Climate Change and Sustaining Heritage Resources: A Framework for Boosting Cultural and Natural Heritage Conservation in Central Italy

Policy Recommendations for Integrating Resilience into the Management of Cultural Landscapes

The perspectives of resilience and cultural landscape share common interests in planning, managing, and protecting socio-ecological systems. Although the principles of the Yokohama, Hyogo, and Sendai frameworks may be used in a variety of geographical contexts due to their general design, the implementation of these frameworks in cultural landscapes is seldom discussed. Our theoretical research is the first step in an ongoing effort to explore how urban governance and policy may provide room for enhancing cultural heritage resilience against natural hazards. A meta-synthesis of international guidelines on cultural landscapes, resilience, and disaster risk reduction serves as the foundation for the research methodology used in this study. The research findings highlight that cultural landscapes must be managed with political, social, and economic support to stay resilient, and therefore, the first step towards this goal is to integrate cultural heritage into the disaster risk reduction plan at a national level. Furthermore, cultural landscapes need a bottom-up participatory framework and more internship opportunities to bring together the government, first responders, site managers, and the local community.

The Cultural Ecosystem Services as an Element Supporting Manor Landscape Protection

Nowadays, agricultural landscapes of suburban zones may undergo rapid urbanization that destroys their identity. This phenomenon is particularly problematic for areas connected compositionally with historical residences. The aim of the research is to determine a framework for urban policies appropriate for cultural landscapes of agricultural origin associated with significant historic palace-garden complexes. As an example of such a landscape, the area around the historic Wilanów residence was chosen for study. The research focused on the degree of preservation of the agricultural surroundings of this historic site, the directions of contemporary urban policies towards it, and its potential to provide cultural ecosystem services to local residents and tourists. The research showed that the character of the landscape under study is changing—apart from cultivated fields, wastelands have appeared, indicating a gradual abandonment of agricultural use. The analysis of local spatial development plans confirmed that many fragments of the landscape are not sufficiently protected, which causes their degradation. The study of the potential of this area to provide cultural ecosystem services using statistical methods proved its many values: aesthetic, cultural, educational, spiritual, recreational, and touristic which predestine it to perform Urban Green Spaces and Informal Green Spaces functions. The research was compared to the findings of other authors, studying analogous landscapes. Based on our results, general guidelines were developed for further protection and maintaining function of cultural landscapes of agricultural origin associated with significant historic palace-garden complexes in similar situations to that of Wilanów.

The Culture-Centered Development Potential of Communities in Făgăraș Land (Romania)

Făgăraș Land (Romania) is a very old administrative formation with its own identity, preserved from the beginning of the Middle Ages. The mapping of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) highlighted the groups of caroling lads as the main strategic heritage resource, but also the existence of many other ICH resources that can be exploited towards the sustainable development of the area. These include local soups, an ICH gastronomic resource that can help build the area’s tourism brand. All resources, together with the peculiarities of the local medieval history, the memory of the anti-communist resistance in the Făgăraș Mountains and the religious pilgrimage to the local Orthodox monasteries, support the configuration of Făgăraș Land as a multidimensional associative cultural landscape. The content analysis of the information on ICH available on the official websites of the administrative territorial units (ATUs), correlated with the data from the interviews with local leaders, highlighted the types of local narratives regarding the capitalization of cultural resources and the openness to culture-centered community-based development, namely glocal, dynamic local and static local visions. The unitary and integrated approach of tourist resources, tourism social entrepreneurship, support from the local commons and a better management of the local cultural potential are ways to capitalize on belonging to the Făgăraș Land cultural landscape, towards sustainable community development of the area.

A Strong Sustainability Framework for Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage: Introducing the Eco-Sufficiency Perspective

The intensifying effects of climate change are becoming one of the main threats to cultural heritage, posing risks of degradation or destruction. Climate change is bringing complexity and uncertainty to ensuring the resilience of cultural heritage, and among risk mitigation measures digitalisation is regarded as a promising tool. However, the infrastructure required for the digitalisation process exerts significant pressures on the environment contributing to climate deterioration. To address these issues, this contribution developed a strong sustainability framework for the preservation of cultural heritage through digitalisation, for minimising environmental impacts and maximising the potential of preservation. To construct the framework, a literature review was conducted on efficiency and sufficiency concepts and existing approaches to sustainability of digitalisation in cultural heritage. To test the potential application and feasibility of the framework in driving environmental sustainability efforts within cultural heritage organisations, the case study of the Finnish Heritage Agency was analysed. The results showed that the understanding of the sustainability of digitalisation is not fully developed. Strong sustainability is hardly applied in practice, even though an inherent tendency for sufficiency especially in the appraisal stage was identified. It was highlighted that extensive stakeholder networks are required for advancing the sustainability of digital preservation. Ultimately, re-examining current practices and realigning stakeholders would be required for addressing the current challenges.

