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Heritage
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Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites
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Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites

A special issue of Heritage (ISSN 2571-9408).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2024) | Viewed by 13104

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. JoAnn Cassar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Interests: built heritage and its conservation; conservation of archaeological sites; heritage science; climate change and cultural heritage; earth observations for cultural heritage; environment and cultural heritage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. John J. Hughes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, UK
Interests: climate change and cultural heritage; conservation; historical building repair; material characterization and performance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Monuments and heritage sites worldwide are constantly being affected by environmental and other types of factors that bring about the deterioration of materials, structures and landscapes; these processes are accepted as part of the natural cycle of these buildings and sites. Other acute threats are considered more impactful and require immediate action, including floods and fire, hurricanes and cyclones, earthquakes and landslides.

In addition to the continued action of the above, climate change is today considered to be the main driving force accelerating previously existing threats, as well as introducing new ones. Gradual changes in temperature, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and wind intensity, as well as sea level rise and changes in the occurrence of extreme events, are already affecting cultural heritage sites. In addition, sea level rise, desertification, and the interaction between climatic changes and air pollution have also been identified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as threats to the tangible cultural heritage.

Many studies and reviews over the years, starting from the early 1990s, have explored the effects of climate change on built heritage (Viles 2002, Brimblecombe 2003, Cassar and Pender 2005, Fatorić and Seekamp 2015, Sesana et al. 2021); the effects on archaeological sites and their contexts (landscapes) have also been studied (Rowland 1992, Daly 2013). Adaptation (and mitigation) measures are now also the subject of research (Haugen and Mattsson 2011, Cassar J. 2016, Sesana et al. 2018, 2020).

However, there are also anthropological threats, ranging from urban sprawl to neglect, from irresponsible interventions to downright vandalism and mere ignorance. In addition, we need to acknowledge the collateral and sometimes deliberate destruction of heritage during war.

The aim of this Special Issue is therefore to put a spotlight on the numerous risks and threats that our built heritage is being faced with. Whilst there is a clear emphasis on climate changes and its effects, other long-standing threats are also included. This Special Issue also wishes to highlight possible adaptation and mitigation measures to deal with these threats, as well as indirect consequences to the intangible, including livelihoods and wellbeing.

This Special Issue will therefore include papers from these diverse topics:

  • Heritage Buildings, Archaeological Sites and Landscapes under threat from:
    • Earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and other forces of nature;
    • Climate change and its consequences;
    • Pollution (urban and non-urban);
    • Anthropological pressures;
    • War and terrorism.
  • Adaptation and mitigation measures related to the above:
    • Indigenous;
    • Modern;
    • Innovative.
  • Review papers on legislation, guidelines and recommendations:
    • International;
    • National;
    • Regional;
    • Local.
  • Overviews on the effects of tangible threats to buildings and sites on the intangible:
    • Traditions and customs;
    • Ways of life;
    • Effects on tourism;
    • Loss of landscape.

Prof. Dr. JoAnn Cassar
Dr. John J. Hughes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • built heritage, archaeological sites and landscapes
  • threats and risk
  • forces of nature
  • climate and pollution
  • anthropological effects
  • war and terrorism
  • tangible affecting the intangible
  • adaptation and mitigation

