploring the challenges for UCH protection/preservation and sustainable exploitation with emphasis on this sea. UCH is so far dealt with in a “silo” approach by marine archaeologists or heritage professionals, who often ignore its potential for serving local sustainable development goals. The paper elaborates on the value, but also the complexity, multi- and inter-disciplinary as well as multi-actors’ nature of UCH management and sustainable exploitation, perceiving these as a “wicked” planning problem. It attempts to illuminate various important dimensions of this problem, such as its glocal (global/local) context; the conflicting and, in certain cases, inconsistent UCH legal protection framework, touching upon a variety of spatial scales; the contemporary policy frameworks favoring UCH management; etc. Exploration of these dimensions reveals open issues or gaps that need to be filled, and sets the ground for a more holistic and integrated UCH research and management approach for building up the yet largely untold, Mediterranean WW I and II UCH narrative; and shifting this area from a sea graveyard to a place of memory and cultural enrichment.

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“…In 2001, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proposed the 'Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage', which states that the first option for preserving underwater cultural heritage should be in situ protection, even if excavation and restoration should follow the principle of long-term preservation and management (UNESCO 2001a(UNESCO , 2001b. However, even in situ protection is riddled with complex problems that are difficult to resolve: (1) there is an enormous amount of underwater cultural heritage with complex and diverse states of preservation; (2) with the continued development of diving technology, locals, tourists and other non-scientists can easily access the undersea heritage; and (3) underwater heritage is being eroded and destroyed by the surrounding underwater environment, including irreversible damage from marine organisms (Liao et al 2010;Rémazeilles et al 2010;Antonelli et al 2015), inorganic salts (Réguer et al 2007;Rimmer et al 2013;Manuel et al 2018), climate change and human activities (Ben and Anders 2014;Perez-Alvaro 2016). Fragile cultural relics, such as organic artefacts (wooden cultural relics), severely corroded metal implements and delicate porcelains, are particularly vulnerable to further damage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporary consolidation and packaging of fragile cultural relics at underwater archaeological sites to maintain their original state during extraction

et al. 2020

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The flexible sponge/epoxy composite can wrap underwater artefacts in any shape and forms a protective shell after curing, thus effectively wrapping and reinforcing the artefacts. However, the hydroscopicity of the sponge itself limits the underwater application of the sponge/epoxy composite. In this study, a novel polyurethane sponge was prepared by modified with super‐hydrophobic multi‐wall carbon nanotubes (SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponge). Compared with the pristine PU sponge, the water‐contact angle on the surface of SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponges increased from 103.3 ± 1.82 to 152.6 ± 1.54o, and oily epoxy resin was able to cover the surface completely. The study shows that when SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponges/epoxy resin composite material is used underwater, it prevents both water from entering the sponge and also the inside epoxy resin from overflowing into the water. Moreover, the composite materials have excellent toughness after reinforcement under water (flexural strength = 3.56 MPa) and the soft sponges can be moulded to wrap any type of underwater artefacts. In the laboratory, when taking a broken, three‐dimensional blue‐and‐white porcelain pot as a research subject, the entire retrieval process—temporary stabilization, packaging, extraction and reinforcement material removal—was simulated to evaluate systematically all the technological aspects of safely excavating fragile underwater relics.

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Climate change and underwater cultural heritage: Impacts and challenges

Cited by 49 publications

References 3 publications

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review

Sustainable Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage: The Route from Discovery to Engagement—Open Issues in the Mediterranean

Temporary consolidation and packaging of fragile cultural relics at underwater archaeological sites to maintain their original state during extraction

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