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ISSUE 4. Combination of climate change and human activities endangering cultural heritage in Istanbul

March 2023

March 2023

Affiliation: Arts & Humanities Research Council

Authors:

Nejan Huvaj

Middle East Technical University

Meltem Şenol Balaban

Middle East Technical University

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Issue 4. Pages: 44-49 Combination of climate change and human activities endangering cultural heritage in Istanbul

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Cultural heritage in the

context of disasters and

climate change

Insights from the DCMS-AHRC Cultural Heritage

and Climate Change Cohort

A research report by PRAXIS: Arts and

Humanities for Global Development

and CRITICAL: Cultural Heritage Risk

and Impact Tools for Integrated and

Collaborative Learning

Edited by:

Francesca Giliberto and Rowan Jackson

October 2022

Front cover: Nomadic old Woman. They live for several months a year in tents, looking

for fresh pastures for their goats, from which comes cashmere wool. In Ladakh, Kashmir,

India. Credit: klublu, Adobe stock

Risk and Impact Tools for Integrated and Collaborative Learning 2022

University of Leeds

PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development

Leeds LS2 9JT

United Kingdom

Email: S.J.Taberner@leeds.ac.uk - Prof Stuart Taberner, Principal Investigator

#PRAXIS

@Changing_Story_

https://changingthestory.leeds.ac.uk/praxis/

University of Edinburgh

CRITICAL: Cultural Heritage Risk and Impact Tools for Integrated and Collaborative Learning 2022

Edinburgh EH8 9XP

United Kingdom

Email: kate.crowley@ed.ac.uk - Dr Kate Donovan, Principal Investigator

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/climate_culture/

Research team:

•Dr Francesca Giliberto, research fellow on heritage for global challenges, University of Leeds

•Dr Rowan Jackson, university teacher in and programme director for environmental

sustainability, University of Edinburgh

•Dr Luba Pirgova-Morgan, research fellow on COVID-19, University of Leeds.

Graphic Design:

Bonner McHardy

Recommended Citation:

Giliberto F. and Jackson, R. (eds.). (2022). Cultural Heritage in the Context of Disasters and Climate

Change. Insights from the DCMS-AHRC Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Cohort. Leeds-

Edinburgh: University of Leeds and University of Edinburgh. DOI: 10.48785/100/107.

With thanks to our funders:

Contents

Foreword 4

Introduction 6

Cross-portfolio synthesis: challenges, methodologies and

projects achievements 12

Challenges for cultural heritage resulting from natural disasters and climate change 13

Innovative research methodologies and approaches 16

Project achievements and research ﬁndings 18

Issue briefs 24

Issue 1. Introducing technology to break the unsustainable cycle of building

replacement after earthquakes towards a culture of reuse and risk mitigation 26

Issue 2. Social capital network for the furniture industry in Damietta: Damietta’s

furniture networks: a heritage asset facing climate emergency 32

Issue 3. Heritage is a dynamic tool for climate change adaptation and resilience building 38

Issue 4. Combination of climate change and human activities endangering cultural

heritage in Istanbul 44

Issue 5. Heritage is a resource for coping with climate change as well as being

threatened by it 50

Issue 6. Noteworthy lessons on the impact of climate change on intangible

cultural heritage in Zimbabwe 56

Issue 7. Multiple facets of traditional land management systems crucial to evaluate

eﬀects on a single issue such as adapting to a changing climate 62

Issue 8. A participatory approach to mapping, measuring and mobilising cultural

heritage in Brazil’s Iron Quadrangle 68

Issue 9. Understanding climate vulnerability and promoting adaptation planning by

improving preparedness measures for African cultural heritage sites and communities 74

Lessons learnt and recommendations 81

Lessons learnt and recommendations for policymakers, funding bodies, researchers

and practitioners 83

Lessons learnt 84

Recommendations 88

Conclusions and future research 92

Contents

Foreword

James Fenner

Senior Investment Manager - Heritage, Culture and

Creative Arts, Arts and Humanities Research Council

Foreword

In 2020 the Arts and Humanities Research

Council (AHRC) and the Department for

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

launched a funding partnership, funded as a

part of UK Oﬃcial Development Assistance

(ODA) and working collaboratively with

other partners such as the British Council,

to support research on how developing

countries could respond more eﬀectively

to the challenges for cultural heritage resulting

from natural disasters and climate change.

Research proposals were sought which

responded in an agile way in order to inform

future research and policy in this area, ranging

in scope from prevention and resilience, to

preparedness and response, including

emergency response, to living with, and

adapting to change and/or loss. Projects which

explore learning from past cultural heritage

emergency responses and/or which explore

learning or intersections with responses to

risks to, and impacts upon, cultural heritage

resulting from other crises (e.g. conﬂict,

displacement) were welcomed. Nine awards

were made through the call, creating a

dedicated cohort of projects focussed on

cultural heritage and climate change that is

showcased and discussed in this report.

This report comes at an important time for

threatened cultural heritage sites and people

throughout the world. In fact, a recent report

by the International Council on Monuments

and Sites (ICOMOS) highlighted the ‘immense’

and ‘untapped’ potential for cultural heritage

to spur action on climate change and support

a transition towards resilient and low carbon

pathways. These AHRC-DCMS funded projects

go some way to tapping this potential and

highlighting the multiple roles that heritage can

play in supporting eﬀorts to mitigate and

adapt to climate change and disaster impacts.

The projects underline not only the multiple

threats associated with climate change and

natural hazards but also the multiple forms of

cultural heritage that people value across the

world. Researchers focused on tangible

households, cityscapes and traditional objects

and intangible songs, knowledges, belief

systems, memories, and cultural practices in

diﬀerent local, regional, and national contexts.

But heritage should not be characterised as

solely passive and vulnerable to the changing

environment; heritage provides capacities in

the form of traditional knowledge transmitted

between generations, including local-speciﬁc

practices and traditions that can provide

culture-inspired solutions to heat stress,

drought, ﬂood management, and so on. In

addition, the broad ﬁeld of cultural heritage

studies incorporates innovative methodologies

and technologies that allow heritage attributes

and risks to be quantiﬁed and visualised.

This report benchmarks the importance of

cultural heritage as medium through which we

can think about climate change and natural

hazards diﬀerently. Heritage is how people

invest value in places, structures, objects,

practices, ideas, and sounds. Understanding

what people value could therefore provide a

greater indication of what is at risk and how we

negotiate an uncertain future.

Foreword

Introduction

Authors:

Rowan Jackson and Francesca Giliberto

In a collaboration between the UK Government’s

Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport

(DCMS) and the Arts and Humanities Research

Council (AHRC), the Global Challenges Research

Fund (GCRF) Urgency Grants invited proposals

from researchers using innovative approaches

to address the impacts of natural disasters and

climate change on tangible and intangible

cultural heritage in Low- and Middle-Income

Countries (LMICs).

This AHRC-DCMS collaboration operated in a

wider workstream within the United Kingdom

(UK) Oﬃcial Development Assistance (ODA)

programme, to support eﬀective responses

to development and disaster relief challenges

in the Global South.

The main goal of this call was to fund cultural

heritage research that can inform future

research and policy on disaster preparedness,

emergency response, loss and damage, and

adaptation to current and expected global

environmental changes such as climate

change and natural disasters.

This report comprises results from individual

projects funded by AHRC and the DCMS and

collaborative workshops organised by the

PRAXIS and CRITICAL teams. The editorial

team comprises Dr. Francesca Giliberto

(PRAXIS) and Dr. Rowan Jackson (CRITICAL),

who were responsible for organising workshops,

leading report planning and writing, and editing

the ﬁnal report. Dr. Luba Pirgova-Morgan and

Dr. Kate Donovan were involved in the

planning and facilitation of the collaborative

workshops, including a written contribution on

COVID-19 by Dr. Pirgova-Morgan.

Contributions to writing and feedback on this

report were also provided by Dr. Bernadette

Devilat, Dr. Kate Donovan, Dr. William Megarry,

Dr. Paul Heritage, Dr. Gustavo Möller, Prof.

Nomalanga Mpofu Hamadziripi, Prof. Ashraf

Osman, Prof. Hisham Elkadi, Dr. Alan Forrest,

Prof. Mike Crang and Prof Stuart Taberner.

Additional written contributions are recognised

in each chapter of the report.

Context

The context for this workstream is the

recognition that cultural heritage is increasingly

exposed to climate and disaster risk, and that

there is a need for eﬀective preparedness

and management strategies in response to

global environmental change (Harrison et

al., 2020; Harvey and Perry, 2015). There is

growing demand from international heritage

organisations, including the International

Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)

and United Nations Educational, Scientiﬁc and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for mechanisms

to assess, monitor and respond to disasters,

whether they are caused by natural or

human-induced hazards (ICOMOS, 2019).

In recognition of the growing risk to cultural

heritage, a cultural heritage protection

workstream was commissioned to understand

the diverse impacts of natural disasters and

climate change on diﬀerent heritage assets in

LMICs. Such diversity is not limited to physical

sites and monuments. It includes cultural

traditions, livelihoods, social networks and the

environment. Loss and damage resulting from

climate change will therefore be inevitable

(e.g. what is at risk?), have political consequences

(e.g. what is safeguarded?), and how can we

adapt to change (e.g. how can we work with

change?) (DeSilvey and Harrison, 2020).

Nine research projects were funded as part of

this workstream and these are the so-called

Cultural Heritage and Climate Change (CHCC)

Cohort. Projects in the cohort span a range

of cultural heritage forms – both tangible

and intangible – as well as approaches to the

assessment of risk. Heritage assets explored

by the research projects include vernacular

architecture, natural and cultural landscapes,

UNESCO World Heritage sites, historic towns

and villages, listed monuments, archaeological

sites, indigenous rock paintings and ceramics,

land management practices, cultural practices

and community networks. All the projects

explore ways to develop eﬀective responses

to challenges in anticipation of (and response

to) climate change and disaster impacts. They

also focus on the challenge of developing

an eﬀective community of practice between

academics in the UK and LMICs. The funded

projects cover much of the Middle East

(Egypt, Turkey, Yemen), Sub-Saharan Africa

(Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), South East

Asia (India, Himalaya region, Sri Lanka), and

South America (Iron Quadrangle in Brazil).

The background, ﬁndings and recommendations

of each project are described in the policy

briefs included in section 3.

Report scope and methodology

This report has been prepared by the PRAXIS

and CRITICAL project teams led by the

University of Leeds and University of Edinburgh

respectively. It discusses the results of a

series of workshops organised by the research

teams between February and September 2022

and project-speciﬁc policy briefs prepared

by the nine research projects (section 3).

We hope it will inform funding bodies,

policymakers, academics, practitioners and

other stakeholders about how to improve

current practices tackling cultural heritage

Introduction

PRAXIS: arts and humanities for global

development

PRAXIS is a £1m research project funded by

the AHRC and focused on arts and humanities

(A&H) research across the GCRF and Newton

Fund portfolios. Speciﬁcally, it aims to

consolidate learning, amplify its impact and

policy relevance and champion the distinctive

contribution that A&H research can make

to tackling urgent development challenges.

PRAXIS has four main strands: Heritage,

Conﬂict, Youth and COVID-19. In addressing a

wide variety of global challenges and United

Nations Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs), PRAXIS has paid special attention

to climate change and disasters in relation

to cultural heritage, human rights and the

development of more environmentally

sustainable research practices.

CRITICAL: cultural heritage risk and

impact tools for integrated and

collaborative learning (Highlight)

CRITICAL is a £180,000 project funded by

the AHRC and DCMS to assess the impacts of

climate change and natural hazards on cultural

heritage in LMICs. This project speciﬁcally

aimed at facilitating knowledge exchange

between heritage professionals in South Africa,

Indonesia and Sri Lanka with the wider aim of

assessing local-scale adaptive capacity and risk

to cultural and natural heritage. As an output

of this project, CRITICAL worked to facilitate

knowledge synthesis and policy impact through

the organisation of cross-portfolio workshops,

and through collaboration with the PRAXIS

team at the University of Leeds.

Introduction

Old Nepalese woman manually braids the mat on

an old homemade loom, in the city of Lo Mantang,

the capital of the Upper Mustang. Nepal. Credit:

Papava, Adobe stock

Making Tibetan Buddhist Mani Stone - stone with

holy mantras. Credit: Vladimir Melnik, Adobe stock

management in the face of climate change

and disaster impacts. More speciﬁcally, we

have drawn together the lessons learnt from

international collaborations between academics,

practitioners and research participants to

make recommendations to UK research

councils and policymakers.

From the start of the workstream in November

2020, the AHRC and DCMS organised quarterly

meetings to provide updates on funding and

to facilitate discussion between project

Principal Investigators (PIs). The meetings

were an opportunity for knowledge exchange

and to discuss funding calls and the challenges

associated with remote work during COVID-19.

They also provided time for two online cross-

portfolio workshops organised by the PRAXIS

and CRITICAL teams to facilitate knowledge

exchange and synthesis between the nine

projects in the CHCC Cohort. The ﬁrst of

these, in February 2022, focused on core

themes across the portfolio and project-

speciﬁc ﬁndings, research challenges and

recommendations to AHRC and the DCMS.