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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37 pages, 21530 KiB  
Article
Terrorism Risk Assessment for Historic Urban Open Areas
by Elena Cantatore, Enrico Quagliarini and Fabio Fatiguso
Heritage 2024, 7(10), 5319-5355; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7100251 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 572
Abstract
Making cities resilient and secure remains a central goal in urban policy strategies, where established methods, technologies, and best experiences are applied or replicated when the knowledge of a threat is already well established. The scientific community and specialized bodies are invited to [...] Read more.
Making cities resilient and secure remains a central goal in urban policy strategies, where established methods, technologies, and best experiences are applied or replicated when the knowledge of a threat is already well established. The scientific community and specialized bodies are invited to comprehend and evaluate disastrous events that are still not well explored to broaden the concept of resilient cities. Among these, terrorism in the European-built environment remains an underexplored topic, despite various studies assessing its economic, social, and political dimensions, exploring the radicalist matrix, or examining the post-effects of high-impact disastrous events. Within this framework, this work presents an algorithm for the risk assessment of historic urban open areas (uOAs) in Europe, combining theories of the terrorism phenomenon, the normative experiences, and the phenomenological results of violent acts in uOAs. Specifically, the algorithm is determined by studying physical qualities/properties and elements that usually feature the uOAs, using a limited set of descriptors. The descriptors and their formulation are set starting from their qualification, in compliance with the risk determinant (Hazard, Vulnerability, and Exposure), and discussed starting from participatory methods (Delphi and AHP). The algorithm is finally applied to Italian historic squares, testing the mathematical approach, verifying theories of the phenomenon, and setting up a comprehensive three-dimensional risk matrix for both soft and hard targets. This latest constitutes an operative tool to assess the investigated built environment exposed to terrorist threats aimed at developing more detailed mitigative strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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26 pages, 2618 KiB  
Article
Overheating in Historic Buildings in the UK: An Exploratory Study of Overheating Risks, Building Performance, and Thermal Comfort
by Pakhee Kumar, Benjamin Wright and Athina Petsou
Heritage 2024, 7(9), 4829-4854; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7090229 - 4 Sep 2024
Viewed by 917
Abstract
A study reviewing overheating in historic buildings in the context of extant climate change. Due to global warming, more research is required when considering summertime thermal comfort in the UK, which is a more significant topic of conversation due to the heatwave in [...] Read more.
A study reviewing overheating in historic buildings in the context of extant climate change. Due to global warming, more research is required when considering summertime thermal comfort in the UK, which is a more significant topic of conversation due to the heatwave in 2022. With a large demographic of the UK population residing in dwellings with historic value, this paper aimed to contribute findings that review their specific traits with respect to overheating. This was achieved by monitoring and analysing internal (and external environmental data) in three case studies in the south-east. Upon examination of the literature, many buildings in the UK are consistently subject to temperatures that exceed overheating. It was found that many properties of historic buildings lend themselves to summertime cooling such as higher thermal mass, better ventilation (without the use of mechanical or active systems), and less insulation. This, however, could come at the cost of winter thermal comfort. In all three case studies, the surveyed buildings passed the CIBRE criteria, but users still commented on being ‘too hot’. The high recorded RH levels in all properties, coupled with the inadequate overheating criteria, were deemed the cause. There are new regulations in place to minimise overheating in new buildings but no support for those that are already existing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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37 pages, 3238 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Long-COVID Impact on Heritage Organisations
by Ari Volanakis, Colin Seymour and Kalliopi Fouseki
Heritage 2024, 7(6), 3211-3247; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7060152 - 11 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1585
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to understand the long-COVID impact on cultural heritage organisations, and future research needed. COVID-19 was disruptive to cultural heritage socioeconomic activities across the world during 2020 and 2021. Whilst government intervention and changes from physical to digital [...] Read more.
The aim of this paper is to understand the long-COVID impact on cultural heritage organisations, and future research needed. COVID-19 was disruptive to cultural heritage socioeconomic activities across the world during 2020 and 2021. Whilst government intervention and changes from physical to digital engagement generally prevailed, the long-COVID impact on cultural heritage organisations, their people and users, buildings, and collections remains unknown. The extent, also, to which financing, curating, visiting, and volunteering patterns have changed is uncertain. Following the pandemic closures and associated support, cultural heritage organisations are facing continuing economic, social, political, environmental, technological, and organisational culture pressures. This research examines the existing academic literature, sector publications, annual reports and associated visitor information to understand whether cultural heritage organisations have long-COVID, whether they can survive another pandemic, and what further research is needed to be better prepared. Four case studies from the UK look at the visitor and financial impacts of COVID-19 on the British Library, the London Transport Museum, The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and Kensington Palace. This paper contributes to heritage research by providing a deeper understanding of the impact that COVID-19 had on heritage, and how to proactively plan for similar future disruptions. The impact themes show that change did not result in a new normal but in the need for a new space, consisting of blended space (physical and digital), mixed space (indoors and outdoors), and community of practice space (isolated or cross-sector networking space). The literature highlights the significance of the sector coming together during the pandemic to share knowledge and provide support through its networks. It also highlights how important it is for such unity not to be lost but to be harnessed to support ongoing organisational sustainability and better preparedness for future crises. Finally, future research suggestions are proposed grouped into social, digital, financial, and operational research themes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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12 pages, 3755 KiB  
Article
Climate Change and Pilgrimage to Shrines in Ethiopia
by Peter Brimblecombe, Habtamu Gizawu Tola and Jenny Richards
Heritage 2024, 7(1), 95-106; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7010004 - 22 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2193
Abstract
Pilgrimages are an important part of our intangible heritage. These long journeys, often on foot, can be sensitive to weather, so this study sees pilgrimages as providing an opportunity to look at the way in which changes in climate affect intangible heritage. It [...] Read more.
Pilgrimages are an important part of our intangible heritage. These long journeys, often on foot, can be sensitive to weather, so this study sees pilgrimages as providing an opportunity to look at the way in which changes in climate affect intangible heritage. It examines two important Ethiopian pilgrimages that involve hundreds of thousands who travel each year to Dirre Sheikh Hussein, seen as the country’s Mecca, and Lalibela, its Jerusalem. These journeys in the cold season (December–February) often exceed 1000 km in length and expose pilgrims to low temperatures in mountain areas. Our analysis uses daily output data from ERA-5 and CHIRPS for rainfall and temperature across the recent past (1984–2014) and an ensemble of climate models (CMIP6) for the periods 1984–2014 and 2035–2065, to explore changes in nighttime low temperature, daytime high temperature and the potential increase in days of heavy rain in mountain areas. Additionally, we examine the increasing number of very hot days affecting travel to and from Dirre Sheikh Hussein. The pilgrims experience weather events and not long-term average conditions, so extremes and spells of inclement weather can affect their experience. Management plans for the regions have yet to address likely changes to climate at these religious sites, or consider how strategic planning might mitigate their impact on pilgrims. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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Review

