Cultural heritage, a symbol of identity and a link to the past, is exposed to various risks—both natural and anthropogenic—that threaten its conservation. To protect it effectively, an analytical approach is essential to identify, evaluate, and mitigate these dangers.
Defining Cultural Heritage and Its Assessment
The first step in safeguarding cultural heritage is understanding its scope and the values it represents. According to the 1972 UNESCO Convention, cultural heritage includes tangible assets (such as monuments, buildings, and sites) and intangible ones (such as traditions and cultural practices).
“…artifacts, monuments, groups of buildings and sites, museums that have a diversity of values including symbolic, historic, artistic, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological, scientific and social significance. It includes tangible heritage (movable, immovable and underwater), intangible cultural heritage embedded in cultural, and natural heritage artifacts, sites or monuments.”
— UNESCO
Despite this, each National State possesses subsidiarity, through which it defines its own internal concept of cultural heritage. For this reason, it is useful to use a single global definition of the term.
Once the heritage is defined, it is necessary to identify and catalog the cultural resources to be protected, which may vary according to local specificities.
Risk Identification
Once the heritage to be protected has been defined, a risk analysis must be conducted. Dangers can be of various natures: natural threats (earthquakes, floods, fires, or volcanic eruptions) and anthropogenic threats (industrial activities, urbanization, pollution, and other human interference). Risk analysis involves understanding how these phenomena can affect the conservation of cultural assets.
NATURAL HAZARDS
Risky natural events that occur independently of human actions. Threats deriving from natural phenomena should always be monitored to reduce their impact. In fact, there are no “natural disasters” per se, only unmanaged hazards. Learning to manage them is the responsibility of humankind.
- Seismic Risk: In seismically active areas, earthquakes can cause structural damage to historical sites.
- Hydrological Risk: Coastal areas or those crossed by rivers are vulnerable to flooding, which can damage historical buildings and artworks.
- Fire Risk: High summer temperatures, combined with periods of drought, increase the risk of fires, especially for historical parks and gardens.
ANTHROPOGENIC HAZARDS
- Pollution: Industrial emissions and vehicular traffic can damage the surfaces of monuments and alter ecosystems.
- Industrial Activities and Urbanization: The construction of new infrastructure or the decommissioning of plants can generate direct damage to historical buildings, through both vibrations and pollution.
- Maintenance and Restoration Activities: In several cases, improvement activities involving historical buildings have caused fires or damage leading to the partial or total loss of the asset.
- Armed Conflict: In war zones or situations of socio-political instability, cultural heritage easily falls prey to irreparable damage.
- Vandalism and Theft: Deliberate acts of damage or the theft of artworks and documents can compromise the cultural and historical value of the assets.
- Negligence and Ignorance: The lack of awareness and specific training of staff or visitors.
Prevention and Mitigation Strategies
NATURAL HAZARDS
As mentioned, threats from catastrophic natural events can not only be mitigated but also eliminated through a careful prevention strategy. This involves more than just writing emergency plans; it includes risk analysis as well.
Risk analysis is not limited to detecting hazards but extends to evaluating the vulnerability and exposure of cultural heritage. It is important to develop risk maps that highlight the areas most exposed to natural and anthropogenic hazards. This involves physically mapping all key natural elements—such as lakes, rivers, seas, active and inactive volcanoes, forests, woods, and steep slopes prone to landslides or avalanches—on a map.
Once these characteristics are identified, one evaluates if and how the site can be damaged. To identify the specific risk, the primary question to ask is:
“Can a natural phenomenon linked to the identified key environmental characteristics influence the cultural heritage site in question? And if so, what impact can it generate?”
ANTHROPOGENIC HAZARDS
For anthropogenic risks, the task may be more complex, as it requires:
- Defining the sources of danger: It is essential to identify the main threats, both external (such as armed conflict) and specific countermeasures against vandalism, theft, and uncontrolled urban development. The lack of awareness and specific training of staff or visitors, which can lead to damaging accidents, should not be underestimated. Specific actions, such as training and education, should be planned for this as well.
- Identifying all surrounding anthropogenic elements: It is necessary to analyze the entire environmental and infrastructural context in which the cultural heritage operates, considering elements such as:
- Manufacturing industry
- Waste disposal units
- Military installations
- Sports facilities
- Government buildings
- Airports and ports
- Gas distribution networks and power lines
- Chemical industry
- Nuclear power plants
- Incineration plants
- Hydroelectric reservoirs
- Commercial facilities
- Mining sites
- Gas and fuel storage structures
Technology plays a fundamental role in data collection and analysis. The use of GIS systems, satellite technologies, IoT sensors, and AI algorithms to monitor soil deformation, climate variations, and trends provides precise and predictive indications of imminent or ongoing risks. This has become a consolidated reality that allows for an integrated view of threats.
In general, risk analysis for cultural heritage is a fundamental step for its protection and conservation. It requires a multidisciplinary approach combining historical, scientific, and technological knowledge. Raising awareness among institutions and professionals regarding the vulnerability of cultural heritage is essential to ensure that artistic and historical resources are preserved for future generations.
