Abstract
The instability situation affecting the Middle East poses threats to preservation of cultural heritage. Mapping efforts based on satellite imagery currently concentrate more on recording human-induced damage than impacts of unforeseen natural events (e.g. floods). In 2018, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bosra and the landscape of Sergiopolis-Resafa in Syria were flooded after heavy rainfall. While the first incident was reported by heritage organisations (although information was limited to the main monument), the second event was completely unknown. Using optical and radar satellite images from the European Commission’s Copernicus Sentinels fleet and the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed constellation, we prove that these data are an enormous reservoir of information to assess comprehensively the duration, extent and severity of such natural events. In Bosra, several key assets were flooded besides the Roman Theatre, with waters taking from few days to several weeks to evacuate and dry out. In Sergiopolis, while the main ruins were sheltered by the fortification walls, the nearby floodplain was inundated. The floodwater-flow pattern resembled the simulations developed by archaeologists to prove the existence of an ancient system of embankments and dam. Our results suggest that many other events posing risk to heritage assets, otherwise unnoticed, may be unveiled if current satellite imagery archives, yet to analyse, are systematically screened.
Highlights
Cultural heritage sites are frequently exposed to natural hazards[1]
This paper presents the reconstruction of two flooding events that in 2018 hit Bosra UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in the Daraa Governorate and the landscape surrounding the archaeological site of Sergiopolis in the Ar‐Raqqah Governorate, in Syria (Figs. 1, 2)
Data mining revealed that weather-related threats to conservation of heritage assets at the site were included in the earliest WHS periodic reporting document in 200015, but until April 2018 no report referred to impact of natural hazards
Summary
Cultural heritage sites are frequently exposed to natural hazards (e.g. floods, earthquakes, landslides)[1]. More studies are increasingly demonstrating the value of high resolution satellite imagery from open access catalogues (e.g. Landsat-8, Copernicus Sentinel-2) for condition a ssessment[4,8,9] These image archives are being built in the last 5–7 years through repeated acquisitions collected across the globe, and provide reservoirs of satellite images covering same locations of the Earth’s surface every few days, regardless of specific image orders from users. Such archives become crucial in order to test the above hypothesis that natural hazard events may have occurred, but were not investigated due to lack of reporting or general unawareness To this purpose, this paper presents the reconstruction of two flooding events that in 2018 hit Bosra UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in the Daraa Governorate and the landscape surrounding the archaeological site of Sergiopolis in the Ar‐Raqqah Governorate, in Syria With regard to Sergiopolis, no records of flooding were reported in late 2018 in any of the main information
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