Hydrological Modeling for Flood Adaptation under Climate Change: The Case of the Ancient Messene Archaeological Site in Greece

Abstract

There is a growing global awareness about the impacts of climate change on cultural and natural heritage sites. In Greece—a homeland of important historical and cultural resources—archaeological sites are vulnerable to climate change-related flood events. In order to investigate the flood risk of the archaeological site of Ancient Messene under different climate change projections, a physically-based hydrological model was implemented and six climate change scenarios were examined. Additionally, the effectiveness of a soft structural nature-based solution adaption plan was evaluated. Based on the results, the archaeological site of Ancient Messene is shielded against small or larger flood events and only in case of extreme precipitation events is the area likely to be at risk. This flood risk can be further eliminated after implementing the soft structural nature-based solution adaptation plan proposed. Nature-based solutions provide a cost-effective alternative approach for flood risk reduction and climate change adaptation, with minimum possible disturbance, while hydrological modeling, even in case of data scarcity, constitute a valuable tool for flood risk estimation and adaptation plan management. Nature-based solutions seems to be most effective against small or medium precipitation events, and to limit the damages of extreme events. Their benefits for flood adaptation should not be underestimated.

Investigation of Climate Change Impacts on the Building Materials of Archeological Monuments

“…RHup in Equation (1) and RHlow in Equation ( 2) are the upper and lower thresholds for the daily values of RHmax and RHmin, respectively. Figure 2 shows the stability diagram (RH vs. T) for the sodium sulfate system as calculated by adopting Equations ( 1) and (2).…”

“…Greece is a country with numerous important archaeological sites, architectural monuments, and traditional buildings constructed over a period of thousands of years spanning from the Paleolithic Era to the modern day. Due to their significance, the scientific community is actively engaged in understanding the impact of climate conditions occurring over the centuries and those of the imminent climate change on monuments and archaeological sites [1,2]. Weather conditions have an impact on the preservation of monuments since they affect the condition of their building materials and control the initiation of several weathering mechanisms on their surface [3,4].…”

A Transect Method for Promoting Landscape Conservation in the Climate Change Context: A Case-Study in Greece

“…We add that the width and orientation of the transect study area cannot be a totally straight linear feature, it should include deviations to include landscapes of outstanding heritage interest and other landscape areas representative of the region being studied. In our case, the western part of the transect bulges northwards to include Ancient Messene, an archeological area of outstanding significance where climate change projections have been recently investigated [68]. Focusing on the fact that a transect is a representative and selected "sampling" of landscapes, we consider it proper to include a variety of landscape types present in the wider region.…”