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25 pages, 13635 KiB  
Review
A Historical Landscape under Threat: Contestation and Preservation of Malta’s Pastoral Droveways
by Gianmarco Alberti, Reuben Grima, Nicholas C. Vella, Kurt Xerri and David E. Zammit
Heritage 2024, 7(6), 3095-3119; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7060146 - 7 Jun 2024
Viewed by 2090
Abstract
Landscapes have been shaped and reshaped by humans to meet the changing needs of shifting subsistence strategies and demographic patterns. In the Mediterranean region, a widespread subsistence strategy that has left a major imprint is pastoralism, often tied with transhumance. Pastoralism and the [...] Read more.
Landscapes have been shaped and reshaped by humans to meet the changing needs of shifting subsistence strategies and demographic patterns. In the Mediterranean region, a widespread subsistence strategy that has left a major imprint is pastoralism, often tied with transhumance. Pastoralism and the associated tensions between pastoralists and settled agriculturalists have political and legal dimensions which are sometimes overlooked in mainstream accounts of national “patrimony”. The rapid transformations of subsistence strategies witnessed in the twentieth century have changed pastoral landscapes in diverse ways. This paper focusses on the central Mediterranean archipelago of Malta to explore how the values and management of such landscapes require holistic assessment, taking into account the intangible practices and embedded legal rights and obligations that maintained these systems. While in Malta pastoralism has practically disappeared, its physical imprint persists in the form of a network of droveways, which was once a carefully regulated form of commons. Burgeoning demographic growth is erasing large tracts of the historic environment. Against this backdrop of contestation, this paper draws on interdisciplinary approaches to interrogate the shifting legal and historical narratives through which pastoral landscapes have been managed, in the process revealing how dominant epistemological and legal frameworks are also implicated in the erasure of these landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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21 pages, 3260 KiB  
Review
Landslides and Cultural Heritage—A Review
by José Eduardo Bonini, Bianca Carvalho Vieira, Antonio Carlos de Barros Corrêa and Mauro Soldati
Heritage 2023, 6(10), 6648-6668; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6100348 - 7 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2420
Abstract
Cultural heritage sites can be affected by landslides, often causing damage to their integrity, value, and accessibility. Several studies worldwide were focused on the assessment of the potential threats that landslides can pose to the preservation of cultural heritage sites. This article aims [...] Read more.
Cultural heritage sites can be affected by landslides, often causing damage to their integrity, value, and accessibility. Several studies worldwide were focused on the assessment of the potential threats that landslides can pose to the preservation of cultural heritage sites. This article aims to review landslide studies at cultural heritage sites worldwide, analyzing the publications’ temporal distribution, selected methods, geographical and climate contexts, and investigated landslide types. We analyzed a database of 331 publications from 2000 to 2023 in study areas distributed across 47 countries, compiled through systematic queries of the Web of Science and Scopus catalogs. The results show an increase in the number of publications from 2012 onwards, with most studies performing landslide susceptibility analyses on cultural heritage sites. The majority of the studies deployed a geomorphological approach address slope instability mechanisms that threaten site integrity, with a significant number of publications presenting model-based, multidisciplinary and engineering geological approaches. Europe, North America, and Asia and the Pacific concentrate the majority of studies, with Italy and China having the highest number of case studies. The threats to cultural heritage sites located in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the least studied. Block slides, earth slides, and rock falls are the most studied processes, with fewer studies dealing with other landslide types. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage under Threat. Endangered Monuments and Heritage Sites)
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