Road Salt Damage to Historical Milestones Indicates Adaptation of Winter Roads to Future Climate Change May Damage Arctic Cultural Heritage

There is no doubt that anthropogenic global warming is accelerating damage to cultural heritage. Adaptation measures are required to reduce the loss of sites, monuments and remains. However, little research has been directed towards understanding potential impacts of climate adaptation measures in other governmental sectors on cultural heritage. We provide a case study demonstrating that winter road salt, used to reduce ice related accidents, damages historical iron milestones. As the climate warms, road salt use will move north into areas where sites have been protected by contiguous winter snow cover. This will expose Artic/sub-Arctic cultural heritage, including Viking graves and Sami sites, to a new anthropogenic source of damage. Research and planning should therefore include the evaluation of secondary impacts when choosing climate adaptation strategies.

Cultural Landscapes under the Threat of Climate Change: A Systematic Study of Barriers to Resilience

Cultural landscapes reflect a cultural group’s continuous and evolved interactions with natural resources and the environment. By now, climate change has become the most significant threat to cultural landscapes, e.g., food security, water scarcity, and displacement. The cultural and natural heritage of cultural landscapes can enhance their value as integrated systems and offer solutions to the challenges brought by climate change. Although exploring tangible impacts of climate change has received sufficient attention in cultural landscapes, a systematic understanding of the main barriers has been overlooked in building climate resilience in cultural landscapes. This paper aimed to explore the main barriers to building climate resilience in cultural landscapes. The research methodology was based on the content analysis of 359 documents published between 1995 and 2020. The results revealed that the integrated approach in documentation and assessments was the most quoted technical barrier. In addition, the lack of a regulatory framework for supporting effective collaboration and cooperation has been discussed as the most significant institutional obstacle to climate resilience in cultural landscapes.

Cultural Landscape Development Integrated with Rural Revitalization: A Case Study of Songkou Ancient Town

As a form of World Heritage, cultural landscapes have evolved linked with production systems and living space and have become an important topic of rural studies worldwide. This paper attempts to examine the development experiences of local revitalization combined with the cultural landscape in Songkou ancient town, China. Firstly, the rural livelihood-based landscape characteristics of mixing natural and man-made environments are the resources of cultural landscape development. Secondly, community action forms the cultural landscape through a spatial identification process involving place, identity, and heritage. Thirdly, “experience grafting” is a coordinated action for industrial development that has allowed the experience of community revitalization in Taiwan to make an effective contribution to the cultural landscape development of Songkou ancient town. The main findings are as follows: (1) The close connection between man and nature is confirmed from the perspective of landscape cognition and provides farmers with a means of earning a living. Hence, agricultural activities meet the principles of sustainable and organic agriculture by using natural resources responsibly. (2) By considering ecological orchards as cultural landscapes, community actions promote a consensus of local values and an effective way of making a livelihood.

Climate Aridity and the Geographical Shift of Olive Trees in a Mediterranean Northern Region

