Assessing the risks of climate change for cultural heritage – The CLIMASCAPE project

The protection of cultural heritage sites from the climate change effects is a central priority for protecting the cultural capital of Greece, and the sustainability of the related touristic flows. This paper describes the conceptual framework of the CLIMASCAPE project which aims to develop a methodology to be rolled out as a multi-criteria system for the evaluation of exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity and eventually vulnerability of archaeological areas to climate change. Eight UNESCO archaeological sites in Greece are selected as case studies namely; Olympia, Delphi, Delos, Sanctuary of Asklepios, Mystras, Apollo Epicurius, Philippoi and Heraion of Samos. Climate model projections are used to identify possible climate change related risks such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, fires and sea level rise and associate them with each of the eight selected study areas. A methodological framework for assessing the vulnerability and its components is also presented along with examples of possible data that are useful for the quantitative estimation of the above. The preliminary finding of the project suggest that differentiated adaptation plans for each site based on (a) the specific projections regarding the impacts of climate change and (b) the specific characteristics of each site are needed.