Climate Change versus Cultural Heritage: Past, Present and Future

Dear Colleagues,

Cultural heritage is one of the pillars of society and forms the identity of peoples. Since prehistoric times, humankind has created and built objects and structures with a diverse range of organic and inorganic supports. Over time, these have transformed into objects of cultural heritage, telling the stories of a (more or less) distant past and preserving the memory and culture of the peoples that preceded us.

In recent decades, cultural heritage sites have hosted thousands of visitors, boosting the social and economic sustainability of nearby populations. However, the degradation of cultural heritage sites has increased to an unprecedented scale due to climate change.

The climate crisis directly and indirectly threatens all kinds of cultural heritage, whether it is a World Heritage Site, a small chapel in rural areas, cave paintings and rock engravings, an Iron Age hillfort, or a medieval castle. Extreme weather events—including abundant rainfall, floods, rising sea levels, prolonged heat waves, drought, strong winds, fires, and erosion—which will become increasingly frequent, have immediate consequences, and naturally speed up the rate of natural degradation processes. These processes, anthropic, chemical, physical, or biological in origin, cause the degradation of materials, leading to a greater need for conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, including outdoors sites and objects of cultural significance stored in museums, libraries, and archives.

Despite rising concerns regarding cultural heritage degradation, little is known about the impacts of the climate crisis on cultural heritage and how this potentiates the usual factors of deterioration. The scientific literature in this area and studies focused on preventive solutions remain scarce. As such, with this Special Issue, we intend to address some of these gaps, encouraging researchers from different backgrounds to explore, via a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transversal approach, climate change’s impact on cultural heritage.

The topics of interest for this issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• current and emerging climate change impacts and threats to cultural heritage
• cultural heritage adaptation and mitigation practices to curb effects of climate change
• cultural heritage monitorization to reduce climate-change-related impacts
• cultural heritage damage mechanisms
• cultural heritage and factors of deterioration over time
• challenges and actions for preservation and conservation
• preventive conservation of cultural heritage
• methods and technics of study and monitorization
• coastal erosion and sea level rise as threats to cultural heritage
• floods and landslides and their impact on cultural heritage
• windstorm and heavy rainfall as threats to cultural heritage
• heat waves and fires as threats to cultural heritage

Prof. Dr. Fátima Matos Silva
Guest Editor

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