Climate change leverages landscape transformations and exerts variable pressure on natural environments and rural systems. Earlier studies outlined how Mediterranean Europe has become a global hotspot of climate warming and land use change. The present work assumes the olive tree, a typical Mediterranean crop, as a candidate bioclimatic indicator, delineating the latent impact of climate aridity on traditional cropping systems at the northern range of the biogeographical distribution of the olive tree. Since the olive tree follows a well-defined latitude gradient with a progressive decline in both frequency and density moving toward the north, we considered Italy as an appropriate case to investigate how climate change may (directly or indirectly) influence the spatial distribution of this crop. By adopting an exploratory approach grounded in the quali-quantitative analysis of official statistics, the present study investigates long-term changes over time in the spatial distribution of the olive tree surface area in Northern Italy, a region traditionally considered outside the ecological range of the species because of unsuitable climate conditions. Olive tree cultivated areas increased in Northern Italy, especially in flat districts and upland areas, while they decreased in Central and Southern Italy under optimal climate conditions, mostly because of land abandonment. The most intense expansion of the olive tree surface area in Italy was observed in the northern region between 1992 and 2000 and corresponded with the intensification of winter droughts during the late 1980s and the early 1990s and local warming since the mid-1980s. Assuming the intrinsic role of farmers in the expansion of the olive tree into the suboptimal land of Northern Italy, the empirical results of our study suggest how climate aridity and local warming may underlie the shift toward the north in the geographical range of the olive tree in the Mediterranean Basin. We finally discussed the implications of the olive range shift as a part of a possible landscape scenario for a more arid future.

Data-Based RC Dynamic Modelling to Assessing the In-Situ Thermal Performance of Buildings. Analysis of Several Key Aspects in a Simplified Reference Case toward the Application at On-Board Monitoring Level

This paper reports the application of RC dynamic models for assessing thermal performance of buildings from in-situ tests (obtaining the U value for the walls, and the UA value and gA value for the whole buildings). The following aspects which are relevant to this approach have been systematically analyzed: The effect of the solar radiation on the heat flux through the opaque walls versus the performance of the models including this effect, the optimum number of nodes required to represent the thermal systems, the assignment of inputs and outputs and the length of the test period. Additionally, several options modelling relevant effects using unmeasured variables were studied to evaluate the feasibility to reduce the cost and intrusiveness of the measurement devices required to obtain accurate results. Data series recorded under different experimental conditions were considered to analyze the robustness and validity of the results. The performance of the models for each of these different test conditions is discussed. The uncertainties estimated using the described method for the U values of the opaque walls, and the UA and gA values of the whole building, are, respectively, 2.8%, 4.2% and 2.3%. The feasibility to model relevant effects using unmeasured variables has been demonstrated. A simplified and well-known building has been used as a case study, reinforcing and complementing the validation criteria.

An Evaluation System for Sustainable Urban Space Development Based in Green Urbanism Principles—A Case Study Based on the Qin-Ba Mountain Area in China

Since the 20th century, the deterioration of the ecological environment around the world has challenged urban space construction. With the development of urbanization, the consumption of resources and energy has increased, the level of biodiversity has decreased, environmental pollution is approaching the critical level, and the contradiction between human habitat activity and ecological environment has become increasingly prominent. The sustainable development of urban space along with its economic and social benefits, taking into account the quality of life and ecological environment, has become a new and important subject that needs to be explored. In this study, the indices of the evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development in regions with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological resources are arranged in sequence through the systematic coupling analysis of collaborative evaluation information and a quantitative analysis. The influences of urban space elements on sustainable urban development are disclosed. On the basis of the generated data, an evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development with a complete set of information is proposed. The proposed system is applicable to urban spatial development evaluation in regions in China with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological capital. First, the basic concept of system coupling is introduced, and a coupling relationship between urban sustainable development and urban space is proposed. Second, the elements of urban space and the sustainable development in the Qin-Ba mountain area are extracted, and the precedence diagram method is used to construct a sustainable evaluation system for urban space development in the Qin-Ba mountain area. Third, the sustainable evaluation process of urban spatial development is proposed. Finally, the sustainable evaluation system for urban spatial development in the Qin-Ba mountain area is applied to evaluate the urban spatial development in Shangluo, Qin-Ling Mountains, China. The results show that, among the investigated 14 indicators, the proportion of industrial land use mainly influences sustainable urban spatial development. As for the rest of the index factors, per capita green land area and green coverage ratio of built-up areas, per capita urban construction land area, proportion of forestry area, greening rate of built-up areas, total industrial dust emission density, proportion of cultivated area, and average volume fraction of residential areas are the secondary influencing factors of sustainable urban spatial development. The evaluation system in this research is constructed with the three aspects of “green coordination”, “green development”, and “green sustainability” of sustainable urban spatial development, and it complements the evaluation contents of urban–rural ecological space coordination, land resource protection, and green development community, and so on. The conclusion of this study not only can provide a useful reference for urban spatial development planning for underdeveloped ecological capital areas of China but also can provide a theoretical basis for the management and control policy of sustainable urban spatial development.