We synthesised this information and cross-

analysed it for this report (see section 2).

Those ﬁndings have contributed to the deﬁnitions

of recommendations for the cultural heritage

protection workstream, including innovative

and critical approaches to heritage conservation

and management in a world aﬀected by

climate change and disasters (see section 4).

The second workshop, in April 2022, facilitated

knowledge exchange through structured

project presentations that we have translated

into the policy briefs included in section 3.

recommended bottom-up post-earthquake

re-construction approaches.

Issue briefs

Analysis of the cross-section AA'

from the LiDAR data of a small

family temple in Bela, Gujarat. The

possibility of generating this building

proﬁle is helpful for analysis using

speciﬁc structural software.

NTU. 2022. Credit: Felipe Lanuza

based on the data by B. Devilat, M.

Mane and Z. Pithawalla, supported

by J. Desai, A. Singh, T. Choudhari

and S. Sen.

Issue briefs

For Indian authorities and institutions

•The framework’s successful implementation

depends on institutional support and

community engagement. Therefore, forging

a network of key stakeholders is essential

for its planning and execution in diﬀerent

contexts. This is why a Policy Brief was

developed in English, Hindi and Gujarati,

available on the project’s website.

•Include heritage conservation/management

as a part of the local governance mandate.

•Support local authorities in developing

post-earthquake emergency, long-term

and pre-earthquake risk management plans

using the 3D data of speciﬁc settlements,

including evacuation routes and safety

measures based on the as-built conditions

documented. This will help to improve the

agility and pertinence of the actions.

Acknowledgements

With special thanks to Mahavir Acharya

and Tanvi Choudhari (Hunnarshala

Foundation) for collaborating at various

stages; and the whole Bela community for

generously taking part in this project. Also,

to Nigar Shaikh and Saatvika Pancholi (CHC

CRDF), and Komal Pawaskar (Hunnarshala

Foundation), who helped in the community

engagement activities and exhibition at Bela.

References

Existing policy: Gujarat State Disaster

Management Authority (GSDMA). (2001).

Gujarat Earthquake Reconstruction

and Rehabilitation Policy, Gandhinagar,

Gujarat. Accessed: [06 May 2022].

Conference paper: Devilat, B. (2021).

Pioneering Advanced Recording

Technologies for Post-earthquake

Damage Assessment and Re-construction

in Chilean Heritage Areas. In: M. Shehade

and T. Stylianou-Lambert (eds.). Emerging

Technologies and the Digital Transformation

of Museums and Heritage Sites. RISE IMET

2021, Communications in Computer and

Information Science, vol 1432. Switzerland:

Springer, Cham.

Conference paper: Devilat, B., R. Jigyasu,

J. Desai, G. Abdelmonem, F. Lanuza and M.

Mane. (2021). “Towards a sustainable re-

construction method for seismic-prone

heritage areas of Gujarat (India) based

on advanced recording technologies”.

In: S. Hernández (ed.), WIT Transactions on

The Built Environment STREMAH 2021,

Southampton, UK: WIT Press, 203, pp. 185–197.

Guidance document: ICCROM, NTU and

CHC CRDF. (2022). 3D Laser Scanning

documentation for informing the post-

earthquake recovery of heritage settlements:

a practical guide. Nottingham, UK. Available

from: http://www.3d4heritageindia.com

DOI: [10.17631/rd-2022-0005-dprac]

Policy brief: NTU, GIDM, CHC CRDF and

Hunnarshala Foundation. (2022). A

framework for earthquake assessment, re-

construction and risk mitigation of

buildings in historical settlements of Gujarat

using advanced recording technologies.

Nottingham, UK. Available from:

http://www.3d4heritageindia.com

DOI: [10.17631/rd-2022-0006-dfram]

Issue 2.

Social capital network

for the furniture

industry in Damietta:

Damietta’s furniture

networks: a heritage

asset facing climate

emergency

Issue briefs

Authors:

Professor Hisham Elkadia and Professor Stuart

Walkerb

a Chair of Architecture, University of Salford;

b Professor of Design, University of Lancaster.

Project:

Conservation of climate change-

endangered cultural furniture industry

heritage in Damietta, Egypt, University of

Salford (PI: Hisham Elkadi)

Partners:

Centre of Environment and Development

for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE),

Egypt; Pinocchio wooden products,

Member of the National Furniture

Council, Egypt; Crafts Council, UK.

Duration:

December 2020 – April 2022

Issue briefs

Ihab Mohammed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via

Wikimedia Commons.

Problem statement and aims

In the Nile Delta region, 6.1M inhabitants are

at risk of sea-level rise. The furniture industry

also accounts for 2.1% of total production of

goods in Egypt, with Damietta’s furniture

industry alone producing £300M of annual

exports.

Climate change and sea-level rise in Damietta

pose a major risk to the conservation and

continuance of cultural values and practices

that form irreplaceable layers of social capital

networks in this community. Sea-level rise

threatens to disrupt the spatial social capital

networks that are central to the success of

the furniture craft industry in Damietta.

Critically, the interrelated tangible (including

elaborately carved furniture) and intangible

cultural heritage (including social networks)

directly aﬀect the city’s resilience and

economic growth.

The furniture industry in Damietta also ﬁnds

itself at a crossroads between the inherited

traditional crafts and the use of digital tools

that are enabling more contemporary designs

and products that are increasingly desirable

to customers in both global and local markets.

The uncoupling of design education and

industry skills also adds to the magnitude of

this dichotomy.

Methodology

This project employs interviews and an on-

the-ground survey as tools to collate the

opinions and understanding of individual

workers and enterprise owners about their

motivations and values in relation to their

work, and the relationship of their work to

place. The survey is also used for

Geographical Information System (GIS)

mapping the spatio-temporal patterns of

social capital transactions in the furniture

industry in Damietta to understand:

•Predominant motivations and values,

according to Schwartz’s spectrum of

human values;

•The relationship of the crafts to place;

•The relationship of the crafts to

sustainability, practical beneﬁts and their

environmental impacts, social beneﬁts,

personal beneﬁts and economic viability.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

Enlisting in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural

Heritage List

The project builds the case for UNESCO

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) recognition

including:

•The socio-business capital networks that

enable the success of the furniture

industry;

•The unique designs and woodcarving

being made and the continuation of a

tradition of over one hundred years.

UNESCO ICH recognition would raise the

proﬁle while putting in place measures to

ensure the crafts are passed on from one

generation to the next. This will also enable:

•Maintaining social capital networks in the

face of sea-level rise;

Issue briefs

•Telling the stories of the histories, crafts

and makers in Damietta;

•Developing up-to-date communication/

branding approaches that eﬀectively

communicate the crafts through ﬁlms,

documentaries, photography, articles etc;

•Developing a dedicated crafts museum

with both a physical and a virtual presence;

•Work with universities to develop young

designers, as well as apprenticeship

programmes in the traditional craft;.

•In addition, the sustainability of the

industry could be improved by considering

the potential viability of localised tree

planting and the development of expertise

in sustainable practices related to the

management of locally produced woods.

Reﬂections: values and place in Damietta’s craft

The project provides a solid understanding of

the nature, patterns and signiﬁcance of

Damietta’s furniture industry as an economic

and cultural hub.

•The social capital networks (trust, networks

and norms) in Damietta are a signiﬁcant

asset providing an economic advantage

that is under threat due to sea-level rise.

Those networks are essential to preserving

the community’s livelihoods and work-live

patterns, and thus the cultural values of

the community.

•The traditional furniture-making production

patterns and craftsmanship skills form a

unique heritage value that is worthy of

conservation and protection. There is a

need to advocate for multiple variations

that can be adopted within furniture-

making, ranging from art-oriented product

design to full commercial mass production.

•It is imperative to encourage entrepreneurial

mentorship and professional art agency to

have a prominent role in the Damietta

furniture industry.

•Matching design-oriented education to the

local makers is essential to the future

development of the craft skills and

industry production.

•Providing digital support and digital tools

to makers in Damietta is imperative to

counteract the community’s pressure and

fear of “new technologies”.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•The unpacking of threats from sea-level

rise led to in-depth investigation not only

of the values of the craft industry and its

relationship to place and sustainability but

also of the socio-economic roots of decline

and loss of livelihood in the community.

•The gap between traditional craft makers

and those who champion the digitalisation

of craft could be bridged through

development of contemporary design

typologies that are attractive to the

market together with contemporary

business and marketing models.

•Sustainable and ethical design are imperative

to the sustainability of the craft. University

and industry partnerships are key to the

survival of the industry.

Issue briefs

Recommendations

For United Nations’ agencies

•Protect the social capital networks of

Damietta’s craft heritage from climate

change adversaries through inclusion in the

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

For local authorities and decision makers

•Utilise Damietta’s Furniture City as a strong

logistics body and facilitation hub that

primarily aims to connect local enterprises

with the global market.

•Introduce sectors to the industry that are

currently lacking, such as marketing agencies,

to speciﬁcally tackle the introduction and

management of, for example, high-end

products to elite art communities.

For civil society and the private sector

•There is a need for a spectrum of

development directions rather than a

dichotomy between traditional vs digitised

approaches. These include:

- Production of singular pieces that

exhibit full traditional skills and craft;

- A limit on mass production, where

merchandise handcraft is valued for its

bespoke relationship with speciﬁc

clientele;

-Hybrid digitised production with

traditional handcraft ﬁnishing.

•Empowering the local industry bodies

within Damietta to:

-Maintain a continuous link between

micro-, small- and medium-size

enterprises (MSMEs) and decision

makers, to advocate for positive

updates to critical laws and regulations;

•Advocate for establishing funding

strategies and programmes that ensure

the inclusive supported shift to new

digitised production;

•Provide business plan support to MSMEs

to ensure all price points in the market are

covered.

•Establish ongoing links between education

providers and industry MSMEs and

introduce new educational requirements

and standards based on what is needed in

local and global markets.

•Establish a set of central standards of

production which take into account the

traditional craft of the city as well as global

tastes and demand.

Issue briefs

Acknowledgements

The project team would like to acknowledge

the support of Her Excellency Manal Awad,

Governor of Damietta and Her Excellency

Nadia Makram, former Minister of the

Environment. Particular thanks to Dr N.

Heysham, UK Craft Council, and our

researchers Esraa El-Marakby (UoS), Gloria

Lanci and Maria Youitani-Lacovitdes.

References

Journal papers:

Heysham, N., Elkadi, H. and Biscaya, S.

(2021). Exploring social capital within

Damietta’s furniture industry value chain

as mode of community currency,

International Journal of Community

Currency Research, 25(1), pp. 52–67.

Heysham, N. and Elkadi, H. (2021).

Geospatial Mapping of Social Capital

Networks of Furniture Industry, paper

presented at a conference on Cities in a

Changing World, London, 16 –18th June 2021.

Elkadi, H. (2022). Architecture De-Light: Key

moments in Architecture History, Université

De Paris, Malaqais, 20-22 April 2022,

Transparence et légèreté en architecture

– Façades, murs rideaux, enveloppes

intelligentes, 1790-2025.

Elkadi, H. (2021). Social networks and

mitigation against climate change, keynote

speech, Urgent Interventions to Build

Socio-Ecological Systems Resilience to

Natural Hazards in MENA region, UNESCO,

9 Dec 2021. Available at: https://en.

unesco.org/news/invitation [Accessed: 9

August 2022]

Book: Walker, S. and Evans, M. (2018).

Design Roots: cultural signiﬁcant designs,

products and practices. Bloomsbury,

London.

Online report: CRAFT Final Report

Professor Hisham Elkadi

Social Networks and mitigation against climate change

The Cultural Furniture Industry Heritage – Damietta Egypt

23.10.18

Issue briefs

Social Networks and mitigation against climate change. The Cultural Furniture Industry

Heritage – Damietta, Egypt. Credit: H. Elkadi.

Issue 3.

Heritage is a dynamic tool for

climate change adaptation

and resilience building

Issue briefs

Authors:

Kate Donovana; Rowan Jacksonb; Siona O’Connellc;

Dulma Karunarthnad; Esti Anantasarie; Arry

Retnowatif; Dominique Niemandg, Younghwa

Chah, Ashrika Sharmai, and Aythya Youngj.

a Principal Investigator, School of GeoSciences,

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;

b Post-Doctoral Research Associate, School of

GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh,

Edinburgh, UK;

c International Co-Investigator, Faculty of

Humanities, University of Pretoria, Pretoria,

South Africa;

d International Co-Investigator, Centre for Asia

Paciﬁc Initiatives, University of Victoria,

Victoria, BC, Canada;

e Research Associate, Centre of Excellence in

Technological Innovation for Disaster

Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK), Universitas Gadjah

Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia;

f International Co-Investigator, Centre of

Excellence in Technological Innovation for

Disaster Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK), Universitas

Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia;

g Research Associate, Faculty of Humanities,

University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa;

h Post-Doctoral Research Associate, School of

GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh,

Edinburgh, UK;

i Research Associate, School of GeoSciences,

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;

j Research Associate, School of GeoSciences,

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Issue briefs

Key stakeholders were interviewed in Yogyakarta

City about the heritage of the River Code.

