Risk Management and Preventive Conservation of Cultural Heritage: The Case of Karaman Hatuniye Madrasa and Karaman City Museum

Abstract

Various methodologies have been developed to determine the risks of cultural properties that have been exposed to various risks since their construction and to make proposals for their preventive conservation. This study aims to protect the cultural, architectural, historical, and documentary values of historic buildings by identifying their threats and potential risks for risk management and preventive conservation studies and determining their risk levels considering the degree of vulnerability and frequency of occurrence in order to ensure their sustainability. Karaman Hatuniye Madrasa and Karaman City Museum were selected as case studies for cultural heritage risk management. The following standards were used to determine risk levels: the RE-ORG method for museum storage facilities, ICRROM’s (2016) “Guide to Risk Management of Cultural Heritage” and ISO 31000 (2018) for risk analysis, and UNI EN 16096 (2012) standard for current condition assessment, risk priority, urgency class, and recommendation classification. The hazards and potential risks were identified and classified through field observations, literature review, archival research, oral interviews, and data from national (AFAD) and international (EM-DAT) databases. The results showed that Karaman Museum has a medium risk level and RE-ORG is required in the building and collections only, on the other hand, Hatuniye Madrasa has a high-risk level. In particular, abandonment/underuse and faulty restoration works are the main factors that increase the risk level. The study is important for the protection and conservation of Hatuniye Madrasa and Karaman Museum and their collections through risk management and preventive conservation measures and is an example of systematic assessment of risks in cultural properties.