Climate change will have significant impact on cultural heritage, in all its forms. The context of the Cultural Built Heritage - buildings, sites and internal collections - is particularly critical, as it is exposed directly to environments that engender decay. Layered on this is the potential, arguably now being realised, for an increase in extreme events such as flooding, compounded by gradual sea level rise, landslides and fire. The need for adaptation as a form of protection of heritage assets against impacts of climate change is clear, not just for cultural heritage but all of the built environment. Policies are being developed by responsible authorities, from the local to the international (e.g. UNESCO). However, cultural heritage poses arguably a special case in terms of the limits of acceptable change. The project will focus on understanding this area in detail and will use qualitative social methods combined with quantitative surveys of selected built heritage locations to investigate (amongst other factors). Projects will study the relationship between heritage typology and adaptive capacity (past and present) and the limits of acceptable change and how this will affect practical adaptation.

Climate change will have significant impact on cultural heritage, in all its forms. The context of the Cultural Built Heritage - buildings, sites and internal collections - is particularly critical, as it is exposed directly to environments that engender decay. Layered on this is the potential, arguably now being realised, for an increase in extreme events such as flooding, compounded by gradual sea level rise, landslides and fire. The need for adaptation as a form of protection of heritage assets against impacts of climate change is clear, not just for cultural heritage but all of the built environment. Policies are being developed by responsible authorities, from the local to the international (e.g. UNESCO). However, cultural heritage poses arguably a special case in terms of the limits of acceptable change. The project will focus on understanding this area in detail and will use qualitative social methods combined with quantitative surveys of selected built heritage locations to investigate (amongst other factors). Projects will study the relationship between heritage typology and adaptive capacity (past and present) and the limits of acceptable change and how this will affect practical adaptation.