Project:

CRITICAL: Cultural heritage risk and

impact tools for integrated and

collaborative learning (Highlight),

University of Edinburgh (PI: Katherine

Crowley)

Partners:

University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South

Africa; Centre for Asia-Paciﬁc Initiatives,

University of Victoria, Victoria, BC,

Canada; Center of Excellence of

Technological Innovation for Disaster

Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK); Universitas

Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Duration:

December 2020 – June 2022

Problem statement and aims

There can be no sustainable development

without disaster risk reduction (DRR)

including climate change adaptation (CCA). Yet

these rely on a foundation of understanding

risk in all its complexity. Heritage is a missing

component of conventional risk approaches,

despite its ability to shape our identity,

deliver capacities and expose vulnerabilities.

The CRITICAL project aimed to better

understand the role of heritage within risk

assessment through the investigation of three

case study sites and developing a community

of practice across three Low-Middle Income

Countries (LMICs). The case study sites were

of diﬀerent sizes: the small-scale settlement

of Elandskloof in South Africa, the city region

of Yogyakarta, Indonesia and a national

approach across Sri Lanka. Exploring these

three scales, we were able to capture a

narrative-based risk assessment for heritage

and found that heritage opens avenues for

dialogue on livelihoods, gender, local-level

capacity and vulnerability.

Methodology

At a national scale, Dr Karunarthna carried out

multiple interviews and facilitated two

workshops in rural settlements across Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, her work included a review of

historical literature exploring the role of

women in traditional rural practices. At city-

scale, Dr Retnowati and Ms Anantasari carried

out a series of interviews with key stakeholders

along the River Code in Yogyakarta region. In

South Africa, Prof O’Connell and Ms Niemand

led two workshops, a household survey and a

series of interviews in Elandskloof. In addition,

a review of climate data for each site and a

systematic synthesis of literature related to

heritage, risk and value was undertaken

(Crowley et al., 2022).

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

Local risk narratives have challenged

conventional top-down approaches to

understanding the threats to heritage from

climate change. We ﬁnd that our case studies

identiﬁed how local communities value place

and how heritage can be a mechanism for

engagement with adaptation. Conventional

risk assessments for heritage sites rarely take

into account local-level values and are

currently largely lacking in LMICs (Crowley et

al., 2022). Heritage is considered a resource in

the three case study sites. In Yogyakarta, the

river is a heritage asset and forms a cultural

axis through the city. In Elandskloof, we

uncovered a narrative of loss in terms of

inter-generational knowledge due to forced

Issue briefs

removal and climate change. The capacity of

women and their traditional environmental

knowledge for climate adaptation was

captured across Sri Lanka. The research

ﬁndings were discussed at a ﬁnal stakeholder

workshop in March 2022, resulting in the

identiﬁcation of three areas of critical thinking:

•Heritage as procedural – heritage should

not necessarily be preserved in a static state

without understanding its inﬂuence in local

and regional level resilience-building and

how it is inﬂuenced by socio-economic

change as well as environmental stressors.

•Heritage as a research and engagement

tool – there is a need for more creative

and local-level methods for discussing

vulnerability and capacity. Our research

has found that using heritage as a lens

opens a dialogue on place-based issues

vital for adaptation and wider resilience.

•Heritage as adaptation and vulnerability

inﬂuencers – heritage is part of a local

people’s vulnerability and capacity for CCA

and a crucial component in resilience-

building. Heritage can be a critical asset for

people living with environmental change

and how heritage is ‘protected’ can have

signiﬁcant impact on people’s vulnerability.

For example, the designation of UNESCO

World Heritage (WH) status can exclude

the needs of local people, while embracing

local environmental expertise can open up

space for hybrid knowledge production

that leads to improved adaptation.

The research team reﬂected on their cross-

disciplinary work during this project at a time

of global pandemic. A learning approach was

central to this project and the interdisciplinary

team has captured and shared a diversity of

voice on heritage through a freely available

e-learning course, a series of videos and

ArcGIS story maps.

Issue briefs

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•Local-led, ﬂexible research design (fully

supported by international co-investigators)

enabled a deeper investigation.

•The COVID pandemic not only led to

challenges in continuity for the research

teams due to illness and problems in

accessing isolated settlements, but it also

caused a loss of elder-held knowledge

within those settlements.

•Full team face-to-face meetings were not

possible during the project. Virtual meetings

worked well and enabled attendance, but a

full team meeting would have improved

team discussions, reﬁnement of ﬁnal

outputs and the future roadmap.

Recommendations

There are three core recommendations that

speak across diﬀerent audiences:

•Examine and support the role of heritage

for adaptive capacity and resilience-building.

•Enable access to, and dialogue around,

climate change information for people

living in isolated and marginalised settlements.

•Expand the resources for local-level

adaptation through heritage-driven risk

assessments.

Speciﬁcally, we ask funders and policy

makers at international and local levels to:

• Move away from viewing heritage solely as

a built asset that needs preserving or

protection. Consider instead a narrative of

heritage as a capacity for adaptation and

resilience-building.

•Ensure that UNESCO WH Outstanding

Universal Value is balanced with local-level

understanding of value for heritage.

•Invest in adaptation funds that are driven

by the local-level needs and aim to move

beyond assessment into implementation,

monitoring and learning.

•Ensure all funds enable local meaningful

participation and target forgotten or

marginalised voices.

•Support interdisciplinary and women-led

applied research projects that test new

ways of thinking and doing with local

people rather than for local people.

Future research should incorporate an

evaluation of heritage hotspots to capture a

diversity of case studies demonstrating value

and inﬂuence for climate change adaptation

and disaster management. This should be

underpinned by locally designed and led,

ﬂexible research. Finally, future research

should share ﬁndings and tools back to the

local people and enable access and dialogue

around climate change information, especially

for those living in isolated and marginalised

settlements.

Issue briefs

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank and acknowledge

our funders, the UK Arts and Humanities

Research Council and the UK Government

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and

Sport (Award ref: AH/V006371/1). We would

also like to thank our expert advisory panel

for their invaluable time and support

throughout this project, in particular

Professor Andrew Dugmore and Dr Sukanya

Krishnamurthy at the University of

Edinburgh, Professor David Harvey and

Professor Nick Shepard at Aarhus University,

Denmark, and Terry Cannon at the

Institute for Development Studies, UK. We

would also like to thank those who have

contributed through reviews, video

contributions and attendance at stakeholder

workshops. Most importantly, we would

like to acknowledge and thank the people

who have contributed their time and

knowledge to this project from Sri Lanka,

Indonesia and South Africa.

References

Journal paper: Crowley, K. et al. (2022).

Cultural Heritage and risk assessments: Gaps,

challenges and future research directions

for the inclusion of heritage within climate

change adaptation and disaster management,

Journal of Climate Resilience and Sustainability,

1(3), e45. DOI: [10.1002/cli2.45]

Blog site: CRITICAL project blog site

Book chapter: Crowley, K., Jackson, R.

and Young, A. (In Press). The uncertain

pathway towards climate change adaptation.

In: University of Pretoria Press and Edinburgh

Climate Change Institute (eds.). Elandskloof:

A Chronology of Loss.

ArcGIS Story Maps:

Karunarathna, D., Crowley, K., and Jackson, R.

(2022). Climate story telling in Sri Lanka.

Retnowati, A., Anantasari, E. and Crowley., K.

(2022). Kali Code: Heritage landscapes

in Indonesia.

O’Connell, S., Niemand, D., and Jackson, R.

(2022). Elandskloof: A chronology of loss.

Issue briefs

Local community members in Elandskloof meet with researchers to talk about their

Issue 4.

Combination of climate

change and human activities

endangering cultural heritage

in Istanbul

Issue briefs

North bank of Golden Horn Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Credit: Andy Chisholm, Adobe Stock

Authors:

Ashraf Osmana, Professor, Durham University, UK

(Principal Investigator), Nejan Huvajb, Meltem

Şenol Balabanc, Zeynep Gül Ünald, David Tolle,

Marti Lloret-Cabotf, Michael Anthony Crangg,

Mehmet Akif Alkanh, Betül Konukçui, Emin Yahya

Menteşej, Samprada Pradhank, Olgu Orakcıl, Banu

Gökmen Erdoğanm, Anıl Tarancın, Zeynep Ece

Atabayo, and Aynur Uluçp

a Professor, Durham University, UK (Principal

Investigator);

b Middle East Technical University (METU), TR (TR

local coordinator), Associate Professor at Civil

Engineering Department (Co-Investigator);

c METU, Associate Professor at City and Regional

Planning Department, (Co-Investigator);

d Yıldız Technical University, Professor at Architecture

Department (Restoration division), (Co-Investigator);

e Professor, Department of Engineering and Co-

Director of Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience,

Durham University, (Co-Investigator);

f Professor, Department of Engineering, Durham

University, (Co-Investigator);

g Professor, Department of Geography, Durham

University, (Co-Investigator);

h AFAD, The Disaster and Emergency Management

Presidency of Turkey;

i Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality;

j Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and

Earthquake Research Institute, Post-Doctoral

Research Associate;

k Durham University, Post-Doctoral Research

Associate (engineer at Mott MacDonald now);

l METU, MS student at Civil Engineering

Department (PhD student at KU Leuven University

in Belgium now);

m YTU, Ph.D. student (Assistant Professor at Trakya

University now); n METU, PhD student at Geodetic

and Geographic Information Technologies;

o YTU, PhD student and Research Assistant at

Architecture Department (Restoration Division);

p METU, PhD student at City and Regional Planning

Department, METU.

Issue briefs

Project:

Developing a novel climate change risk

assessment framework for cultural

heritage in Turkey (CRAFT), Durham

University (PI: Ashraf Osman)

Partners:

Middle East Technical University

(METU); Yıldız Technical University

(YTU); AFAD, The Disaster and

Emergency Management Presidency

of Turkey; Istanbul Metropolitan

Municipality; Bogazici University

Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake

Research Institute.

Duration:

December 2020 – October 2022

Problem statement and aims

Turkey is one of the most archaeologically

and culturally rich places in the world, with 18

UNESCO World Heritage (WH) sites and an

additional 78 locations on the tentative list.

Istanbul and its UNESCO WH historical areas

have recently suﬀered from frequent ﬂoods

as a result of intense rainfalls caused by a

changing climate. Floods, rainfall-triggered

landslides and subsequent moisture problems

have resulted in signiﬁcant structural damage

to cultural heritage.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop

tools to understand the hazard landscape and

the value (by social, psychological and economic

means) of the heritage sites to assess their

vulnerability against potential hazards,

including climate change. Identiﬁcation of risk

involves the assessment of the hazard and the

evaluation of the consequences of that

hazard. Assessing the hazard is usually tackled

using scientiﬁc methods based on climate

models and quantitative approaches to ﬂood

and landslide assessment. However, identiﬁcation

of the consequences requires a qualitative

societal approach, recognising the complexity

of value judgements about cultural heritage.

Methodology

We carried out desk study/data collection and

processing on rainfall patterns, ﬂood and

landslide, topography and soil properties. This

is coupled with Geographic Information

System (GIS) analysis to produce ﬂooding and

landslide susceptibility mapping for the

cultural heritage in Istanbul. Heritage places

at greater risk were identiﬁed, and a ﬁeld

survey was carried out to collect critical

information about the physical condition of

each structure and its surroundings, as well as

past indicators of ﬂoods and landslides. Focus

groups and meetings with stakeholders were

held to inform contextualisation and

understanding of the value of cultural heritage.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

A vulnerability assessment concept has been

developed for the cultural and historical

assets of Istanbul. The model is built upon a

vulnerability index and it gave insight into the

potential loss that heritage assets can face.

The CRAFT project has identiﬁed 150 cultural

heritage places in the Historical Peninsula of

Istanbul that could be endangered by ﬂoods

and landslides. An index for damage

assessment has been developed. We have

recognised the inevitability of loss, where the

impacts of climate and environmental change

may lead to the conclusion that conservation

of some monuments is unsustainable.

Issue briefs

The CRAFT project found evidence of the

change in rainfall patterns and climatic events.

However, there is a disproportionate increase

in ﬂood events and ﬂood-related damage in

Istanbul’s cultural heritage sites due to

construction activities in historical sites.

CRAFT has delivered a number of knowledge

transfer events successfully, including:

•An online short training course on disaster

management and natural hazards for cultural

heritage. It was delivered on 22 February

2022 with a total of 132 participants from

the UK, Turkey, India, Germany, Japan,

Algeria, Taiwan, Italy and Azerbaijan.

•An international online workshop on

climate risk assessment for cultural heritage.

It was held on 23 February 2022, attended

by 113 participants.

Both events have attracted participants from

universities, research institutes, government

agencies, cultural heritage protection agencies

and municipalities, members of other related

international projects (PROCULTHER and

PRAXIS) and NGOs. Discussion sessions were

held to share experiences and encourage the

rapid exploitation of the concepts developed

in the study.

Early signs of the project inﬂuencing current

policies are evident:

• Engagement with Istanbul Metropolitan

Municipality Heritage Division Cooperation,

an authority that is responsible for the

management and maintenance of the

historical heritage of Istanbul.

