Assessing climate change impacts on cultural heritage sites: The YADES approach
Climate change is not a distant future threat – it is happening now. Multiple stressors including heatwaves, severe floods and windstorms directly impact all aspects of human society. Particularly vulnerable to climate change are cultural heritage sites. These pinnacles of human achievement, many of them ancient, are exposed to extreme weather, seismic activity and the footsteps of countless visitors every year. To assess the resilience of these sites, heritage site managers and conservation agencies need accurate information and predictive tools. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Programme(opens in new window), the YADES(opens in new window) project produced an array of integrated visualisation, mapping and predictive tools to meet this need.
Tools for assessing heritage site resilience
YADES developed several approaches to assess how different stressors affect cultural heritage sites. The project used Earth observation data from satellites, sensor-equipped unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 3D photogrammetry(opens in new window) and high-resolution climate simulations. “UAV surveys integrated with AI-based image analysis proved the most promising of these approaches in terms of cost-efficiency, adaptability, and clarity for end-users. These tools require relatively low investment and can be deployed with minimal infrastructure, making them ideal for heritage sites with restricted access or limited budgets,” project coordinator Nikos Doulamis adds. YADES designed the Cultural Heritage Resilience Assessment Platform (CHRAP) platform to integrate the datasets. The CHRAP platform provides a user-friendly risk assessment dashboard to support the decision makers involved in preserving heritage sites.
Case studies target a range of climate stressors
YADES concentrated on heritage sites in Cyprus, Greece and Italy. Locations were chosen because of their high cultural significance, exposure to multiple stressors and the variety of topography the different sites represented. Studies included coastal settlements, archaeological sites and religious and urban centres. Site variety was an important consideration. As Doulamis notes: “The diversity of sites allowed us to validate the tools across various environmental and cultural contexts. For example, Meteora’s cliffside monasteries tested wind and erosion models, while Delphi’s archaeological remains offered a rich dataset for seismic and heat stress simulation.”
Secondments create cross-sectoral networks
The YADES project facilitated 80 secondments (65 secondees), placing early-stage researchers and experienced professionals in related contexts. This mobility was a core strength of the project, fostering human connections as well as the project’s outputs. “Each secondee was embedded into host institutions with complementary expertise, allowing for real-time knowledge exchange,” Doulamis explains. “For instance, an SME employee working on UAV systems would collaborate with a university team focused on data integration, ensuring seamless contribution to the CHRAP platform.” YADES also created support services for end users such as local authorities, site managers, policy makers and researchers. These services included training materials, workshops and hands-on summer schools. “These training efforts were designed to ensure that YADES would leave behind more than tools. We aimed to empower local actors to take ownership of their site's resilience strategies,” Doulamis shares. In addition to digital environmental tools and training elements, YADES deployed a skilled community of researchers that can adapt to tomorrow’s climate challenges. By ensuring the use of resilience solutions against climate change attacks on cultural heritage sites, the YADES approach protects humanity’s past achievements for future generations.
