Climate change is currently impacting cultural heritage globally. Despite advances in the understanding of the relationship between climate change impacts and cultural heritage, there are significant barriers that hamper adaptation of cultural heritage to current and projected climate risks. This paper aims to advance the empirical understanding of barriers to adapting cultural heritage to climate-related impacts in the Netherlands by identifying different barriers, their interdependencies, and possible strategies to overcome these barriers. Using a web-based questionnaire with 57 experts, we find that the most frequently reported barriers are a lack of climate change adaptation policy for cultural heritage, and lack of climate vulnerability and risk assessments for diverse cultural heritage types. Our study finds that barriers are perceived to be interdependent and conjointly constrain adapting cultural heritage to climate change. Six actionable strategies are identified to navigate these barriers.@en

Climate change impacts on diverse cultural heritage is gaining scholarly and policy attention, yet little research has been conducted on how can diverse cultural heritage inform decisionmakers and policymakers in achieving climate change actions (i.e., climate change adaptation and mitigation). For this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Dutch cultural heritage and environmental or climate change experts (n = 52) and participant observations across the Netherlands to explore the importance of cultural heritage benefits and their relation to climate change actions. We also explored the perceptions of cultural heritage management over time, including the influence of climate policy on heritage practice in the Netherlands. Our findings show that experts perceived a multiplicity of heritage benefits as important in supporting and informing present and future climate change actions. The most salient benefits were informational benefits where diverse cultural heritage is perceived as an important source of knowledge about past societal, economic and environmental developments and changes. Further, heritage management was perceived as constantly changing over time, reflecting the transformative nature of diverse heritage types. Experts agreed that climate policy has already influenced cultural heritage practice in the Netherlands. Lastly, the interrelationships between heritage benefits and management were identified and characterised. This study informs both cultural heritage and climate change research agendas and helps leverage diverse cultural heritage into climate change adaptation and mitigation policies.@en

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a threat to natural and cultural World Heritage (WH) sites worldwide. Through its interaction with other stressors, climate change accelerates existing risks while also creating new obstacles. A more considerable focus is needed in both research and practice to explore proactive measures for combatting this issue (e.g., mitigation and actions prior to impacts occurring). World Heritage values in climate change decision-making processes is an important factor in this regard. This paper explores a discussion of climate change within the WH monitoring system. It offers an overview of practice based on the extent to which WH properties (natural, mixed and cultural) implement landscape-based approaches alongside the conservation and management of their outstanding universal value within the context of climate uncertainty and environmental change. Landscape approaches are gaining importance in the WH conservation system, where they aim to provide concepts and tools for managing heritage toward sustainable practices. This research analyses the state of conservation reports and provides an overview of practice across time, categories and geographical regions. Based on a theoretical approach, empirical analyses identify four landscape principles that are increasingly shaping the debate around climate change issues in WH properties. Although these are highly relevant to advancing much-needed collaboration among scientific disciplines and governance sectors, we argue that further understanding is required on the transformational process of heritage values, as well as on the nature–culture relationship, in order to underpin heritage as a source for local resilience and climate mitigation. @en

Cultural heritage provides a wide range of economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits for current and future generations. Globally, scientific evidence shows that climate change is adversely affecting diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage [1; 2]. Yet, in the Netherlands, there is a need for a greater understanding of the cultural heritage vulnerability to climate change hazards. Understanding the vulnerability of cultural heritage to climate change hazards is of paramount importance to inform and guide proactive climate change adaptation planning and to reduce the potential damage or loss of heritage [3; 4; 5]. The aim of this study is to evaluate and visualise the potential exposure of nationally significant cultural heritage (national monuments or Rijksmonumenten) to multiple climate change hazards in the Netherlands. The climate change hazards assessed in this study include coastal and river flooding, urban pluvial flooding, drought and heat. The assessment is presented in a series of tables, graphs and maps for ease of use. Importantly, the presented exposure of monuments to climate change hazards is not a measure of actual risk or impact, but the first scan of different levels of exposure of monuments to climate change hazards using a scientific database of Climate Impact Atlas.@en