•An invitation to participate in a national

cultural heritage policy-making discussion

in Turkey. As an example, the Metropolitan

Municipality of the City of Bursa and

UNESCO Bursa Site Management Unit held

a panel entitled “Cultural Heritage, Climate

Change and Sustainability Panel” on 15

June 2022. Out of the four speakers, three

were from the CRAFT project team.

Meeting with Istanbul Metrope Municipality Cultural Heritage Division. Credit: Nejan Huvaj.

Issue briefs

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•More training and interaction are needed

(especially among diﬀerent agencies such

as the national disaster agency and cultural

heritage managers);

•The ﬁeldwork data collection forms

developed as part of this project can be

used for other areas (the forms can be

shared with stakeholders);

•The methodology is applied in a pilot area

in Istanbul, and it seems to be promising in

identifying critical areas. This methodology

can be used for ranking/prioritisation/

decision-making;

•There is diﬃculty in data collection as

government agencies and local authorities

have poor data collection and archiving

systems.

Recommendations

•The data could better to be shared with all

stakeholders, via an online platform where

possible.

•There are many areas with drainage/

surface water/ﬂooding-related problems.

Non-destructive remedial measures can be

developed (keeping the integrity and

heritage properties of the structures).

Reconstruction strategies can be developed.

•Raising awareness: a signiﬁcant portion of

the public does not know about cultural

heritage and associated risks.

•Green, sustainable urban infrastructure

systems, such as rainwater harvesting,

green roofs, ﬂood control ponds and

basins, currently do not exist in Istanbul

and they should be explored and

implemented.

•Evaluating the values of monuments may

diﬀer for diﬀerent stakeholders and not

simply align on one solution.

•More training and interaction are needed,

especially among diﬀerent agencies such

as the national disaster agency and cultural

heritage managers.

Issue briefs

The Sultanahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) - Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: muratart, Adobe Stock

Acknowledgements

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Cultural

Heritage Division.

References

Ciritci, I. and Yücel, G. (2019). Ani Yağışlar

ve Su Baskını Riski Altındaki Tarihi Yapılar

İstanbul Tarihi Yarımada: Ahi Çelebi Camisi,

Academic Perspective Procedia, 2, pp. 172–

181. (In Turkish).

Issue briefs

Research ﬁeldwork in the historical peninsula of Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: Nejan Huvaj.

Issue 5.

Heritage is a resource for

coping with climate change as

well as being threatened by it

Issue briefs

Authors:

Mike Cranga and Zahra Hussainb

a Professor of Geography, Durham University;

b Founder, chartered architect, Laajverd,

Rawalpindi.

Project:

Fragile heritage ecologies: vernacular

cultures and the at-risk landscapes of the

Hindu-Kush-Himalaya mountain region,

Durham University (PI: Michael Crang)

Partners:

Laajverd, University of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Duration:

September 2020 – November 2022

Issue briefs

A woman wearing traditional dress sitting

on wall and looking at Hunza valley in

autumn season, Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan,

Asia. Credit: Punnawit Suwattananun,

Shutterstock

Problem statement and aims

As the terrible heatwave and then catastrophic

ﬂoods this year have made all too clear,

Pakistan is very vulnerable to the eﬀects of

climate change. It is estimated to be the 7th

most vulnerable country in the world. Partly

this is because it hosts part of the Third Pole,

the greatest expanse of ice at low latitudes

(but high altitude) in the glaciers of the Hindu

Kush Himalaya and this is melting rapidly, with

a third to half likely to disappear this century.

The warming of this region is ahead of the

global and Northern Hemisphere averages. It

will lead to a tripling of the risk of Glacial Lake

Outburst Floods (GLOF) in the whole

Himalayas – and the Karakoram, Pamir and

western Himalaya ranges, which this project

works across, will be the regions with the

most substantial increase in GLOF hazard.

This creates both sudden ﬂoods and lack of

water in dry seasons. Indeed, changes in the

seasons themselves are causing shifts, including

lower rainfall that reduces grazing and fodder

crop possibilities, while earlier springs are

aﬀecting fruit orchards and dominant tree

types are moving from willow to juniper.

Amidst this, the vernacular heritage and folk

culture of local peoples are largely overlooked.

They are remote from political power, and

indeed lack formal representation in democratic

structures. With diﬀerent languages and

heritages of diﬀerent folk religions from the

majority in the country, they are not seen as

positive agents to respond to change nor as

bearers of heritage practices. Their concerns

are often overlooked in favour of the

dramatic landscape shifts and threats to

charismatic megafauna.

Our research seeks to not only document the

complex and diﬀerentiated local heritages but

also to build capacity for local people to

create their own records of their heritage,

what it means and the legacies it shows.

Methodology

We have used a participatory method of

community mapping and transects to explore

local knowledge of heritage and local narratives

and combined that with formal surveys and

physical analysis of the environment, aerial

surveys and analysis of the risks of climate

change-related ﬂooding. Local people

identiﬁed key sites and were trained in

cataloguing and recording their characteristics.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

Increase heritage awareness and encourage

recognition of both tangible and intangible

heritages to promote inclusive and

community-centred approaches to tourism.

Local crafts and folklore form an asset that

needs to be documented, reproduced and

developed as a resource for tourism. We

have provided templates for documenting

the practices and processes of craft-making

in textual/visual formats, and for training

community organizations to do likewise.

Likewise, conservation eﬀorts and protection

of material heritage need to focus beyond

archaeological sites and celebrated heritage sites.

A network of community museums (open air

and heritage parks included) can be established

across the region where local communities

get a platform to showcase and narrate their

cultural practices and landscapes.

Issue briefs

Authenticity of cultural heritage must be

recognised and considered in any interventions

and new projects developed in a locality.

Local communities need to retain control of

the interpretation and signiﬁcance of their

heritage. Developments in built form should

work in sympathy with the local vernacular

aesthetic but also ways of life and everyday

practice. Many developments are poorly

adapted to changing climate and the ways of

living in the region.

Validate local heritages and diﬀerent

religious heritages.

Some religious heritage from pre-Muslim eras

is not only neglected but under threat of

vandalism. Local syncretic religious practices

and beliefs in the supernatural are not conﬁned

to a few celebrated cultural sites but can be

appreciated more widely.

Crafts are tied up with the whole agricultural

system, which is altering due to climate change

and new transport connections. Craft skills

need developing to take advantage of new,

relatively high value opportunities, or local

producers risk being out-competed. Sustainable

livelihoods depend on evolving the products

in line with successful developments in other

parts of the wider Himalayan mountain region.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•There has thus far been very little or no

oﬃcial support for local vernacular heritage.

•Local bylaws on development need

amending to include heritage conservation

in urban developments.

•There are multiple layers of heritage and

diﬀerent values given to diﬀerent heritages

by diﬀerent parts of the community in the

region. Often, this means some are ignored

or neglected, or at worst actively destroyed.

Kalasha woman living in the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya mountain region. Credit: Zahra Hussain.

Issue briefs

Recommendations

For culture and tourism departments

•Regulate the inﬂux of tourists in speciﬁc

valleys throughout the year via tourist

passes and permits.

•Develop outdoor heritage parks and trails

to generate activities for tourists and

exhibit the local landscape.

•Develop small marketplaces/ shops to

exhibit local crafts and cuisine in main and

side valleys. This must be operated in

partnership with the local community who

should derive the beneﬁts from it.

•Conduct training for local communities,

local support organisations (LSOs) and

other stakeholders in sustainable heritage

tourism practices.

For the Department of Archaeology

•Conserve/ protect material heritage apart

from archaeological sites and celebrated

heritage sites.

•Devise mechanisms for the documentation,

protection and conservation of immaterial/

intangible heritage.

•The Fragile Heritage Economy (FHE)

framework can be adopted to inventory

tangible and intangible heritage assets.

•Convert vernacular houses/structures into

guest houses/cultural centres through

proper adaptive re-use strategies.

Issue briefs

For local communities

•Use the FHE framework as a tool for

documenting heritage assets and creating

personalised inventories.

•Set up community-based heritage

museums/centres.

•Showcase local crafts and cuisine at

festivals.

•Document local cuisine.

•Conduct story-telling sessions with

community elders for the awareness of

young children.

•Conduct heritage walks with local children

and tourists.

Acknowledgements

The engagement of many local bodies

has been vital, we would especially thank

the KPK Department of Archaeology, the

University of Baltistan and the Baltistan

Culture and Development Foundation.

References

Hussain, Z. (2019). Integrating Cultural

Landscapes for Community Museum

Development: Architecture, Design,

Strategies. Museum International, 71(3-4),

pp.168–179.

Hussain, Z. (2019). Mapping the

Intangible: 'At Risk' Heritage Landscapes

in Northern Pakistan. In: Coningham,

R. and Lewer, N. (eds.). Archaeology,

Cultural Heritage Protection and

Community Engagement in South Asia.

Singapore: Springer Singapore, pp. 105–1119.

Hussain, Z. (2021). ‘Drawing in’ other

worlds: Addressing fragile heritage

landscapes through cosmopolitical maps.

Journal of Community Archaeology &

Heritage, 8(2), pp. 127–141.

Issue briefs

Image top: Kalasha street. Credit: Zahra Hussain.

Image left: Hindu-Kush-Himalays landscape and community members. Credit: Zahra Hussain.

Issue 6.

Noteworthy lessons on the

impact of climate change on

intangible cultural heritage

in Zimbabwe

Issue briefs

Authors:

Nomalanga Mpofu Hamadziripia, Lesley

Machekab and Jacob Maparac

a Principal Investigator, Marondera University of

Agricultural Sciences and Technology;

b Co-Investigator, Marondera University of

Agricultural Sciences and Technology;

c Co-Investigator, Chinhoyi University of

Technology.

Project:

Inventorying intangible cultural heritage

assets aﬀected by Cyclone Idai in

Chimanimani, Chipinge and Buhera

districts in Zimbabwe, Marondera

University (PI: Nomalanga Hamadziripi)

Partners:

Ministry of Youth, Arts, Sports and

Recreation; Zimbabwe National

Commission for UNESCO; Oﬃce of

Secretary for Provincial Aﬀairs and

Devolution, Manicaland Province.

Duration:

February 2021 – May 2022

Issue briefs

Aftermath Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth

in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, pictures of

aﬀected villages taken from helicopter.

Credit: Miros, Adobe Stock

Problem statement and aims

Zimbabwe suﬀered the devastating eﬀects of

Cyclone Idai in 2019 when lives were lost,

homes destroyed and livelihoods severely

aﬀected. The devastation and loss caused by

Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe also aﬀected the

intangible cultural heritage (ICH) assets of the

communities in the Chimanimani, Chipinge

and Buhera districts of Zimbabwe. These ICH

assets include oral traditions, performing arts,

social practices, indigenous rituals, kinship

systems and indigenous food systems. The

overall aim of the project was the recovery or

restoration of the ICH of the Cyclone Idai-

aﬀected communities through inventorying

the ICH assets. This study is of urgency to

provide evidence-based information about

the ICH of these aﬀected communities that is

useful for sustainable resilience, reconstruction

and relocation of those communities. ICH is

often damaged or destroyed in the aftermath

of a disaster due to insensitive conservation,

recovery and reconstruction, hence the project

inventoried the aﬀected ICH for safeguarding.

Methodology

The study used a mixed-methods approach.

Semi-structured and structured tools were

developed for the qualitative and quantitative

methods. The research tools were discussed

and pre-tested with the key stakeholders

during the stakeholder sensitisation meetings.

The interview guide was originally written in

English then translated into Shona. The

responses were given mostly in Shona or

Ndau as Chipinge and Chimanimani are Ndau-

speaking areas. The electronic questionnaire

contained the following sections: domains of

ICH; correlation between Cyclone Idai, ICH

and climate change; impact of the cyclone on

ICH, livelihoods and indigenous food systems;

psycho-social impacts of Cyclone Idai on

aﬀected and non-aﬀected communities.

Quantitative data was captured on an

android-based software called Kobo Toolbox,

a free platform for collecting humanitarian

and research data. With consent from the

participants, all interviews were recorded and

later transcribed.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

Threat of climate change to intangible

cultural heritage.

Climate change-induced disasters, such as

Cyclone Idai, pose a severe threat to ICH

including oral traditions, performing arts,

social practices, indigenous rituals, kinship

systems and indigenous food systems. The

impact of climate change-induced disasters,

such as cyclones, aﬀects intangible cultural

heritage assets including food production with

subsequent impact on food security. Lack of

maintenance and loss of traditional knowledge

have increased the vulnerability of cultural

heritage assets in many regions of the world.

Impact of Cyclone Idai on ICH

Cyclone Idai goes down in history as one of

the foulest tropical cyclones on record to

aﬀect Africa and the Southern Hemisphere

(Yuhas, 2019). It aﬀected close to 2.2 million

people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi

(World Vision, 2019). The ﬁndings reveal that

Cyclone Idai caused considerable impact on

ICH, including indigenous food systems and

livelihoods. The other ﬁndings were that

burial and mourning practices were breached,

as well as the associated rituals and social

relationships. The ﬁndings also revealed that

while there was considerable impact on ICH,

some practices were already waning before

the cyclone and the cyclone simply accelerated

their loss. Another interesting ﬁnding was that

Issue briefs

Peacock area in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe. Cyclone Idai destroyed what was once a built-up and vibrant

business centre where a number of traditional ceremonies were held by the local and traditional

leadership. The ICH was destroyed with the place… the bricks are what remain. Credit: Dr Lesley Macheka.

