Landmarks facing climate threats could 'transform'

Date:
August 10, 2020
Source:
North Carolina State University
Summary:
Researchers asked whether heritage sites threatened by climate
change should be allowed to adapt and 'transform.'


FULL STORY ==========================================================================
How much effort should be spent trying to keep Venice looking like Venice
- - even as it faces rising sea levels that threaten the city with more frequent extreme flooding?

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As climate change threatens cultural sites, preservationists and
researchers are asking whether these iconic locations should be
meticulously restored or should be allowed to adapt and "transform." "The traditional preservationist paradigm is the idea of static preservation -
- materials stay in a constant state, and we protect the values identified
at the time they were designated," said Erin Seekamp, first author of a
paper that raises these questions and a professor of parks, recreation
and tourism management at North Carolina State University.

"However, it's really infeasible to manage all heritage sites and
property through persistent adaptation due to the extent of projected
climate impacts," Seekamp said. "We are arguing for preservationists to
shift toward transformation in some cases." The paper was co-authored
by Eugene Jo, World Heritage Leadership Programme Coordinator at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration
of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

Seekamp and Jo presented two ideas for how transformation could take
place: adaptively in response to climate change impacts, or in advance
of anticipated or projected impacts.



========================================================================== Seekamp and Jo argue that some cultural icons "severely impacted"
by climate change-related events could remain damaged to serve as a
"memory" of that event, and to help communities better understand and
learn about the climate- related vulnerabilities of places.

In other cases, they argued that some landmarks at risk of climate
change should be allowed to "transform" when the cost of preserving
a landmark is too high. Decisions about how these important landmarks
can and should change need to be guided by the values of descendants
of people and cultures that those sites were originally intended to
highlight and preserve, they said.

"Individuals whose heritage is at stake, and who receive benefits from
those places as tourist sites, should be part of the discussions about
change, and about what preserving values connected with sites should
look like," Seekamp said.

Their ideas about transformation were inspired by the concept of
resilience in ecology, Seekamp said, in which a landscape can absorb
change in response to a disturbance, and populations shift toward a
"new state" or reorganize.

"What we're arguing is that the heritage field adopt an ecological
framework of resilience to expand the current paradigm of preservation
toward transformation to allow for autonomous and anticipatory adaptation
to occur," Seekamp said.



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They focused their recommendations on cultural landmarks designated
as World Heritage Sites, which are landmarks or areas with important
cultural, natural or scientific significance that have legal protections through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, or UNESCO.

They argued that preservation leaders create a new category for
sites facing climate threats called "World Heritage Sites in Climatic Transformation." That list could help gather information and better
document sites that face threats from climate change, as well as help
channel resources toward them.

"We are argue that policy reform is needed to create the flexibility
that would allow for both the continuity of heritage values, and the
evolution of place meaning and societal benefits in face of climate
change," Seekamp said.

Seekamp also indicated that the new designation could aid a natural
landmark like Florida's Everglades National Park. While the park isn't
a site recognized for its cultural heritage, which was the focus of
Seekamp's viewpoint -- it was designated as a World Heritage Site because
of its outstanding geologic and natural features -- there are material
remains of heritage present that are also at risk to rising seas and
increasing temperatures.

The park is the traditional lands of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and
the Miccosukee Tribe, as well as the Calusa. The designation of the
park as a "World Heritage Site in Climatic Transformation" could allow
managers to think about alternatives that better integrate culture and
cultural values in changing environments, Seekamp said.

"We're not saying that this should open the door for development
or tourism," Seekamp added. "We're saying, 'Let's create a new
categorization, and enable those places to not just think about persistent adaptation, but about transformative adaptation.' It allows us to think
about alternatives."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by North_Carolina_State_University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Erin Seekamp, Eugene Jo. Resilience and transformation of heritage
sites
to accommodate for loss and learning in a changing climate. Climatic
Change, 2020; DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02812-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200810115523.htm

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