Free, open, quantitative and adaptable digital soil map data and database for Nigeria

Nigeria's digital soil map (DSM) and database is the most comprehensive and detailed source of quantitative information on the country's soil distribution. Digital cartography and geographic information system (GIS) operations were methods used in producing the DSM and database. We obtained analogue soil data in 8 hard copy maps (each at a displayable scale of 1: 650,000) from the Federal Department of Agricultural Land Resources (FDALR), which archived the result of Nigeria's reconnaissance soil survey. The survey started in 1985 and by 1990; it has completed the compilation of hard copy maps that outline Nigeria's major soil distribution. Our experimental design begins with electronic scanning of these paper maps. We set the scanning system to 500 dpi, creating high-resolution raster images, which were imported into ESRI ArcGIS software, for orthorectification by geo-referencing to WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system. We applied a spatial processing tool on the orthorectified images and created a geometrically-seamless mosaicked raster image for the soil data of the whole Nigeria. Using GIS on-screen digitization – with optimal snapping tolerance – we created vector polygons (spatial data) of soil components (mapping units). Finally, we coded the metadata (attributes) of Nigeria's soil distribution into Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet, which we linked to the soil spatial data. The combined spatial and attribute soil data forms the soil database for Nigeria and provides, on-demand, vital soil information, such as thematic maps of soil characteristics. The department of Geoinformatics and surveying University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC) is the major repository of Nigeria's DSM and database.

Summer Farmers, Diversification and Rural Tourism—Challenges and Opportunities in the Wake of the Entrepreneurial Turn in Swedish Policies (1991–2019)

Since the 1990s Swedish authorities have increasingly treated summer farms as businesses, expecting them to generate profits like any other firm. However, in addition to being financially independent, summer farms are expected to provide a number of services, to help maintain biological heritage, provide beautiful landscapes for tourists, and much more. Summer farmers are also forced to co-exist with other local stakeholders that base their activities on the same resources, e.g., adventure and nature-based tourism, agriculture, and other businesses. All of this creates a number of entrepreneurial challenges but can also open new windows of opportunity. The response of summer farmers has been to diversify activities to cope with shrinking income and the seasonal character of their trade. Most new business strategies include tourism or increasing the number of cattle rationalizing animal husbandry. The strategies have partly been influenced by policies and partly by new market opportunities. Departing from a business, spatial and institutional contextual analysis we identified five main entrepreneurial strategies, three of which are related to rural tourism, one is related to increasing the animal herd and the fifth is a no-strategy, maintaining status quo. This article analyses the reality of summer farms from a business perspective. The main questions to be answered are: How have summer farmers responded to the entrepreneurial turn in regional development policies? Which are their main business challenges and opportunities?

Sustainable Cultural Heritage Planning and Management of Overtourism in Art Cities: Lessons from Atlas World Heritage

In recent years, there has been an increase in international tourist arrivals worldwide. In this respect, Art Cities are among the most favorable tourist destinations, as they exhibit masterpieces of art and architecture in a cultural environment. However, the so-called phenomenon of overtourism has emerged as a significant threat to the residents’ quality of life, and, consequently, the sustainability of Art Cites. This research aims to develop a management toolkit that assists site managers to control tourism flows in Art Cities and World Heritage Sites and promotes the residents’ quality of life. The research methodology was developed within the framework of the Atlas Project in 2019. In this project, five European Art Cities, including Florence, Edinburgh, Bordeaux, Porto, and Santiago de Compostela, discussed their common management challenges through the shared learning method. After developing selection criteria, the Atlas’ partners suggested a total of nine strategies as best practices for managing overtourism in Art Cities in multiple sections of accommodation policies, monitoring tactics, and promotional offerings. The Atlas project was conducted before the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Based on the current data, it is somehow uncertain when and how tourism activities will return to normal. The analysis of the Atlas findings also highlights some neglected dimensions in the current strategies in terms of environmental concerns, climate change impacts, crisis management, and cultural development plans, which require further research to boost the heritage planning process.