Issue briefs

the cyclone has caused some ‘forgotten’

practices to re-emerge, for example, the

practice of performing traditional rituals

before the onset of the rain. The latter ﬁnding

was buttressed in the narratives where

people strongly believe that the shunning of

traditional practices can be the reason why

the misfortune struck.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

Climate-induced natural disasters such as

cyclones have an impact on ICH. In the case of

Cyclone Idai, the following lessons were learnt:

•The impact of climate change on ICH is

under-researched and, in most cases,

undocumented, especially in Southern

Africa. Moreover, there is little to no

literature from Southern Africa on the

impacts of climate-induced natural

disasters on ICH.

•The impact of Cyclone Idai on ICH was

multidimensional and all the UNESCO

domains of ICH were aﬀected. These

domains include oral traditions, performing

arts, social practices, indigenous rituals,

kinship systems.

•There is a need to mainstream indigenous

weather forecasting systems into risk

reduction frameworks such as the United

Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster

Risk Reduction.

Recommendations

For government

•Mainstream ICH in disaster risk management

and response protocols that focus on

supporting culturally sensitive actions based

on context-speciﬁc needs of communities.

This means using indigenous knowledge

and providing platforms for communities

to collect, report and use local knowledge

to mitigate and manage disasters.

Issue briefs

•Strengthen the roles and responsibilities of

local leaders in emergency response

protocols – especially in contexts where

national disasters are declared.

•Revise the mandatory moratorium on

declaring death in emergency contexts.

The current government stipulation/law of

waiting for ﬁve years does not allow

closure and healing for survivors.

•Increase awareness of ICH in disaster risk

management institutions. More training is

required for both government and non-

government actors in the need to

mainstream ICH in disaster risk management.

For departments of health and civic society

•Psychosocial support should be prioritised

for diﬀerent groups of people who were

directly or indirectly aﬀected by Cylcone

Idai, i.e. victims, ﬁrst responders, traditional

leaders and host communities, so that

they understand those being relocated in

their spaces.

For civil protection and researchers

•Develop a resource manual on safeguarding

and mobilising ICH in disaster contexts.

Acknowledgements

This research project was supported

by the Arts and Humanities Research

Council, which is part of UK Research

and Innovation [grant number: AH/

V0 06 43 6/ 1].

The research team would also like

to acknowledge the support they

received from their respective

institutions, Marondera University of

Agricultural Sciences and Technology

and Chinhoyi University of Technology.

The research team is also indebted

to the two research assistants, Ms

Vimbainashe Dembedza and Ms Pamela

Mushangazhike.

References

World Vision, (2019). 2019 Cyclone Idai:

Facts, FAQs, and how to help.

Yuhas, A. (2019). Cyclone Idai May Be

'One of the Worst' Disasters in the

Southern Hemisphere. Article from New

York Times, 19 March 2019.

Issue briefs

Cyclone Idai killed hundreds of people and destroyed infrastructure and crops in

Chimanimani Zimbabwe. Credit: Steve Mathambo Ngoma, Shutterstock

Issue 7.

Multiple facets of traditional

land management systems

crucial to evaluate eﬀects on

a single issue such as adapting

to a changing climate

Issue briefs

Authors:

Alan Forresta, Julian Jansen van Rensburgb,

Soqotra Heritage Projectc

a Biodiversity Scientist, Centre for Middle

Eastern Plants, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh;

b Research Associate, Royal Botanic Garden

Edinburgh;

c Soqotra Heritage Project, Soqotra, Yemen.

Project:

Mitigating climate change eﬀects through

traditional land management practices,

Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (PI:

Alan Forrest)

Partners:

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE);

University of Edinburgh (UoE); General

Organization for Antiquities and

Museums, Yemen (GOAM); Arab Regional

Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH).

Duration:

October 2020 – December 2022

Issue briefs

Diqelwel leem, Modiﬁed natural depression

for water collection and storage in remote

arid landscape on Soqotra.

Credit: Julian Jansen van Rensburg.

Problem statement and aims

The Soqotra Archipelago has long been

renowned for its natural heritage and was

inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2008

for its unique and rich biodiversity. The

cultural heritage of Soqotra, however, has

been little studied despite the demonstrated

value placed by the Soqotri people on the

links between natural and cultural heritage –

links that have been almost totally ignored in

formal conservation programmes.

Within living memory, the people of Soqotra

have relied on their traditional knowledge

systems to manage their livestock and survive

in periods of extreme weather conditions – a

traditional knowledge that is being lost as

development proceeds and young people are

less interested in their traditional ways of life.

These traditional knowledge systems have

evolved over millennia to cope with the

extreme and unpredictable weather patterns

and may hold some answers as to how

climate change can be adapted to locally. The

current practitioners are the last of a

generation with the knowledge from which

we can learn, lending an urgency to the

collection of this knowledge.

The aim of the project is to better understand

whether the linkages between climate and a

traditional way of life have contemporary

relevance, and to propose recommendations

to a range of stakeholders as conservation

practices on Soqotra are revised in the face

of climate change.

Methodology

To capture contemporary views and practices

and community perception of changing

climate and land management, a series of

questions we prepared for a diverse array of

communities on Soqotra that could be

compared with historical knowledge and

similar interviews undertaken in the 1990s

and 2000s.

Local climate station data has been compared

to re-analysed regional ERA5 data to give a

picture of changes in regional climate since

the 1980s and to compare this with

community perceptions of climate change

and extreme weather events.

Following initial results further exploration of

the value of animals, and how this may be

adapted to bring about sustainable climate-

proof systems, is ongoing.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

The climate of Soqotra and the western

Indian Ocean

The climate of Soqotra is complex and varies

over short distances based upon a variety of

local and regional inﬂuences. Little is known

about the changing climate in the western

Indian Ocean and its potential eﬀects on

Soqotra. ERA5 data was used to examine and

address this in the light of (a) community

perception of the changing climate, and (b)

the detection of trends since 1980 and

projection into the future. It was NOT the

intention to apply broad scale regional data

to topographically inﬂuenced modelling on a

small island.

While a trend of increased precipitation can

be seen, this is strongly inﬂuenced by a small

number of extreme events in recent years

that could have occurred by chance. Even so

this has implications for water availability and

storage in a complex island system dominated

by a karstic landscape. It is also clear that a

Issue briefs

full appreciation of water availability and

recharge is still lacking, including the relevance

of fog in terms of both plant growth and

water availability.

Contemporary value of traditional land-use

management practices

In the east of Soqotra, traditional herding and

transhumance are still practised to a large

extent. In this area, the largest family expense

is food for the family, followed by animal feed.

In the south, where these traditions are rarely

practiced, the biggest expense is supplementary

animal feed. In drought years, the cost of this

supplementary feed can plunge families into

debt. Moreover, in drought years these

communities no longer know where to access

traditional water sources or store/use it

sustainably, which can result in great hardship.

People are gathering less fodder and spend

less time herding and managing animals.

Those that are moving their animals to

diﬀerent areas are doing so primarily because

they cannot aﬀord supplementary feed in

times of drought.

Until all facets of animal management are

coordinated in a systematic approach it will

not be possible to implement sustainable

solutions to these connected issues.

The wall system of Soqotra. Soqotra is covered by a network of wall systems – no longer maintained

– that are interpreted as land and water management systems in a karstic landscape.

Credit: Julian Jansen van Rensburg.

Issue briefs

Re-evaluation of the drivers of traditional

land-use scenarios

The main driver of traditional land-use

practices was the management of animals, as

these gave fundamental products such as

meat, milk and wool. This is no longer the

case: food and drink are purchased (as seen

from this being the largest cost to families in

many areas) and cloth is imported. Therefore,

in order to manage animals in a way that is

more sustainable and in tune with a varied

and changing environment the animals must

attain added value.

This is being addressed through more detailed

interviews with a subset of communities to

address animal value and associated sustainable

land management. These will also consider

societal impacts, such as long-term grazing,

accommodation while herding, and the

requirements of communities in a

development scenario.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•Study limitations: climate data. The island is

so topographically diverse that accurately

predicting future climate scenarios over

extremely small spatial scales is

methodologically problematic and potentially

irrelevant: the likelihood of a range of

small-scale local interventions being

proposed, implemented and monitored is

low due to a lack of resources and capacity.

This is compounded by a lack of knowledge

of certain components (water catchment

and use, land tenure, etc). This is a result of

cost/beneﬁt considerations: it is hard to

justify a large amount of resources to propose

solutions for a small, isolated and potentially

unique cultural and geographical system.

•It is clear that land management practices,

animal husbandry, water storage and access

solutions have changed over the last

decades, but in diﬀerent ways in diﬀerent

communities. There is a challenge to design

and implement solutions island-wide in a

sustainable way. Direct comparison with a

range of additional island systems would

be of value to share experiences.

•There are many external actors on Soqotra

and it has become clear that (a) local

community requirements are not being

addressed systematically and (b) fundamental

requirements such as Environmental Impact

Assessments (EIAs) are not being applied.

Systematic planning is not being undertaken

and the application of sustainable resources

is not being addressed. The voices of local

communities and actors on Soqotra are

not being heard: external actors and

ﬁnances have a strong inﬂuence in both a

political and a scientiﬁc context.

Recommendations

For United Nations member states

•Insist on long-term sustainable solutions

that are resource-enabled and monitored

while retaining ﬂexibility across diverse

Issue briefs

Soqotra Community Interviews. Members of

the project team interviewing community

members about their traditional land

management practices and how it relates to

their knowledge of local climate. Credit:

Soqotra Heritage Project.

landscapes and in rapidly changing

development scenarios;

•Listen to the voices and experiences of

communities alongside – not instead of –

reliance on externally funded and analysed

scientiﬁc data.

For United Nations agencies

•Examine funding and support activities

that take into account all sectors of society

and subject areas, e.g. on Soqotra there

has been an exclusive focus on biodiversity

while ignoring cultural heritage, and of

promoting humanitarian assistance without

considering biodiversity or cultural

heritage in implementation;

•Ensure all United Nations agency-funded

activities follow best practice, e.g. when

considering humanitarian responses consider

EIA, heritage value and conservation,

sustainability rather than focusing on a

single short-term solution;

•Even where external resources are required,

ensure local direction, implementation and

management with a focus on developing

sustainable income streams decoupled

from external sources.

For civil society and the private sector

•Civil society and private sector bodies

based on Soqotra have little involvement

in heritage conservation and planning

– this requires examination prior to

recommendations for a more inclusive

approach;

•Demonstrate best practice in project

implementation as an example to all actors

and agencies.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the people of Soqotra who

allowed the SHP team into their homes

and lives to gather the data that was used

in this report.

References

None cited.

Issue briefs

Image left: Dragon Blood tree felled by recent

cyclones on Soqotra, impacting livelihoods and the

traditional knowledge used to manage natural

resources. Credit: Soqotra Heritage Project.

Image right: Members of the Project Team in transit

to community interviews, through an arid landscape

resources. Credit: Soqotra Heritage Project.

Issue 8.

A participatory approach

to mapping, measuring and

mobilising cultural heritage

in Brazil’s Iron Quadrangle

Issue briefs

Authors:

Paul Heritagea, Leandro Valiatib, Gustavo Möller c,

Natália Nunes Aguiard and Karina Pietro Biasi Ruize

ª Professor of Drama and Performance and

Director of People’s Palace Projects, Queen

Mary, University of London, United Kingdom;

b Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management,

The University of Manchester;

c Project Manager and research assistant at

People’s Palace Projects do Brasil;

d Research Assistant at People’s Palace Projects

do Brasil;

e Research Assistant at People’s Palace Projects

do Brasil.

Project:

Roots of resilience (ROR), Queen Mary,

University of London (PI: Paul Heritage)

Partners:

Inhotim Institute (Brazil); Corporação

Musical Banda São Sebastião (Brazil);

Casa Quilombê (Brazil); Fundação

Cultural Carlos Drummond de Andrade

(Brazil); Grupo Atrás do Pano (Brazil);

and Associação Cultural Clube Osquindô

(Brazil).

Duration:

July 2020 – December 2022

Issue briefs

Young trombonist Letícia Rafaelli de

Oliveira Fernandes playing in a deactivated

mine in the city of Mariana, Minas Gerais,

Brazil. Credit: People’s Palace Projects.

Problem statement and aims

The roots of resilience (ROR) research

project addresses an acute threat to Brazilian

cultural heritage: the imminent risk in Brazil's

Iron Quadrangle from catastrophic natural

and humanitarian disasters resulting from

industrial mining. The Iron Quadrangle is a

region of rich cultural, environmental and

historical value but also the site of Brazil's

largest iron ore reserves. Despite the unique

cultural signiﬁcance of Brazil's Iron Quadrangle,

there has been no systematic research to

measure the impact of recent disasters on

the region's cultural heritage or on the lives

of local communities: two major landslip and

ﬂood events in 2015 and 2019 resulted in the

loss of almost 300 lives and wreaked

environmental devastation along a 1000km

watershed. The project’s aim is to contribute

to the development of community-based

research practices that will strengthen the

integration of cultural heritage sustainability

into national disaster and risk reduction

strategies in Brazil.