Climate change poses great challenges for cultural resource management, particularly in coastal areas. Cultural resources, such as historic buildings, in coastal areas are vulnerable to climate impacts including inundation, deterioration, and destruction from sea-level rise and storm-related flooding and erosion. However, research that assesses the trade-offs between actions for protecting vulnerable and valuable cultural resources under budgetary constraints is limited. This study focused on developing a decision support model for managing historic buildings at Cape Lookout National Seashore. We designed the Optimal Preservation Decision Support (OptiPres) model to: (a) identify optimal, annual adaptation actions for historic buildings across a 30-year planning horizon, (b) quantify trade-offs between different actions and the timing of adaptation actions under constrained budgets, and (c) estimate the effectiveness of budget allocations on the resource value of historic buildings. Our analysis of the model suggests that: (1) funding allocation thresholds may exist for national parks to maintain the historical significance and use potential of historic buildings under climate change, (2) the quantitative assessment of trade-offs among alternative adaptation actions provides generalizable guidance for decision makers about the dynamics of their managed system, and (3) the OptiPres model can identify cost-efficient approaches to allocate funding to maintain the historical value of buildings vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Therefore, the OptiPres model, while not designed as a prescriptive decision tool, allows managers to understand the consequences of proposed adaptation actions. The OptiPres model can guide park managers to make cost-effective climate adaptation decisions for historic buildings more transparently and robustly.

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Climate adaptation is a process for minimizing the risks of damage or loss to coastal archaeological sites. Yet, adaptation requires identifying and prioritizing among the diverse aspects of a site’s significance, as not all sites can be simultaneously adapted due to financial and human capital constraints. Developing a measurement framework that can ascertain the relative significance between sites necessitates the collaboration of multiple perspectives, including experts who set policy and on-the-ground managers who must translate policy into practice while accounting for the management preferences of associated communities. This paper explores if a values-based process enables co-production of knowledge related to the significance of archeological sites. Specifically, this paper examines the influences of a workshop—conducted with diverse archaeological experts working for the U.S. National Park Service—on knowledge co-production and documents the extent of changes in experts’ opinions using a pre–post survey design. Findings suggest that the values-based approach applied during the workshop can have a positive impact on knowledge co-production among experts. Changes were found in experts’ perceptions of the importance of various considerations influencing archaeological site prioritization, as well as of the extent to which uncertainties challenge archaeological preservation. This paper presents novel findings about the importance of knowledge co-production in relation to coastal archaeological site preservation and climate adaptation in the U.S. Prioritization considerations and challenges of various uncertainties assessed in this study can provide valuable insights for progress in climate change policy for cultural heritage both in the U.S and globally.@en

Travel to nature-based tourism (NBT) destinations contributes to the economic vitality of many communities. However, NBT is especially vulnerable to changes in climate, such as shifts in weather patterns, and changes in environmental conditions that can directly influence outdoor recreation experiences. Communities, parks, and protected areas in NBT destinations have started to respond to climate change threats by assessing their adaptive capacity and planning adaptation strategies. Climate adaptation planning within NBT destinations necessitate local support and the leveraging of proximate resources. Yet, strategies to integrate visitors into climate adaptation efforts is not common, even though visitors’ support for climate change planning and policy may be high. Little is known about the relationship between visitors’ support for adaptation planning and their sociodemographic characteristics, their perceptions of climate-related risks, or the meanings they assign to destinations affected by climate change. In this study, we analyze visitors’ personal attributes, trip characteristics, unique emotional ties and perceptions of the places they visit in relation to their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a license plate that would direct funds toward regional climate adaptation planning. Survey data were collected on-site with NBT visitors and analyzed using binary logistic regression models. Results showed a WTP $30 annually is significantly influenced by increased income, age, climaterelated risk perceptions, and place meanings. Similarly, WTP more than the initial bid (i.e., >$30/year) for climate change adaptation and planning is significantly predicted by increased income and destination loyalty, as well as negative perceptions of climate change risks. This study contributes to a broader understanding of how recreationists and visitors can be incorporated into climate adaptation planning, demonstrating the possibility of a novel funding source.@en

There is growing evidence of international immigration becoming increasingly influential in peripheral areas in some Southern European countries. Particularly in small localities, where the maintenance of a significant number of active populations is crucial for social, economic and environmental sustainability, immigration can be of vital importance for local and regional policy-making. This paper presents the perceptions, experiences and concerns of various international immigrant stakeholders in Southwest Europe regarding the main challenges in achieving sustainability. Its focus is on rural areas and small towns in Alentejo Litoral (Southwest Portugal) and Alt Empordà (Catalonia, Northeast Spain), places where foreign immigration is above the national average. Using qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, literature review and participant observation), the main findings show how immigrant stakeholders’ perceptions of local sustainability are rich, engaged and diverse, including interesting differences between some Northwest European immigrants and less advantaged immigrants, e.g. Northwest European immigrants (i.e. British, Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians) stress environmental challenges for sustainability much more than the rest. Overcoming some native prejudices, immigrants in Alentejo Litoral and Alt Empordà also contribute to local knowledge of the ways to achieve dynamic local societies and economies, as well as conserve natural protected areas and agricultural environments.@en