Thermal Comfort Aspects of Solar Gains during the Heating Season

Glazing plays a key role in the energy balance of buildings. The aim of this paper is to enlighten the thermal discomfort caused by large glazed areas in the heating season and to point out a possible solution that can provide proper thermal comfort with low energy use. It is unusual to discuss the negative effects of solar gains on thermal comfort during the heating season. However, there are cases when glazing may lead to unforeseen indoor thermal discomfort conditions. Laboratory and on site measurements were performed in order to assess thermal discomfort caused by direct and diffuse radiation. It was shown that the WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) index may exceed even 30 °C in the winter season in a room having large glazed area oriented to east. Laboratory tests performed in climate chamber have shown that the high PMV values cannot be reduced below 1.0, increasing the air change rate in the room. Using opaque drapes, the WBGT index was reduced by 2 °C, but the daylighting decreased substantially. It was demonstrated that by using advanced personalized ventilation systems, the appropriate thermal comfort can be provided avoiding the reduction of daylighting.

Capturing the City’s Heritage On-the-Go: Design Requirements for Mobile Crowdsourced Cultural Heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage is at a continuous risk of extinction. Where historical artefacts engine the machinery of intercontinental mass-tourism, socio-technical changes are reshaping the anthropomorphic landscapes everywhere on the globe, at an unprecedented rate. There is an increasing urge to tap into the hidden semantics and the anecdotes surrounding people, memories and places. The vast cultural knowledge made of testimony, oral history and traditions constitutes a rich cultural ontology tying together human beings, times, and situations. Altogether, these complex, multidimensional features make the task of data-mapping of intangible cultural heritage a problem of sustainability and preservation. This paper addresses a suggested route for conceiving, designing and appraising a digital framework intended to support the conservation of the intangible experience, from a user and a collective-centred perspective. The framework is designed to help capture the intangible cultural value of all places exhibiting cultural-historical significance, supported by an extensive analysis of the literature. We present a set of design recommendations for designing mobile apps that are intended to converge crowdsourcing to Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Urban Heritage Conservation and Rapid Urbanization: Insights from Surat, India

Currently, heritage is challenged in the Indian city of Surat due to diverse pressures, including rapid urbanization, increasing housing demand, and socio-cultural and climate changes. Where rapid demographic growth of urban areas is happening, heritage is disappearing at an alarming rate. Despite some efforts from the local government, urban cultural heritage is being neglected and historic buildings keep being replaced by ordinary concrete buildings at a worryingly rapid pace. Discussions of challenges and issues of Surat’s urban area is supported by a qualitative dataset, including in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups with local policy makers, planners, and heritage experts, triangulated by observation and a photo-survey of two historic areas. Findings from this study reveal a myriad of challenges such as: inadequacy of urban conservation management policies and processes focused on heritage, absence of skills, training, and resources amongst decision makers and persistent conflict and competition between heritage conservation needs and developers’ interests. Furthermore, the values and significance of Surat’s tangible and intangible heritage is not fully recognized by its citizens and heritage stakeholders. A crucial opportunity exists for Surat to maximize the potential of heritage and reinforce urban identity for its present and future generations. Surat’s context is representative of general trends and conservation challenges and therefore recommendations developed in this study hold the potential to offer interesting insights to the wider planners and conservationists’ international community. This paper recommends thoughtful integration of sustainable heritage urban conservation into local urban development frameworks and the establishment of approaches that recognize the plurality of heritage values.

Comprehensive Assessment of Production–Living–Ecological Space Based on the Coupling Coordination Degree Model

Production–living–ecological (PLE) space is the basic site of all human activities. The coordinated development of these three spaces is an important prerequisite for achieving sustainable development goals. However, a quantitative assessment of the overall coordination among these three spaces is limited in current research. This paper built an indicator system and a coupling coordination degree model to comprehensively assess the development status of PLE space in China. The statuses of 340 prefecture-level cities across the country from 2005 to 2015 were analyzed. The results showed that the national average first increased from 0.435 in 2005 to 0.452 in 2010 and then dropped to 0.445 in 2015. There was an obvious distribution line between slightly unbalanced cities and moderately balanced cities, close to the famous “Hu Huanyong Line.” Most provincial capital cities were between the slightly unbalanced class and barely balanced class. Only Fuzhou in Fujian Province exceeded the barely balanced class in 2015. This paper provides several references for other developing cities to achieve sustainable and coordinated development.