RISK ASSESSMENT AND SUSTAINABLE PROTECTION
OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN CHANGING ENVIRONMENT


Disasters and catastrophes pose risks not only to the conservation of cultural heritage assets with its cultural, historic and artistic values, but also to the safety of visitors, staff and local communities. Additionally, they cause undoubtedly negative consequences for the local economies. 


Activities

The ProteCHt2save project contributed to an improvement of capacities of the public and private sectors to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural hazards on cultural heritage sites, structures and artefacts. The project focused primarily on the development of feasible and tailored solutions for building resilience of cultural heritage to floods and events of heavy rain. It helped regional and local authorities to prepare measures and evacuation plans in case of emergencies. 

Summary of project achievements

ProteCHt2save outputs and results aimed at improving protection, management and sustainable use of the cultural heritage, as well as its valorization in a changing environment.

  • Web GIS tool for risk mapping has been first of all developed in support of policy and decision makers for the development of measures and strategies of preparedness with short and long term perspective aiming at the protection of Cultural Heritage in Central Europe exposed to extreme events linked to climate change (particularly heavy rains, flood and fire due to drought periods)
  • A rate of vulnerability has been determined for each of the pilot site in the target regions and integrated in the Web GIS tool for the risk assessment.
  • decision support tool for the analysis of the criticalities determining the vulnerability of cultural heritage has been produced.
  • manual in support of policy and decision makers of good and bad practices for the management of cultural heritage at risk. 
  • Manual for cultural heritage managers
  • VideoGame for Cultural Heritage Rescue Team 

NEWS & EVENTS

news

CHRT: Vltava Rising - video game

A Handbook on Rescue Strategies and Procedures for recovery operations was designed as digital interactive application for smartphones in the form of an educational game. CHRT: Vltava Rising is available via various app stores since June 2020, the user can choose from 8 languages as subtitles. The player faces a disaster scenario and has to coordinate a Cultural Heritage Rescue Team consisting of different decision-makers and experts. In the fictional game scenario, Prague will be flooded by a Vltava river within the next 72 hours. In this short period of time, a special exhibition made up of various international loan exhibits must be evacuated from a museum. 

LESSONS LEARNED FROM PILOT ACTIONS AND INVESTMENTS

The transnational cooperation has been fundamental for the identification of existing barriers and gaps present at territorial level in the regions involved and coordinated actions to be undertaken for their overcoming. 

It has been central for the testing within the pilot actions aiming at the development of local emergency plans for improving capacities in risk management, the definition of the transnational strategies for cultural heritage in emergency situations and the setting up of the cultural heritage rescue team.

Particularly the Municipalities involved in the Project have been committed to integrate the transnational strategies, developed and tested at the pilot sites and specifically dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage, in their local plan of risk management. This has been ensured trough the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding among the Municipalities involved in the Project. 

As final result of the project, 7 Institutions adopted the set-up strategies for the protection of cultural heritage integrating the existing plans programmes towards the prevention against floods, heavy rain and drought periods.  In addition, 7 Institutions from the target Regions were supported in the development of innovative management models based on the use and application of the tools developed in the Project.

The target groups (such as policy and decision makers responsible for disaster mitigation and safeguarding of cultural heritage assets, public authorities, scientific community, citizens and local communities) benefited of: i) an awareness increasing of the still existing gaps in the protection of cultural heritage, ii) tools for its management in emergency situations and iii) preparedness measures and evacuation plans specifically dedicated to its safeguarding when exposed to extreme climate conditions.

OUTPUT in numbers

5

TOOLS

7

STRATEGIES

7

PILOT ACTIONS

30

OUTREACH

PUBLICATIONs

    risk assessment and sustainable protection
of cultural heritage in changing environment

Start Date

01 July 2017

End Date

30 June 2020

PROJECT in numbers

1787110

erdf

10

partners

7

countries

3

years

Project Partners

ProteCHt2save has 10 partners from 7 Central European countries

PROJECT PARTNERS IN details

Lead Partner - Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate - National Research Council of Italy (ISAC-CNR)

The Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC) is the largest CNR Institute
on atmospheric sciences, structured in 7 Units over the country, 7 permanent
observatories, including 2 Global Stations of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)
program of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and 2 Supersites. The
research activities of ISAC are concerned with many basic aspects of atmospheric
physics, chemistry and biology, which are of applicative relevance in the field of
environmental protection.
www.isac.cnr.it

 Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (ITAM)

SINCE 1990 ITAM PERFORMS LONG TERM RESEARCH INTO CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND CULTURA HERITAGE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROBLEMS WHICH INCLUDES A WIDE SCOPE OF THEMES FROM HISTORIC MATERIAL AND STRUCTURAL TASKS TO URBAN, SPATIAL AND TERRITORIAL OR SITE MANAGEMENT ISSUES.
www.itam.cas.cz