Methodology

ROR used the ‘Relative Values’ (Arts and

Humanities Research Council-funded research

project) methodology, developed by People’s

Palace Projects (PPP) to evaluate the socio-

economic impacts of cultural organisations in

a participatory and co-created way. To

understand the context of the participating

organisations, their actions and impacts on

their audience, and to develop a hazard

perception diagnosis, we use secondary and

primary data collected through 489 survey

questionnaires administered with organisations’

target audience, beneﬁciaries and local

networks, and 15 semi-structured interviews

conducted with two or three members from

each organisation, all analysed combining

quantitative and qualitative methods. Local

partners were engaged at every stage of the

research development, delivery and

dissemination.

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

Socio-economic impacts of partner

organisations

The data collected has demonstrated the role

cultural organisations play in promoting well-

being for their communities as well as their

members and/or employees, especially in

times of crisis. These organisations promote

the development of interpersonal and

professional skills and position the cultural

and educational sectors as a means of

employment and income generation, oﬀering

an alternative to the mining-dependent

production chain that dominates opportunities

for the inhabitants of the Iron Quadrangle.

They also produce important connections

between communities and territory, history,

culture and local cultural heritage, all of which

are considered fundamental to heritage

preservation, in the transmission of practices

and traditions as well as in generating investment.

Hazard perception diagnosis

Amongst the environmental threats noted by

respondents, the rupture of new tailings dams

is the most feared. However, survey

respondents are also highly concerned about

the exploitation of natural resources and

other threats that are predominantly under

the control and inﬂuence of public authorities.

Dialogue between communities and public

authorities was highlighted as critical in

ensuring the implementation of policies to

preserve cultural and environmental heritage

and to contain climate change. The research

has highlighted that mining, despite its

Issue briefs

economic importance, should be managed

according to the precautionary principle to

reduce its negative impact on human lives

and the environment.

Co-creating inventories of the Iron

Quadrangle’s heritage

Our partner organisations took part in

immersive arts workshops and training

sessions that allowed them to co-create

inventories of their cultural practices and

assets. This data, these stories and this

cultural knowledge are now available to local

teachers, policymakers and local authorities,

to help establish what role cultural heritage

can have as part of a process of transformation,

resilience and regeneration.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•Cultural heritage is a tool to build capacity

and resilience in local communities facing

environmental disasters and climate change.

•Disasters are not natural: it is essential to

develop and strengthen a culture of risk

reduction and disaster prevention.

•Climate change increases the existing risks

that mineral exploitation places on

communities and on cultural and natural

heritage in the Iron Quadrangle.

Thiago SKP (right) – Rap artist from Itabira – performing his song Quanto vale? written as part of the

research for Roots of Resilience. Thiago's performance was part of a public seminar at the theatre of

the Carlos Drummond de Andrade Foundation. The graﬃti by Derio Di Carvalho (left) represents the

song’s lyrics. Credit: People’s Palace Projects.

Issue briefs

Recommendations

For United Nations (UN) member states and

international agencies

•Recognise culture as a human right,

integrating a cultural dimension in risk

prevention and impact mitigation planning.

•Support and expand research around the

impact of disasters and climate change on

local and regional cultural heritage.

•Include local cultural knowledge and

practices in risk management and impact

mitigation planning.

For regional and local stakeholders

•Support and expand research around the

impact of disasters and climate change on

local and regional cultural heritage.

•Value the knowledge and cultural practices

of local communities to preserve cultural

and natural heritage.

•Mobilise local and regional stakeholders,

organisations and the creative sector to

deﬁne priorities and seek collaborative

solutions to the current natural and

manmade challenges.

Issue briefs

Mining landscape in the city of Itabira, place of origin of the Vale company. Credit: People’s Palace Projects.

For Iron Quadrangle’s public stakeholders

•Foster the region’s creative economy

through municipal and/or regional policies,

recognising the socio-economic

importance of local cultural heritage in the

Iron Quadrangle and its potential to

diversify the local economy.

•Strengthen participatory bodies, engaging

local communities to support cultural

management and governance in risk

management.

•Establish an educational programme for

young people that can help to raise

awareness about the importance of

cultural heritage in the region and the

impact of climate and environmental

disasters there.

Acknowledgements

Inhotim Institute (Brazil), Corporação

Musical Banda São Sebastião (Brazil), Casa

Quilombê (Brazil), Fundação Cultural

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil),

Grupo Atrás do Pano (Brazil), Associação

Cultural Clube Osquindô (Brazil) and

Jurema Machado (consultant).

References

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change. (2021). Climate Change 2021: the

Physical Science Basis. Summary for

Policymakers. Geneva: IPCC.

Secretary of State for Environment and

Sustainable Development (SEMAD).

(2021). Diagnóstico ambiental do Estado de

Minas Gerais: suporte para o planejamento

anual das ﬁscalizações ambientais. Belo

Horizonte: SEMAD.

Furtado, J. (2015). Mobilização comunitária

para a redução de riscos de desastres.

Florianópolis: CEPED UFSC.

Campos, L. and Corrêa, S. (2021). Políticas

públicas de gestão de risco ao Patrimônio

Cultural frente aos efeitos das mudanças

climáticas, Habitus, 19(1), pp. 78–92.

Wisnik, J. M. (2018). Maquinação do

Mundo: Drummond e a Mineração. São

Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Issue briefs

Mining landscape in the city of Itabira, place of origin of the Vale company. Credit: People’s Palace Projects.

Issue 9.

Understanding climate

vulnerability and promoting

adaptation planning by

improving preparedness

measures for African

cultural heritage sites and

communities

Issue briefs

Authors:

Dr Will Megarrya, Dr Albino Jopelab, Prof Jane

Downesc, Dr Ewan Hyslopd, Dr Scott Herone and

Dr Jon Dayf

a Principal Investigator, School of Natural and

Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, UK;

b Co-Investigator, African World Heritage Fund,

Midrand, South Africa;

c Co-Investigator, Archaeology Institute,

University of the Highlands and Islands, UK;

d Co-Investigator, Historic Environment

Scotland, UK;

e Project Partners, James Cook University,

Townsville, Australia.

Project:

Values-based climate change risk

assessment: piloting the Climate

Vulnerability Index for cultural heritage in

Africa (also cited as CVI Africa), Queen’s

University of Belfast (PI: William Megarry)

Partners:

Tanzanian Wildlife Authority (Tanzania),

Union of Concerned Scientists (USA),

International Council on Monuments and

Sites (France), The Climate Heritage

Network, Historic England (UK),

International National Trusts Organisation

(UK), ICOMOS Nigeria (Nigeria),

American University of Yola (Nigeria),

National Museums Tanzania (Tanzania).

Duration:

November 2020 – August 2022

Issue briefs

World heritage site, the oldest Standing

Mosque Kilwa Kisiwani. Credit: Mbwana,

Adobe Stock.

Problem statement and aims

In many regions of Africa the risks from

climate change are pronounced, as temperature

increases in these regions are projected to be

higher than the global mean increase. These

risks have been starkly illustrated in numerous

recent reports, which show that Africa – and

its heritage – are particularly vulnerable. How

those who care for cultural heritage respond

to these threats has profound implications for

the wider culture and development of many

countries. The CVI Africa project has improved

preparedness measures for African cultural

heritage sites and communities by embedding

vulnerability assessment into heritage

practice, investing in the time-critical need to

put cultural heritage onto a new pathway for

longer-term resilience-building and change

management processes. This has been

particularly important in light of the current

and anticipated impacts of climate change

and natural disasters.

Methodology

The CVI Africa project has two key steps.

First, it provided remotely delivered

foundational training to a cohort of eight

African heritage professionals in climate

vulnerability assessment of cultural heritage

sites. This course included modules on World

Heritage, climate science, values mapping and

vulnerability assessment techniques. Secondly,

it embedded this learning by organising and

running hands-on workshops at two World

Heritage properties in Tanzania (The Ruins of

Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara) and

Nigeria (The Sukur Cultural Landscape). These

workshops use an established approach

called the climate vulnerability index (Day et

al., 2020). These workshops were science-

driven and community-led, focusing on local

concerns and assessing vulnerability based on

input from local stakeholders on values and

adaptive capacities. Hybrid formats also

allowed for wider participation and engagement.

These results provided an assessment of both

CVI Consult rapid assessment of OUV vulnerability table.

Issue briefs

heritage and socio-economic vulnerability at

both properties as well as an assessment of

the utility of the technique within an African

context (Day et al., 2022, Heron et al., 2022).

Core themes, project achievements

and research ﬁndings

The need for increased training to boost the

preparedness of heritage professionals in

Africa and globally.

There is a time-critical need to improve

preparedness measures for African cultural

heritage sites and communities. Traditionally,

the heritage sector has been reactive to

global challenges; however, by putting cultural

heritage onto a new pathway for longer-term

resilience-building and change management

processes, in the light of the current and

anticipated impacts of climate change and

natural disasters, there is an opportunity to

be proactive in our response to climate

change. Its impacts are increasing at an

alarming rate and there is an urgent need to

prepare heritage professionals to respond

eﬀectively, especially in worst-aﬀected countries.

The need for standardised, replicable yet

adaptable tools and methodologies to assess

the vulnerability of heritage sites and their

communities.

The International Council on Monuments and

Sites (ICOMOS) has noted that, “…climate

change has become one of the most signiﬁcant

and fastest-growing threats to people and

their heritage worldwide…” (ICOMOS, 2017).

Climate change will aﬀect, directly or indirectly,

all cultural heritage sites around the world.

These impacts will disproportionately aﬀect

cultural heritage in the global south and in

Africa in particular. There is a critical need to

prepare sites and communities for this

impending threat, yet the heritage sector

lacks tools and methodologies to achieve this.

Vulnerability assessment tools are among the

most important as they lay the framework for

adaptation planning. The CVI Africa project

assessed the utility of the CVI technique in an

African context and illustrated the importance

of malleability in challenging environments

and contexts.

The importance of meaningful knowledge

exchange and capacity-building

Climate change is a geopolitical issue, which

will aﬀect all heritage sites. From Stonetown

in Zanzibar to Stonehenge in the UK, the

experiences of heritage professionals with be

both diﬀerent and similar. There is huge

beneﬁt in sharing knowledge across borders

and cultures. Traditional models of knowledge

transfer have favoured top-down educational

pedagogies rather than more meaningful and

democratic knowledge exchange that beneﬁts

all. Locally developed solutions may be place-

speciﬁc, but they may also be transferrable to

other sites and contexts. This will be especially

relevant in parts of the world with longer

histories of climate action and adaption.

Lessons learnt and study limitations

•The utility of alternative educational

pedagogies to increase inclusion in

training, enabling participation from a wide

range of people.

•The importance of taking a values-based

approach to vulnerability, working with

diverse stakeholders including the local

community, to identify a plurality of values,

which are not solely limited to built heritage.

•The value of transdisciplinary approaches

that engage with climate science to use

downscaled climate models to explore climate

impacts on a local and site-speciﬁc scale.

Issue briefs

•The equal importance of training local

heritage professionals to interpret, understand

and apply these models in practice.

•The importance of co-creation and

dissemination (including translation,

authorship, acknowledging and respecting

other knowledge systems) when running

and delivering projects.

Recommendations

For policy review bodies and research

organisations

•To fund projects that lead to, or continue

to build, meaningful and ongoing relationships

with research partners, avoiding potentially

exploitative short-term research.

•To focus on working internationally to

develop new tools and methodologies that

are malleable, transferrable and inclusive in

their methodologies and application.

•To encourage projects that prioritise

inclusion and accessibility, especially for

minority groups. This might include online

elements or adapting existing methods to

promote greater involvement.

The Cultural Vulnerability Index (CVI) framework to undertake the assessment of climate change

vulnerability of World Heritage property and associated communities. Credit: Day et al. 2019.

Issue briefs

For funding bodies

•Research funding prioritises projects that

follow empirical methodologies and

deliverables representative of western

scientiﬁc knowledge systems. There is a

need to fund other approaches that respect

a plurality of knowledge systems including

local and indigenous knowledge. To achieve

this, there is a need to expand review

panels for funding calls to include a wider

range of reviewers from diverse backgrounds.

•Money is power in research. This means

that western researchers remain in control

of research projects, making meaningful

co-creation diﬃcult. There is a need to

include exceptions for international

research to make ﬁnancing in-country

researchers easier, targeting less-represented

countries with fewer post-colonial links.

For national and international heritage bodies

•To ensure that tools and methodologies

are transferrable, scalable, adaptable and

replicable at diﬀerent site types and scales.

•To facilitate and fund continual professional

development for staﬀ to learn new tools

and methodologies to prepare for climate

impacts, and to build these mechanisms

into job descriptions.

•To incorporate climate vulnerability

assessment into periodic reporting

mechanisms for all heritage sites and to

incorporate results into management

planning cycles.

