Realising the potential of cultural heritage to achieve climate change actions in the Netherlands

Sandra Fatorić,Linde Egberts

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111107

Abstract

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.

Highlights

In recent years, research has been increasing our understanding of past, current and future climate change impacts on tangible and intangible cultural heritage, including so lutions to reduce the impacts through climate change adaptation and safeguard irreplaceable and finite resources and associated benefits for current and future generations (Fatoric and Seekamp, 2017a; Guzman et al, 2020; Harkin et al, 2020; Mazurczyk et al, 2018; Sesana et al, 2018)
We explored experts’ perceptions of whether the Dutch cultural heritage management has changed over time and the possible influence of climate policy on cultural heritage practice
Our findings show that the coexistence of culture, history, engineering, ecology and economics is at the heart of both Dutch heritage management and climate change adaptation and mitigation

Summary

Introduction

Research has been increasing our understanding of past, current and future climate change impacts on tangible (e.g., his toric buildings, archaeological sites, landscapes, objects) and intangible cultural heritage (e.g., traditional practices, oral history), including so lutions to reduce the impacts through climate change adaptation and safeguard irreplaceable and finite resources and associated benefits for current and future generations (Fatoric and Seekamp, 2017a; Guzman et al, 2020; Harkin et al, 2020; Mazurczyk et al, 2018; Sesana et al, 2018). And policy work demonstrated the importance of eco nomic, social, cultural and environmental benefits of diverse cultural heritage globally. Heritage is a valuable source of knowledge and scientific information, which can be used to inspire and inform environmental and climate change management and policies (Jackson et al, 2018; Hambrecht and Rockman, 2017; RCE, 2018; Tisma and Meijer, 2018). Heritage assets can support decarbonisation and climate change mitigation through adaptive reuse of historic buildings (Foster, 2020; ICOMOS, 2019). Diverse heritage can enhance community identity, cohesion and sense of place; important during environmental or societal disturbances and disasters (Ghahramani et al, 2020; Parsizadeh et al, 2015; Pomeroy and Tapuke, 2016)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion