RÉSUMÉ
Source : site du projet
Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time. This factor, coupled with the increasing demand our society makes on energy and resources, has forced sustainable development to the top of the European political agenda. Scientific research has shown that the preservation of the cultural heritage of Europe is particularly vulnerable to these factors. Therefore we need to develop more effective and efficient sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to preserve these invaluable cultural assets for the long-term future, since they represent a non-renewable resource of intrinsic importance to our European identity. More reliable assessments of the impact of climate change will lead to better prediction models, which in turn will enable preventive measures to be taken, thus reducing the consumption of energy and resources.
Against this background, the CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project will estimate the impacts of climate change on historic buildings and their vast collections in Europe and the Mediterranean. A multidisciplinary research team of 27 partners from all over Europe and Egypt will assess the damage potential of changing climate condition on our cultural heritage, its socio-economic impact and possible mitigation strategies. Collections in historic buildings in different parts of Europe will be included for in situ investigation of present problems and for the prediction of future issues. For this purpose and for the first time ever, high resolution climate evolution scenarios will be coupled with whole building simulation models to identify the most urgent risks for specific regions with the aim of developing mitigation strategies. The thus identified risks and the economic consequences for European cultural heritage will be communicated to policy makers together with possible mitigation strategies to be included in future IPCC Reports.
