SOS Heritage

Climate change, combined with worldwide energy and resource deficiency problems are serious threats of our time. However, little studies are published on how climate change affects our built cultural heritage. For a sustainable management of our cultural heritage, it is vital to be prepared on how the future changing climate will influence the indoor climates in buildings. Cultural heritage is a non-renewable resource of intrinsic importance to our identity: therefore, there is a need to develop more effective and efficient preservation, adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to preserve these invaluable cultural assets for the long-term future. In many countries, new figures are already informally emerging inside the cultural heritage sector: the risk manager. There’s usually always someone, within the staff of a Museum, an Archive and such, that takes it on her on himself to ensure that cultural heritage is protected from extreme weather (e.g. floods) and other acts of God (e.g. earthquakes). However, this is not enough and this is not sustainable. There is a need, Europe-wide, for a new, trained, specialised figured, who has the necessary skills, competences and tools to assess, measure and monitor, thus prevent, the risks for damages to the tangible cultural heritage due to climate change and poor conservation. The general aim of the project will be to build the capacity of professionals managing Historical Buildings (castles, monuments, historic houses, historical buildings) in properly assessing and managing risks due to climate change, and improving their relationship with audience and their communities, co-creating and experimenting innovative digital tools.