•To promote the inclusion of cultural heritage

into state and sectoral adaptation plans.

Sukur Cultural Landscape. DipoTayo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Issue briefs

Acknowledgements

The project would like to acknowledge the

communities from Kilwa Kisiwani and

Sukur for their support and engagement

throughout the process. The CVI-Africa

project was made possible through a

generous grant awarded by the UK Arts

and Humanities Research Council’s Global

Challenges Research Fund. The grant was

funded through a demonstration scheme

arranged by the UK Government

Department for Digital, Culture, Media &

Sport (DCMS). The scheme contributes to

the development of a longer-term UK

Overseas Development Assistance (ODA)

funded workstream, to respond eﬀectively

to climate change impacts on cultural

heritage focused on developing countries.

References

Day J. C., Heron S. F., Markham A. (2020).

Assessing the climate vulnerability of

the world’s natural and cultural heritage,

Parks Stewardship Forum, 36, 144–153.

ICOMOS. (2019). The Future of Our Pasts:

Engaging cultural heritage in climate

action Outline of Climate Change and

Cultural Heritage. Paris: International

Council on Monuments and Sites.

Day, J. C., Heron, S. F. H., Odiaua, I.,

Downes, J., Itua, E., Lass, A. A., Ekwurzel,

B. and Sham, A. (2022). An application of

the Climate Vulnerability Index for the

Sukur Cultural Landscape. Project

Report. Abuja, Nigeria: ICOMOS Nigeria.

Day, J. C., Heron, Scott, F., Markham, A.,

Downes, J., Gibson, J., Hyslop, E., Jones,

R. and Lyall, A. (2019). Climate Risk

Assessment for the Heart of Neolithic

Orkney World Heritage Site.

Conference Volume. Edinburgh: Historic

Environment Scotland.

Heron, S. F., Day, J. D., Mbogelah, M.,

Bugumba, R., Abraham, E., Sadi, M. .,

Noah, P., Khamis, M. S., Madenge, S. and

Megarry, W. (2022). Application of the

Climate Vulnerability Index for the

Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and the Ruins

of Songo Mnara, Tanzania. Project

Report. CVI Africa Project, Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania.

Heron, S. F., Day, J. D., Mbogelah, M.,

Bugumba, R., Abraham, E., Sadi, M. B.,

Noah, P., Khamis, M. S., Madenge, S.,

Megarry, W. and Sanjo Mafuru, S. (2022).

Matumizi ya Kiashiria cha Mabadiliko

ya Tabia-nchi kwa Magofu ya Kilwa

Kisiwani na Magofu ya Songo Mnara,

Tanzania [Application of the Climate

Vulnerability Index for the Ruins of Kilwa

Kisiwani and the Ruins of Songo Mnara,

Tanzania. Swahili translation]. Project

Report. CVI Africa Project, Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania.

Issue briefs

Lessons learnt and

recommendations

Lessons learnt and recommendations

Flood aﬀected village in

Northern Bangladesh. Credit:

Abdul Momin, Adobe Stock.

This ﬁnal section outlines the lessons that

have been learnt across the CHCC Cohort

and the recommendations for policymakers,

funding bodies in the arts and humanities,

researchers and practitioners working on

cultural heritage preservation, management

and enhancement for current and future

generations, as well as on climate change and

disaster risk preparedness and management.

Lessons and recommendations are derived

from best practices and challenges faced

over the 18-month funding period across all

nine projects, including new learnings and

opportunities from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

8282

Lessons learnt and recommendations

for policymakers, funding bodies,

researchers and practitioners

Authors:

Rowan Jackson, Francesca Giliberto and Luba Pirgova-Morgan

The following lessons and

recommendations are covered in

this section:

•Communicate to stakeholders through

language translation and data access;

•Identify target audiences and stakeholders

for research and policy impact;

•Promote holistic and integrated

frameworks in heritage research;

•Develop active channels to co-design and

incorporate learnings into national and

local policymaking;

•Decolonise funding models to make

research participants, particularly

indigenous and local communities,

empowered stakeholders;

•Encourage ﬂexible ﬁnancing to support

investigators in collaborating countries;

•Foster continuity within research

workstreams for more sustainable and

impactful research projects;

•Learning from COVID-19 with respect to all

stages of the research process.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

Lessons learnt

1. Communicate to stakeholders

with outputs that are translated

into multiple languages and in

accessible mediums.

The lack of translation of research outputs

into local languages and into mediums that all

stakeholders can gain access to is a consistent

challenge across academic research in the UK.

The literature on dissemination of research

ﬁndings is dominated by the health sciences

but literature in the humanities and social

sciences remains limited. Projects in this

workstream span a wide geographical area

with multiple languages locally and nationally.

Many of the communities covered, as well as

local policymakers, have limited access to

trusted information on issues such as climate

change impacts and adaptation and disaster

risk. Access to research outputs cannot be

taken for granted and the ethical imperative

to disseminate research ﬁndings could be

considered a social contract for researchers

in receipt of public funding (Castree, 2016). In

this context, particular attention needs to be

paid to bridging the ‘digital divide’ existing

between diﬀerent geographical areas (north/

south, urban/rural) and communities as well

as between UK institutions and overseas

partners. This may include the distribution of

physical resources (e.g. internet data, digital

devices, etc.) if there is limited or no access to

the internet, and collaboration and buy-in

from individuals who can help translate

(culturally and linguistically) for local stakeholders.

2. Identify relevant audiences and

provide targeted, clear messages

to achieve greater impact.

Researchers have a vital role in bridging

between local groups, practitioners and

policymakers. They can help to identify

challenges facing local-scale cultural heritage

and opportunities to enhance local-scale

capacities in response to impacts of climate

change and natural disasters. However, there

is a tendency for academic researchers to

produce outputs that appeal to a niche or a

very general audience who can interpret and

apply ﬁndings to common issues or (research)

agendas (Barry and Born, 2013). As a result,

this approach has a greater application to

academic impact than impacts on policy and

practice, for example as part of the Research

Excellence Framework (REF). Identifying

relevant policymakers and practitioners at the

local and national levels, supporting their

engagement at all stages of the research project,

and communicating clear lessons based on

project ﬁndings, are all crucial to promoting

policy-relevant research. Moreover, the

safeguarding of cultural heritage in its

tangible and intangible forms requires the

sustained participation of multiple local,

national and – in many cases – international

actors. This requires not only buy-in but also

the recognition of ownership, particularly

among local groups.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

3. Promote holistic and integrated

frameworks in heritage research.

This AHRC call highlighted the importance of

‘integrated understandings of the local,

cultural and historic contexts of cultural

heritage’ and the need to engage with ‘local

knowledges, expertise and communities’

(AHRC, 2020: 7). In addition, the call

encouraged exploration of the challenges and

debates associated with cultural heritage (e.g.

what cultural heritage means in diﬀerent

cultural contexts). Integrated frameworks that

are built upon a critical study of cultural

heritage in its local, placed context provided

suﬃcient ﬂexibility for each research project

to challenge the conventions of normative

(e.g. oﬀ-the-shelf) risk assessments that have

a disproportionate focus on impacts on the

material fabric of cultural heritage sites.

Across the project groups, a diverse range of

heritages emerged and a range of existing

and new risk tools provide a novel –

transferrable – means of studying climate

change and disaster impacts and adaptation.

More holistic approaches to heritage and the

development of vulnerability and risk

assessments may include in-depth studies

that focus on local cultural values and the

entanglement of natural and cultural heritage

(see for example Barnes et al., 2013). This in-

depth approach was utilised for example in

the CRITICAL project, which includes a study

that questioned how we deﬁne risk in analyses

of climate impacts on cultural heritage (Crowley

et al., 2022). In this context, it is important to

develop approaches able to overcome the

nature-culture dichotomy, often not recognised

by indigenous and local communities, in the

understanding of the complex interface

between climate impacts and adaptation. For

this reason, a standard risk assessment tool

would not adequately capture the interface

between local values, held by indigenous

groups, and climate change impacts that pose

risks to their lifeways. Moreover, institutional

partnerships between academia, NGOs and

governmental institutions will support a

better integration of heritage research into

climate change and disaster risk management

policy frameworks and practical actions.

4. Develop ﬂexible ﬁnancing and

research management to support

investigators in collaborating

countries outside the United Kingdom.

Flexible ﬁnancing and resource management

from funding councils, where collaborating

countries outside the UK have greater

autonomy over the direction of the research

project, could support researchers in LMICs

and provide new and insightful directions to

research workstreams and policy. The ﬁndings

discussed in this report have shown how

giving more project ownership and data

collection responsibility to local partners has

positively inﬂuenced the projects’ success.

This process has also been boosted by the

outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which,

with international ﬂight restrictions and

national lockdowns, limited opportunities for

UK researchers to conduct ﬁeldwork and on-

the-ground research. Additionally, the

COVID-19 health crisis has encouraged the

development of new or additional resources

(e.g. long-term training materials), often with

the purpose of sharing those with local

partners. While the pandemic has supported

the reallocation of research funds across

projects to support local collaborators and

provide them additional autonomy in the

research direction at local levels, it is still

urgent to redistribute research funding to

give greater autonomy and responsibility to

investigators in LMICs for the implementation

of equitable partnerships.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

5. Decolonise funding models to

make research participants

empowered stakeholders.

Funding models in the UK support dominant

modes of thinking and research trends that

are conducive to the Western academy. This

could stiﬂe originality and the ability of co-

investigators and research participants in

LMICs to direct the research agenda.

Decolonising funding models and research

practices should develop a participant-centred

model that gives ﬁnancial resources and

control over the direction of funded projects.

Such models should go beyond the hyperbole

of transdisciplinary research, where research

participants hold sway over the direction of

the research project, to empower their own

decisions about what the focus of the project

should be and how theory is used to guide

and frame research subjects.

Decolonising funding models should recognise

the political and economic question

underpinning all research: who gets what?

This is an inherently challenging question that

those who draft research calls and principal

investigators have power to address. National

funding councils will necessarily support

research excellence in home institutions, but

ﬁnancial arrangements can be rigid and create

barriers to funding that departs from western

orthodoxy and forms of payment. For

knowledge exchange to be equitable, research

partners in LMICs need to hold equal power

and control over research ﬁnances.

6. Continuity and ﬂexibility within

research workstreams for sustainable

and impactful research on cultural

heritage in the context of climate

change and disasters.

Establishing trust relationships between UK

institutions, researchers and local partners

requires long-term engagement and a deep

understanding of local realities. This process

is only possible with sustained funding, which

is a signiﬁcant challenge for international

research collaborations. Without sustained

funding over multi-year funding cycles, there

will be a lack of follow-through on the

learnings from projects studying climate and

disaster impacts on cultural heritage. Funding

ﬂexibility is another key aspect in this context.

The AHRC's ﬂexible approach to funding and

project duration during the pandemic, for

instance, has been of great support to the

eﬀective achievement of the projects’ outcomes

during these challenging times.

As highlighted in the 2019 Futures of Our Past

report by ICOMOS, the safeguarding of cultural

heritage – both tangible and intangible –

necessitates ongoing monitoring and support

at the local scale. For research funding, this

means a continuity within workstreams that

maintains focus on core priorities, such as risk

assessment and supporting local capacities to

adapt to change, while building in new

research insights to inform new research and

policy priorities.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

An african carpenter during work takes

a board of wood to be cut. Credit:

Media Lens King, Adobe Stock.

7. Develop active channels to co-

design and incorporate learnings

into national policymaking.

Making space for active participation in, and

delivery of, project recommendations could

help shape more impactful recommendations

on cultural heritage management in the

context of climate change and disasters. In a

review of ‘how to’ guides on policy impact,

Cairney and Oliver (2020) warn of the bias

towards ‘heroic scientists’ overcoming odds

and highlight the uneven incentives,

opportunities and payoﬀs at the science-

policy interface, particularly for underrepresented

groups. Opportunities to work with policymakers

to communicate and incorporate learnings

from local research participants (who are

often not recognised as the experts they are)

into policy would provide a more transparent

and inclusive interface between academic

research and policymaking.

Developing a strong community of practice

between the diverse networks that make up

the cultural heritage sector requires ﬁnancial

support to connect and sustain knowledge

exchange and inﬂuence policymaking. The

projects funded in this call comprise

collaborations between academics from a

range of disciplines, practitioners, arts

organisations and policymakers with important

contributions to, and stakes in, the safeguarding

of cultural and natural heritage. All projects

underline the importance of sustained

funding to support multi- and transdisciplinary

projects to understand diverse representations

of heritage and develop novel methodological

toolkits to address and address risks created

by climate change and natural hazards.

8. Learning from COVID-19 with

respect to all stages of the research

process

The pandemic encouraged researchers to

transform the research design of the projects.

COVID-19, for many, presented as an

opportunity to redeﬁne the projects in a

more ﬂexible, adaptive manner that better

corresponded to the changing pandemic

context. New research designs were less rigid

and encouraged additional knowledge

exchange with local partners. COVID-19

brought about a change in perspective

regarding contingency planning. With human

and travel restrictions in place, contingency

plans became essential to guarantee the

eﬀective use of research funding for the

completion of projects’ goals.