Today, cultural heritage planning and decision-making operate under considerable climate, political, and financial uncertainties and constraints. Consequently, decision-makers are often left making value-laden judgments of what to preserve, restore, and maintain in their best judgments, which can leave them open to criticism for not protecting the cultural resources most important to various and diverse stakeholder groups. Thus, a transparent and robust process to optimally maintain cultural heritage values for present and future generations is needed. We address this knowledge gap by developing a novel, transparent, and value-based measurement framework for assessing relative “historical significance” and “use potential” of diverse historic buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places (United States). Measures of historical significance include: the association of a building with the purpose of a NPS site's foundation, the current physical condition of a building, the building's historic character, and National Register listing criteria. Specific measures of use potential consider the importance of historic building's operational, third party, visitor, interpretative, and scientific uses. The application of the framework is presented using a subset of buildings located within two separately listed historic districts at Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina. The framework focuses on the current status of the cultural resource's significance and use potential while acknowledging that corresponding attributes, metrics and weights can change over time and should be regularly updated. It is hoped that the historical significance and use potential framework can assist the decision-makers and stakeholders, and better inform both the cultural heritage management and allocation prioritization for climate adaptation planning when it is applied in tandem with climate change vulnerability assessments.

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Climate change poses some of the most significant risks for the preservation of coastal cultural resources or cultural heritage. As a result, more research is needed to facilitate the design and implementation of feasible and transparent adaptation strategies for cultural resources under changing climate conditions. In this paper, we begin to explore the challenges and opportunities that face cultural resource managers as they begin to grapple with climate change adaptation planning in dynamic coastal environments. Specifically, we provide an overview of a value-focused, decision-analytic approach that was applied in a pilot test of climate adaptation planning for buildings within designated historic districts on the barrier islands of Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina. We provide descriptions of the challenges that are uniquely facing cultural resource managers and initial evidence of the utility of this type of approach for informing judgments by presenting pre- and post-workshop survey data. Although additional research is critical to offer planning and policy guidance, we found that structured deliberations about cultural resource adaptation planning not only influenced participants’ opinions but also provided a necessary space to better understand the complexities of climate and budget uncertainties. Our evaluation is a first step at documenting the difficult and value-laden decisions that must be addressed by cultural resource managers as fiscal constraints and impending climate impacts threaten the traditional approach of preservation in perpetuity.

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Climate change challenges cultural heritage management and preservation. Understanding the barriers that can impede preservation is of paramount importance, as is developing solutions that facilitate the planning and management of vulnerable cultural resources. Using online survey research, we elicited the opinions of diverse experts across southeastern United States, a region with cultural resources that are particularly vulnerable to flooding and erosion from storms and sea level rise. We asked experts to identify the greatest challenges facing cultural heritage policy and practice from coastal climate change threats, and to identify strategies and information needs to overcome those challenges. Using content analysis, we identified institutional, technical and financial barriers and needs. Findings revealed that the most salient barriers included the lack of processes and preservation guidelines for planning and implementing climate adaptation actions, as well as inadequate funding and limited knowledge about the intersection of climate change and cultural heritage. Experts perceived that principal needs to overcome identified barriers included increased research on climate adaptation strategies and impacts to cultural heritage characteristics from adaptation, as well as collaboration among diverse multi-level actors. This study can be used to set cultural heritage policy and research agendas at local, state, regional and national scales.

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Climate change poses serious threats to the protection and preservation of cultural heritage and resources. Despite a high level of scholarly interest in climate change impacts on natural and socio-economic systems, a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage and resources across various continents and disciplines is noticeably absent from the literature. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review methodology to identify and characterize the state of knowledge and how the cultural heritage and resources at risk from climate change are being explored globally. Results from 124 reviewed publications show that scholarly interest in the topic is increasing, employs a wide range of research methods, and represents diverse natural and social science disciplines. Despite such increasing and diverse interest in climate change and cultural heritage and resources, the geographic scope of research is limited (predominantly European focused). Additionally, we identified the need for future studies that not only focuses on efficient, sustainable adaptation planning options but also documents if, and how, the implementation of cultural heritage and resources adaptation or preservation is taking place. This systematic literature review can help direct scholarly research in climate change and cultural heritage and resource area. Ultimately, we hope these new directions can influence policy-making for preservation and adaptation of cultural heritage and cultural resources globally.

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Climate change impacts are no longer just a future issue for communities in the Mediterranean climate regions. This comparative study offers insights on climate change risk perceptions and attitudes among environmental, economic and social stakeholders in coastal areas in northeastern Spain and South Australia, as well as compares interviewed stakeholders’ risk perceptions with available documentary data and participant observation. Using a community risk assessment approach, the results show that some stakeholders perceive that climate change is already and/or may further continue to affect their employment, mostly in a predominantly negative way. Interestingly, some other interviewed stakeholders consider that climate change creates opportunities through new and additional areas of work. The findings also suggest that climate change may influence relocation of coastal residential populations in both case studies, which is likely to be an acceptable option among the stakeholders. This acceptance can be linked to the fact that in both areas there is a significant percentage of resident population with migrant background. This study calls for a need to understand better the personal experience of climate change in industrialized countries, as well as to consider coastal relocation in the integrated coastal planning and other territorial and population policies.