University for Continuing Education Krems Danube University Krems (DUK)

DUK IS ONE OF THE PIONEERING INSTITUTIONS IN EUROPE IN THE FIELD OF UNIVERSITY-BASED ADVANCED EDUCATION, AND A SPECIALIZED INSTITUTION IN THE SECTOR OF LIFELONG LEARNING. IN TEACHING AND RESEARCH THE UNIVERSITY FOCUSES ON SOCIAL AS WELL AS ORGANIZATIONAL AND TECHNICAL CHALLENGES OF CURRENT TIMES, AND IS DEVELOPING INNOVATING MARKET- AND CLIENT-ORIENTED COURSES ON AN ONGOING BASIS.
www.donau-uni.ac.at

Bielsko – Biala District

ITS SURFACE IS 457 KM² AND THE NUMBER OF INHABITANTS IS 160 THOUSAND PEOPLE. THE CAPITAL OF THE REGION IS IN THE HEART OF THE DISTRICT: BIELSKO-BIAŁA- A TOWN WITH AROUND 175.000 INHABITANTS, WHICH IS A SEPARATE ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT, NAMELY THE COMMUNE WITH THE POWERS OF THE DISTRICT. THE ISSUE OF CIVIL PROTECTION OF THE DISTRICT IS MANAGED BY THE CRISIS MANAGEMENT CENTRE BEING A DEPARTMENT OF BIELSKO-BIAŁA DISTRICT OFFICE.
www.powiat.bielsko.pl

Regional Development Agency Bielsko-Biala (ARRSA)

THE TASKS OF THE AGENCY'S FOCUS ON STIMULATING AND CREATING ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTITUDES. IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THIS AREA ACTIONS TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS OF ENTERPRISES AND THE REGION ARE IMPLEMENTED. AGENCY IMPLEMENTS ALSO ACTION TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, INCLUDING THOSE RELATED TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BEST PRACTICES AND ESTABLISH NEW BUSINESS CONTACTS.
www.arrsa.pl

Municipality of Ferrara (MUF)

MUNICIPALITY OF FERRARA HAS SETTLED COMPETENCES IN TERRITORIAL PLANNING OF A WIDE AND ELABORATE UNESCO SITE AND IN THE MANAGEMENT OF VARIOUS ARCHITECTURAL EMERGENCES. THE EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SITE MANAGEMENT PLAN HAS ENABLED THE ACQUISITION OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SKILLS.
www.comune.fe.it

Municipal District Praha - Troja

LOCAL AUTHORITY AND ADMINISTRATION OF PRAHA – TROJA DEALS WITH URBAN, SPATIAL AND TERRITORIAL PLANNING, SITE MANAGEMENT ISSUES, MANAGES SEVERAL HISTORICAL BUILDINGS INCLUDING VILLAS, SCHOOLS, RESIDENCES, SPORT FACILITIES AND PROPERTIES. THE PP STAFF WERE ENGAGED IN NUMEROUS NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS ON ACADEMIC, MUNICIPAL AND EXPERT LEVEL.
www.mctroja.cz

Government of Baranya County (GBC)

GOVERNMENT OF BARANYA COUNTY IS A TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION WITH A MULTI-SECTORAL ROLE ON DEVELOPMENT ISSUES RELATED TO THE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES OF THE UNDEVELOPED COUNTY OF BARANYA. GBC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SETUP AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTEGRATED TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF BARANYA COUNTY 2014-2020. THE FOCUS OF THE STRATEGY ARE THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR REGION GENERATED BY TOURISM.
www.baranya.hu

City of Kastela (COK)

THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE CITY OF KAŠTELA GOVERNMENT CONSISTS OF SEVEN CITY DEPARTMENTS AND SERVICES. CITY OF KAŠTELA HAS RECOGNIZED THE NEED FOR PROTECTION, MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE AS WELL AS ITS VALORISATION CONCERNING THE VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE TO EXTREME EVENTS. 
www.kastela.hr

Municipality of Kocevje (MOK)

THE MUNICIPALITY OF KOCEVJE IS A LOCAL PUBLIC AUTHORITY THAT REPRESENTS THE COMMUNITY  LIVING WITHIN ITS MUNICIPAL BORDERS, ENSURING ITS SELF-GOVERNMENT. IT IS LOCATED IN SOUTHERN SLOVENIA AND COVERS AN AREA OF 555 KM2. IN TERMS OF AREA, IT IS THE LARGEST MUNICIPALITY IN SLOVENIA. IT FEATURES 6 PRIMEVAL FORESTS AND KARST LANDSCAPES. THE MUNICIPALITY HAS A POPULATION OF ABOUT 17.000 PEOPLE.
www.kocevje.si