Risks, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change of Cultural Heritage in Scotland (PHDSC015)

Climate change together with sea level rise and its impacts on temperature, rainfall patterns, flooding, coastal erosion, and a potential increase in storminess will pose a challenge to the conservation of the Cultural Heritage. A policy response, such as the development of adaptation strategies, will be required to manage the transformational pressures of this changing climate. However, there is currently a lack of knowledge about the risks of climate change to the historic environment in Scotland, thereby making the development of a policy response unworkable. This project will first involve a scoping study of the threats that climate change poses to the historic environment in Scotland, including the production of risk assessment maps using a geographical information system. For the purpose of this study the historic environment or Cultural Heritage is defined as old buildings, monuments, and archaeological sites. Then, based on the outcomes of this national risk assessment, a more detailed vulnerability assessment either geographically-based or focusing on a specific sector of the Cultural Heritage will be accomplished. The assessment will be bottom-up, starting with the identification of the sensitivities of the historic environment to climate change through interviews with key stakeholders, including site visits, and surveys; the identification of adaptive measures to deal with existing vulnerabilities; and the subsequent use of the outputs from a regional climate model providing projections for relevant climatic variables. The project will report on the methodological challenges in measuring vulnerability and aims to develop a framework of analysis applicable to the Cultural Heritage. The outcomes of this risk and vulnerability analysis will form the basis of an initial assessment of opportunities for adaptation and inform about the information required for a policy response within the sector.

This studentship brings together the research expertise of Dr Alexandre Gagnon in vulnerability and adaptation to climate change and that of Dr John Hughes in construction, conservation, and restoration of the built heritage both at the University of the West of Scotland. This proposal grew from experience gained through an AHRC-funded Research Network on the transformational and resilience pressures on immovable Cultural Heritage coordinated by Dr Hughes, involving academic and heritage organisation stakeholders in Scotland and Northern Ireland. This project will also benefit from external supervision from Dr Ewan Hyslop at Historic Scotland.