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It has been widely acknowledged that people’s beliefs and perceptions influence implementation of climate change adaptation. Regarding perception barriers, some authors keep highlighting the confused definition of adaptation and its various interpretations. Our research contributes to this area by exploring how adaptation to climate change is perceived through 83 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (public and municipal organizations, ENGO, private sector) from Montreal and Paris. Our results demonstrate a mirror opposition in the perception of adaptation to climate change. Indeed, while several respondents interpreted adaptation as a resignation, many interviewees perceived adaptation as an opportunity. The analysis showed that adaptation referring to resignation includes the ideas of a non-action and detrimental to mitigation; an excuse for not changing; anxiety about climate change; fatalism; and human failure. Adaptation perceived as an opportunity is divided into a source of creativity; toward sustainable development; led by the emergency; and awareness and making society of its responsibilities. Our findings confirm that terminological ambiguity of the term “adaptation” has to be considered in the decision-making process, which can be influenced by the perception of stakeholders.@en

Climate change is widely recognised as a serious threat, especially to some Mediterranean wetlands; therefore, their ongoing protection is of great concern. Aiguamolls de l'Empordà (north-east Catalonia, Spain) and Kotychi-Strofylia wetland (western Greece) are considered important coastal wetlands deserving protection both by European and national authorities. The main aim of this study was to explore stakeholders' perceptions on local climate change there and to contrast these perceptions with some of the local meteorological data from the Estartit station (near Aiguamolls de l'Empordà) and Andravida station (near Kotychi-Strofylia). Semi-structured interviews with thirty-six stakeholders from both coastal wetlands have been conducted with the aim of understanding the perception and constraints facing those currently engaged in a wide range of social, political, environmental and economic activities in both territories. The research results showed that major climate change effects such as increased air temperature, precipitation change, prolonged droughts and shifting seasons were more pronounced over the past twenty years and are of particular concern in both wetlands and their surrounding areas. Moreover, the stakeholders from Spain had a higher awareness of sustainability issues than those from Greece. It is worth mentioning that about two-thirds of the interviewed stakeholders in both areas perceived their coastal wetlands as unsustainable. In addition, stakeholders from the Greek area had higher willingness for not emigrating from their territory than those from Spain. Finally, about half of the stakeholders indicated that they are in favour of natural adaptation measures based on technical solutions such as setting up sand dunes and beach barriers.

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Climate change seems likely that will greatly affect natural protected areas and other vulnerable areas such as Mediterranean. Thus Aiguamolls de l'Empordà can be regarded as a key case study to assess current knowledge and perceptions of the potential climate change effects on the coastal population and economies in the Spanish Mediterranean region. This study finds out that it is essential to gather and integrate local traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge in order to develop successful responses to climate change. Furthermore, it supports the position that vulnerability analysis must be participatory and must include social, cultural, environmental, economic and political dimensions, like it was the case in this research.According to the quantitative and qualitative data gathered, major climate change effects such as increase in air temperature over the past few decades, a decrease in precipitation but increase in its intensity, the increase in the severity of droughts, and the decrease in biodiversity and ecosystem services are the most pressing climate change effects and serious threats to the observed area. In addition to this, the location of the coastal municipalities (their exposure) also makes them directly vulnerable to coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and sea level rise. Stakeholders also found that climate change adaptation is needed and this finding may suggest that even if cost of adaptation is high, further losses to the economy and ecosystems might be even higher.

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Climate change is widely recognised as serious threat along the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Basin, where increased erosion patterns, decreased sediment discharge, intensification of floods, saltwater intrusion and loss of biodiversity increase vulnerability. These issues are of particular concern for the Ebro Delta. This article examines the vulnerability of the Spanish Ebro Delta to climate change effects using existing studies, projections, and interviews. The aim is to identify possible options for climate change adaptation in order to moderate the vulnerability to problematic conditions. The results show that to date human management has had a higher impact on this area than climate change. It was also shown that the majority of interviewees recommend the softest option for adaptation, the one that is most in harmony with the nature.

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The article deals with the issue of the sea level rise as one of the indicators of climate change in Slovenian sea. The primary purpose of the article is to find out if the changing sea level in Slovenian sea is a consequence of global climate change in a period of forty-seven years. It is focused to investigate the reasons for the changes of mean sea level and its influencing factors in north Adriatic Sea. Results on the analysis of time series of mean sea level and factors are illustrated.@en