COVID-19 impacted research practices,

including their methodologies. With a process

of shifting the data collection into the hands

of local partners, for example, additional

training has constituted an essential part of

research designs and should be taken into

consideration in the deﬁnition of the new

project methodologies.

Not all changes to project research designs,

communications, and practice will remain

after COVID. The cohort argued that, in some

cases, COVID brought about the ﬁnding of

'clumsy solutions' rather than 'elegant failures’.

These solutions are not ones that will remain

as part of research practice, but they could

contribute to a general change of perspectives

as to how we approach research in the ﬁrst

place. Therefore, these nine projects and their

experiences constitute important lessons we

can learn from, not just in relation to COVID-19

but also for future pandemics, disasters or

other challenging contexts.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

Recommendations

This ﬁnal section provides a selection of

recommendations to policymakers engaged in

safeguarding cultural heritage and supporting

international development, including climate

change adaptation and disaster relief.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

1. Recognise the existence of

multiple heritage assets and their

signiﬁcance for diverse communities,

and mainstream them in disaster

risk management, climate adaptation

strategies and response protocols.

A comprehensive understanding of cultural

heritage in all its components – tangible and

intangible, cultural and natural – and their

interconnections constitutes the ﬁrst critical

step for their eﬀective safeguarding over time.

In this context, local populations must be

involved in the recognition and interpretation

of heritage assets and values to promote

inclusive approaches, while also increasing

awareness of multiple heritage narratives.

2. International development

funding should support local

groups, especially minority groups,

to make their own decisions.

Empowering communities to make decisions

about their own heritage is essential to protecting

the diverse and changing expressions of cultural

and natural heritage that are threatened by

climate change and natural disasters.

Policymakers should prioritise inclusion and

accessibility and allocate funding to support

local-scale capacity building that is sensitive

to local cultural traditions by putting decision-

making in the hands of local stakeholders. A

wider challenge is to roll out a sustainable

ﬁnancial model for engaging local stakeholders

and developing a legacy through active and

sustained engagement.

3. Open access datasets are needed

to support local-scale capacity

building.

Local heritage organisations and local and

national governments in LMICs need access

to datasets to assess risks to their cultural

heritage assets. Making project data from UK

research councils available to relevant

stakeholders requires: (1) translation into local

languages, (2) recognition of diﬀerent cultures

of knowledge production in professional,

academic and government spaces, and (3)

diﬀerent levels of access to online and public

information. Dissemination of research

ﬁndings should therefore include active

collaboration with relevant stakeholders to

provide accessible and trustworthy datasets

that can be used to conserve cultural heritage.

4. Constructing eﬀective networks

of stakeholders whose values

inﬂuence the assessment and

management of risks to cultural

heritage should start from the

bottom-up.

This will foster a more inclusive research and

management culture for safeguarding cultural

heritage in anticipation of (and in response

to) the impacts of climate change and natural

hazards. Breaking down the silos between

diﬀerent academic disciplines, policy

departments and professional sectors is

required to overcome the lack of

communication across diﬀerent actors and,

therefore, the development of more

integrated and interdisciplinary solutions.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

Ruins of Mtoni palace in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Credit: olyasolodenko, Adobe Stock.

5. Understanding risk to cultural

heritage requires an eﬀective

dialogue with relevant stakeholders.

To achieve this dialogue, local interest groups

should be identiﬁed, included and empowered

to make decisions about the research focus

(i.e. what are the research questions?), the

characterisation of cultural heritage (i.e. what

is cultural heritage?) and what is at risk (i.e.

what is of value to interest groups?).

Moreover, the role of local leaders should

also be strengthened in emergency response

to make sure that policy measures and

protocols are implemented on the ground by

local communities.

6. Invest in education and outreach

following cultural heritage research

projects.

Impact through accessible education

resources and public outreach should be a

legacy of public funding. Financial resources

should be allocated for online and in-person

education and training resources about

managing cultural heritage in the context of

climate and natural hazard risks. Several

projects in this report developed online

platforms and in-person workshops to share

diverse knowledge and skills relating to

cultural heritage values and the impacts of

climate and disaster impacts.

7. Support organisations that

engage communities in creative

arts, crafts and traditional

practices to foster climate action.

Creative arts and cultural heritage

organisations play an essential role in

expression, identity and recognition, especially

in disempowered groups who are vulnerable

to climate change and natural hazards.

8. Fund successful projects over

multi-year cycles to create impact.

Identify successful projects and continue to

resource collaborations with partners in

LMICs. This will create a more impactful

legacy for the project and contribute to

capacity-building through the identiﬁcation of

risks to – and continued monitoring of –

cultural heritage. There is also further

potential to work with governments and

NGOs to develop appropriate adaptation

action plans.

9. Design risk tools and

methodologies that can be used by

academics and heritage managers

internationally.

Risk tools and methods need to be

transferable, scalable and adaptable between

national and cultural contexts to eﬀectively

identify and respond to climate and disaster

impacts. This requires ﬁnancial resources for

the following: (1) language translation services,

(2) engagement with local communities to

build trust, (3) knowledge exchange between

researchers and heritage managers, and (4)

open access education and training resources

that are available internationally.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

References

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). (2020). AHRC Global Challenges

Research Fund (GCRF) Urgency Grants highlight notice for Proposals Addressing Impacts

on Cultural Heritage resulting from Natural Disasters and Climate Change.

Barnes, J., Dove, M., Lahsen, M., Mathews, A., McElwee, P., McIntosh, R., Moore, F.,

O'reilly, J., Orlove, B., Puri, R. and Weiss, H. (2013). Contribution of anthropology to the

study of climate change. Nature Climate Change, 3(6), pp. 541–544.

Barry, A. and Born, G. (2013). Interdisciplinarity: reconﬁgurations of the social and

natural sciences. In: Barry, A. and Born, G. (eds). Interdisciplinarity. Reconﬁgurations of

the Social and Natural Sciences. London: Routledge, pp. 1–56.

Cairney, P. and Oliver, K. (2020). How should academics engage in policymaking to

achieve impact? Political Studies Review, 18(2), pp. 228–244.

Castree, N. (2016). Geography and the new social contract for global change research,

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41(3), pp. 328–347.

Crowley, K., Jackson, R., O'connell, S., Karunarthna, D., Anantasari, E., Retnowati, A. and

Niemand, D. (2022). Cultural Heritage and risk assessments: Gaps, challenges and future

research directions for the inclusion of heritage within climate change adaptation and

disaster management, Journal of Climate Resilience and Sustainability, 1(3), e45. DOI:

[10.1002/cli2.45]

Lessons learnt and recommendations

Conclusions and

future research

Wooden dwellings in Rumbur valley, one of the

three valleys inhabited with Kalasha people located

in Chitral District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Credit: Анастасия Смирнова, Adobe Stock

Authors:

Francesca Giliberto and Rowan Jackson

This report has provided a synthesis of the

achievements of cultural heritage projects

across LMICs in Asia, Africa and South America

to provide recommendations for funders and

policymakers in the UK. But it is also hoped that

the report outlines a roadmap and steps towards

wider synthesis and policy impact across publicly

funded research.

Lessons learnt and recommendations

The success of this synthesis has been possible

through an active community of practice

developed and supported by the AHRC and

DCMS between 2020 and 2022, and a series

of knowledge exchange activities organised

by the PRAXIS and CRITICAL projects. The

community of practice provided a space for

research challenges and opportunities to be

discussed during the COVID-19 public health

emergency and international restrictions. This

space also cultivated a venue for the two

workshops described in this report and

formed the basis for the nine issue briefs with

key ﬁndings and recommendations that are

relevant to a range of international policymakers

and heritage organisations including the UK

Government and research councils.

Despite the progress made by the projects of

the CHCC Cohort, there is still extensive work

needed to safeguard cultural heritage (both

tangible and intangible) from the impacts of

climate change and disasters. For example, a

key point that emerged from the cohort

discussions is the lack of younger generations’

involvement in the continuation of traditional

knowledge and cultural heritage practices,

which have proved to be signiﬁcant resources

to tackle climate change. Future research

could therefore explore both how to better

utilise traditional heritage management

knowledge and practices in the context of

climate change and also how to enhance

youth involvement in this context by using

arts, culture and heritage.

Moreover, there is a further need to explore

the potentialities and criticalities of using

cultural heritage to adapt to climate change,

prevent disasters and mitigate possible

impacts. Future research can investigate the

eﬀectiveness of cultural strategies and

practices implemented in diﬀerent regions

worldwide, particularly those developed by

indigenous and local communities. In this

context, particular attention needs to be paid

to ﬁll a gap between academic research and

current practices, which are often disconnected,

and to stimulate more collaborative work

between researchers, practitioners and local

communities to develop innovative solutions

and maximise impacts. Additional research is

also needed to highlight successful practices

that can be transferred and scaled in diﬀerent

contexts, while respecting the peculiarities of

speciﬁc cultures and locations. In this

framework, the building of (online) platforms

with data related to cultural heritage, climate

change and disasters that are accessible to

worldwide researchers, practitioners and

policymakers could facilitate the sharing of

information and knowledge development.

This report highlights the opportunities that

cultural heritage research oﬀers to

understanding disaster risk and climate

change impacts and adaptation. The hope is

that cultural heritage perspectives can

contribute to more equitable partnerships

with LMICs that recognise everyone’s stake in

the future of our past.

Iranian women waving Persian rugs in the carpet workshop in Naein, Iran. Credit: MehmetOZB,

Adobe Stock.

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Leeds, United Kingdom

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www.leeds.ac.uk

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Article

Oct 2021

This article introduces the Special Issue on Risk Protection for Cultural Heritage and Historic Centres. The article starts by reviewing the gaps in knowledge and practice related to disaster risk management of cultural heritage. It then reviews the contributions to the Special Issue, focussing on their multi-disciplinary findings that address some of the referred gaps. Finally, the article proceeds to discuss, in more detail, certain topics related to disaster risk management and cultural heritage that should be targeted by future research, emphasizing specific issues that need to be addressed.

‘Drawing in’ other worlds: Addressing fragile heritage landscapes through cosmopolitical maps

Article

Mar 2021

Zahra Hussain

This paper builds on the argument that large-scale infrastructural development in remote communities poses a threat to their local heritage landscape. This is done not only through physical intervention in landscapes (through bridges, roads, pipelines or ports) but also through imaginaries projected about development that tends to re-label local landscapes as hotspots for development. This paper explores drawing as a medium to explore fragile-heritage landscapes through the stories, folklores and experiences of local communities within their landscape. It proposes a mapping strategy that attempts to grasp the diminishing heritage landscapes of Gwadar, a coastal town in Pakistan which is being re-claimed as the hub of prosperity (port) connecting two infrastructural mammoths: the BRI land routes and maritime silk roads. Together with the community, their stories and memories, we ‘draw-in’ tangible, immaterial, invisible, human, spiritual and more-than-human entities, and their worlds that are at risk of erasure in the current wave of infrastructural development.

How Should Academics Engage in Policymaking to Achieve Impact?

Article

Nov 2018
Polit Stud Rev

This article reviews the advice from the academic and ‘grey’ literatures to identify a list of dos and don’ts for academics seeking ‘impact’ from their research. From ‘how to do it’ sources, we identify consistent advice on how to engage effectively, largely because it is necessarily vague, safe, and focused primarily on individuals. We then consider the wider policymaking system in which actors make political choices and have unequal access to impact opportunities. We identify the effort it takes to have actual policy impact and how far academics should be expected to go to secure and take credit for it.

Geography and the new social contract for global change research

Article

May 2016
T I BRIT GEOGR

Noel Castree

Anxious about the failure of decisionmakers to significantly reduce ‘the human impact’ on Earth, many global change researchers are looking for ways and means to influence public policy, business strategy and civil society more strongly. As part of this, there is a greater emphasis on understanding and altering the ‘human dimensions’ of global environmental change. A number of physical and society-environment geographers are involved in this endeavour, building on some valuable past achievements. But what lies ahead? I address this question by examining the rich idea of a ‘social contract’ – one little used in disciplinary debates about Geography's past, present and future, but now relatively common in certain wider discussions of anthropogenic global change. I suggest that there are currents of thinking in contemporary Geography that can offer something both new and much needed in the world of global change research. That ‘something’ is not ever more integrated, accurate analysis of dynamic, coupled human–environment interactions – as if we live in just one world requiring ever more ‘joined-up’ and granular description, explanation and prediction. Instead, it is an approach to research that eschews ontological holism, epistemological monism and the fact–value dualism. This approach suggests that taking the human dimensions of environmental change seriously requires a new kind of global change research that is at once overtly political and intellectually plural. Far from being a charter for ‘bias’ or ‘relativism’, I show that this approach expresses the rich senses of responsibility, accountability and representation contained in the version of a new social contract I advocate here. A wider implication of my argument is that Geography needs new stories about the nature and merits of ‘intra-disciplinarity’, ones better attuned to the role of research in fostering democracy in our ‘post-normal’ times. Thinking afresh about how research should influence society promises to alter many geographers’ sense of self while usefully repurposing global change research across several disciplines. The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2016 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

ISSUE 4. Combination of climate change and human activities endangering cultural heritage in Istanbul

Abstract

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