Transformation and resilience of our cultural landscapes, archaeology and built heritage: defining responses to societal and natural pressures Principal Investigator: John Hughes, University of the West of Scotland Co-Investigators: Martin Lee, University of Glasgow Bernie Smith, Queen’s University Belfast Steering Group Members: Diana Murray, Royal Commission for the Historical and Ancient Monuments of Scotland Craig Kennedy, Historic Scotland Stewart Dunlop, Fraser of Allander Institute Uni. of Strathclyde Jane Downes, Orkney College, Uni. of the Highlands and Islands The cluster brings together experts from social and scientific disciplines to work on understanding the resilience of immovable Cultural Heritage against the transformational pressures and threats of climate change. We are exploring the interaction between social and material aspects of Heritage, to understand how scientific understanding and innovation plays a central part in our perceptions and valuation of the Cultural Heritage and to help in the development of future management strategies. We are doing this in a regional context for Scotland and Northern Ireland, through meetings at 3 World Heritage Sites, to develop an interdisciplinary response to these future threats and opportunities, appropriate to our regional needs.

Purpose to develop responses to the effects of climate change natural cultural environments, archaeology and buildings. to identify the transformational pressures on, and resilience of Cultural Heritage to aid management and conservation. to overcome fragmentation of researchers and stakeholders and add momentum to the establishment of some critical mass by developing a sustainable pooled research partnership, that will… identify research priorities and develop a long term research strategy 1 st Meeting Giant’s Causeway, N. Ireland 2 nd Meeting Dynamic Heritage in Orkney Using access to locations within the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, we  identified key research themes to underpin the development of a roadmap for science and heritage research in Scotland and Northern Ireland  considered site-related research questions along these key themes  deliver a community statement and research strategy Prof Kevin Anderson (Tyndall Centre) gave a public lecture (below) in Kirkwall on ‘Reframing Climate Change: how recent emission trends and the latest science change the debate’. Diverse heritage in Orkney: left Skara Brae Neolithic village- at risk from coastal erosion. Below left- Ring of Brodgar- landscape setting ‘at risk’ from renewables Below right: RNAS Twatt, WW2 remains, is it heritage?- material s at risk from neglect Transformation and resilience of our cultural landscapes, archaeology and built heritage: defining responses to societal and natural pressures 3 rd Meeting- Future Proofing Heritage Edinburgh Sept/Oct 2009 Built heritage, focus on urban WHS management and materials issues. Presentation of research strategy; engagement with government, policy makers and funders. Launch of research network/pooling. Presentations from local experts and a field excursion confronted the cluster with evidence for the effects of climate change, both physical effects and the effects on management of a dynamic natural cultural site. Inspecting coastal erosion on the North Antrim Coast

Transformation and resilience of our cultural landscapes, archaeology and built heritage: defining responses to societal and natural pressures Community Statement: a work in progress We need to challenge our obsession with preservation in situ. We need to exploit / mine the heritage resource to get the most out of it. We are in a ‘use it or lose it’ situation with change: we need a ‘managed retreat’ Research needs to influence policy and research the relationship between research and policy, We need to redefine resilience, assessing sensitivity to change to inform decisions Outline proposals to S&H programme “On the Edge: What future for our coastal heritage?” U. of St Andrews, Univ Newcastle, Orkney College UHI, Uni of Strathclyde “The physical impacts of climate change on Scottish heritage sites: the implications for tourism and communities”– Glasgow Caledonian University, Uni of Strathclyde and Uni of the West of Scotland. "Use and abuse of water repellents in a wetter world". Uni of Glasgow, the Robert Gordon Uni, Historic Scotland. “A GIS-based approach to modelling impacts of air pollution and climate on building health”, Uni of the West of Scotland, Queen’s Uni Belfast, the Robert Gordon Uni, British Geological Survey. Key themes Dynamic heritage Monitoring change and base-lining- environmental monitoring to define thresholds and sensitivities. Technology- role of LIDAR, geophysics, and others. Values and changing values in a dynamic environment Resilience – or sensitivity? Engineering physical solutions- temporary protection to allow recording/mining, linked to vulnerability assessments. Value and issue based stakeholder engagements Social valuation in the face of large scale challenges of climate change- who cares about heritage? Economic valuation change to reflect less dependancy on GDP. Integrating databasing, effective recording and record keeping… + lots more……… Synergies Decay of Ancient Stone Monuments Modelling, Interpretation and Alternate Representations: Visualization Technology, Heritage Buildings & Coastal Threats Community adaptive capacities Environmental Modeling Climate change EGOR: Environmental Guidelines: Opportunities and Risks Management, economic & social valuation clusters disciplines Materials science & change